The Imerge team has been hard at work to bring you the next Imerge release just in time for the end of summer. We’ve added 8 new effects, a new-and-improved effects menu, and new ‘effect stack’ presets to speed up your workflow. You can download the update here or keep reading to learn more about what’s new in Imerge 2021.3.
8 new effects
As with every release of Imerge Pro, we’ve strived to add new features that expand the creative possibilities for artists. In the 8 new effects we’ve added, there lies a whole new world of possibilities. Underwater composites and realistic waterside reflections, a new masking tool to make seamless and textured masks a doddle, 2 new precision color correction tools, a skin retouching tool, and more.
Caustics
One of the most interesting new features in Imerge Pro 2021.3 is the ‘Caustics’ effect. This effect creates caustic lighting effects and matching displacement to simulate the appearance of underwater images or glistening water-side reflections. Your next Aquaman-inspired fan poster awaits.
Roughen Edges
Another feature we’ve been having a lot of fun with is the ‘Roughen Edges’ effect. Though this is classed as an effect – and works really well as one to create ‘grungy’ textures – ‘Roughen Edges’ can also be used as a powerful new masking tool alongside Imerge Pro’s existing 7 mask types. Create a vector mask around the general shape you want to mask and apply a ‘Roughen Edges’ effect to create variation in the visible edge of the layer. Roughen Edges uses Imerge’s built-in fractal noise generator to procedurally generate this variation, so like most things in Imerge, it’s infinitely customizable to get the best results.
Inverted Highpass
We didn’t stop there either. Imerge Pro 2021.3 also includes a new ‘Inverted Highpass’ effect which is perhaps our most elegant skin retouching tool yet. If you hadn’t guessed from the name, this effect works similarly to highpass sharpening but in reverse, smoothing out the finer details in an image whilst preserving larger-scale contrast. We wanted to make this a quick and painless tool that doesn’t need to be ‘painted’ in place, so we added a built-in skin matte tool too so that you can define a color matte for your skin tones and only apply the retouching effect in those areas. This should be a huge time-saver for portrait, family, and corporate headshot photographers.
Color Balance and Shadows & Highlights
We know how important color is to visual creatives. One of our biggest goals with Imerge has always been to give you full control over your colors with some of the most flexible color adjustment tools on the market. With Imerge 2021.3, we’ve added 2 new color adjustments: Color Balance – which allows you to make RGB/CMY tonal corrections to the highlights, shadows, and mid-tones of a layer, and also Shadows & Highlights which is a hugely powerful tool for making adjustments to the distribution of tonal values in your images.
Mosaic
We’ve also added three new stylization/graphical effects including the new (and deceptively versatile) Mosaic effect. While the Mosaic effect is capable of your standard ‘pixelation’ and ‘fragment’ effects, it’s far more versatile than that. The effect can be used in combination with other effects or standalone to create all kinds of unique patterns and textures. Raindrops on glass, honeycomb, jewels, Minecraft-style variegated textures, you name it, Mosaic can probably do it.
Pencil Sketch
The last two effects in the update are ‘Pencil Sketch’ and ‘Emboss’. With the Pencil Sketch effect, we’ve aimed to build something that does more than just make a ‘sketchy outline’ of the details in your image. We wanted to create something that takes into account all of the nuances of a pencil artist and gives you control over all of those variables. Everything from shading to the thickness and direction of pencil strokes, guidelines, and even the coarseness of the paper.
Emboss
The Emboss effect likely needs no introduction and creates a 3D etching/metal print effect based on the details in your image. If you’re a digital artist that creates metal-print posters of your art, this could be a useful tool for previewing what they’ll look like when printed.
New effects menu and effect stack presets
So that’s what new effects we’ve added, but what else is new? Well, we’ve completely revamped the effects menu to make it easier and quicker to use. As you scroll through the sidebar, each effect now comes with a brief description and a live preview. You can also favorite, categorize, create, update, and apply effect stacks directly from the sidebar. Imerge Pro 2021.3 also knows which effects you use most, and puts them conveniently in a ‘most used’ dropdown at the top of the menu. But perhaps most excitingly, we’ve added new ‘effect stack’ presets which allow you to quickly and easily apply multi-effect processing chains to your layers. Once you incorporate these into your workflow, you’ll find yourself saving tons of time on your projects.
So there you have it. 8 new effects, a new-and-improved effects menu, and a whole suite of new creative possibilities. If you haven’t already, get downloading your copy of Imerge Pro 2021.3.
