I've recently started working with digital media a lot more during a college course. Problem is, I could only work on the college computers. I'm looking into getting some decent software for my laptop, but don't know where to start. And I'd REALLY rather not spend £400, because as much as i want to develop my skills, I also like eating food.
Can anyone recommend software for image manipulation, image creation, animation and so on. I'll try to put any suggestions in the OP in case other people need similar suggestions.
GIMP is pretty popular. That's all I know. It's like Photoshop, but you know, free.
[QUOTE=Sigs367;36389544]GIMP is pretty popular. That's all I know. It's like Photoshop, but you know, free.[/QUOTE]
but from my experience it's poorly coded and unreliable
[QUOTE=Hawt Koffee;36389589]but from my experience it's poorly coded and unreliable[/QUOTE]
Well, it IS free. Either way, results is results.
[QUOTE=Mr Shadyface;36389909]Well, it IS free. Either way, results is results.[/QUOTE]
it's never the tools we use but how we use them
but said tools still need to work
[QUOTE=Hawt Koffee;36389981]it's never the tools we use but how we use them
but said tools still need to work[/QUOTE]
What exactly are the issues with GIMP?
Other than the name.
[QUOTE=Mr Shadyface;36390033]What exactly are the issues with GIMP?
Other than the name.[/QUOTE]
It's clunky interface and I've had it crash a few times. Personally photoshop is all I'll ever need
PS crashes more than Gimp hands down. I prefer Gimp's interface too, Photoshop's is roudabout and convoluted in comparison. Of course if you're used to the adobe suite gimp will probably confuse the shit out of you, but I'm pretty well versed in both so I think I can be objective. Gimp is fucking excellent for open source, it's quicker to load and complete operations and you have unlimited undo history by default without impacting performance. It can do more or less all of what PS can. The upside to PS is that it's inherently more powerful, so for certain uses it proves more efficient. And of course PS devs actually get paid so it has more task-specific features.
As for animation, Flash would get you started. Something came up when this question was asked in Creative Work called TVpaint or something, which was apparently good. Might be worth looking at.
Out of interest what kind of work are you doing or planning?
Nothing specific. I just want to produce more work digitally, try and improve my skills.
SAI Paint Tool is definitevely better than Photoshop imo, for drawing stuff
Paint Tool Sai is nice in that it actually mixes colours in a similar way to real paint, so you can get some nice blending going on without having to manually select a bunch of different tones. It's also pretty cheap (roughly $80NZD). It's got a pretty nice 'smooth stroke' feature which lets you set the program up to smooth out your brush strokes as you do them in a really nice, organic way. Also lets you control exactly how much it smooths the strokes.
That being said, the custom brush system is nowhere near as good as Photoshop, which depending on your preferred aesthetic may or may not be important. The only full-image colour adjustment filters you get are brightness/contrast and hue/saturation, which can be an issue if you want to play with the levels and whatnot. And it seems the creators aren't updating it any more.
I personally hate painting in Sai but for line art and sketches sai wins hands down with it's magical toast making line smoother. Also I wish there was a way to animate in raster rather than vector. But ps animating tools just aren't doing it for me.
If you get a paper that says you're a student at your school you can send it to adobe and get a student license for photoshop. Which makes it around 110$ instead of 450.
What about animation software, any suggestions?
I suggested suggestions!
[QUOTE=Hawt Koffee;36392104]It's clunky interface and I've had it crash a few times. Personally photoshop is all I'll ever need[/QUOTE]
Gimp 2.8 offers single window mode, which is more or less the same as Photoshop's layout/UI.
Adobe has an excellant deal called Adobe Creative Cloud where you basically pay the price of a magazine subscription and get the entire Adobe Master Suite downloadable to your computer.
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