Preserved Topic: 3rd Party Stuff... Good or Bad (or both)?

Having just received a nice raise at work recently, I was thinking about treating myself to a little something. One idea that had popped to mind was of picking up something along the lines of KPT. However, I hear a lot of disparaging remarks about 3rd party plug-ins. Is this because the plug-ins themselves aren't very good, or because people tend to use those plug-ins' output for their final product, rather than making something that is truly unique? As a bit of a PS hobbyist, I'm interested to hear from you inmates who have a strong opinion one way or another.

An extra black pill to the one with the most succinct, convincing post!

It's not the plug-in; it's how (well) you use it.

Succinct enough?

And, yea, in the year of our Lord two thousand and one, the Third Party Filter jihad was invoked by the prophet Wangenstein and there was much wailing and gnashing of teeth.

Well, I'm sure you'll get a lot of opinions, but personally I figure it's fine as long as you know what you're doing. For myself, I like to have a lot of control and I would rather do things by hand instead of running a filter. I won't crucify you for using one, but you can expect some gentle ribbing and sarcasm. Hell, maybe even irony

the newest KPT filters get increasingly esoteric, but I've liked some of them a lot in the past (not the page curl sort - but the texture explorer, gradient explorer) ... potent stuff. However, just going into the filter, screwing with a few settings, clicking okay and calling it art doesn't work. I found the real power available from these kinds of filters comes from building complexity through repeated applications at different opacities, blending modes, whatever. It can get pretty crazy! One click - it's not yours. Using KPT (or whatever) with purpose and intent, to find yourself staring at something you've never seen before, with depth and complexity - no one can find fault with whatever tools you use to get there.

IMHO

^yep^

do I win the black pill?

Yep, but its the in-the-outhole type of pill.

I have kpt 5, but the only thing that I ever (rarely) use it for is the Blurrr filters, which give you a lot more blur controls/options than the ps blur filters. At school we had I think that it was kpt 4 (?) and there were some things that seemed pretty cool ... but I can't remember what they were! Maybe beacuse it was not important?

After the novelty wears off, plugins seem like a waste of money to me personally. Maybe you might want to download the demos and see if there is something about them in particular that you just "can't" live without. If you get bored with them before the trial period is up, then go spend your money on something else! (you could go to the Wild Animal Park!)

Just don't use EyeCandy.

WarJournal wins the "Succinctness" black pill.

Steve wins the "Convincing" black pill.

Taxon wins the "Annoying" black suppository. Krets, you want to get the mop handle and help him with that?

Lotiss - good idea... I think I will download the demo. I didn't realize there was a downloadable demo. I'll check that out. Thanks! I would go to the Wild Animal Park, except... I hear they have wild animals there!

Mbridge - Being unfamiliar with EyeCandy... what's so wrong with it? (I noticed that someone in another thread today apparently used EC for a chrome effect and got beaten about the head and neck for it.)



[This message has been edited by Wangenstein (edited 06-26-2001).]

HahaHahA mbridge
can i get a gradient glow and maybe some stars ;b


edit : i didnt make this LoL

<--self portrait

[This message has been edited by oZoNe_bOi (edited 06-26-2001).]

Theres nothing wrong with plugins like EyeCandy per se, except they look really bad. The fire and chrome done with EC just looks horrible. I've never used KPT but I imagine it's the same thing. Generally, these plugins are made to produce effects pleasing to a beginner. Once you get a bit more advanced and start learning how to use Photoshop you realize that it's obvious you've been using these filters and that they don't look good. Save yourself money and buy yourself a book.

Congratulations on the raise though!


.sig by Weadah.

o-boi.. that's eyecandy?? looks like something created for, or rather used for the pre-teen market.. cutsie-wootsie for pre-schoolers maybe.... imho its actually for those who buy for children.. the kids don't usually care about the box their toy comes in... oop, sliding off on a tangent there...