CValley FILTERiT 4
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Finally we get to the Metabrush tool. This is a serious piece of work. Rather than tweaking an object, it takes a selected abject and allows you to use it as a brush. More than this, it offers a tremendous amount of control over how the brush is applied.

Above you see a screen shot of the Metabrush palette, which is automatically called up when you select the tool. With it, you can set the fade of the brush and apply various parameters for setting size, spacing, shear, color, etc. You can set tablet pressure, speed or direction to control all of these parameters. And you can reverse them and throw in some randomness to boot.

The bottom line
Man, this thing is great. You can see the results in several of the examples I've created for this review, but to appreciate FILTERiT 4 fully, you really need to see it in action. I hope to have a QuickTime demonstration of this product up within the next month because the way this thing works is just so fluid and simple that it makes the process of creating images in Illustrator enjoyable. You get a ton of effects. You get a bunch of live effects. And you get 3D transformations, along with support for Illustrator 9's transparency. All of this for $129. It's so clean and so well implemented that you have to wonder how they can sell it for so little. My recommendation is an immediate strong buy. Get it while you can. One day these people are going to realize what they have and start selling it for much more.