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On top of their older three plugins :
Kai's Power Tools 3,
KPT Convolver and
KPT3's Actions, MetaTools have released
KPT 5, which includes both KPT3´s and new plugins ; launched a plugin-on-demand system allowing you to purchase individual plugins directly over the Net, the KPT-X series, with the first being
Equalizer then
Gel and
Goo ; and recently released their
KPT 6 set of filters. They have also announced they wanted to retire from the graphics business...
Note: KPT 6 can now be found at
Corel Also... you can find more Corel products under the
Procreate product line..
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KPT 6 |
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The new suite from Metatools looks like a mixed bag : it does not include
KPT5 or
KPT3, but unites the three existing KPTX plugins (Goo,
Equalizer and
Gel), the two plugins just purchased from Rayflect (Phototracer, renamed Scene Builder, and
Four Seasons, renamed SkyEffects, together with 5 new plugins described below :
- Lens Flare is a good one, with much more control over the shape/color/rays of the effect than the default Photoshop one, but with much less settings and interest than its three rivals from AxionFX, Positron and Knoll ;
- Turbulence, supposed to emulate liquid-like effects, is a nice idea at first, and it gives pretty results, but without leaving much control to the user so it is pretty much a case of hit-and-miss until you get something looking like what you were after, or get bored enough to find other ways to get the effect without using this plugin ;
- a good idea is the Projector, which allows you to map your image onto a plane, then rotate, pan and zoom it as you want, providing you with an easy an powerful way to realize a common effect - you can also make animated movies of the effect, though this is probably not a very useful feature ;
- then comes the Materializer, basically close to Photoshop´s Lighting Effects standard filter, but with enhancements derived from Metatools now standard controls of lighting, with 3D-lighting and environment maps - so it is a good filter, but not an essential addition;
- and finally there is Reaction, which "grows" organic-looking textures over your image, from oil painting-like to coral effects - this one is a great addition, though once again I found the effect to be hard to control.
All in all, the new filters are quite a big disappointment, all the more since the set is relatively expensive, even if the speed is OK (which is big improvement over KPT5) and the interface really easy to understand and use (it is exactly the same as for the other KPT 5 and KPT X products) ; but if you have not already done so, it may be a good opportunity to purchase the three KPT X filters and the two Rayflect plugins, by far the most useful of the lot. |
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 This new version of the famous KPT set is concentrated in 10 plugins; each one having dozens of functions, or rather in two series of plugins : 5 "productivity" effects providing for often-used effects, such as Blurrr for... blur effects, Noize, RadWarp for deformations, and the great new ShapeShifter for all sorts of bevels, buttons, 3D effects... The 5 other are more experimental, with Frax4D for creating complex fractal 3D shapes with metallic looks, FraxPlorer and FraxFlame for generating fractal patterns, the much-touted FiberOptix for organic, lifelike textures, and Orb-It for creating random, textured spheres (with fewer options and controls than the Spheroid Designer included with KPT3´s though).
All in all, the productivity tools are great, the creative ones are interesting, the interface is easy to understand, or the fact that you can share some presets (such as lighting) between the different plugins ; but there are a number of things that make this set irritating, such as its bad multitasking behavior, its sluggishness, or more generally, that they do not bring so many improvements over the previous version : in the end, an interesting product if do not own KPT3 (it is sold with KPT3 included), but an expensive and useless upgrade if you do. Important note : this version seems full of bugs, so you may want to wait for a patch... |
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 This old set remains a must-have thanks to its unique combination of special FX tools and productivity effects. The first include a bunch of classic distortions and blurs, together with a few special tools for very special effects (Planar Tiling, Seamless Welder, Video Feedback, Page Curl...) and a couple of extremely special tools rather aimed at creating textures and backgrounds (Spheroid Designer, Texture Explorer, Interform and Gradient Designer), the latter having the most unusual interface and effects.
All in all, these probably represent the best investment you can make if you are considering buying your first PS plugin - both in terms of money and learning time. |
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 This most outstanding plugin is a combination under a unique interface of all varieties of color settings and effects, allowing you to correct an image but also to give it all kinds of surreal looks, the most innovative part being the 5 star system that gives the experienced "Power User" access to a bunch of built-in tools.
Plan on spending some time in the learning curve, but you will be able to "mutate" colors, to add a series of effects on after the other, and so on... |
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This is an update to the Kai's Power Tools 3, enabling these plugins to be scriptable, and providing a nice and impressive set of ready-made actions. You really have to own the KPT3 set and use intensively actions to buy this... |
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 The first in the series of the KPT-X plugins, for sale and download over the Net, it features the same clear, easy to use interface as the KPT5 plugins, and enables the user to fine-tune the sharpening of an image using controls similar to a stereo equalizer. It does a great job and can prove useful on some difficult jobs, but proves to be "too much" for most jobs, and also shares with KPT5 series some annoying problems such as speed (the preview is OK but the apply is very slow), system demands.
An interesting tool though ; though I would not buy it for $30... |
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 Second episode in the KPT-X series (see above), it has the now classic interface any one can learn in minutes, and provides an original and fun to use paint tool that works mercury-like, thus giving the possibility to create all sorts of gooey designs, with about every control you could wish for, both over the size and grain of the paint, and over the shininess and texture of it, with a number of tools to paint, and erase, but also squeeze, twist and generally deform your paint.
This is probably not a tool you will use everyday, but it is flexible enough to open quite a number of possibilities, all the more as MetaTools seems finally to have found some way to speed up their products ; my only regret is that you can use only one type of paint at once (so if you want to add both bubble gum and mercury, you will have to launch and apply the plugin twice). |
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 Third in the KPT-X series (with the usual nice and clean interface) ; this plugin provides you with a number of brushes you can use to distort images at will, each brush is customizable enough for you to get what you want. The brushes are comprehensive enough, with a magnet and a smear, a couple of twists, a noise brush and of course an eraser. It is best to set the flow low when you begin, because the plugin tends to react very fast, which is a pleasure (the apply is fast too). This product is in fact the plugin version of the standalone app by the same name, from which you can load the files (but not the reverse). It can also animate morphs and turn them into AVI files or BMP sequences.
In the end, it is a nice little product, though Goo (the app) may be a bit more powerful if you want to have fun, and
Squizz (from Human Software) is much more interesting in the way of PS plugins. |
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