With CS4 Adobe introduced Pixel Bender to Flash, After FX and Photoshop. Pixel Bender allows to easily write and test filters witch are finally compiled to bytecode (Flash) or machine code (AFX).

For the new version of Smart Normal, its sobel-edge shader got portet to PB – making it blazing fast. Its even possible to use it for realtime shading.

Want to use Smart Normal directly within After Effects or Photoshop (CS4) ? Just grab it from Adobe Exchange and drag it into your plugin-directory.
(Photoshop needs the Pixel Bender Plugin).