Special Effects Software

Hello everyone, I am interested in finding an affordable (yet workable)

special effects software package. I have downloaded the free trial version

from AutoFx and it seems to be a nice package, is the price of 300 dollars

standard for this sort of thing, or are there more affordable packages

available? I realize some people spend thousands on good software, I am not

one of those, I am simply looking for something that I can use to do some

artistic work without having to resort to rocket science or a second mortgage

to figure it out.

Thanks

Steve

Have you tried the special effects that come with your photo-editor? Most editors within the $30 - $100 USD price range (Say, the Photoshop elements, Paintshop Pro, ACDSee Photoedtor 4 (very good, BTW) type editors all come with a variety of special effects. Look in the filters menu, sometimes called special effects.

Generally, these stand alone special effect packages just do automatically what you can do with an editor. The built in special effects just automate many of the functions of the edior.