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Both FF and Photoshop, eh? Now you can play with the big boys!
Cris, I have several of yours. They're very good.
Someone mentioned nodes. That's about the only way these filter programs can work. It is a fairly steep learning curve, though. I've only learned enough to adapt filters, not write my own. Things I'm constantly having to do is stop non-tiling filters from enforcing only square images, and keeping the transparent background transparent.
I have been using it for a couple of years, I bought the cheap version and quickly upgraded to Pro, because it was worth it for me... I wait for the sales, sometimes they take a while, but 70-80% off makes the wait worthwhile. I love the ability to alter filters and cobble together my own effect or tweak other people's. If it's still 80% when you read this, get it... I occasionally use it in Photoshop, but more often as a stand alone... I do see some people occasional report problems with the newer versions of PS, but I don't really read much on that... There is one thing I do see as a slight value issue... When the new versions come out, the old version can't use the filters created in the new version... So if in a year or two there is a new version, you have to upgrade to use the newer filters... So far most of the improvements in the versions has made it sorta worth the upgrade price. If I was using it 100% professionally or charging for the models I use it in, the I'd say it was absolutely worth it... Also in that case I'd also pony up the audio all buck and buy the lifetime upgrade package, which is comparable to three upgrades, more or less.
Long and short, if you make textures and UV maps... You probably won't regret it.
Thanks. You make it sound so easy!
Wondering if there will be a huge update with 5 on the horizon? If so wondering if they discount new buyers deeply or the same as everyone else?
The last upgrade was a pretty good price, but I actually procrastinated so long an 80% sale came up and I ended up buying the new version for $10 less... So that worked out because I have 3 on my Mac and 4 on my new Dell... No licenses request for migrating platforms.
In my experience updates aren't critical. If you don't upgrade you still have access to the 11,000 filters available. The only thing you will miss is that some of the newer filters uploaded may require the latest version.
They always offer discounts, in fact I have never seen them sell filter forge on their website without a discount varying from 40% to 80%. They just change the discount rate, so its just a matter of waiting for the 80% off if you want a good deal. They do offer upgrades and discounts for those upgrades by email if you already have it.
Thank you, Tobor.
I have a new filter coming. It was submitted yesterday. I explain it and show a bit of what it does here:
http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/comment/908796/#Comment_908796
Thanks for the info! :-)
Not sure if anyone mentioned this already, but you might want to get the Filter Forge Librarian and the CD. I loaded ALL the files from the disk and then I would get an error message and Filter Forge wouldn't open. I had to delete half the files and add the balance back slowly. And at some point it was erroring again. But I think I finally got them all to load. But support said...do you really need them all loaded? Many of them you may never use. With the Librarian, you can browse all the fiters and then only load the ones you want.
The most versitile photosop 'filter' I have. At the sale price it is a real bargain, especially at $57 if you get the maximum 64% discount
I'm not seeing where they mention the free upgrade thing. Is there a link around?
Oh, I didn't mean a free upgrade, but discounted.
It's not like them to offer a free upgrade, unless you buy 4.0 immediately before 5.0 comes out (December maybe)? This is why I said you might want to wait off on it. If you think you might eventually go to 5.0, the cost will be the current price, plus the upgrade, which is $59 to $79, depending on when you buy it.
Last time I checked, you need to be careful if you decide to download and try the 5.0 beta. Doing so could impact your ability to download and use new filters if you decide not to upgrade for now. Read through the beta threads in their forums. The way their software works, you are locked out from downloading new filters if you are not using the latest release of your installed software version.
Here's some playing around with filterforge and daz:
I'm amused at all these textures I recognize. 'Hey, that studded leather looks familiar... hey, that's Rawart! Huh! Hi texture!'
Haha, that's what I thought :) Sounded too good to be true.
edit: I'm also *this* close to purchasing FF Pro 4, but I don't exactly have the money to justify it... It could be a good complement to my photography work but I can count the number of times I've used filters in my postwork :(
edit2: back to 75% discount, btw.
Thats very weird... My post above was a quote of Cris Palomino's post... But only the quote posted up... Not the text... And I'm 99.90000562% sure I did not post it... I'm pretty sure it posted on its own.
I started writing, had to go out, closed out Safari and plugged in the iPad to recharge. What I was writing (which I did not finish) was still in the Text field when I visited again just now.
"That's a pretty nice filter Cris. I like the effect. I'll probably download it tomorrow.... "
Weird... I wonder if this is a forum bug... I keep seeing blank posts on the forums and have been wondering what that's about.
My friend is a Photoshop professional who spends big bucks on all sort of PS toys and candy... For some reason he still hasn't purchased FF.
He says he doesn't think he'll use it much and often does some effects using complicated procedures that FF could knock out in half the time. But, then again he is not at all into 3D (though, oddly indirectly he was the first person I knew who owned the original Bryce and is indirectly responsible for me getting into 3D when I did).
But my point is, between doing photoshop work and being into 3D, you would probably get more from it than some people... Maybe wait until FF5 comes out and then get it on sale.
I just went through my wishlist after playing with FF for a day, and weeded out the products I will not be needing after buying FF. Wow... More than 20 items gone from my whishlist. It was interesting to see some products that I said I definitely need, pop up as an FF filter. :)
Don't get me wrong, Filter Forge is a terrific program. But in my case, it's true that I ended up using it less than I thought I would. If you're doing textures for 3D it's a must-have. OTOH, the photo manipulation filters are just too slow to be of much use. You can only apply one filter effect at a time, and layer the results on the last layer. That makes them "destructive" and if you want to change things, you have to do it all over again.
Of course you need Photoshop, Lightroom, Gimp, or another piece of software to do it, but it's better/faster to do these types of jobs in your graphics app. Depending on the size of your frame, some effects in Filter Forge can take several minutes to generate.
Yeah, I can see that, Tobor. The filters as photo filters are... clunky and slow.
But like Ati said, there are all these texture products I've reluctantly put on my wishlist that... I don't think I need. For a WIDE range of stuff. For texturing old/clunky spaceships, some of the techno textures are a godsend. (I had been using some other bump maps I wasn't very happy with)
While I do not regret finally getting Photoshop, I'm actually finding it easier, for what I do, using FilterForge as standalone for texture generation.
Chalk me up as another very satisfied term user of Filter Forge. It's a fantastic program with so many uses that I'm still finding new ones after three years of using it on a daily basis. MInd you, you do have to have a fairly powerful computer to make the most of it.. I' ve got a 3.50GHz i7-3770K CPU @ 3.50GHz with 32 GB of memory, and even then, as others have noted, it can be slow with some filters. But the flip side is that the effects are absolutely repeatable and automated, so I just let that stuff run in the background while I work on other things..
Same previous organic texture on Baryolax...
(I could be fancier with it with masking the original texture or whatnot, this is just a quick test)
I think speed depends on your machine and the size of your images. I use it a lot for photo manipulation but also love the textures you can create for 3D use. Even if you don't make new filters, there are a lot out there and most of them have setting adjustments for almost infinite possibilities. Definitely my go-to and if I'm feeling bored, I just browse for a while and get inspired again - some of the effects are just beyond cool. Great for creating abstract backgrounds as well.
I've eliminated fifteen products from my wishlist that I won't be needing since purchasing Filter Forge, and it's inspired so many ideas that it should pay for itself quite quickly. Happily, I should be able to get back to some actual work now as I've just about got the 'recklessly experimental new owner' phase out of my system, having spent the morning messing with an endless variety of image filters. The afternoon was spent re-texturing everything in sight and leaving various characters in a place that's far, far from the cutting edge of fashion.
I'm very impressed with Filter Forge, but others are going to need more convincing...
Looks great. Getting used to the nodes.... kinda fun actually. Made a few myself but not quite tweaked to perfection as of yet.
I actually haven't even touched making my own stuff. I'm sure eventually I will, but I'm mainly jumping around piping out various textures I've needed for a while. joy!
The feedback from everyone is very useful. Thank you :) I think I *will* wait for FF5 to go on sale, as tempting as getting FF4 on a massive discount may be.
I *am* concerned about the posts here about the photo filters being slow though. Then again, the watercolor filter of theirs is just unreal.