Has it really been 9 years since I went to my first
Seybold Conference tradeshow in San Francisco?
In September 1994 I went to the software and publishing tradeshow - which begins this cycle on Tuesday - primarily to see if I could get some sort of hint at deciphering the interface and workings of a nearly impenetrable software program I'd just discovered: HSC's Kai's Power Tools (KPT). KPT is a series of plugin filters for Adobe Photoshop.
The namesake of the software,
Kai Krause, wasn't there, but at the booth were two brothers,
Craig and
Phil Clevenger, demonstrating some of the various techniques and explaining the power contained within.
From the beginning the two, clad in black leather jackets, seemed like they should be lurking in some dark alley next to their motorcycles rather than espousing the beauty of
fractals and
gradient design.
As Phil demo'd the KPT 2 version of Gradient Designer, he used the analogy of "Legos" to explain how the filters worked together. He pulled down the gradient transparency control, moved brackets around, created a preset and exported it to KPT Texture Explorer. At least that's what he said. It was alchemy - mystical - yet scientific and logical once the process is learned.
He opened a then-unreleased product called
KPT Convolver and explained the various diamond shaped displays, scrubbing between panels, announced the company's first use of "memory dots" (later ubiquitous in
Spheroid Designer, Bryce, KPT 5, 6 and Effects) and finally stopped on a line of red stars. A sort of "reward system," the stars popped up as you used and became more proficient with the software, giving you more power as you "deserved it." "Only the pure of heart get 5 stars," Phil said.
Much has changed in the past 9 years; HSC went public and morphed into MetaTools, then
MetaCreations and all graphics software was sold and spun off to other companies when the company made it's last transformation into
Viewpoint.
Kai sold his stock in the company in 1999 and moved back to Germany, purchasing a
castle he calls "Byteburg" on the Rhein River and later acquiring another
castle called "Byteburg II."
Craig Clevenger has received notoriety of late for his highly acclaimed first novel,
"The Contortionists Handbook."
And big brother Phil Clevenger has collaborated with
Kai Gradert in creating
"HelloWorld," a "Platform for Social Computing."
One last thing, Phil. Just wanted to let you know I got my 5 stars the first night...
Posted by: Adrian / 12:51 PM
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