KPT Shapeshifter

Screen shots were taken from PSP7 and KPT Shapeshifter and as such have their own copyright.

I am certainly no expert when it comes to using KPT but have realised that a few of you have problems in getting to grips with this program and how to use it. So hopefully you will find some answers here. If you have any questions please feel free to contact me and hopefully together we can resolve any problems you have. I am working with KPT5 Shapeshifter but most of the commands are the same for the other effects within KPT5 so hopefully if you get to grips with Shapeshifter you will be more comfortable with the other effects.

If you download a preset for Shapeshifter this needs to be extracted to your KPT5/Presets/shapeshifter folder.

OK, here is a screen shot of Shapeshifter, yours maybe set out differently but all the windows will be the same. In each panel you will see 3 squares of differing sizes, clicking on these will open the panel further so that you can see the sliders, clicking again will show the percentage plus slider along the side as shown. You can alter the amount by using the sliders or by clicking on the number at the bottom of the white panel and typing in the amount you require.

The triangles in the lighting, environment and bump panels allow you to import environments, bump maps or lighting presets.

You can give your image a shadow, glow or even an etched image. On the glow and shadow panel you can see a coloured panel beneath the eye, this is where you can change the colour. By closing the eye you are hiding any shadow glow or mask on the image.

Don't be afraid to play with the sliders, you will not over write any presets so they will not be permanently changed.
Clicking the tick in the bottom right will apply and close Shapeshifter to your selected image.

The button in the bottom left will open the preset menu

If you have downloaded any presets this is where they should be listed. You should see them listed in the left hand side. If you have several you may need to scroll down the list by clicking the arrow. As you can see in this screen shot my bevelled mirror category has been selected. Some presets may have more than one effect so click the preview of the actual preset you require. Now click the tick to apply the preset, clicking the cross will cancel and return you to the main shapeshifter window, you will now go back to the previous screen.

If you have been playing with the sliders and you like what you have achieved and want to save the preset, click the preset menu button Highlight the category you wish to save it in and click add preset, it should now appear in the presets preview screen. 

If you want to make your own category click the arrow in the top right, you will see a window saying create new category. Click on this and you should see a new category appear in the list, this will be blue allowing you to give it a name. You can now save up to 24 presets to your new category. Of course if you want to get rid of a preset within a category you can use the delete preset button. The only way to delete a category is to browse your hard drive, find your shapeshifter presets folder and delete from there, but be warned this will delete the entire category and it's contained presets.

I have been told that my preset does not show in the preset list. I do not know why this is happening, I have downloaded presets and installed them with no problem. The only thing I can suggest is to double check that it is in your KPT5/presets/shapeshifter folder. If it still doesn't show browse your hard drive, go to your shapeshifter presets folder, rename the preset adding .kpt5 to the end. Now open shapeshifter and open the preset menu , click import then browse your hard drive for the preset you have just renamed. This will only be temporary and each time you wish to use it you will have to import so it will be easier for you to save the preset, either in an existing category or by creating a new one.

I have found that to get the best results in shapeshifter it is best to select and float the image you want to apply the effect to, the edges are so much cleaner this way.

As I said before, have a play with the settings, this is the best way to see how the program works. I hope this has helped you to gain a little understanding.

Tutorial Index