Phantasm CS plugin for Illustrator

[iamtheblues]

That rare thing, a plugin for Illustrator - Phantasm CS version 2 for CS3 to CS5, with CS6 due soon. It costs £49 and you can get it from here.
Amongst other things, it creates vector halftones and desaturates vector artwork.

Just in case you are too young to remember, the graphic is an adaptor for a 45 rpm vinyl record that has had the centre punched out for playing on jukeboxes.
It's part of a logo I designed for a DJ. If you click on the thumbnail you can see the halftone effect more clearly. At small sizes it loos like a gradient fill, which is ok too.
Bob.

[handrawn]

cool avatar too Bob [what was a jukebox BTW .......]

[Big Frank]

Photoshop does halftones by default, but they're not vector. Cool plug-in effect and very useful for sizing up.

[Albacore]

Bob I use DrawScribe from the same company in 1 computer and find it really helps in my workflow and thought about upgrading to the full package to include Phantasm. Have a look at some of the movies here and you might also think of doing it: http://www.astutegraphics.com/produc...be/movies.html

[iamtheblues]

Thanks for mentioning the rest of astute graphics plugins, Peter. I decided on virtual gifts for my Christmas/Birthday presents from the family this year (saves on postage from the UK).
Having followed all the really good tutorials they produce, I've got up to speed now. DrawScribe basically turns Illustrator's Pen Tool into Xara's Shape Editor tool, which makes everything much easier to use. As you say, it certainly speeds up the workflow. Certainly worth the price, so I'd recommend downloading their trial versions to everyone who are put off Illustrator by the Pen Tool! The video tutorials are well worth a look too.
Bob.