To Edwind on idea box's comments [I have tried to it comment directly many times, but it doesn't work]:
Edwin. We are thinking about different things. The water effect is very good indeed. But I would like to have an effect that adds something into a picture - about something that adds for example a scattered bubbles, that are moving where we wish. Another effect that I wish is an animated bubbling area for simulating the lower part of waterfall. Summing up, I think about something like an effect of added and animated object(s) that animates or moves and simulates water motion.
This is my opinion in terms of improvement. Without that the water effects only moves some parts of the image, but it doesn't add anything more to it.

Ad. #12
About scrollbars: I know that they are. But please read my comment carefully next time. There is all well described:
===
[This is part of my comment #2]

When using this program I have noticed one weakness. It is a moving and zooming comfort. (...) In this program we cannot simple scroll. Even keyboard arrows doesn’t work. (...) Without it, the work is somewhat frustrating, especially when we have to work with big or zoomed image.
===

I know that there are two scrollbars like in all application, but they are NOT comfortable when we have to use it many times

SO FUBAR DON'T CLAPPERCLAW ME IF YOU HAVEN'T READ MY COMMENT OR HAVEN'T UNDERSTOOD IT!!!

A fun little piece of software that does what it says.

Like many others, I'd say $24.95 is overpriced for what it is - that would probably be a better price for the 'pro' version.

However, the price today was free, so can't argue with that.

It's quick and simple to use, and offers a good auto-preview feature to boot - so animating water in pictures is very quick.

Building a gif is quick as well, though I found best results for that were by optimising a 256 colour .jpeg in PSP before opening it and adding the effect.

Overall a fun piece of software, though I can't imagine getting much use out of it myself.

That said, if you've got a lot of pictures with water in them, you could have a great deal of fun playing with it.

DOESN'T work on my computer ---pc xp. After successfully installing it, EVERY time I tried to run program, I get the message:

"Error while unpacking program, code 2. Please report to author." ---so this is what I am doing.
If it's not working, no use it taking up real estate on my computer, so I am uninstalling it.

Installed and ran ok on Win 7 Ultimate 64. The .exe went into the same folder I had unzipped the files to. When you run setup.exe refresh your screen(F5) and see if it is there.

The programs controls are not intuitively obvious. It's easy to set 1 effect and change the parameters. Not so easy to change to another effect. Haven't looked at the help file so maybe the answers are in there.

Hmmm....in addition to my prior comments:

I didn't notice before that when you render as an .avi that sound is not supported! And of course sound in not supported in an animated .gif file, so it would seem that the sound option must only be for screensavers and exe files? That seems a bit odd to me to not include sound in the video output.

That said...I've been shooting a lot of underwater video in the pool, and have just created a nice intro scene to add to one of my videos. The effect on the text that I have on a .jpg file to be used as a title slate is really nice with the water effect.

The ability of choose to output to a raw uncompressed .avi is nice since this is the best way to work with editing video clips.

Very cool! Not only fun to play with but will come in handy to add some still images with motion effects to my slide shows and videos.

This works similar to to the free Sqilz, only better and easier and with more options.

With all of the converters offered here converting to .flv, .swf or anything else should be no problem for anyone.

The install needs to be smoother...the installer should NOT extract to C...the end user should be able to place to installer anywhere they choose for easier deletion once the program has installed to Program Files/....
I';
Also it's *extremely annoying* that each time I create a new project, it's automatically checked to add itself to a screen saver play list, again you are trying to take control away from me and I don't like it.

It would be nice to refine the masking brush for better control..1) maybe a node type selection tool added and 2) a way to erase parts of the mask when you make a mistake (such as going over the borders of the photo accidently)

All in all this is not only a fun tool, but a useful one as well.

#14 and #22 - if you enter GOTD as the coupon code, the price will be reduced to $14.95

if you turn on auto view you can see the acrion you are doing AS YOU PUT IT TOGETHER.
then see the full deal with preview.

i have added 4 new presets with values
v piston randomly 1 1 50 100 20 h v
horz piston 1 1 50 50 20 h
vert piston 1 1 50 50 20 v
mirage / hot 1 1 50 100 5 h v

It installed into the Administrator account. Also has an INI file in "Program Files". All this hints that this program does not follow standard windows limited user security rules.

For example, it gives the error 'Directory "C:\Documents and Settings\\My Documents\Pictures\" does not exist, when the image I am trying to load is within that folder that *does* exist. (This is when I've launched the program within that user's account, not launching the program as admin.)

Help...I really would like to try this one out, but when I click on run, to install the program, an error message pops up saying can't connect, try again later. I'm a regular here and have never had this problem before. Can anyone help.

#15
As Garfey said in comment #47. This is usually due to failed download especially if the installer file is big.
To avoid corrupted download you may try using download manager, there is a free and good one available. Just search free download manager and you will get one.
If you wish to redownload using IE, usually you need to clear the cache first before redownloading.

Ad.#12

I know, that there are standard moving scrollbars and an additional navigator, BUT the major problem is when I want to thoroughly paint my image with water effect. When I zoom my image several times to fine tune the edges with a very small pen, then I simply have to: paint some area & move image & paint & move & so on very very many times.
I would like this program better if I could use for example: right arrow & draw some & right & draw and so on.

I have been using this software for many years now and STILL enjoy it! I do have the full version and am extreamly pleased. They are always upgrading and adding new features at no cost. This is by far the best software purchase.

Installed the program twice on a Win7 64bit twice. Will not run. I did uninstall after it did not respond the first time and then did a complete reinstall. This is the first time I have had a problem with GOTD offered software.

.

J.R., #15, wrote:

"Every GOTD file I have tried to download in the past week or so has come in corrupted – usually only a fraction of its actual size. I’ve tried several times on each download I was after – using Firefox and Safari – with the same results. Has anyone else experienced this problem or is it some strange glitch with my system or server?"

J.R., I have not only experienced that very same problem myself several times, but I have often wondered how many comments like "poor software" and "didn't work for me" were a result of this snafu.

I use IE, not Firefox, and my PC is a
late-model top-of-the line Toshiba --
and in my experience (unlike yours) the problem can USUALLY BE CORRECTED BY DOWNLOADING THE PROGRAM UNTIL IT SHOWS UP IN THE "CORRECT" SIZE.

I used Upper Case because I want to draw attention to this solution. If a program is supposed to be 19 MB in size, yet after downloading you see it is only 45 kb -- you might suspect something is missing. The only answer I've found is to keep trying until you get the whole thing. (Even if sometimes that seems to never happen.)

.

The Pro version referred to by some commenters was given away once - on March 3rd 2007 then amounting to $49,95.
http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/nature-illusion-studio-professional-edition/#more-730

From that point of view, despite the time elapsed, I can't help seeing this offer as a step backwards.

Nice and easy to use, I bet even my grandmother could use it and be happy - just paint. That said, it really IS limited.
Seems to me, 'help' is meant for pro version - it shows water effects directions as checkboxes, among choices is 'horizontal'. In the program there's only 6 arrows - up, down, and 4 corners. No horizontal (for leaves or such, for example).
And another thing I'm missing, is how to add mist (may be impossible, and I can only stir existing one).

Does not allow rotating, you have to be careful when importing pictures.

Still, perfect toy to liven up those 'vacation on the beach' pics; I made very nice gif from autumn pond.

Fairly nice software but a little limited. It may be worth upgrading to the professional version.

As to the debate over the reviews... I say look at Ashraf's thumbs up/thumbs down numbers. Then compare to # 24 and # 25. Also # 25 are you ever going to offer anything constructive or just criticize other efforts? Let's see you do a review and post it here. You will find it's not as easy as you think it is.

The self extracting zip file inside of another zip file is a bit lame.
Last time this was offered, it was the pro version and I could add objects. I was disappointed that I couldn't do it in this version. It lets me click on the button, select the file, set all of the settings before saying I need to buy pro to have that feature. It is a bit annoying when a program allows me to do a lot of work just to tell me at then end that I can't do it.
My screen resolution is 1366x768 (Win 7) and I can't see the last row of buttons under water direction. I tried to shrink the zoom panel so I could see the buttons, but I wasn't able to. I can see all of the controls on the last version of this on a 1024x768 (Win XP) screen.
Developers need to start realizing that resizing is a good thing and also that the Win 7 bar at the bottom of the screen is a lot fatter than the XP bar was.
There is nothing wrong with the undo hot key. It is ctrl + Z like it is supposed to be and redo is shift ctrl z. I also couldn't zoom out enough to see the entire image on the screen.
I like that this version has more masking than the last one, but the buttons are more childish looking than the previous GUI which is fine if children are your target audience.

@ Fubar # 12: There's a group (or possibly, a single person) associated with a seemingly defunct website which during its time was positively paranoid about Ashraf. It wasted acres of incoherent verbiage on attacking him. That same group / person is more or less continually evident on GOTD, with the same kind of belligerent nonsense.

As you well know, Ashraf's reviews are conducted as comprehensively and as speedily as he can manage 'em.

Sometimes, Ashraf's fallibility is evident. Sometimes, so is yours, though nobody refers (sneeringly) to your comments as "a non-review". Yet your post today must in your terms be pretty much that: blithely describing Corner A's offering as 'more sophisticated' when many a user couldn't even run it is as much a sin of omission as any sin of commission Ashraf may inadvertently have perpetrated.

Sensible folks who admire GOTD (and there are many) also admire you *and* Ashraf -- as well as Mike, whose own thoughtful contributions never cease to inform, and who always adds some new dimension of comment that's well worth taking note of. (As today.)

As far as GOTD's offer today, it does what it says on the tin. It works and it's fun and if anyone wants more of it, then there's a paid-for version available.

Kudos, then, to GOTD and today's developer -- and to you, and Ashraf and Mike. But please, Fubar: don't feed the trolls. The destructive agenda they / it so clearly has is a million miles from the kind of integrity that folks here associate with posts from Fubar.

downloaded using google chrome and installed successfully on win7 pro, 64 bit. the program is working fine.Thank you

#10: "How do you register the program? I cannot get rid of the water marks"

There is no key to copy or activation etc -- About box shows registered to Default. Licenses are added however to the registry under HKLM, which can be restricted, especially in Vista/7... did you try running the setup file ["NatureIllusionStudioStandardEdition.exe"] as Admin?

* * *

#25: "...posting the first comment one minute after GOTD released it... Incidentally, ashrafs comments are always based only on the trial versions..."

IMHO a good reminder...

Both Ashraf & Stephan/Whiterabbit [Game GOTD] spend the wee hours (when I for one am thankfully in bed) posting reviews 1st thing to help out that day's GOTD visitors. I try to always remember that. Yes, to do that they might have to use trial versions, & sometimes those trials don't correspond 100% with what's on GOTD, but it's that or neglect the 1st downloader's, which I think most feel is a worthwhile trade-off. Comments are added & read throughout the day, so if there's something they got wrong or some disagree with, GOTD visitors have that info too, & can decide for themselves. Personally I value all the different opinions & read them.

Always looking for creative programs. This program downloaded very well; installed and registered good. For me, the program extracted to C:\Program Files\Paragon. Then to open in C:\Program Files\Nusoft. No problem as I have the space and power on my computer. However, Norton Sonar started howling. No problem. I just kept going and everything was okay. False alert? Not sure. In the program itself, I started with creating a .scr. Very, very pleased with what I created. But the first arrow struct. When I tried to start the .scr up, Norton kicked in again - I gave myself a virus. ? Norton promptly removed my .scr, as it was acting strange, and restarted my system. Okay - I will not give up. Tried again. Same thing. Okay, lets try an .exe. Same thing. Okay, lets try the ole .gif and .avi. Whoa! success. The .avi played well on Media Play11, Irfanview, CyberLink DVD player. I then noticed that at the top, in the program, you put the .scr into a NIS screensaver playlist. I do not have this program. This is a draw back for me because I do things for other people and they might not have this program nor the screensaver to view. This is were the .exe was important. But the Norton thing removed that possibility. At the moment, this program for me is a 50/50 rating. I am going to work more with it and use the .avi setting. .gif viewed very bad. I see a neat future with this product as you can paint the masks (6) which is great. I used all 6 masks and really liked what I did with them only to have it removed. :( No sound or objects as that is for the Pro version. I will be keeping this for awhile to work with and see if I want to go the Pro route. I use Sqirlz and that is not bad, but I like what you can do with and how you apply the effects better in this product. Again, thanks GOTD and Nusoft for another opportunity to try something new. Have a nice day.

Wasn't worth the five minutes to download and install. I suppose some people may find it useful...installed fine (slowly) and is easy to figure out.

No doubt this will not make it to the comments because it isnt about the offered software and for that I apologize. To all Ashrafs detractors - like anyone else Ashrafs comments are his OPINION, just like yours is your OPINION. I find his comments much more informative than "Just what I was looking for, great software" and similar "non-submissions" which are a waste of space. FUBAR, yours was the only other comment I ever took notice of alongside Ahrafs, I appreciated the time and effort made by both of you. But its all about the varied and sometimes spectacular software that GOTD gives us, isnt it??? If you dont like what Ashraf says, you dont have to read that comment.

"24.Excellent comments fubar. I agree with you about the non-review. That is why I don’t come here anymore. Ruined this site."

Didn't for me. Of course, I know how to see something I disagree with and not have it ruin my day, week, month, LIFE, etc.

Sometimes reviews are rushed to try and meet deadlines that maybe the reviewer shouldn't have imposed on his/herself - and I've advised against that - but that doesn't mean I disrespect everything the reviewer says.

As far picking on people's bad and good lists, that might be a little excessive. Yes, they are technical disagreements, but some of this just seems to me over the months to be a case of

"One man's poison is another man's passion."

To put such emphasis on discrediting, attacking, nitpicking - or whatever - one person's review seems a rather unproductive use of time. It puts the focus on one person and not the software. Most of us are not lemmings. We're not going to jump off the cliff because of ANY one persons review. Why not just post the areas where you've have a technical complaint or a disagreement on the way you see the value of a particular feature and let it go at that?

To me, all this attention on side issues and personal disagreements is what REALLY drives people away.

Just one persons opinion. Mine shouldn't be taken as gospel any more than any one elses.

Nature Illusion Studio comes packaged in the usual GOTD wrapper, but today rather than starting the actual app installer, you're presented with the WinRAR self-extractor [same as with most Paragon apps on GOTD] -- you need to make sure & check/fill in the location where the setup file ["NatureIllusionStudioStandardEdition.exe"] will be stored. This is a good thing since with no GOTD wrapper, you can run that setup file anytime. There is no serial number to fill in, & the registration dialogs are still present, but the About screen says registered to default, & license data is entered into the registry.

Today's GOTD, Nature Illusion Studio, is similar to an earlier GOTD from Corner A called Art Studio -- a trip to their site, corner-a.com, shows a focus on Mac software I don't recall being there the last time I looked [back when Art Studio was on GOTD]... I get the impression Art Studio's being put out to pasture, which may encourage some users to switch over to the Nufsoft product. Both work along the same lines -- applying distortions & adding particle effects to a static image to make it look like it's animated [particle effects are used for generating natural looking, moving objects, for anything from flames & explosions to clouds etc]. Art Studio may have been more advanced [perhaps too advanced for quick, casual use], but it also came with a requirement of Pixel Shader 2 -- it caused a lot of grief for folks without the necessary graphics hardware... in contrast I tried Nature Illusion Studio in 7's XP Mode VM, without any graphics hardware acceleration at all, & it seemed to run fine [a portable version of Art Studio I had created didn't].

Nature Illusion Studio itself takes up ~7.6MB with 35 files, 5 folders. A Nufsoft folder is added under My Documents, that's apparently used for temp files, which unexpectedly get registered as shared dll files in Windows' registry. Otherwise didn't record anything unusual during install or running, & it had less impact than Art Studio.

Running Nature Illusion Studio you basically import a background image, then select areas to add FX to, e.g. water ripples. It comes with a number of samples to get you started, there's a button to render a preview of what your finished project will look like, & you can export your finished work as an executable file [.exe], Windows' video [.avi], Animated GIF, or Screensaver [.scr]. The pro edition lets you add animated objects, meaning static images you move around as well as animated gif's, as well as add a sound track.

Adding a sound track to an .avi file is trivial, so that feature mainly effects screensavers you create. Those screensavers do use graphics hardware acceleration [as tested in win7], so for some exporting an .avi file, then using that as a screensaver might be their best (or only) option. Microsoft has a download just for that in XP [search Download Center for Video Screensaver], & in Vista/7 it's built in (though again there may be a (lesser?) hardware requirement): [http://www.vistax64.com/general-discussion/250126-run-video-screensaver-tutorial.html] & [http://www.sevenforums.com/installation-setup/48766-running-video-screensaver-windows7.html] And there's all sorts of software to play video as a screensaver you can find with Google/Bing.

Whether it's worth it or not is up to your personal tastes & standards, plus some have fun doing this sort of thing while to others it's work. In 7 ult 64, running a screensaver built from an included sample looked OK -- not spectacular, but OK IMHO -- with jagged edges on moving, animated objects [birds]... ripple effects on water looked good except for the very bottom of the screen where it looked very obviously stretched. The clock in the upper right hand corner added a nice touch. Task Mgr's performance graph showed it put a pretty fair load on 2 cores of an AMD quad, while GPU-Z showed the ATI card was working too [core clock on the 4870 jumped from at rest 500 to 750].

This is a cool little program. I play a lot of MMO's and I like that I can take my screenshots of my nature based characters and add rain to them then put in text of my guild name and add water effect over it so it looks like the rain is falling onto and running down the text. And that took me about 2 mins to do right from the first time I started the program. Simple, but easy and pretty results. Thanks GAOTD.

#28 consuella

You have no clue if you accept those reviews as gospel. Follow them at your own peril.

Read #25 aRenagades post and you will see exactly why what we say is true.

You think and say what you like.
Others have the right to speak their mind as well.

18.Didn’t work for me. I’m using Windows 7 64 bit Unzipped and tried downloading to C:\ It does it thing and tells me I’m activated but I can’t find the program anywhere.. not even in uninstall. . any suggestions?

aRenagade what can I say. Here Here on your comments. You are exactly to the point. Why this is allowed to continue is beyond me. I don't come here anymore because of it. Like I said in an earlier comment it was by chance I am here. It is good to see that some negative rebuttals are allowed now against the so called #1 poster.
You think back pre those days this site was so much better.

This software today isn't bad. Overall from what I just looked at in previous offerings. There have been some better programs offered lately.

Maybe the better software will help turn this site around. Of course other matters need to be taken care of first. We both know what that is.

Keep up the good word.

Cool program. As stated by others, it is limited in the standard version but very easy to use and created a cool water effect picture for me in about 2 minutes. I may go for the upgrade to premium when I have extra ca$h...

Thank you GOTD and Nufsoft ;)

Fubar and joe, you two better stop stalking Ashraf. It is quite obvious that you guys are having some kind of personal agenda against Ashraf.
No review is perfect, especially if it is done within a very short span of time, and with such a comprehensive, and time consuming reviews, presented here by Ashraf, who is an unsung hero of all those who visit GAOTD daily. Ashraf's reviews are extremely helpful, and although not always super perfect, they are very much appreciated by many of us, the regular visitors to this site.

I find your "no-review" adjective extremely impolite, disrespectful, belittling and totally uncalled for.

I hope the moderators will take a note of your boorish posts.

For some reason Google Chrome will time out and not download the whole file. Luckily IE has no problem with it, so i got it. Weird, and I just did a fresh install of W7 some days ago.
Funnily enough by coincidence, I happened to be playing Double XX Posse's "Not gonna be able to do it" just when this happened :]

first impression: really cool water effect - looks great! -
Worked on a large JPG file - fast & very believable result.
Just paint the area you want to activate the effect.
No problems with install procedure on XP Pro SP3 system.

@#5 The Dark Engine – Question; If that’s what ashraf meant then why didn’t he clarify that? Answer; he just didn’t know and took the gamble that nobody will notice it. Surprise! TK made a great observation, and that shows they prioritize working with a program ahead of any bragging rights obtained by posting the first comment one minute after GOTD released it. The only way to do that is by using a technique known as “nitpicking.” Incidentally, ashrafs comments are always based only on the trial versions. And if a GOTD doesn’t have a trial version then guess what? Ok now putting that all aside; GOTD has a Forum and I know how to use it, do you?

Excellent comments fubar. I agree with you about the non-review. That is why I don't come here anymore. Ruined this site. Just by chance I decided to come here today and was surprised to see you are commenting again. You are always "Factual" and informative.

As for the software, as you mentioned, the water effect is a good feature. Totally agree with you about GIF.
I found another dialog box with overlay printing. Annoying as you say.

Overall, worth downloading.

Good to see your comments fubar.

Installed just fine on Win7x32. This is better than the one I bought several years ago from this publisher.
I'm always surprised at the number of people who can't figure out how to install/run/uninstall it. Or who whine about what's included and what's not.
It's free! As Dear Abby used to say, "Quitchabitchin!"

If you put GAOTD in the coupon code box and press recalculate, the price is $19.98.

I tried this program a while back and liked it. I'd have purchased Nature Illusion Studio if it had been able to accomplish what I wanted it to do for me: make screen savers. How I'd love a little rain and fog. The trouble is, I use dual screens and these kinds of applications, I am told, don't work with more than one screen. So, I've had to give up the idea. I'm stuck with Starfield forever.

If you want to purchase the Pro edition at the reduced price then click on the "Click here to buy Professional Edition" on this page, above.

# 16 Before you unzip the file, see where it says it will place it. Then go to that folder and run the exe. file. That info is in the readme file.

#17 You don't have to register the program. Click on Help, then About. You will then see that the program is registered to DEFAULT.

Didn't work for me. Unzipped and tried downloading to C:\ and then tried C:\programfiles. It does something and tells me I'm activated but I can't find the program anywhere.. not even in uninstall. I'm using Windows 7 64 bit. Guess I'll pass on this one.

I installed the program. I do not see how to register it. Anyway it seems not registered and I see a watermark on my pictures !!! Suggestions???

For those of you having trouble installing - the *.exe is extracted to C:\ at least in my computer it was... Hope this helps those having difficulty with it. ;)

Every GOTD file I have tried to download in the past week or so has come in corrupted - usually only a fraction of its actual size. I've tried several times on each download I was after - using Firefox and Safari - with the same results.

Has anyone else experienced this problem or is it some strange glitch with my system or server?

I tried to purchase the professional edition for $15
I went right through to the final page but the price was the full price.
I wonder how many sales have been lost because of this?
When I tried from the original email the coupon had 'go', in it but this was not accepted, and it demanded a correct code!
Ordering from this page resulted in the full price.
I went right up the the bank verification page,
and saw an increase due to Vat, rather than any decrease.
If this can be sorted I will buy it.
Thank you
Peter James

You can zoom in and zoom out using the controls at the bottom left side just above the small image preview, the controls look like small magnifying glass with a + to zoom in and a - to zoom out. this makes it easy work with a larg image as you can make it smaller by zooming out.

Normally, I don't speak out about the non-review, but I have to say some things today. Corner-A ArtStudio is generally more versatile and sophisticated, but this isn't bad. The "water" effect actually covers a lot of things, as documented in the Help file (and presets for non-water effects are included). I used it to animate some leaves. Some ArtStudio effects can be achieved via NIS parameters, unlike what's said in the non-review. The non-review meant to say "Redo", and it's no big deal, as Shift is the standard "opposite" modifier. Normally, one isn't going to animate a PNG, you can easily convert it, and GIF is only used for animated images (nobody in their right mind uses the obsolete GIF for anything else). AVI is a container format, and NIS does allow use of other installed codecs, but you have to be aware of codec issues on other PC's, as documented. I did generate an MP4 AVI. It makes more sense to use a converter to handle the plethora of available formats, if one so chooses.

You can see some of the Professional effects in the preview, such as animated images. Navigate to your Documents\Nufsoft folder when adding animated images for preview purposes.

There are various silly bugs. A cosmetic but annoying bug in one of the dialog box types, where a label was repeated over another control, making it very hard to read. When set to open the output video after creation, it didn't.

#2, Adamus, standard scroll bars are present, as well as a Navigator in the lower-left corner, clearly visible and documented.

Actually use the program and read the Help before making comments.