What art programs do you fanartists use?

[Garanz2]

See title. I was thinking of doing some art outside of MSpaint, namely stickman assault, and I was wondering, would anyone suggest a good program to use for art? I do pencil sketches, but I'm not allowed to scan them into my PC because the filesizes are too big. http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/anime2.gif


EDIT: Also, could someone suggest a good host for art?


<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Garanz2 on 2004-01-03 11:51 ]</font>

[SpikeOtacon]

I use Photoshop (but damn, it was expensive!) and Photostudio. Also, I like to use
www.odinsrage.com for my pic servers. They are free of course, and they do have their limits. They also seem to dislike .BMPs and anything other than .JPEG and .GIF.

[Nai_Calus]

Photoshop and Paintshop Pro. Images are drawn on paper with pencil and inked by hand, then scanned, cleaned and subjected to anywhere from six to fourteen hours of CGing.(Often in one session) I used Painter Classic for something once, but that was a long time ago. Looked nice, though. Oh, yeah, and I have a tablet. Wacom Intuos 6x8. It rox0rz.

[The_Pew]

I use Photoshop, Paintshop Pro, a gewd host is http://image.uploader.net/ it's completely free.

[navci]

Hm. Let's see.
I use Photoshop, Painter Classic (which came with my tablet - Wacom Graphite 2 4x5 fear my curse Ian), and occasionally, Painter. (the Group pic which I shown the process of piccilating is done in Painter) I would use Painter more often, but my computer can't really handle it. Hence.

Hm. I use my own ISP to host my piccies... so, I really don't know where is a good host... but, if you open some sorta yahoo album or something, I think that kinda work.

edit: As for scans. You can adjust the sizes of the files once you scan them in with Pshop or any decent photo editing proggie. But ya, penciling and crayoning is sometimes really fun http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif


<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: navi on 2004-01-03 12:28 ]</font>

[Garanz2]

So how much would you expect to have to pay for a program like photoshop or paintshop?

[Nai_Calus]

On 2004-01-03 14:14, Garanz2 wrote:
So how much would you expect to have to pay for a program like photoshop or paintshop?



That depends. *cough*

Photshop last I looked was around $600. Paintshop Pro last I looked was around $100.
...I'm a horrible person, you know. *cough*

[Garanz2]

On 2004-01-03 14:52, Ian-KunX wrote:


On 2004-01-03 14:14, Garanz2 wrote:
So how much would you expect to have to pay for a program like photoshop or paintshop?



That depends. *cough*

Photshop last I looked was around $600. Paintshop Pro last I looked was around $100.
...I'm a horrible person, you know. *cough*



$600?!?!?!

It's gotta be something damn amazing to be that expensive! I can't afford that sort of money! I mighht be able to get paintshop, but christmas is over, so i'll have to get it with my own money. What's so good about these programs that makes them so expensive?

[navci]

On 2004-01-03 14:52, Ian-KunX wrote:


On 2004-01-03 14:14, Garanz2 wrote:
So how much would you expect to have to pay for a program like photoshop or paintshop?

That depends. *cough*
Photshop last I looked was around $600. Paintshop Pro last I looked was around $100.
...I'm a horrible person, you know. *cough*


Hehe. Actually, if you are in school. .. meaning university, and buy your software in your uni microshop, you can usually get stuff A LOT cheaper. My first copy of Photoshop 4 for the Macintosh was around 200CAD. Rather than three times that price.

Oh yes. I am a horrible person too. But, I wasn't so horrible at some point in my life. http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif

[ladyjaderiver]

I use Illustrator, Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro, and Open Canvas. (If anyone wants this software, let me know and I'll e-mail it to you... It's only 900Kb.) For a good image host, I'd suggest freewebs.com, because it's really easy to direct link from there and the site is usually running. I've heard that some other sites for hosting are down a lot.

Photoshop and Illustrator are, despite how incredible they are, WAY over priced. Unless of course your computer art teacher burns you Illustrator because she likes your art (too bad I lost the numbers to install it now that I have a computer it would work on)... My teacher said Photoshop costs anywhere from 600 to 1000 dollars, and Illustrator is around 800. Paint Shop Pro is usually around 100 dollars (but you can get a free, 60 day download from jasc.com, and you can keep downloading it), and Open Canvas is a free download.

EDIT: Just wondering, but why does it seem like I'm the only computer artist who hates using a tablet?

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: ladyjaderiver on 2004-01-03 15:24 ]</font>

[badbitz]

why the hell is it so expensive..?
God, I can buy so much stuff with that amount of money...

[ladyjaderiver]

It's expensive because it's really nice, and Adobe can get away with putting prices like that on its software.

[Kadou]

On 2004-01-03 14:56, Garanz2 wrote:


On 2004-01-03 14:52, Ian-KunX wrote:


On 2004-01-03 14:14, Garanz2 wrote:
So how much would you expect to have to pay for a program like photoshop or paintshop?



That depends. *cough*

Photshop last I looked was around $600. Paintshop Pro last I looked was around $100.
...I'm a horrible person, you know. *cough*



$600?!?!?!

It's gotta be something damn amazing to be that expensive! I can't afford that sort of money! I mighht be able to get paintshop, but christmas is over, so i'll have to get it with my own money. What's so good about these programs that makes them so expensive?



Actually, I got it for about $120 off a certain websites that sells several prgrams for discount prices. The reason is because you're only supposed to by from them if you agree that you are replacing a program which you already owned *cough* and lost the CD for.

[navci]

EDIT: Just wondering, but why does it seem like I'm the only computer artist who hates using a tablet?


It prolly is you. http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif
Tablet takes a very, VERY, long time to really get used to. I mean, considering you are looking at the screen instead of on paper what you're doing. It is like drawing while looking in the mirror for your finished product. My bro, for example, doesn't like tablet at all because it's too smooth. So what he does is stick a piece of paper underneath to help him.

Once you get used to it tho, it's an amazing tool. It feels like pen and paper to you, except for the fact that it is digital and hence you can manipulate things you do with it.

... Open Canvas does sound very spiffy. But then I am quite sure there is not much Painter can't do over it. ... well except for the fact that it's much smaller. In general tho, Painter, really, really rulez. http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif

[KodiaX987]

Note: They now have tablet-screens, which obviously makes things easier, but they are quite expensive.

I'm PSOW's black sheep by using my trusty copy of Corel Photopaint 8; my little helper ever since I began fooling around with collages, arrangements and photomanips.

As for hosting, it's Geocities for me. With a little knowledge, posting pics becomes a breeze!

[ladyjaderiver]

I tried using Painter a couple times at school... And I absolutely hated it. *shrug* I guess everyone has their preference for art software.

[Relam]

You people actually BUY your art software!? >_>; Well, I actually had to buy Photoshop because I don't have any friends who owned the mac version. But it was from my university bookstore so it was only $170. But I typically use Photoshop almost exclusively. I've never owned Paintshop pro so I'm not used to it, and I never bothered playing around with Corel Paint.

I've been trying to get into Painter, but the "copy" I had recieved from this one commision I did ages ago wouldn't run properly on the current computer I had (75mhz Pentium 2). But some of my friends who use it do some amazing stuff with it. The problem with painter most people don't realize is it tries to simulate actual paint. Meaning that you can manipulate your paint however, but once you save it, that's like when your paint dries. Or something. That's how it was explained to me anyway http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/anime2.gif I'd try to use the Painter classic that came with my wacom, but it doesn't seem to support various layer transperiancys. "Multiply" is a god send for coloring.

[Relam]

On 2004-01-03 11:50, Garanz2 wrote:
I do pencil sketches, but I'm not allowed to scan them into my PC because the filesizes are too big. http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/anime2.gif
<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Garanz2 on 2004-01-03 11:51 ]</font>


How is it possible that the stuff you're scanning is considered too big? You can't spare 500 kb on your computer?

When you scan your images, you are resizing them right? If you're resizing them, then it's no problem and I don't see how they could be "too big." Also cropping out any blank space you don't need helps.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Relam on 2004-01-03 18:58 ]</font>

[Sharkyland]

I'm too lazy to use the computer to draw stuff, though I'm usually a paper and pencil type person.

But I use Adobe Photoshop 5.0... and if I had it Jasc Paint Shop Pro (w/ animation shop)

[LadyRedComet]

I use photoshop, illustrator, an animation thingie, and two different versions of paint shop pro. But two of those I can only use through my school and the other three were free downloads. Of course, I generally only do photo manip and call it artwork, and I definitely don't do anymore PSO artwork (yay for my crappy postcard project from my first semester of comp. art that featured my HUnewearl with her Musashi), so I seriously doubt my opinion is necessary here. Oh well.

[Garanz2]

Well I'm hardly a brilliant artist. I think I'll stay away from these extortionate programs for now and just keep to pencil art. I'm not a bigtime artist, so pencils and paper will probably do.

Thanks for your tips on resizing too Relam. Don't you have to import a scanned file into another program after you scan it? That tends to make the filesize pretty big.

Maybe, just maybe, you'll see some of my art on PSOW in the near future.
Now to start learning how to draw humans...

[navci]

On 2004-01-03 18:18, KodiaX987 wrote:
Note: They now have tablet-screens, which obviously makes things easier, but they are quite expensive.


They are actually so expensive that I don't consider them existing. http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif

And Jade. I think Painter has a pretty sharp learning curve when it comes how how you can manipulate the paint. There are like a million thousand options that you can do and choose and fiddle with after a while you can either be amazed, or absolutely loathe its existance. Hehe

And to Realm, Painter Classic is kinda for a challenge of patience. Because when you have no layers you kinda have to clean up everything and make sure you don't dry the layer before you intend to. It's almost like doing things on paper! Almost!

And everyone else. COmputer piccies are fun, but let's not forget some of the best stuff in life is random paper and random doodling at very random times. http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif

[Outrider]

Well, I use Paintshop Pro 8 solely, but as you've seen from the one PC-colored pic I posted that I'm still working on using it for coloring. You'd think it would be easier. For the most part, I just scan in my pencil drawings (because inking scares me to death) and make a brief attempt to shrink them and clean them up. Far too often they don't look to great, because most of my best drawings end up being done during class in a notebook. Meh. All two of you that've clicked my site know what I'm talking about. I use Geocities to put stuff up and use the .txt trick, but I've heard it doesn't work for Mac users.

[AzureBlaze]

I use Photoshop, Elements and Illustrator, mostly the latest versions to do my fan art.

I don't know why they always cost so, so much money. Yes they are great, and yes they are complicated. However, they are by no means an O.S., which I am sure must do and manage far more things (even if they are 'behind the scenes' so to speak in the HD) and you never see an OS costing anywhere within the range of them.

I am currently searching like CRAZY to find Painter. I come more from traditional media, such as oils and acryllics, and the one time I did get to 'test drive' painter, I absolutly loved it. Yet, I never see it anywhere. (stores or otherwise)

Each program has its strengths,
-illustrator for small file size, precision in all things, clean type and lay out ability and accuracy in size and color.
-Photoshop for it's clean 'CG'look it can give, the 'styles' effects buttons to apply to text, web compatability and adjustable tools.
-Elements as an 'accessory' to photoshop, it can also animate and be combined with lots of fun 'style' add-ons for cool effects.

[Outrider]

I heard once that they're all such insane prices because we're all very bad people, if you've been catching the drift.

Sounds more like something somebody just came up with one day, but that's the best I can offer.

Unless you want to consider that they are really only trying to sell it to companies? I dunno. Possible, I guess.

[Relam]

On 2004-01-04 11:20, Garanz2 wrote:
Thanks for your tips on resizing too Relam. Don't you have to import a scanned file into another program after you scan it? That tends to make the filesize pretty big.


Well, when I scan my images I do so through whatever art program I'm using so that the image directly imports and only takes up RAM, instead of saving it to my harddrive as a huge 5mb image.

The version of paint my dad has on his pc (Windows XP) allows you to import your scanned pics this way. Also, if it's just for the stick figure contest, you should lower the resolution you scan it at. Most web browsers can only view a resolution of up to 72 dpi. So scanning at 300 dpi wouldn't make much sense http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/anime2.gif Lowering the resolution to 100 dpi should dramatically reduce the size.