Filter Forge 3 Review: Create Your Own Filters

Photoshop has many built-in filters but if you need more, say 9000+ more, then you might be interested in Filter Forge. Filter forge is a Photoshop plug-in and standalone program with 9000+ filters and an editor to create your own filters. You can generate seamless 2D/3D textures and apply photo effects.

9000+ Community Built Filters

If you want the most filters in the world, Filter Forge will please you. Their website gives you access to 9000+ filters but most of them are very specific and there are many variations of similar effects. I didn’t like the idea of browsing a website to download filters because the first thing that comes to mind is the hassle of saving/loading the filters. Thankfully, it’s nothing like that. You still need to browse the website for the filters but the filters load automatically into Filter Forge when you click the open link.

 
Filters load straight into Filter Forge

Here’s an example of a filter that converts your photo into a watercolor painting. It’s one of the more basic examples of what you can do with Filter Forge but their gallery page has some amazing examples of what other people have created by combining multiple filters.

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Create Your Own Filters

Want to create your own filters without any coding experience? You can do that using the easy-to-use drag-&-drop editor. This editor is only in the standard and professional edition and it’s worth the upgrade if you’re willing to put some effort into learning how to use the Filter Editor. The editor gives you a wealth of components you can mix and match to create your own filters.

Here’s an example of a simple filter created in Filter Forge. It uses the Tiles component in Filter Forge to pixelate the photo with circles and creating it only took a few minutes. Once you’re done creating the filter, you can save it and publish it on the Filter Forge website for others to use. Depending on how popular your filter is, you may be rewarded with a free copy of Filter Forge.

Here’s what the filter looks like:

There is a considerable learning curve with the editor but if you start from simple filters and work your way to creating more complicated ones, you’ll be able to create filters just as advanced as the ones you see on the website. I’ve been using Filter Forge for almost a year and over time you get better at creating filters. When I first started, I stuck with simple ones like the ones above. Over time, you will learn how to create more advance filters and how to optimize them so that they are efficient and render quicker. Here’s a grunge bokeh wallpaper filter that I made. Photo effect filters are the easiest to create. For texture filters, the professional version lets you create 3D textures with bump maps and lighting effects.

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