Alchemy has been featured in the May 2010 issue of German design magazine, ‘Page’.

A big thank you to Bianca Beuttel for compiling the article, and to Andrew Jones and Chris Waller for contributing artwork.

Today we announce the release of Alchemy version 008, a Beta release. Nearly two years on from the first release, the community of users has grown significantly and we believe Alchemy is reliable enough to be labelled ‘Beta’ quality. As a result we are finally opening up the website for everyone to download and try it out.

This release has a number of new modules, improvements, and bug fixes, but perhaps the most important thing is we are also opening up the development of Alchemy for everyone to create their own modules. If you know a little bit of Java or even some Javascript, Actionscript, or Processing, creating an Alchemy module is a simple process outlined in this tutorial. We want Alchemy to be software by artists for artists. How to contribute.

Finally we would like to say a special thank you to Steren Giannini and James Alliban for their code contributions to this release.

Thanks! We are looking forward to seeing lots of nice work!

Update (May 6, 2009) – The 007.2 release has been added, which includes more fixes for PDF/Gradient related bugs

A new version of Alchemy, Alpha 007, has been released! Over the last several months there has been a growing interest in Alchemy and we hope this new version will give our ever expanding audience some fun new stuff to play with.

Alchemy now supports pen tablets with a new module called ‘Pressure Shapes’ that allows you to draw more gestural lines. Also new is the Gradient module which applies automatic colour gradation as you draw. This release has also given the interface a much needed tidy up!

- Pull Shapes, a new module which ‘pulls’ shapes from PDF files located in the Alchemy shapes folder and lets you draw with them. You can even load in Alchemy session files and use those shapes to draw. Feel free to share your shape files on the Alchemy forum here: http://al.chemy.org/forum/post357.html
- A new colour eye dropper has been added.
- Numerous other improvements including custom session file names, drawing in ‘transparent fullscreen’ mode, and JPEG export.

Some new videos for you all to enjoy! First up Alchemy > ZBrush: Sketching through Alchemy generated alpha masks. A cool technique for taking Alchemy forms into 3d. And a clip from a recent MassiveBlack/ConceptArt.org event in LA, Andrew Jones using Alchemy for Live Visuals.

We are conducting a small survey of Alchemy users and giving away free stickers to those who help out! To participate, or find out more information head over to the Alchemy Survey page.

It also has a few handy new features such as the ability to draw over/under existing shapes on the canvas, and a new ‘Colour Switcher’ module that brings some chaos to colour selection. See the full list of changes here