procreate KnockOut 2

Rating:
Summary: Works, but it is a lot of work
Review: It took a couple of weeks before I was able to use this product due to a strange design flaw (bug? feature?). If you load it on a Windows machine that does not have a "C:\" drive it will report "system contains low memory" and not run. This little feature is not covered in the manual or revealed by tech support. Fortunately, I found the answer in a newsgroup. I have reported it to Corel (Procreate) and hope they will at least note it on future manuals (or fix it). I named one of my drives "C" and loaded it there.

Now that it runs I find it does an excellent job on fuzzy edged things if you select and tweak and tweak, but for most product work the Photoshop pen tool works faster. I will keep it and use it occasionally. It would be good for manipulated portrait work.

Rating:
Summary: Very useful background/foreground removal tool
Review: KnockOut 2 is a masking plug-in for graphics programs such as Corel PaintShop Pro, Painter7, Photoshop, etc, and not a stand alone program, but it has a lot of power.

Masks enable you to cut out backgrounds or foregrounds using alpha channels. Don't worry about understanding these, as KnockOut 2 does it all for you. Even having the ability to knock out background from areas that still have opacity, such as dragonfly wings, water, clouds, glass, and hair.

Hair is always tricky when you want to change a background, but not with this program. Just drawing a line is as hard as it gets, with a little more for extra fine work. These masks can be saved and loaded into graphics programs for further work. such as making selections from them.

The simple user interface is easy to learn, and keyboard shortcuts are included in the booklet, and on the quick reference card supplied.

You can apply as much or as little feathering on the fly as is needed, and use the touch-up tools such as touchup brush and eraser as they are required. It is even possible to preview the saved part of the image against the proposed backdrop so that any problems can be resolved before exiting the program.

You work on a separate duplicate layer like an adjustment layer, so the background (original) one is always maintained.

Once you have done the tutorials that are provided in the form of a booklet, or in HTML format from the CDrom, you should have no more trouble, and the results are brilliant. More tutorials are to be found on-line just to finish off the training.

Just because it is a plug-in does not mean that KnockOut 2 is not worthy of consideration by serious graphics users, it just speeds up work that can take hours to get right otherwise. I think that it should be part of every professional photo re-toucher's toolbox.