Is there a Kaleidoscope plug-in for Pshop?

Question

hi Folks,
I used Paint Shop Pro for years and they had a great Kaleidoscope generator effect built in to the program.
Switched to Pshop a couple years ago, and have been sorely missing the Kaleidoscope thing.
I've searched high and low on the 'net and there seems to be nothing out there.  Some freebies made for PC but nada for Mac.  (yes, i know there's some lame videos about how to do it in awesome awkward steps using mirroring and rotation and blah, blah, blah, but no, Martha, I'm not buying it.
Is it really a difficult programming feature to cook up one of these things?   I mean, hey, people are doing amazing stuff with fractal generators and computers, isn't about time someone coded a simple kaleidoscope plugin for Pshop on Macs?
thanks for any inspiration.
Gary

Answer 1

Not too hard to do with an action using Free Transform step & repeat.
New square image - say 1500 x 1500 pixels
View > New vertical guide 50pc  (50%)
View > New hirizontal guide 50pc
I'd also centre the grid to centre image
Select the Polygon tool from the Shapes tools, and decide how many sides (it needs to be an even number to allow for mirroring)
Start the Polygon from the centre, hold down the Alt (Opt) key, and rotate to keep the botton edge square to the image with help of the Guides.
Make the Polygon with no fill and a 1 pixel stroke (from the options bar.
Now you have a guide to make your first segment
Draw that segment with the Pen tool, load it as a selection, and fill with white in a new layer
Lock the transparency for that layer.   (This is the layer you draw your coloured shapes etc. on.)
OK. Now you need to record your action so open the Actions panel.
Select your segment layer, and Click on new Action > Give it a name, and shortcut (optional)
Copy the layer (Ctrl j or Cmd j)
Free Transform > select the centre top handle from the 3x3 grid left end of the options bar, and enter an angle (45° for eight segments) > Enter to commit
Shift Ctrl Alt t (Shift Cmd Opt t)
Repeat the above seven times
End the action.
OK.  Delete all the new segment layers, go back to the master segment, draw on it with fancy coloured brushes.
Run the Kalidascope action.