Originally Posted by
farmmax
Recently they offered Perfect Effects 9.5 for free so I upgraded to that. There were a few problems installing it but I sorted that out. The masking tools in there are excellent when you learn how to use them. The only trouble is the masks created are applied to the layer before returning to photoshop. In the full standalone software it is possible to bring the mask in to photoshop or lightroom.
I feel for anyone struggling with layers, the way layers are created in Perfect effects and how you use them, may be an easier introduction to layering than directly in Photoshop.