Kai was hosting pitch nights for startup ideas for young people; but really anyone was welcome.
Apart from Kai there was his buddy, Uwe Maurer, and two 'staff' guys who were kinda running things in the castle. I.e. upkeep, cooking/food and beverages.
Kai was just all over everyone, running around with a little tablet serving nibbles and making sure everyone always had a fresh beer.
A kind, humble and deeply interesting person.
There was chit-chat and board games (mostly strategy stuff like Go & co) before the night deteriorated and we went to the castle's cellar for pool and foosball; until the early morning hours.
An untold story relayed to me first hand, that night, is how KPT got so popular.
No one knew what a Photoshop plugin to make fancy procedural patterns etc. was useful for. Certainly there was the crowd of people doing flyers for techno clubs/parties; but that was a tiny minority.
Sales were meh. The story goes that Uwe hired a bunch of students that phone-bombed all major US department stores and chains that were selling software at the time.
They pretended they were all studying graphic design and needed KPT "for their assignments".
After that sales started rolling in.
This was relayed to me as more or less the "founding myth" of what later became Meta Creations.
That was me. Kai's tools were invaluable to me learning graphic design (via doing flyers/posters for local raves), which then got me proper graphic/web design jobs and kickstarted my career. I look back on Kai's plugins/tools as iconic as Winamp, mIRC, etc for the era.
That's yet another Kai Krause story.
I was just visiting Byteburg with a friend who was a big Krause/KPT/Bryce etc. fan and had told his partner about him, a few years before.
She was working as a journalist for German Max magazine at the time AFAIR. So she convinced her editor and they did a piece on Kai.
This friend and her flew to California and interviewed Kai in his villa. Max also booked a super hip local photographer to shoot him.
Now the photographer brought some perspex sheets or the like to do a setup where Kai would walk 'like Jesus' over the surface of his pool.
Kai told the guy he should do it in Photoshop instead, no setup required, no one getting wet. The photographer said it wouldn't be the same and one could always tell.
To which Kai replied that he could show him how and you wouldn't be able to tell.
This led to a discussion and the photographer loosing it and ultimately leaving in anger (he likely thought he was just shooting some unknown C-level celebrity geek but Kai was quite famous at the time).
So the shoot went sideways because of Kai having offered his superior Photoshop-Fu. :P
AFAIR my friend himself took the pictures that were ultimately used for the article. But I may misremember.
Kai and him became friends over that interview and that's how we ended up at Kai's castle, a year or so after.
In any case, months later, when the photographer found out whom he had been booked to shoot, he wanted to re-negotiate his compensation after the fact with Max magazine. They refused ofc. Go figure.
I also once read in a thread that his home castle and the one he was receiving guests for the startup hup where separate ones. I could not find reliable source for this, so it may or may not be true.
EDIT: I just found that his website has something to say about it:
"This is not a case of Luddite but Peace'nQuiet."
So they couldn't even take orders for it when the calls hit them.
The intention of the phone-bombing was that the stores would order a bunch of boxes each, of KPT, so that they hit the shelves.
KPT was one of those things that as a Photoshop user, you just had to have in your toolbox at the time.
I.e. even if you just did boring graphics design or classic compositing, there was always a moment when some filter from the plugin would come in handy.
After that KPT hit a critical installed base. I.e. word of mouth and piracy did the rest as far as marketing goes.
Shelve space for software was auctioned-off at the time. Microsoft was number one in buying shelve space ofc.
The closer to the entrance of a shop (or the software area of a department store) and the higher up the shelve your boxes would end up, the more you had to pay.
Now KPT wasn't on any shelve anywhere at all when Uwe pulled this one off.
That changed after.
There was a period in the mid 90s when the Kai Page Curl effect was everywhere.
I spent some time with various versions of Bryce. It was good for entry-level 3D, but in the same way that everything made with KPT looked obviously KPT-ish, everything made with Bryce looked obviously Bryce-ish.
It was all fractal mountains, planets, mysterious floating orbs, alien seascapes, lurid sunsets, and the occasional detailed tree if you had a couple of days of render time to spare.
You were always clicking around in KaiSpace.
There was no way out.
His UIs were what got me really into software as a child. Bryce and Power Goo were absolutely life-changing to me. There was NO other software out there which was so accessible and so powerful, especially to a child.
If you asked someone to make you a realistic looking 3D rendered image of an alien landscape or even just a regular earth-like landscape in 94/95, it would have been a hugely complex task requiring special skills and expensive, inaccessible software. I was around 12 at this time and I remember amazing my dad with my Bryce creations. A few years later I remember warezing Maya and having no idea how to do anything, I could barely make a single textured sphere in that program, it was so complex to use and the UI was not friendly to look at.
My point being that the UI may look "cute" but it was friendly and accessible and it got people being creative, unlike other 3D tools at the time which were intimidating, complex, and incredibly hard to learn. I still don't believe there is a better tool out there for making 3D landscape art than Bryce, if there is, I'd love to hear about it. I suppose young people these days will just ask Stable Diffusion "make me a cool alien landscape"
This sounds like a classic example of "Seinfeld isn't funny" or "The Beatles aren't original".
Yes, Kai's look feels dated and overwrought. That's because when it came out, it was so radically innovative that it created a huge graphic design fad. It was emulating nothing, and it feels cute and twee because it was so successful that it's seared in everyone's consciousness.
> Definitely part of that late 90s bright-colours-and-glass OMG Internet aesthetic
It was one of the primary originators of that aesthetic. Our whole mental picture of the 90s would be very different without Kai Krause.
So kudos to Kai for having such an outsized influence on the UI of the time.
People also look at the designs that the filters made and didn't think about how they could be used as selection channels and other ways of manipulating an image. Kai's original work was about using selection channels in Photoshop to create stunning effects and while you could use his tools to create a background or a texture they could also be used to manipulate the colour and tone in images in really incredible ways.
[1] The era you speak of was the early 00s.
Of course, being able to understand how to use an interface is partly affected by what you're familiar with and, in turn, what you were exposed to in your formative years. For me, Windows 95 – early-OSX-era interfaces have 'the best' look.
So much fun. And polarizing for sure - but more fans than detractors, and the business didn't fail because of lack of interest. Way more sordid/gossip-y and sad unfortunately.
This wouldn't be some crazy lottery winning level of odds that you were that person type of chances would it? Either way, just want to express a bit of personal gratitude for your and co-workers' work.
https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2000/04/22/consistency-and-ot...
I'm reminded of that today because that article was the one place that I read about Kai's software before today.
>> Netscape 6.0 goes so far as to reimplement every single common Windows control.
Of course, there’s the part where IE[1], VB, and Access all implement(ed) their own common windows controls, they were just careful to make them behave (nearly) the same. Some of the things needed for that are deliberately available in the Win32 API, others are deliberately[2] undocumented, still others are just impressively obscure[3].
[1] http://bytepointer.com/resources/old_new_thing/20050211_035_...
[2] http://bytepointer.com/resources/old_new_thing/20150508_096_...
[3] https://www.codeproject.com/Articles/12340/CImageButtonWithS...
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27288454
DonHopkins on May 26, 2021 | parent | context | favorite | on: Use native context menus on Mac OS
Love him or hate him (and I do both), Kai was all about cultivating his adulating cult of personality and dazzling everyone with his totally unique breathtakingly beautiful bespoke UIs! How can you possibly begrudge him and his fans of that simple pleasure? ;)
In the modest liner notes of one of the KPT CDROMS, Kai wrote a charming rambling story about how he was once passing through airport security, and the guard immediately recognized him as the User Interface Rock Star that he was: the guy who made Kai Power Tools and Power Goo and Bryce!
Kai's Power Goo - Classic '90s Funware! [LGR Retrospective]:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xt06OSIQ0PE
>Revisiting the mid 1990s to explore the world of gooey image manipulation from MetaTools! Kai Krause worked on some fantastically influential user interfaces too, so let's dive into all of it.
>"Now if you're like me, you must be thinking, ok, this is all well and good, sure, but who the heck is Kai? His name's on everything, so he must be special. OH HE IS! Say hello to Kai Krause. Embrace his gaze! He is an absolute legend in certain circles, not just for his software contributions, but his overall life story." [...]
>"... and now owns and resides in the 1000 year old tower near Rieneck Castle in Germany that he calls Byteburg. Oh, and along the way, he found time to work on software milestones like Poser, Bryce, Kai's Power Tools, and Kai's Super Goo, propagating what he called "Padded Cell" graphical interface design. "The interface is also, I call it the 'Padded Cell'. You just can't hurt yourself." -Kai
But all in all, it's a good thing for humanity that Kai said "Nein!" to Apple's offer to help them redesign their UI:
http://www.vintageapplemac.com/files/misc/MacWorld_UK_Feb_20...
>read me first, Simon Jary, editor-in-chief, MacWorld, February 2000, page 5:
>When graphics guru Kai Krause was in his heyday, he once revealed to me that Apple had asked him to help redesign the Mac's interface. It was one of old Apple's very few pieces of good luck that Kai said "nein"
>At the time, Kai was king of the weird interface - Bryce, KPT and Goo were all decidedly odd, leaving users with lumps of spherical rock to swivel, and glowing orbs to fiddle with just to save a simple file. Kai's interface were fun, in a Crystal Maze kind of way. He did show me one possible interface, where the desktop metaphor was adapted to have more sophisticated layers - basically, it was the standard desktop but with no filing cabinet and all your folders and documents strewn over your screen as if you'd just turned on a fan to full blast and aimed it at your neatly stacked paperwork.
The Interface of Kai Krause’s Software:
https://mprove.de/script/99/kai/index.html
>Bruce “Tog” Tognazzini writes about Kansei Engineering:
>»Since the year A.D. 618 the Japanese have been creating beautiful Zen gardens, environments of harmony designed to instill in their users a sense of serenity and peace. […] Every rock and tree is thoughtfully placed in patterns that are at once random and yet teeming with order. Rocks are not just strewn about; they are carefully arranged in odd-numbered groupings and sunk into the ground to give the illusion of age and stability. Waterfalls are not simply lined with interesting rocks; they are tuned to create just the right burble and plop. […]
>Kansei speakes to a totality of experience: colors, sounds, shapes, tactile sensations, and kinesthesia, as well as the personality and consistency of interactions.« [Tog96, pp. 171]
>Then Tog comes to software design:
>»Where does kansei start? Not with the hardware. Not with the software either. Kansei starts with attitude, as does quality. The original Xerox Star team had it. So did the Lisa team, and the Mac team after. All were dedicated to building a single, tightly integrated environment – a totality of experience. […]
>KPT Convolver […] is a marvelous example of kansei design. It replaces the extensive lineup of filters that graphic designers traditionally grapple with when using such tools as Photoshop with a simple, integrated, harmonious environment.
>In the past, designers have followed a process of picturing their desired end result in their mind, then applying a series of filters sequentially, without benefit of undo beyond the last-applied filter. Convolver lets users play, trying any combination of filters at will, either on their own or with the computer’s aid and advice. […] Both time and space lie at the user’s complete control.« [Tog96, pp. 174]
METAMEMORIES:
https://systemfolder.wordpress.com/2009/03/01/metamemories/
>Anyone who has been using Macs for at least the last ten years will surely remember Viewpoint Corporation’s products. No? Well, Viewpoint Corporation was previously MetaCreations. Still doesn’t ring a bell? Maybe MetaTools will. Or the name Kai Krause. Or, even better, the names of the software products themselves — Kai’s Power Tools, Kai’s Power Goo, Kai’s Photo Soap, Bryce, Painter, Poser… See? Now we’re talking.
Macintosh Garden: KPT Bryce 1.0.1:
https://macintoshgarden.org/apps/bryce-1
>Experienced 3D professionals will appreciate the powerful controls that are included, such as surface contour definition, bumpiness, translucency, reflectivity, color, humidity, cloud attributes, alpha channels, texture generation and more.
>KPT Bryce features easy point-and-click commands and an incredible user interface that includes the Sky & Fog Palette, which governs Bryce's virtual environment; the Create Palette, which contains all the objects needed to create grounds, seas and mountains; an Edit Palette, where users select and edit all the objects created; and the Render Palette, which has all the controls specific to rendering, such as setting the size and resolutions for the final image.
MACFormat, Issue 23, April 1995, p. 28-29:
https://macintoshgarden.org/sites/macintoshgarden.org/files/...
https://macintoshgarden.org/sites/macintoshgarden.org/files/...
>He intends to challenge everything you thought you knew about the way you use computers. 'I maintain that everything we now have will be thrown away. Every piece of software -- including my own -- will be complete and utter junk. Our children will laugh about us -- they'll be rolling on the floor in hysterics, pointing at these dinosaurs that we are using.
>'Design is a very tricky thing. You don't jump from the Model T Fort straight to the latest Mercedes -- there's a million tiny things that have to be changed. And I'm not trying to come up with lots of little ideas where afterwards you go, "Yeah, of course! It's obvious!"
>'Here's an easy one. For years we had eight character file-names on computers. Now that we have more characters, it seems ludicrous, am historical accident that it ever happened.
>'What people don't realize is that we have hundreds more ideas that are equally stupid, buried throughout the structure of software design -- from the interface to the deeper levels of how it works inside.'
They described a medieval city as your personal information. Untrusted traders have to hawk their wares outside the city walls. More trustworthy apps and services are allowed inside the city walls, but have no access to the castle keep. Family and highly trusted entities are permitted entry to the castle keep.
I've always liked the way that fairly neatly illustrated layers of security and privacy.
Kai Krause Interview (1996): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0Qie-kP3Lk
KPT Bryce 1.0 with John Dvorak and Kai Krause: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MY8GPU5osx4
"The Program": https://youtu.be/ZGLjPYgs8bg
Kai Krause at TED8: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0rw2LGHnCA
His website is worth a visit, too: http://kai.sub.blue/
They definitely did some amazing stuff and had world-class engineers. It's been fun to see where they've all gone since - you all are probably using some of their subsequent work in your day-to-day. ;)
A couple first- and second-hand anecdotes:
(Remember, this was back in the day of software being distributed on CD.)
I was flying back a conference in the Bay Area and we took a detour over to the office in Scotts Valley to pick up the "Gold Master" CD-R for the latest release of one of our products to hand-carry back to Santa Barbara, there a co-worker met me at the airport and drove the CD to the pressing facility in Los Angeles so we could get them duplicated and packaged in time for the release. (For a junior employee at the time, that was pretty fun.
Engineering was down to the wire on the next release of KPT and one of the algorithms folks came up with one more function and IM'd the code to the app team who dropped it in as another option in a list minutes before doing the final build.
Intel sent us pre-release Pentium III hardware so we could optimize our apps for their new instruction set.
It definitely felt more like a piece of art than something you are supposed to work/interact with. Nice to lok at and good for an initial "Wow!" effect, but not really usable for more than 5 minutes.
I wasn't aware of all those design decisions that whent into Kai's tools, and quite frankly, I'm amazed because when you actually used it, it just felt clunky and badly put together.
Similar to some of these "cool" MP3 players that existed back then (Sonique and whatever their names were)
[0] (slightly NSFW) https://www.posersoftware.com/article/509/poser-12-basics-ho...
However, it was damn near unusable, and ate resources like a starving wolf.
I write about it, here: https://littlegreenviper.com/miscellany/the-road-most-travel...
I have a distinct memory of him announcing this unfamiliar idea as "slightly ahead of the Mac UI".
In the mid-90s, I think most of us working with tech still thought in terms of a monochrome bitmapped interface. To apply a transformation to an already highly styled button, just to indicate it was clickable? It seemed like a huge waste of computing resources.
In Kai's UIs, light-up-on-mouseover was more of a necessity since nothing followed UI guidelines - you had to discover what was even clickable. For modern UIs it's more subtle; you may have already guessed what was clickable, but the UI feels a bit more alive and active, and it helps teach some UI paradigms.
Now, of course, we have the opposite problem: the hover action doesn't exist on touch platforms so it's being slowly forgotten.
When the KPT plugins were released they were quite divisive. Most people just looked at the UI and thought that they were toys. Once you understood the way the plugins flowed you realised that they were "toys" but in a very critical sense. They allowed you to create visuals that were done through an iterative visual process. The Ui was a visual inspiration to let your mind out of the confines of a computer screen and just enjoy and play until you made something wonderful.
His plugins also helped make a market for other companies like Alien Skin Software [1] (now called Exposure) and their Eye Candy series of plugins.
I wish there were tools today that had the same sort of power and create the same visceral joy of creation while you used them.
http://www.aaronjamesrogers.com/misc/hotmix16/vendors/xaosto... https://ohiostate.pressbooks.pub/graphicshistory/chapter/11-...
Maybe he could've built up a (more vibrant) software scene here, but it was probably easier to join an already-in-place one in the US.
Access to capital, market and partners are definitely good arguments. I wonder how tilted the situation is nowadays, it feels to me like it has gotten a lot better.
One piece of software that most may not be familiar with which I see as very related to Kai's work is U&I software's MetaSynth. The UI feels similar to Kai's UIs, and it is unlike any other sound design tool I've ever used. I believe Eric Wenger of U&I is a MetaCreations fellow and also worked on KPT Bryce way back in the early days.
[1] https://imgur.com/a/FnGz2Gl
MetaStream had a some really neat features like progressive enhancement too.
1.it’s one of these things you didn’t know you still remembered
2. I never realized that KPT Bryce was Kai’s Power Tools !
I heard about some of these tools way back then, but didn't know what they were.
