Feb 17 2002
Corel Procreate KnockOut 2
I, like many of you, have seen the print ads for KnockOut 2 and been intrigued by it’s claims of being able to easily isolate transparent and/or hairy objects from images. I have spent many an hour close cropping such things for catalog work in my career using Adobe Photoshop’s Extract feature as well as the Background and Magic Eraser tools. I have also felt that Photoshop’s Extract interface seemed like it was never finished and hoped that a product dedicated to masking would be the answer to my problems. Recently I had a chance to try KnockOut 2 and see if it fit the bill.
KnockOut 2′s installer is somewhat lacking in that it installs the KnockOut 2 application but leaves the user to properly place the KnockOut 2 plug-in in the appropriate folder with the image editing application of choice.
The QuickTour movie and tutorial materials are clear and easy to follow and give the user a good understanding of how to use the software in a relatively short period of time. After using the product on a few of my own images, I was satisfied with the results but they were by no means free of the need for touching up. The print ads for KnockOut 2 may show some amazing work but they neglect to mention the time it took to get them to be so.
The documentation states that KnockOut 2 is not a stand-alone application, but a plug-in — I disagree. It isn’t a plug-in either. It is in fact an application that requires either Adobe Photoshop®, Corel PHOTO-PAINT® or Corel® Painter 6 or 7 to run. This means that, in addition to KnockOut 2′s $329 US price tag, you will need to have shelled out anywhere from $249 US to $609 US for one of these other applications. The disappointing thing about KnockOut for Adobe Photoshop users is that many of KnockOut 2′s features, though better implemented and easier to learn, are already present in some fashion within the menus and toolbars of Photoshop itself. $249 US might be too high a price for many who just want Extract with better implementation.
MacMerc’s Field Manual Breakdown:
Corel Procreate KnockOut 2
Price:
$329 US
Performance:
It masks and close crops very well but don’t expect it to do all the work for you.
Compatibility:
Requires Mac OS 8.6 or higher. Runs natively in Mac OS X. Runs on a PowerMac with a 150+ MHz processor, 128MB RAM and 30MB hard drive space. Also requires either Adobe Photoshop®, Corel PHOTO-PAINT® or Corel® Painter 6 or 7 to run.
Complaints:
Sticker price rather high considering the software requires other expensive software to function.