Tools

Being around a couple of art communities, I noticed that people have their own preferences when it comes to the graphics software they use. They come in all sorts of types and licence status. There are those that are for pixel art, for digital paintings, for vector illustrations. There are ones that are commercial software and ones that are open source and free. Some of them like ArtRage come in a lite version that is free and as a commercial software for the full version.

The discussions and arguments for and against each of these softwares run pages and pages and seem to have no end. With newer and better versions coming from both the commercial and open source, the argument just continues. Participating in these discussions, and also trying out different softwares, I have come to realize that these are just different tools, and an artist need not be too concerned about what they use as long as they can express their ideas and thoughts.

Many Graphics Software

Let us look at the two different categories that I involve in – raster graphics and vector graphics.

When we come to raster graphics, we have Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Photoshop Elements (lite version of Photoshop), Corel Painter, Paint Shop Pro and some others when it comes to commercial software. For free raster graphics software, we have GIMP, Paint.NET and other free lite versions like ArtRage.

For vector graphics, the commercial softwares are Adobe Illustrator, and Corel Draw. There is Macromedia Flash too, which was bought by Adobe in December 2005. Its focus is usually on interactivity and animation; hence the vector capabilities are said to be limited. Some even use Adobe Photoshop to make illustrations that are often called ‘vexels’. In terms of free (and open source) software there is Inkscape.

Tools Of Expression

Participating in all the different discussions, and trying out different softwares (trial versions ofcourse), I have come to realize that all these different graphics software are just tools. A sculptor needs a set of chisels and hammer. It actaully does not matter which blacksmith fabricated them, as long as the sculptor can chip off the stone in the precise placec and precise amount. In the end – the sculpture is done by the sculptor – not the chisels and hammer. He or she just used them to create the sculpture.

It does not matter what software you use. Use the ones that you can afford. Use the ones that is appropriate for the style of your artwork. Use the ones that fits in your workflow.

What do you use?

The major grief with GIMP has been that you cannot scale the brushes. And that meant that when you created custom brushes for GIMP, you had to create them for various sizes – depending on what image resolution and sizes you were working on. Such a feature was only available in other commercial software like Photoshop or Painter.

Not any more. The latest release, GIMP 2.4 has scalable brushes. That means that you just need to create a brush in one size, and as you use it you would be able to scale it to any size on the fly.

The tool options now include a brush size slider that affects both the parametric and bitmap brushes. This has been an oft-requested feature from both digital painters and photo editors.

Unlike previous versions of GIMP, regardless of whether you’re using a bitmap brush, parametric brush or even a picture tube (mutiple bitmaps), you can easily set the brush size with either the tool options dock slider or an external device such as a MIDI slider or knob or a USB device like the Griffin Powermate.

Read about all the other features included in the release notes of GIMP 2.4.

This is a major feature that I am very happy about. I have been experimenting a lot on custom brushes lately for digital painting, and this ’scratches a lot of itches’.This feature will save you the hassle of creating custom brushes at various sizes. For example, if I had to make a leaf brush, I would earlier do it at various sizes like 30 px, 40 px, 50 px, 70 px and up – depending on how large a canvas I was working on. Now, I guess I will just have to make one and sliding the ‘Scale’ option of the brush, I can adjust it to whatever I want during the painting process.

I guess, I would be exploring a bit more on custom brushes – so expect some write up here soon.

(Credit goes to Arun Sasidharan for getting this news to me first).

A few days back, FreelanceSwitch.com had put up a rather indepth review of Adobe CS3 suite. And here is a quote that is tucked rather at the bottom:

Available direct from Adobe, the retail price for Web and Design Premium is $1599 USD and $1799 USD respectively. Upgrades from prior versions come in at $399 USD and $599 USD. Are you a student or teacher? Hold on to your hats: $499 USD and $599 USD for the full versions.

$1600-$1800 is rather a large amount. It makes it a rather difficult barrier for enthusiasts to use the software.

Were the price more moderate, many would be able to get into the world of digital art. As Rico at Contract Worker, puts it:

But, imagine the explosion of creativity and new talent—and a greatly increased profit for Adobe—if their pricing point was lower. More people would buy a copy! And there’d be more opportunities for budding freelancers to maximize their creativity, since they’ll have easier access to the tools the top people use.

I can not agree with him more. It does leave us to explore open source alternatives, and if few features get added to them that it lacks presently – Adobe could be in trouble and might have to face a fragmented market.