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Filter Farm is a Photoshop (Windows only) plug-in.
It is not a filter. It is an environment where filters live their own life. They grow from genetic information. They exchange this information to guarantee rich diversity in future generations.
The user influences the evolution process by giving his judgment to the result of each development before giving the signal for the next generation to emerge.
This is an attempt to formalize certain aspects of the way I make my art. Since non-predictability is an essential element in my work, do not expect to be able to deterministically create a designated effect with this tool. Although you can influence the evolution of functionality by interactively setting the 'fitness' of individual filters, the results of these selections work on a higher-order probabilistic-structural level.
Filter Farm examples
ffarm_1_0.zip (24,110 bytes)
From the zip file extract ffarm.8bf into the Plugins\Filters directory of Photoshop.
To apply a filter from Filter Farm to an image in Photoshop, select:
Filter > Farm > Filter Farm
from the Menu Bar.
The first time you do this in Photoshop, you have to select a session file. The very first time you are prompted for a session file you don't have one of course. Just give a name for a new one and it will be created automatically for you.
A next time you can either select a previously created file to continue an earlier session, or in the same way create a new one again.
You get a number of filter previews, filling gradually. Each preview has a number of controls. If you hit the 'ok' button the associated filter is applied to the image. The 'sel' button gives you the opportunity to save the filter, or load a previous saved filter in its place. With the small slider next to each filter you can adjust the 'fitness' of each filter. This will influence a future generation of filters. This new generation is obtained by hitting the 'NEXT' button. With the 'PROP' button you can adjust the number of previews or change to another (or new) session file.