Quote:
Originally Posted by ToriKat
- Which art programs do you use? Which don't you like? Why?
- What are the pros and cons of each of them?
- What do you use to mimic traditional styles? Pixel? CG in general?
- What are some techniques or tricks you use?
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My main art program, the default industrial standard, the king, the one that rule them all, the one that can get you jobs: Photoshop
Photoshop can do everything but it's not quick to learn. To learn it quick, one must have some one to ask questions. The other drawback to Photoshop is the retail price of 699.00 or 249.00 for students.
Note: Adobe is confusing the crap out of people by renaming the various versions "CS number" as oppose to Photoshop 7, 8, 9, etc. Adobe's "Creative Suite" can refer to their -entire- software package....or "Photoshop CS" is their single Photoshop program.
Photoshop Elements, +90% of Photoshop CS BUT only 79.00 (OfficeMax, Depot, Staples, Best Buy, etc). My opinion, PS Elements IS too much for most of you. I'm willing to bet that most people who use PS CS (the full version of Photoshop) can't even tell you the features in CS. Save your money, get Photoshop Elements... on sale occasionally for 69.00
Painter Essentials...it's 50.00, I think. Originally created for the Mac, it mimics the look and results of 'natural media'. I just bought a copy from an online auction for 20.00.... it's everything I remember it to be (I had Painter 3...with it's 'Net Paint' or 'party room' painting function). Current 'full' version of Painter is 11. Essentials is on 4, i think.
Manga Studio ("Comic Studio" in the original Japanese name) Debute 3 and 4. I just bought these two software (online auction). I'm playing with 4 and it does live up to all it's hype!
It's a software with an interface similar to the standard PHotoshop. Manga Studio was designed with a single purpose.....to create comic book pages, nothing else.
Time consuming things like SPEEDLINES, TONES, PATTERNS, BACKGROUND are lighting fast! There are 1800 of these textures in Debute 4.....use it to your heart's content. 50.00 is a great cheap for what it does (I'd paid 20.00 for each of mine).
GIMP FREE powerful open source graphics manipulation program...similar to what photoshop does but it's interface is pretty lame.
Allow me to defend my opinion. Since Photoshop is king, it's interface is an accepted reference point that all graphic software should imitate. It's taught in school, it's used in studios and art houses (ILM, Digital Domain, Dreamworks, Lucas Film, Peter Jackson, etc, etc). Any program that offers a 'new' and 'improved' User Interface without justifying it or reason will break the work flow. In other words: you have a greater chance of getting a job in any studio if you know photoshop... you can't say that by only knowing GIMP.
How would you like to waste your time learning how to use a program than using your time to create art? A well design tool is suppose to get out of your way of creating good art. Right?
With that said, there is a version of GIMP that mimic Photoshop's UI....
www.gimpshop.com IT IS FREE!!! Take it out for a test! It comes on Linus, MAC and windows
Illustrator....vector base program. I bought mine for 50.00. Adobe allows people to transfer their serial number to a new owner. It's VECTOR, similar to a Corel Draw.... no, it's BETTER than Corel Draw because Corel's user interface SUCK!
Illustrator has a very similar UI to Photoshop, the industrial standard. Enough said....
Vector base programs has it's advantages over RASTER (pixel base...like Photoshop, GIMP, Paint, etc). The drawings is represented as lines, curves, points and vectors (think geometry). By doing so, each image has a smaller file size. The biggest advantage of VECTOR is it's infinite scaling (zooming in or enlarging) WITHOUT pixellating (the 'jaggy' staircase-like edges). The image remains sharp (like Mac's Quarts Extreme...which is VECTOR)
OpenCanvas 1.1 (this is the last of the FREE version) It has similarities to both Photoshop and Painter. The UI is mostly consistent with PHotoshop and Painter.
My initial impression is this software (v1.1, the FREE version) has lots of potential but it's not as "loaded" with features like PHotoshop ELEMENTS.
This is an UNFAIR comparison since 1.1 is an old version and ELEMENT is on v.7 and it's base on the longer established Photoshop. The current version of OC is 4.5. It's competitively priced (cheap!) at ¥6,000 and ¥8,000 (about $60.00 & $80.00) compared to Photoshop ELEMENT at $99.00 retail.
Personal note: I have this installed on my Windows machine. I don't have the motivation to use this program since I do most of my work on my Mac. There wasn't anything in OC that made me scream "I GOTTA USE THIS!". I get all my needs from my Painter Essential 4, Photoshop Elements 6, Manga STudio Debute 4
I guess I'm done for the moment. Here are a few personal thoughts, tips, advice, suggestions...... Most of these are personal opinions...which you can ignore. Some are REAL advice that you SHOULD NOT IGNORE.
1, Photoshop NEEDS Hard Drive space....LOTS of it. It's almost MORE important than RAM. Photoshop uses hard drive space as a "SCRATCH DISK". It's a place where it stores all your DOs and UN-DOs....all the way to the beginning. It lets Photoshop organize itself better...it increase your SPEED of the program.
When you set up Photoshop, ideally, you should have TWO physical hard drive....NOT two partitions on ONE hard drive. IF you don't have TWO hard drives, THEN just use what you have...it's fine. It will slow you down a bit.
2, Do NOT get hyped on the latest version of software! It's expensive. You can buy USED copies of older versions and have the serial numbers transfer to you.
Here is a TEST: If you can't name the features in the latest version, then you shouldn't be wasting time and money trying to get it (paying for it or WAREZing it).
Real life example.... I had PHotoshop 3....4 was coming out. 3 does NOT have multi UN-DO. Everyone was hoping 4 has MULTI UN-DO...it did NOT. 4 was ignored until version 5, which does have Multi UN-DOs.
Also, new versions can be resource hogs.... It will slow down your system. Windows 6/Vista/Longhorn?
3, IF you're an artist, THEN....SHUT OFF the TV and game system.
4, IF you want to be serious and be taken seriously as an artist, THEN work on real life anatomy! This bugs me the most! Even if you plan on drawing manga/anime all your life.... especially if you want to draw anime/manga for the rest of your life, you NEED to learn REAL human anatomy.
5, Last but not final......... IF you have NOT master PENCIL & PAPER, WHY do you want to waste time and money getting expensive software and drawing tablet?
Getting a sports car does NOT make you a racer. Buying expensive software does NOT make you an instant artist.
IF you can't draw decently with a pencil and paper, THEN by buying 100.00 software will only mean: You own a 100.00 software, you're 100.00 poorer, and you still suck at art while just wasted 100.00. (Or 50.00.....or whatever)
Alpha