What it does
How to Install
Controls
Versions
How to Purchase
Questions
|
 |
SolarCell
What it does
SolarCell is a plug-in filter for paint programs. It draws suns
in a fantasy style. You can make suns with coronas, halos, rainbows,
and swirling surface detail.

How to install
Illustrated installation instructions are online.
To use this software, you need a paint program which accepts standard Photoshop 3.02 plugins.
Just put the plug-in filter into the folder where your paint program expects to find it. If you have Photoshop, the folder is Photoshop:Plugins:Filters or Photoshop:Plug-ins. You must restart Photoshop before it will notice the new plug-in. It will appear in the menus as Filters->Flaming Pear->SolarCell.
Most other paint programs follow a similar scheme.
If you have Paint Shop Pro: you have to create a new folder, put the plug-in filter into it, and then tell PSP to look there.
PSP 7:
Choose the menu File-> Preferences-> File Locations... and choose the Plug-in Filters tab. Use one of the "Browse" buttons to choose the folder that contains the plug-in.
The plugin is now installed. To use it, open any image and select an area. From the menus, choose Effects->Plug-in Filters->Flaming Pear->SolarCell.
PSP 8, 9, X and XI:
Choose the menu File-> Preferences-> File Locations... In the dialog box that appears, choose Plug-ins from the list. Click "Add." If you are using PSP 8 or 9, click "Browse". Now choose the folder that contains the plug-in.
The plugin is now installed. To use it, open any image and select an area. From the menus, choose Effects->Plugins->Flaming Pear->SolarCell.
Controls
When you invoke SolarCell, a dialog box will appear:


There are several controls for each of the five elements in a sun...
The sun
Flares
Diffraction spikes
The halo
The bow
...and a few other controls that affect the whole image.
1. The sun
|
|
|
|
The sun's disk is normally filled with fiery swirls, but it can
also be a flat color, or black like an eclipse.
Sun style Lets you choose the sun disk type.
Color Button This button lets you choose the sun's color.
Radius The size of the sun.
The remaining disk controls only affect the fiery-swirls disk.
Cold/Hot Biases the sun's color toward cold (blue) or hot (red) hues.
Swirl count Swirls in the lumpy pattern make it look more like fire. This
control set the number of swirls.
Swirl Size Set the size of the swirls. If the swirls are large enough to overlap, interesting patterns appear. Setting this slider to a high value may take a very long time to produce a result.
Smear Larger values produce longer streaks in the swirls.
Detail Sets the overall scale of the lumpy pattern on the sun's surface.
Monopoles and Vortices You can have two types of swirls. Monopoles are streaks radiating from a point. Vortices are spiral whirlpools. |
|
sun disk popup

color button

monopole

vortex |
|
2. Flares
|
|
|
|
The flares are jets of flame shooting out from the edge of the
sun,
Color button Sets the flares' color.
Count Sets how many flares there are.
Radius Sets the size of flares.
Width Sets the width of the individual flares.
Detail adjusts the lumpiness of the flares.
Brightness Adjusts the overall brightnes of the flares.
Orientation control Determines the clustering of the flares. It works like the control
for the diffraction spikes, explained above. |
|
sun with flares |
|
3. Diffraction spikes
|
|
|
|
In real-life photographs, diffraction spikes appear around bright lights due to flaws in the optics. SolarCell draws these spikes to produce the illusion of glaring brightness.
Color button Sets the color of the spikes.
Count Sets the number of spikes.
Radius Sets the spikes' length.
Width Sets the spikes' width.
Brightness Sets the overall brightness of the spikes.
Gamma Changes the contrast of the spikes to produce a softer or harder
appearance.
Diffraction For a more realistic appearance, this control lets you add stripes of subtle colors across the spikes. At zero, there are no stripes. At 100, the stripes are at their most prominent.
Diffraction Scale Sets the width of the color stripes.
|
|
sun with spikes
|
|
Orientation control Adjusts the direction and grouping of the spikes. It works like
this:
Spikes will tend to lie along the same angle as the control's blue line.
The further the blue dot is from the center, the more the spikes with line up.
For example, if you place the blue dot in the center of the control, the spikes will be dispersed all around the sun. If you drag the blue dot all the way to the edge of the circle, then the spikes will all cluster together at the same angle. Experiment and see. |
|
orientation control |
|
4. The halo
|
|
|
|
The halo is a bright circle of color around the sun. It helps to convey an impression of brightness and of air between the sun and the observer.
Color button Sets the halo's color.
Radius Sets the width of the halo. The radius is added to the sun's
size, so you can change the size of the sun and the halo will
move with it.
Brightness Adjusts the contrast of the halo so it can taper off slowly or rapidly. |
|
sun with halo |
|
5. The bow
|
|
|
|
The bow is a rainbow around the sun. When it's bright, it produces a fantasy-like effect. When it's dim, it lends a subtle variation of hue.
Radius This is the bow's radius, but it is not added to the sun's radius.
The bow radius can be less than the suns' radius. This way, the
bow can overlap the sun, which is sometimes useful.
Width The bow's width.
Bow brightness Sets the brightness.
Bow Blur Sets how much the colors blur together. When this control is turned up high, the bow will have subtle colors like those seen around the moon on a partly cloudy night.
The checkbox Reverses the order of colors in the bow. |
|
sun with bow
|
|
6. Other controls
|
|
|
|
Dice The dice choose a random effect. Click as much as you want to
see different effects.
Reset Gives you the "factory settings."
Export to PSD Renders the result to a a .psd image file, which can have custom dimensions.
Glue mode popup menu Lets you combine the result with the underlying image in various ways. Modes other than "normal" produce special effects. The next-glue button advances to the next glue mode.
Info Briefly explains of the controls.
Make Gallery Builds a web page showing all the presets in a folder that you choose.
Send to photo manager Sends the result to iPhoto (on Macintosh).
Plus, % and minus buttons: These zoom the preview in and out. Drag the preview to move it.
Load preset Boss Emboss comes with some presets, which are files containing settings. To load one, click this button and browse for a preset file.
Save preset When you make an effect you like, click this button to save the settings in a file.
Undo backs up one step.
OK Applies the effect to your image.
Cancel Dismisses the filter, and leaves the image unchanged.
|
|

dice

reset

export to PSD

next glue

info

make gallery

send to photo manager

load preset

save preset

undo
|
|
Memory dots
|
|
|
|
Although you can save your settings permanently to files, you can also stash settings in memory dots.
Click an empty dot to stash the current settings in it.
Click a full dot to retrieve its settings.
Hover the mouse over a dot to see what it contains.
Option-click to erase a dot on Macintosh.
Right-click to erase a dot on Windows.
If a dot is orange, you are currently using that dot's settings.
Dots remember their contents until you erase them. If you'd rather make a temporary dot that forgets when you exit the plug-in, control-click it. Temporary dots are square.
When you start the plug-in, it puts the starting settings in a temporary dot. That way it's easy to start over without exiting.
On Mac, you can drag-and-drop settings files from the central memory well.
|
|

memory dots
 empty
 full
 current
 temporary
|
|
Hints
If all four color controls -- sun, spike, halo, and corona --
are similar, then results are realistic. Using vivid, unrelated
colors produces a surreal effect.
|
|
|
|
Version History
Version 1.7 June 2008
Adds convenience features to the interface. The Mac version is resizable.
Version 1.6 June 2007
Fixes a Windows problem where the plug-in wouldn't remember its registration when it was installed in one user account but activated in another. Fixes a Macintosh problem where the plug-in could have bad settings or crash when installed on a machine for the first time.
Version 1.52 March 2007
Universal binary for Macintosh. Preset files have icons. Works as a Smart Filter in Adobe Photoshop CS3 for Macintosh.
Version 1.5 May 2004
Works in 16-bit-per-component color.
Version 1.35 December 2003
Recordable as a Photoshop action.
Version 1.32 February 2003
Fixes a crash that could happen when using the menus under Windows
XP.
Version 1.31 December 2002
Fixes the appearance of text in the interface when running under
Mac OS X 10.2.3 .
Version 1.3 September 2001
Adds an Undo button.
Version 1.2 December 2000
The Compositing glue mode now works properly in layers.
Version 1.1f January 2000
Fixes a crash that sometimes happened with ImageReady on Macintosh.
Version 1.1e November 1999
Fixes strange bow colors that may appear when SolarCell is used
with some paint programs.
Version 1.1d July 1999
Improves compatibility with non-Photoshop paint programs.
Version 1.1c May 1999
Fixes a bug which sometimes caused the color buttons to crash.
Version 1.1b May 1999
Fixes a slow startup bug which caused SolarCell to run very slowly
the first time it was used.
Version 1.1 April 1999
The first public release. |
|
|
|
Questions
Answers to common technical questions appear on the support page.
For bug reports and technical questions about the software, please write to support@flamingpear.com .
|