favourite software for digital art

[captan]

Originally Posted by Joe Rucker

Photoshop x 14

Congratulations, you bumped a nearly year old topic with a one liner, way to go champ - you are my hero.

and to stay on topic now that we're here again - I would like to change my vote from "my ideal software hasn't been invented yet" to "Photoshop".

[GOODROB]

Here's one that I don't think has been mentioned yet, especially one that people who like Painter will enjoy, is ArtRage. It's still pretty new, and doesn't have some of the nice features like Painter (alt-click, etc.), but hands down in terms of being a program that mimics real media, it blows Painter away, especially for digital 'oil' paintings.

Oh, and I almost forgot the best part.... IT'S FREE. So, I guess there's no reason not to at least try it.

A very good many awesome digital artists in this forum use it: Sijun Digital Art Forum.

Worth giving a shot... definitely my vote for favorite.

-Rob

[Andrew Rance]

Painter Classic/Photoshop 5.5/Paintshop Pro 5 - Painter for 'painting' with a graphics tablet, Photoshop for its effects, layers, titling and using plug-ins, Paintshop Pro for browsing my picture galleries and simple stuff like resizing and playing around with contrast, colour balance etc. I daresay at least one of these programmes could do all of these functions, but I guess its what I am used to.

[AprilV]

I voted for Photoshop. It is the most versatile tool I own. However, I have other favs: Painter 8, Adobe Imageready (free with photoshop), Bryce, Apophysis is pretty cool for fractals, and am just learning Carrara... but will probably be my tool of choice for 3D.

[Jet]

I guess this wasn't a bad idea after all...

Thanks Sam...
it was me who digged it up from the dark WC archives,looking for some historic facts, and brought it alive just by voting, didn't want to place a reply, but thanks to Joe Rucker for placing the first reply after so long !!

Regards

ps- i guess i don't get a hero treatment, anyhow...

[AprilV]

Awww... poor Jet. **hands him a superhero cape**

[janettbea]

I voted for Paint Shop Pro (v7)because that is the only program I have. It's not a big hardship having just the one tool cause right now anyway, I mostly do hand painting with it. 'Course I wouldn't throw Photo shop or Painter or any other tools away if I had them.

A fun thing about hand painting with your image software is you can enlarge your image by resizing.( If that image is lineart, that is. After resizing it bigger, you get additonal painting practice because you will need to paint the resized lineart image. :~

Interesting reading about the diffierent software the group uses.


Janet B.

[Jin]

It's Painter for me. I've been using it since Painter 4.0 and still love it.

Installed on my newer computer are Metacreations Painter Classic 1, procreate Painter Classic 2, Fractal Design Painter 5.0.3, Corel Painter 6.1, Corel Painter 7.1.357, and Corel Painter 8.1.

Also installed on that computer are Illustrator 9.0, Photoshop 7.0.1, ArtRage (I read somewhere today that a new version of ArtRage will be released in a couple of weeks), and Expression 3.0.

On my older computer are Fireworks, Bryce 4, and some other programs I can't recall now and it's not hooked up to my monitor and tablet to make it easier to look... sorry.

On an even older computer is Poser 2 (I think that's the version number) which I used to play with a bit but never got really interested so it stays where it is.

Since a lot of Painter users also use Photoshop for color tweaking before printing (and for some other odds and ends it does better than Painter), that's the other program I open up most often to check things when answering questions. I seldom actually use it but have a reasonable understanding of how it works having taken a couple of classes a few years ago and having used it for a few months at work before I retired.

I love Painter because, though it is complex and can take years to learn well, for me it's very intuitive, exciting, and full of great surprises (no, not always bad ones). It's versatile enough that I can do almost anything I want to do with it. Though I've been using it every day for years, there's always something more to be discovered and I like the fact that it never bores me.

Beta testing Painter 9 now and that should be released sometime before the end of this year.

I've used all of these programs at one time or another, some more than others and Illustrator would be another favorite for enjoyment while Photoshop, to me, is drudgery. However, I have great respect for Photoshop's capabilities and am very glad to own it (to keep the Photoshop fans off my case).

[Joe Rucker]

Originally Posted by GOODROB

Here's one that I don't think has been mentioned yet, especially one that people who like Painter will enjoy, is ArtRage. It's still pretty new, and doesn't have some of the nice features like Painter (alt-click, etc.), but hands down in terms of being a program that mimics real media, it blows Painter away, especially for digital 'oil' paintings.

Oh, and I almost forgot the best part.... IT'S FREE. So, I guess there's no reason not to at least try it.

A very good many awesome digital artists in this forum use it: Sijun Digital Art Forum.

Worth giving a shot... definitely my vote for favorite.

-Rob

I tried Artrage and I have to say that it is pretty cool. I think that it is a good device for doing some quick sketches. It's free too. My only complaint is that it is too simple. People should at least try this program.

[beautifulfreak]

I love painter, I got painter 5 off ebay real cheap(under 10 bucks) it came in a paint can and would you believe a user license for 5 computers. I then picked up painter 6 also on ebay also real cheap a little while later(also in the paint can). I am a photoshop diehard but I find painter just amazing. I still use photoshop to make images when I need to make them fast(cause I know the program's tools so well) but if I don't have anything specific in mind and want to spend a bunch of time experimenting I use painter. I also use illustrator. I have bryce 4(great for making textures to apply to photoshop stuff), poser 3, raydreams, and expression 1.0 and some other older graphic programs that I also got off ebay.

I saw the link to expression 3.0 and downloaded the 3+ hour download, I haven't installed it yet.

[kptad2]

i chose something other.. which would be dogwaffle.. but i also use paint shop pro.. since i use dog more than anything else.. that was my choice...

[AprilV]

Originally Posted by beautifulfreak

it came in a paint can and would you believe a user license for 5 computers.

Wasn't the paint can cute? I got two different versions and they both came in a paint can. Thought that was pretty cool. Now it comes in a box. *sigh*

[Joe Rucker]

I tried out Artrage for a couple of short sketches. They are pretty bad, lol, but here they are. The first one is just a bunch of strokes and the second is a portrait from memory of a model I drew once. The last is a detail of the portrait. Enjoy.
P.S. I still prefer Photoshop.

[Jet]

Joe
these are pretty nice, but i guess one misses the control one has in PhotoShop, which some of these little programs are lacking .

if you have works done in photoshop, feel free to post away,
we'd like to see them very much

Regards

[Michael]

Joe, A bit more contrasting color and I think you might like it for these type of works.