G,
Some background here. I was forced into semi-early retirement a few years ago because of a medical problem. I got so bored, however, that I recently started teaching myself PS to go along with my photography background. I was a professional advertising photographer back in Atl. (before the days of digital photography, unfortunately).
Anyway, I started a little business here in Phx. to keep myself busy as being ?retired? for me sucked. I?m too hyper for that. I need to be productive everyday. So, with that in mind, I am mainly interested in plug-ins that I can use making fancy text (where appropriate) in promotional flyers and altering photos etc. I can do much of the stuff I want to do now in PS myself but I spend too much time doing it because I am not a working professional (using PS). I don?t do it often enough to get really good at it. It is also really frustrating when I spend a lot of time learning something the first time through tuts and, because I don't use it frequently, I find that two weeks later I forgot what I learned.
So, with that background, to answer your question. Super Blade Pro is a good plug-in. I have only used it to create fancy type once and, you?re right ? I didn?t think it was fun to use either. To me it was a utility not a toy. Some plug-ins are just fun as you mentioned. Others are simply tools to accomplish some task quickly. If I had it to do over again I would not have bought SBP. It just doesn?t do enough of what I thought I would use it for. I find I spent way too much time fooling with all those sliders and still not getting exactly what I wanted out of the program. ~sigh~
Erik,
I have LatticeXP from Redfield, too. I seem to be going down the same road you did except on a quicker timetable. I started getting into PS 6 months ago and immediately decided I needed some plug-ins without having a clue what the hell I was doing (or buying). I wasted a lot of money in that phase of my learning. Then, for three months, I ONLY used PS to do what I wanted to do. Like I said above, however, I found myself quickly forgetting too much of what I learned. I loved the learning process but it?s frustrating when you don?t remember much of what you worked so hard to accomplish. Now, however, in the third ?trimester? here (for lack of something else to call it), I am back looking for a few GOOD plug-ins. I don?t like trying too many demos as after you install and uninstall programs too often you end up corrupting your operating system. So I am trying to pick and choose carefully without using too many demos.
One plug-in that I did get and absolutely love is Knockout 2. This thing is amazing and I use it all the time. I got it before I learned about the extract tool in PS. I still don?t have any experience with that tool because I spent money for KO and I?ll be damned if I?m going to shelve it now just because I learned that PS may be able to do the same thing. KO does make that task easy and fast, however, I?ll say that. That alone, for me anyway, is worth the money.
Anyway, this is getting too long. Sorry. I just started running my mouth and ended up writing another War and Peace here.
Thanks to both of you again for the input and guidence.
L
