The Superformula, sometimes referred to as the Supershape, was discovered by Johan Gielis. It is a generalization of the superellipse that can be used to generate a wide variety of geometric shapes. This port of the Superformula was possible because of the code provided by the very talented Paul Bourke.
This implementation of the superformula proves to be a very powerful one with numerous options for the user. The user can adjust iterations depending on the shape size and image resolution, which can be combined with preview and render iteration multipliers for high resolution imaging.
Placement can be controlled through the X & Y positional sliders and size A & B adjusted, locked together or independently.
Various coefficients have been provided so that the user has full control over the shape. Colors can be changed, backgrounds applied, and locks toggled. There is even a load and save feature built-on so that any supershape can be safely saved for future recall.
Finally, Superformula has been carefully coded to support full antialiasing for superior, clean output.
Itr: Specifies the iterations (resolution) of the supershape. If your line becomes dotted, increase the iterations.
Pos X: Specifies the horizontal placement (in percentage) of the Supershape.
Pos Y: Specifies the vertical placement (in percentage) of the Supershape.
Size A: Controls variable A, which defines partial Supershape size as well as form.
Size B: Controls variable B, which defines partial Supershape size as well as form.
m: Controls the rotational symmetry of the Supershape.
n1, n2, n3: Control various aspects of the Supershape.
n3=n2=n1: Locks n3 and n2 to n1. Unlock these to get more interesting Supershapes.
Size B=A: Locks Size B to A. Unlock these to get more interesting Supershapes.
m*10: This is a multiplier for m. When enabled, m is multiplied by 10 resulting in always closed Supershapes. Since it will also increase the rotational symmetry tenfold, you may wish to use lower values.
BG: Replaces the background with the specified background color.
BG Color: Specifies the background color.
Line Color: Specifies the line color.
LOAD/SAVE: Load and Save settings. (.INI files)
Preview / Render Multipliers: Specifies iteration multipliers for high resolution renders. These multipliers are multiplied by the iterations for both preview window and final render respectively. Therefore a preview with 1,000 iterations and a preview multiplier of 10X will provide 1,000 X 10 = 10,000 total iterations.
Special thanks to Johan Gielis for his input and support. For more information, please visit Johan Gielis’ site at genicap.com.
Changelog
- v1.0 – First release.
- v1.1 – New GUI design.
- v1.1 – Windows Vista Compatibility.
- v1.2 – Preview image now scales correctly to zoom level.
- v1.2 – Preview no longer flickers on button / slider adjustment.
- v1.2 – Ability to use up to 3 GB of RAM under 32bit Windows (2000, XP, Vista) and 4 GB of RAM under 64bit Windows (2000, XP, Vista).
- v1.3 – Antialiasing.
- v1.4 – 64 bit release.
- v1.4 – Added preview and render multipliers.
- v1.5 – Cleaned up help information.
- v1.5 – Fixed file access crashing bug in Windows 10.
Installing this software is easy and only requires three simple steps:
1 – Download the software by clicking on the Download Demo button located above on the software page. This will prompt you to save a .zip file on your computer.
2 – Extract the contents from the .zip file and place the .8bf file into your host’s plugin folder. For instance, to install for Adobe Photoshop CS6, place the .8bf file into the location shown below. You can make a sub-folder to keep your plugins organized, such as the one below. Please make sure 64 bit plugins such as these are placed in the corresponding 64 bit Adobe Photoshop plugin folder.
If you’re using Photoshop CC (eg. version 2013 – 2019 or later), your Photoshop plug-ins are stored in a folder shared between all Photoshop CC versions shown below.
3 – Launch Adobe Photoshop, open an image and click on Filter > Richard Rosenman > Filter Name. If the filter is grayed out, it may not support your current image color depth.
If you have purchased a commercial license, please review the activation section.
This software is compatible with the following OS:
- Windows 10 Home 64 bit
- Windows 10 Pro 64 bit
- Windows 10 Enterprise 64 bit
- Windows 10 Education 64 bit
- Windows 8 64 bit
- Windows 8 Pro 64 bit
- Windows 8 Enterprise 64 bit
- Windows 7 Home Basic 64 bit
- Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit
- Windows 7 Professional 64 bit
- Windows 7 Enterprise 64 bit
- Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit
- Windows Vista Home Premium 64 bit
- Windows Vista Business 64 bit
- Windows Vista Enterprise 64 bit
- Windows Vista Ultimate 64 bit
- Windows XP 64 bit
- Windows XP Professional 64 bit
This software is compatible with the following hosts:
- Any host capable of running Adobe Photoshop 64 bit compliant plugins
- Adobe Photoshop (Version CS5 or higher, including CC) 64 bit
- Adobe Photoshop Elements (Version 13 or higher, including CC) 64 bit
- Adobe Illustrator (Version CS6 or higher, including CC) 64 bit
- Computerinsel Photoline 64 (Version 16 or higher) 64 bit
- CorelDRAW (Version X6 or higher) 64 bit
- Corel Painter (Version 12.1 or higher) 64 bit
- Corel Paint Shop Pro (Version X6 or higher) 64 bit
- Corel Photo-Paint (Version X6 or higher) 64 bit
- Paint.NET (with the PSFilterPdn plugin) 64 bit
- Serif PhotoPlus (Version X6 or higher) 64 bit
