The other Damage effects (see previous review) of Artifact, Blockade, Interference and Skew all share similar levels of options and control
The organization is logical and clearly identified, making a manual or documentation almost irrelevant.
You can't argue with 64 bit pipes. Individually, none of the Damage effects exact a significant toll on the render time, despite their high level of programmability. Of course when you begin stacking them and adding additional computationally "expensive" effects, users can expect to increase render times accordingly. (And, of course, for all folks who've moved up to the 64-bit exclusive CS5, 64-bit plugins are required.)
The rendered results are complex and organically diverse eliminating telltale signs of pattern recognition or anything that screams "fake!" The Damage v2 collections makes the best of "bad" things.
There are a bevy of adequate footage destroying plug-ins and effects available on the market. But they're merely adequate. If you really are wanting a high level of programmatic control and believable end results, Damage v2 provides very solid results.
In addition to using these effects to destroy plain footage, utilizing these capabilities for special effects such as holograms, matchmoved displays and more makes it's usage more likely, even for everyday situations. (Well, maybe not the hologram part)
The Digieffects Web site also has a good collection of example and project files the user can examine to aid in exploring possibilities and settings.
Ok, this is awkward. The Damage v2 collection is a great collection yielding fantastic results. The addition of two more footage compromising abilities should be vaulting the utility and worth of this plug-in forward. However, the elimination of the randomizer presets as a starting point or the ability to save presets from within the plug-in has compromised its formerly user-friendly nature. The strength of Damage is its extensive control set. But, that is also its Achilles heel when presets or saving options are removed - there's just a ton of stuff to control so it now takes longer to dial into desired effects. If the good folks at DigiEffects were to choose to release an update that restores these functionality options, my total score would easily go into our Award of Superiority range! Unfortunately, without these, this version is kind of a one-step-forward, two-steps-back situation.
