Favorite 3rd party filters?

[Rich_Carroll@adobeforums.com]

Sorry if this is a repost, but what are everyone's favorite 3rd party filters, and why?
Alien Skin's Eye Candy 4000? Extensis Mask Pro? Xaos Paint Alchemy?
I have some users that I support that would like some additional filters, but there are too many choices.
I appreciate any help and/or advice.

[Phosphor@adobeforums.com]

What do those users NEED to make their work more efficient?

Most of what can be done with 3rd-party filters can be done with Photoshop-native tools; plugins often simply serve to make things easier.

For example, if those users are primarily extracting items from backgrounds, they'd really have no pressing need for the gee-whiz-bang of AlienSkin's EyeCandy.

On the other hand, if they're primarily creating gee-whiz effects, a 3rd-party masking plugin might be a wasted investment.

Sounds like yoiu need to poll them on what they need, not what would be cool to have.

[Rich_Carroll@adobeforums.com]

Mostly they are using 3rd parties filters for texture generation, distortions, and extrusions.

[Scott_Weichert@adobeforums.com]

None. I've tried most of them and never found a need for any of them .. well with the exception of Xenofex if you do a lot of lightning images. If anything..... I might suggest 3D invigorator, but even that is pretty much a specialized market.

The built in functions of Photoshop can render some really nice textures, distortions and extrustions.

[Phosphor@adobeforums.com]

For an amazing array of texture generation possibilities, check out XAOSTools' Terrazzo. I use it regularly, and it's fun just to play around with. It's not authored for OS X, unfortunately.

There's also new one out by DigitalAnarchy <http://www.digitalanarchy.com/product_texture.html>, but I haven't tried it yet.

[Welles_Goodrich@adobeforums.com]

Rich,

It depends on what you want to do and how much you are willing to spend. I happen to like having some 3D capacity inside Photoshop for creating images and am enthusiastic about Aurora 2.1.

<http://www.digi-element.com/aurora/prodinfo.htm>

Then recently, I purchased AV Bros. Page Curl 2.0 because it makes scrolls and does stuff that the original page curls never even dreamed of such as curling the image outside of the original borders, supporting transparency etc.

Here is a quickie sample I punched out...

<http://homepage.mac.com/wellesgoodrich/PageCurl.jpg>

After communicating with the developers, they sent me a license key for their other plug-in AV Bros. Puzzle Pro 2.0. I've tried them all and Puzzle Pro is the only puzzle plug-in worthy of the sobriquet "Pro." (I've also made a couple of small suggestions which will be incorporated into the next version and a major suggestion which is under discussion.)

One observation of both of these pieces of software is that they are extremely sophisticated and an aesthetic joy to use.

<http://freeshareweb.com/compte.php?id=4764>

If you want a suite of plugins, I'd suggest seeing if AutoFX's DreamSuite series is of interest. If you need the effects, their software is very slick, very comprehensive and works as advertised.

<http://www.autofx.com/dreamsuite/main.html#>

Those are my current favorites.