I was working with Photoshop tonight and realiz3ed I had forgotten two filters I find extremely important. They're made by Panopticum: Fire and Lens Pro. They're both excellent, with a LOT of confusing parameters, and fire can be animated as well, I think, tho I've never done it. I'm danged if I can remember where I got them. Xenofex is also a set of filters I use quite a bit. I use lightning quite a bit, and use many of the others on new layers and applied with the multiply mode to get texture effects.

Talent is God's gift to you. Using it is your gift to God.