The composite image at right is actually one 230-Mbyte scan of a sculpture manipulated in HSC Software's Live Picture, what many graphics pros are calling the biggest breakthrough in desktop image manipulation since Photoshop.
Live Picture represents onscreen images as equations, rather than pixels. Since changing shape, resolution, size, and other attributes are not dependent on the massively laborious task of redrawing millions of pixels, Live Picture is astoundingly fast, even with huge graphics files like the one shown here.
To make the bust image, Kai Krause, HSC vice president of R&D, opened the 230-Mbyte scan in Live Picture, then opened it three more times within the same document (this is impossible in all other Mac-based imaging applications). He then distorted each of the images, in real time, using special Live Picture distortion brushes. Imagine trying to do that in Photoshop, where you'd have to push around a total of 1.15 gigabytes of data. "You'd have to go out to dinner for each change you made," says HSC president John Wilczak.
Once you are happy with the image, you can rip it out as a TIFF file at any resolution you desire.
"This degree of freedom in realtime performance allows a whole new mindset for working with images," says Krause, who is famous among Photoshop jockeys for Kai's Powertools, a mind-bending set of Photoshop effects and filters. "Tasks that were completely out of the question or at best seemed daunting and lengthy can now be tried as a sideline exploration of alternatives in a few minutes."
Live Picture is the original work of Bruno DeLean, a mathematician based in France. HSC formally introduced his work to North America at Macworld Expo in Boston this August. It will ship in October for $3,495. HSC Software: +1 (310) 392 8441, (wilczak@apple.applelink.com).
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