Other 2D software

Corel Draw X4

kenmo — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 17:56:39 GMT

Can anyone kindly tell me the difference between Corel Draw X4 Home & Corel Draw X4 Professional...

I can purchase Home from Staples for $99.00 or get Professional from Staples for $400.00 BUT no one at Staples knows the difference....

Thanks

Ken

Paint Tool Sai

Evil Robot — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 22:22:41 GMT

Don't know if anyone has tried this program yet but it is awesome. I'm using the demo now and I'm going to go ahead and buy the full version it's pretty cheap and has pretty much all the tools I'd need to do a painting. Here's the link to the demo:

http://www.systemax.jp/en/sai/

Gimp Textured Brushes?

Galadirith — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 21:17:58 GMT

Hi guys,

I have tryed to create some textured brushes in the Gimp, trying to emulate what can be achived with textures in Photoshop, but they really just dont compare. In Photoshop using textures you can emulated traditional materials, pencils, brushes, inks etc, but in Gimp when I try to create a textured brush it just 'pastes' down the texture in set increments, so you end up with a very repetative line of the same image effectively, but in Photoshop there is no noticable repetition when when drawing with a textured brush, it looks very natural. Now pehaps I have missed something, I have really tried search for some answers but I cant find anything really other than articles describing how to use photoshop brushes in Gimp, but you just get the result described above. Pehaps the Gimp simply cannot do what photoshop does with brushes, I dont know. What I really have wanted to find out is how exactly the textures in photoshop affect the other dynamics of a brush.

I would really apprciate any comments or thoughts, can one completely emulate what textured brushes are like in Photoshop in the Gimp? thanks so much guys :D

Sketchbook Pro for iPhone/Touch

joeparis — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 18:05:05 GMT

I might get myself one now. http://aliasdesign.autodesk.com/learning/articles/details/Autodesk_Releases_SketchBook_135891/

Any good 2d programs for Windows Mobile?

CthulhuRisen — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 16:33:42 GMT

I'm getting an HP Ipaq in a couple of weeks, and i'm wondering is there are any half decent 2D drawing applications for them.

Anyone know of any?

open canvas

Sohmma — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 00:45:35 GMT

does anyone here use open canvas? i have questions regarding tips and tricks

Artnatomy

joeparis — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 11:01:44 GMT

I'm not sure how much practical use this will have but it's a very good idea. It would be perfect in 3D.

ARTNATOMY

Question: What is Anime Studio?

Alice_10210 — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 10:39:19 GMT

I got Anime Studio Pro as a gift, and I'm all exited as the download begins to complete. My questions are this: What does it do in terms of animation? If I use the manequin structure on my drawing to make it move...won't it look a lillte too 2-dimensional? Is there a way to avoid that? Can I make my own anime animations look like the real thing? Ah! So many questions!! Please help, just tell me the 411, 'kay? I'd really appreciate it. Thank you ^^;

Anime Studio 5 for FREE! ...and so is Paintshop Pro X!

banjaxedmdt — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 19:42:24 GMT

Smith Micro are giving away Anime Studio 5.5 for free (requires registration to get the download):

http://my.smithmicro.com/freeanime/

Not sure how long the offer lasts. I think it's also the debut version of the software rather than the full pro one. There's an update to take it to 5.6 available for it here as well:

http://my.smithmicro.com/mac/anime/updates.html

.........................................................

Corel's Paintshop Pro X appears to be being given away here: http://apps.corel.com/lp/lexar/4157/index.html?trkid=lexarstarterpspx

Looks like it has a nag screen every so often asking you to buy the latest version, other than that it's the full version as far as I can tell.

Ipod painting apps that are just awesome:

edart — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 02:16:18 GMT

Photoforge,

I was amazed at just what the makers have managed to squeeze into this Ipod app its mind boggling:

Zoom which goes almost to pixel level.
Brushes eight of them each with opacity and size sliders.
Eraser.
Fill tool though it fills the whole screen not a section.
Color picker.
Smudge tool.
Clone tool, yeah that's right an actual working clone tool!
Crop tool which can rotate, flip the image and crop to any size.
Filters (like photoshop) which has: curves, noise reduction, unsharpen mask, sharpen, blur, simulated hdr, hue/saturation, brightness/contrast, exposure, vibrance, tilt shift, auto white balance, auto exposure and auto enhance.
Effect filters: dreamy, lomo, watercolor, oil painting, sepia, black and white, night vision, heat map, pencil, neon, emboss, sunset, bluesky and television.
Undo and redo (unlimited)
Save

All that and It even runs smoothly

Now what it does not have:

no export at all so no larger images.
no gallery or way to see what images you have already painted.
no playback of your painting.

Flash CS4 .eps sequence issue

veela_chan — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 16:07:11 GMT

I may be missing something, but on Flash CS4, the option to save your image or movie as an .eps sequence is no longer available. I do most of my inking in flash so when I want to export it back into photoshop, this is pretty crucial. It DOES however let you save an image as an .ai file, which means I have to open it in Illustrator and then resave it as an .eps, but understandably this is a lot more hassle...

Anyone know if Adobe have removed this feature or just moved it somewhere?

Sketchbook Pro update

artmessiah — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 05:25:10 GMT

For those who, like myself pray and hope for an update soon to this little app. I ran across this info about SB Pro

http://architosh.com/news/2008-01/2008a0108_mw_sktchbookpro3.html

Obviously it has already happened, it's just good to know it's still on the plate for further development. I knew about the beta testing, but if anyone has any additional info please post it here. That is all ;) Take care :)

Gimp 2.6 Guide : Rain drops on night window

jonnymarvel — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 09:29:19 GMT

Ok so i'm going to run a seris of guides for using the free Gimp 2.6 program.. just general stuff to show what it can do.

First one is something i've been playing about with and its very very simple to do but gives great effects.

Part 1 Start with an A6 landscape layer, go to filters- - render - clouds - plasma. this will bring up the plasma box. Set it to randomise and set the Turbulance to 0.5 and finish.

Part 2 Add a new layer and again go to filters - render - clouds - solid noise. this will bring up the solid noise box. Set it to randomise, detail 15, X size 6.0, Y size 6.0 and finish.

Part 3 on layer 2 go to filters - edge detect - neon. this will bring up the Neon box. set the radius to 5.00 and the amount to 0.40 - 0.50 depending on preferance and finish. At this stage it should look similer to black marble.

Part 4 on the layer you've just neoned go to filters - blur - gaussian blur. this will bring up the Gussian Blur box. Set the horizontal and the vertical to 30.0 and finish. now go up to Edit and Fade Gussian Blur, change to mode from replace to subtract.

Part 5 the finishing touches, set the second layer to hard light and reduce to opascaty down to 95% and there you go "rain on a window at night", if its too dark add a gray layer set to dodge and it should bring it up better.

Its a great effect, quick to do, and it done only using filters so you'll always get something different.

Manga Studio SE demo

HdE — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 16:10:56 GMT

AAAARRRGHH!!

I just cannot find this demo at all! Where the heck is it and how do I get the unexpiring demo that was indicated in the latest issue of IFX? It's not wanting to be found at all.

I'm seriously NOT amused by this.

HdE.

99 things drawn on a Nintendo DS

joeparis — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 00:09:16 GMT

Here: http://www.99ds.net/

And here: http://christianpearce.blogspot.com/search/label/99ds

Manga Studio - does it support Intuos 3?

Eaglecaste — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 07:49:47 GMT

I'm playing about with the trial version of Manga Studio 3, which I got from this months,issue 42, ImagineFX disc. To my dismay, my Wacom Intuos 3 stylus does not work. In the beginners guide it says it supports Intuos 2. Am I missing something?

I am surprised in some sense that Adobe Illustrator is not listed as a drawing app

Lukas Engqvist — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 12:30:23 GMT

Then again seeing a review in the magazene where the reviewer opened a .jpg file and was frustrated that Illustrator was not photoshop on vectors, though I can't imagine how thaht would be.

Illustrator is a drawing program. And has a steep learning curve. I use illustrator for life drawing and there are some very talented people who master illustrator fluently, as has been shown in the magazene.

The advantages of working in illustrator is that it can either be a drive for perfection or it can be set with various random live effects, sometimes a combination of the two can be extreemly powerful. But sure it is a tough one to crack, infact it is quite the same frustration as somone (myself at a younger age) who masters pens, pencils and paints and picks up an airbrush. A different tool with a steep learning curve (gave up on the airbrush because I had no guide and couldn't master the live perfection)

I would like to see an illustrator forum, and if there was one I would happily share my knowledge (as Adobe Certified Expert in Adobe Illustrator CS3, working to become Print Specialist)

Superior Painting Program

joeparis — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 07:25:45 GMT

PaintTool SAI.

http://www.systemax.jp/en/sai/

Some of you may know this application. I've known about it for a while but never bothered to try it as I have so many other painting programs. I have now downloaded and I think it is superb. It is very light (only a few MB) and therefore absolutely no lag, even with 500px brushes. Said brushes are the smoothest I've come across, even better than Sketchbook Pro, of which this reminds me, and they blend effortlessly. Beautifully simple interface too.

The link above will take you to a 31 day trial but the license is only around £40. Check it out.

Tutorials: Comic Life Deluxe & Magiq

AikidoAl — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 17:32:40 GMT

Hi all,

I use Comic Life Deluxe for layout & lettering for my web comic The Tao of I.T. Al, and I was asked by Digital Applejuice to write tutorials for both Deluxe and their newer product Comic Life Magiq. Articles contain links to plasq's website where you can download demos.

Comic Life Deluxe Tutorial

Comic Life Magiq Tutorial

I don't work for plasq nor am I associated with them. I just like the product. It's made my life easier in terms of workflow. I do look forward to checking Manga Studio at some point, but I think the above products are great to get started with web comics. I'd be interested in what some folks think in how well it works in print or other media. Hope y'all enjoy and find them useful.

Drawing just got easier!!

joeparis — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 08:36:04 GMT

Terrible name - "I Love Sketch" - but the potential of this developing program is very exciting. You can draw in 3D, rotate and mirror your strokes! Check out the demo video.

http://www.dgp.toronto.edu/~shbae/ilovesketch.htm

Gimp 2.6.0 is released

jonnyray — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 13:47:23 GMT

A new release of The Gimp is available. Major improvements include:

Restructuring of menus to improve workflow
Pan beyond the edge of the image
Improved control over brush dynamics
Beginning of the port to a new library of image processing (GEGL) which should improve speed

Full release notes at: http://gimp.org/release-notes/gimp-2.6.html

Windows download: http://gimp-win.sourceforge.net/stable.html

Fantasy Clip Art book & cd-rom by Kevin Crossley

kenmo — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 13:02:12 GMT

I'm considering purchasing this book. Does anyone know the limits of usage for the clip art included on the cd-rom? I believe there was a review of this book in an earlier issue of IFX which 've misplaced somewhere....

http://www.amazon.com/Fantasy-Clip-Art-Everything-Professional-Looking/dp/0740765523/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1228999956&sr=1-1

Thanks kindly....

Ken

NINTENDO DS and COLORS any tips?

The Gurch — Thu, 29 May 2008 00:05:20 GMT

Hello y'all i have just clicked on the link Tom has put on the home page proclaiming how to hack the DS and make an Awesome digi sketch book. This look interesting indeed.

I have a DS and i now have an urge to do as the link instructs.( shucks i'm so easily led) I have only just ordered the DSTT set needed and a memory card.

My credit card is still warm and I'm waiting for the kit to arrive.

Oh the idea of having a pocket sized digi sketch book to take with me all over, gets me excited all over.

Anyway im no computer wizard and i dont think i have geek blood flowing through my veins.

So is it easy to do? Is there any pit falls? What are the packages failing? How do you get the pictures uploaded onto the comp? Anyone out there already done this and willing to share their knowledge?

GIMP Reference Guide

HAL — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 20:07:57 GMT

Helllooo,

I'm beginning to get more comfortable with GIMP, having been using it for about 6 months now. But I'm still rather hazy about some of the tools and how they are intended to be used. Can anyone recommend a good reference guide for GIMP? I'm talking about something that explains each function/filter/tool etc. I guess an analogy would be a programmers guide for a computer language...only this is for GIMP. I'm not really looking for a 'this is how you do digital art', but a 'this is how you use GIMP' sort of thing.

:-D

Cheers,

HAL.

Manga Studio Ex 4

joeparis — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 02:49:54 GMT

Well, finally......FINALLY! Smith Micro have released the long awaited Manga Studio EX 4. I've just downloaded it but not had time to try it out much.

http://my.smithmicro.com/win/mangaex/index.html