AKVIS Chameleon

reviewed by Chris Marshall, November 2006

What they say: AKVIS Chameleon is an efficient tool for photo collage creation. It automatically adjusts the pasted object to the target image color range and smoothes the object's borders.

The tool is very easy to handle as it does not require precise selection of objects. You copy an object, insert it into another picture, press the button and the object adjusts to the new background as chameleons do - adapting to the new color range and blending with the environment.

Note! The software does not have an interface. It is found in the Effects list of your photo editor and is applied as an effect or filter.

AKVIS Chameleon is a plug-in. You can use Chameleon 10 days free of charge! It is the evaluation period. When the evaluation period is over you have to enter a registration key to continue.

The new version fixes the bugs on Macintosh. Besides, the Help files now show how to work with the program in Paint Shop Pro, Corel Photo-Paint and Ulead Photoimpact.

Creating photo collages can be a lot of fun. Especially if you use AKVIS Chameleon. This ingenious software makes the process easy and entertaining. As the name of the program suggests, the plug-in pastes a copied object into a picture in such a way that the object adapts to the new color range and blends with the background, the way chameleons do.

The tool does not require precise selection of the copied object and can be helpful to home users who are not very experienced in image editing. You can create customized postcards for your loved ones; make a wedding album using all kinds of photos and backgrounds; correct closed eyes (by implanting open eyes from another photo of the series), change the appearance of a person, etc.

Designers will appreciate this tool as it allows them to combine images with entirely different color ranges or to create the effect of drawing on a texture surface (crumpled paper, wood, etc), and all that with only a mouse- click.

Two modes of collage creation are available, Standard and Snapshot. In Standard Mode, AKVIS Chameleon implants the pasted object into the background; while the Snapshot mode adds dimension to a collage, layering the blended components so that the texture and relief of the primary image can be seen through.

AKVIS Chameleon V. 4.3 for Windows runs on Microsoft Windows 98/ME/ 2000/XP/NT and the Macintosh version runs on the Mac OS X platform.

What I say: When will I ever learn??!!!

Despite the fact that I knew this was a plug in I still spent several minutes hunting around for the application icon L. That wasn’t the real problem though. Yet again I got over enthusiastic as what I was going to do. I am permanently thinking I should improve the thousands of pictures that I have stored on my Mac. Unfortunately it is a bit like the rainy day good intention to clean up the closet - sounds good in theory, but when it actually comes down to it after about 10 minutes the door gets shut, the TV goes on and the beer gets opened!

The application really is pretty easy to use. I have borrowed these pictures from their web site to give you an example:

• This is a copy of the original object to be transferred to the primary image.

• This is the primary object

• And this is how it ends up J

I did have fun with the application, but not $69 worth of fun. This is no doubt down to me though, rather than the application. It does what it says it does very well and very efficiently, so if you think it is something that you will use a lot ,than this will be a great product for you.

In summary: A neat Plug-In that does what it says it does, so if that is you thing you will no doubt enjoy it J