By my estimate, there are more than 150 "plug-ins" or programs designed to work with Photoshop (or Corel PhotoPaint) that in some way enhance or make it easier to do special things with bitmap graphics. Some are cute, some are fun and some are "gee whiz." I have yet to find one more spectacular than Auto fx's Dream Suite.
   I have yet to find one more plain old useful, either; that is, something you can apply to almost any graphic you work with that will quickly, easily enhance that graphic. If your budget can only stand one plugin to work with Photoshop, Dream Suite is the one to buy.

   This is a wallpaper file that was made with a flat bitmap image in Dream Suite in approximately half an hour while testing the program for this review. I cannot recall a single piece of artwork that I have done that got more "oohs and ahs" no matter how much time I spent on it. There's only one drawback – I have been asked to do at least 10 logos by different people once they saw this one.
   In all, Dream Suite boasts 18 effects, every single one of them extremely useful. All of them easy to use, but seemingly infinitely tweakable. Well, "tweakable" is a misnomer, really, you can make some very dramatic changes in the host of presets included with the program.
   What do I mean by useful? There is not a single effect in Dream Suite that falls into the category of "that's nice to have but I'll never use it." Every one of these effects can and will be used all of the time.
   How about converting all your pictures in a publication to these "Polaroid-lookalike" images with the Instamatic effect? This is so easy to do it is remarkable, but, at the same time, you can visually spread out several different images as though they were a pile of photographs on a table, slightly overlapping one another. The border is totally customizable – make them look like old, slightly bent photos (see this effect on the left) if you want; "write" notes on the bottom; even "tear" them a little bit. Dream Suite does all this and more.
   Here is a loook at the typical Dream Suite interface, and it is worth noting that most of these effects have a four types of controls: for the effect itself, for the surface of the object or objects, for the environment and for the lights. Because of these, these effects come rather easily and, we should add, if you like a particular effect, you can just save it as a user preset so you can apply it again to other images. This is particularly useful when you want to establish a theme with similar looks, such as with the metal mixer at the right.
   You would think with this much data, the tradeoff for Dream Suite would be the time it takes to do things. Not a problem. When I say it took 30 minutes to do the graphic on display at the top, that included the whole project. A little familiarity with the program could have probably shaved five to 10 minutes off of that.
  Dream Suite also allows you to save work-in-progress with little "memory dots" so you can experiment to your heart's content. No matter how far you "go" from an effect you like, you can always come back to the base image from which you went off experimenting. Since there are eight of these "dots," or placeholders, you can experiment at will as much as you like.
   This can be really useful with effects like the Deckle at the left. But, just as useful, is Dream Suite's ability to zoom in – as high as 1600 percent – to make something come out just the way you want it. Effects like Deckle let you draw the places you want those "bends" or "cracks" to take place and being able to zoom in it really helpful in doing it just right.
   And experiment as much as you want because Dream Suite works with the original image every time. In other words, you can tweak, transform and tweak some more with absolutely no loss in quality. Just as – maybe more – important, Dream Suite's effects are resolution independent. What that means is you can work on an effect for the web at the 72 dpi standard and then simply re-do the image for print at 300 dpi and lose nothing, without having to re-do the whole effect.
   While I admit to being most impressed with some of the things Dream Suite can do for text with its Dimension X, Liquid Metal, Chisel and Metal Mixer effects, when I said this program is fun I was thinking of a couple of unique effects in this excellent package. Like Putty, at the right.
   Yep, take any bitmap image and manipulate it like a piece of putty. This was a normal daushund before Dream Suite got hold of it, using simple controls much like those you find in drawing programs. Please note the shadow is also warped to match the puppy. Rather spectacular.
  And nifty beyond words is the Tape effect. Let's face facts, there's something about duct tape that has appeal. So just tape your images onto your web site or into your publication with duct tape. I promise you people will stop and take a look. If you don't care for duct tape, you can use masking tape or clear tape as well, and if that was all you could do with Dream Suite and this effect it would be quite enough.
   But it isn't, because you can "tear" the tape, make the edges rough, and even show the "bulge" where the tape goes over the graphic. I think in many ways the Tape effect shows the variety of things you can do with Dream Suite and the care and flexibility the people at Auto fx have built into this fabulous plugin.
   I say "plugin," but Dream Suite operates on its own as well, as a stand-alone program, without the "overhead" of running Photoshop-type programs if your computer is memory-challenged. However, in my testing, it ran fine and efficently with Photoshop on a 128 meg machine, even though the Windows recommendation is for 192 meg.
   Last but certainly not least, you can combine the effects from Dream Suite. Run one and then run the other. You'll get some really interesting and spectacular things that will have your friends and coworkers asking "how did you do that?"
   Do them a favor and tell them where to get Dream Suite. Even your Mac buddies can use it – there is a Mac version as well. But first, do that favor for yourself and get this great application if you get no other. Dream Suite is practical, useful, easy to use and creates uniquely spectacular effects. You'll use it all the time and thank me for recommending it to you.

   Link to the Auto fx web site.