This is why I also bought Mask AI: not for what it is at the moment, but for what it might be in the future. Mask AI has potential, but it definitely needs to be improved, especially when it comes to cutting straight lines or curves.
In my limited testing of Mask Ai I have, so far, found the initial computed mask to be better (more complete?) than Remask 5; at least, for the images I’ve tossed at it. What Mask Ai desperately needs is some cleanup tools. I’d like to have a simple cut/keep brush that would enable me to manually manipulate the mask, as necessary, to perfect it. When little bits-n-pieces remain, I’m finding the current automated brushes generally do too much.
I’m still “on the fence” about asking for a refund. What concerns me at this point is that in recent years Topaz’s development methodology seems to be: 1) release a product before it’s really ready, 2) release a flurry of initial updates while initial sales are running hot, then 3) forget about this product because we need to move on to the new thing that’s going to make us money.
Personally, I’ve never understood their “free upgrades for life” strategy because giving stuff away doesn’t make you money. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve been a Topaz user for many, many users and really appreciate these free updates, but not at the expense of further development and refinement of existing products. Heck, Mask Ai cannot even be used in Studio 2, as of today. I just hope Mask Ai doesn’t “fall by the wayside” as time marches forward.
A long time you could buy PhotoShop Now you have buy a Subscruption.
I rember people using Adobe Products and realeases having serious issues.
Topaz Did not give it away you hade to purchased it before .Topaz made new plugins Like Restyle That came out that was separate from thier collection.
Thanks Don. Thanks for giving that a go. I did manage to get a near perfect mask with Remask and tone down the background as per here…
But I just can’t recreate that in AI Mask. That is fine if Topaz is going to run these two programs side by side, one is for professional masks the other is for “quick” masks, but I don’t think that is their intention given the marketing blurb about AI Mask being the best yet.
Thanks for the comment re TIFFS, your forum site wouldn’t take that size file but original was done with TIFF.
In case anyone is interested… Joel Wolfson is doing a webinar on Mask Ai tomorrow. If you visit the Topaz website, you can probably find it and register.
It seems odd to me that with both Remask and Studio, the new and improved products that have to be purchased, albeit with upgrade pricing for previous owners and are no longer part of the upgrades for life product line, the new versions are both retrogrades in terms of capabilities and workflow finesse. I found I was actually using Studio fairly often until Studio 2 and now I rarely ever use it even though every few weeks I open it and consider using it practically every case I just close it and use the classic plugins directly. As for Mask Ai it is not different in capabilities than any rewrite of an existing product and typically less sophisticated. The free upgrade from InFocus to Sharpen Ai was way more of an upgrade than Remask 5 to Mask Ai. Yet it’s supposedly a completely different product. They are about as silly to do this as Vizzini declaring that our insistence that Mask Ai is certainly the same product as ReMask to be “inconceivable” to which Inigo suggests “you keep using that word; I do not think it means what you think it means”. (from The Princess Bride)
I have been using A1 for about 3 months now. I use this plugin for portraiture work and I have switched back to Remask 5. First - the tricolor method of selecting in Mask A1 is not as good as Remask. Remask appears to select the mask better overall on the first ilteration and as a result I have to spend more time cleaning up in A1. Second - masking hair is horrible in A1. Third - The interface is more difficult. The brush is totally colored green/red/blue and you can’t see very well the image thru the color. The brush in remask is just a colored ring which is more usable to me. The only thing I noticed an improvement on is speed. The compute mask/recompute is faster in A1 than Remask however if the algorithim doesnt doesnt do a good job on selecting the mask, then the faster computer/recompute time is a moot point. I expected that the A1 version would be better than remask but its a downgrade IMHO. There are many more things i just dont like about A1 but I would be writing alot so i will try to keep this post short.