My picks for editors choice

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uberzev wrote: Kochubey works for FF

Yes, she does

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Vladimir Golovin wrote: Maybe we'll need a dedicated "techical award" or something like that.

Yes, and that should be the most prestigious type of award!

(BTW, I'm much too humble to mention my Circular Angle Gradient)

i think any filter getting 'editor's choice' would be not only brilliant, but also of broad use. adaptive tiling is brilliant, no question, but i question the broad use aspect. an award for technical achievment, adaptive tiling qualifies easily, as do some of the others, but how many folks will actually use some of those filters on a day to day basis?

i've finally gotten over my initial wild create on all these filters and am now having a chance to look at some of the other creations out there. i went through quite a few in the submissions list last night and was surprised at how few i would actually use for anything. some are quite clever in what they've done, but as far as actually using them for what i do, i found most lacking. this had the side effect of making me question some of my own filters and their usefullness and i'll be re-looking at some of my own with this in mind. i've already made changes in one, re-writing most of it.

on the other side of things (not to just be mr. negative here), i've also found some new applications for some of these filters. one recent submission by myself and several other submissions from others, has put a whole new spin on the use of filters and FF in particular. the area of 'design' is a huge field. everything from fabrics to floor tiles to cut stone and wallpaper comes to mind. FF is perfectly suited for these areas and i've seen some interesting filters that address this. some of the wood textures, pattern makers and tile designs could easily be used in an industry design area. i've even seen one that could be used for rug designs. so, think big, folks! FF has a lot more uses than i originally thought.

craig

donna,

i think you're right and i'm probably going to have to eat crow on some of what i said. you've already mentioned uses that i'd completely forgotten about and i'm sure there are others i've not even thought of yet.

craig

pass the salt, please.

craig

Quasi,

Well, that's cool!

Donna

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...you buy the access to the official filter server where you will get all submitted filters of the past and the future.

THAT precisely is the strong point about FF. Its going to be a huge library of visual design "recipes". You can use the pre-made recipes as they come, or you can use them as foundations for designing your own visual solutions, which I find is the most interesting aspect of FF.

To game or 3D artists who constanly have to design textures, FF is going to have a HUGE appeal. Not only will they be able to quickly design all sorts of textures for re-occuring specialized cases (take my own 'Loose Screw' filter as an example! Who the hell needs screwheads, eh? ), they will be able to AUTOMATE and greatly streamline the process of creating variations, carrying and refining their recipes from project to project. HUGE benefit.

As Kraellin stated, the design aspect of FF is largely unexplored. I think we are going to see lots of activity in this area once FF launches.

My 2c

absolutely Crapadilla. The little "wow" that clicks in your brain when you stumble across something out of the ordinary. Kinda like the little sound that rang in my head when I started using FilterForge itself. A sense of wonder, plus respect and a dash of "man I shoulda thot of that myself". Those are the things I live for in this business. Like my first taste of bryce v1, back when ray tracing was a fantasy for those crazy SGI owners.

Some filters here have made me feel that way...

I think perhaps there should be an online form which all the forum members can vote in various catagories; from 'most creative' to 'technical award' each with a point value. The texture with the most points at the end of a set time period could be deemed grand prize, then perhaps some sort of point limit could be set and all textures above this limit gain a point. Since we would need to have a voting/award monthly to stimulate submissions, then it would take a few months to generate the points (3) to earn a license of filter forge. One would need to have excellent textures and an appropriate investment in time and effort to justify the reward. Or not. Could be an all or nothing single event. But I like the idea of continued competition and learning...

I also have very little use for a texture that can't be used in some practical way. The only textures I would download would be ones I could use in some way. The texture IMO needs to be functional and convincing to it's task, that is, I wouldn't want a stone texture that didn't both generate realistic bumpmap, specular map as well as a colour output, plus it needs to be up to the standar of the job. My goal is to generate photographic texture replacement textures. A texture I can use in place of my normal ones, since these are free to generate, tileable, scaleable, infinitely controllable... But if someone looks at my work and says, 'nice fake textures' then a filter isn't worth a thing.