From Photoshop to Painter

Levi-chan · Post by **Levi-chan** » Mon May 30, 2005 5:54 pm

Turnsky wrote:*Really kickass image*

Okay, you've convinced me. That's insane.

Vulpinearts · Post by **Vulpinearts** » Thu Jun 02, 2005 2:05 pm

i wanna get painter but i dont wanna pay for it

hehehehehe

I use OpenCanvas for coloring regular pics, and Photoshop for comics cuz I got digital comic tones in photoshop

Alaina · Post by **Alaina** » Thu Jun 02, 2005 4:42 pm

You can get Painter cheap off Ebay. I got Painter 8 for $45.

Jesusabdullah · Post by **Jesusabdullah** » Thu Jun 02, 2005 4:58 pm

Is normal Painter anything like Painter Essentials? (It came with my drawing tablet.) Because if it is then I tried Essentials and I definitely prefer Photoshop. First, it took me forever to find a regular-type solid line (everything else looks like... a paintbrush! Eww!), and when I did I got this horrible lagging on my screen. Yeah, my computer isn't the best, but it doesn't do that in Photoshop unless I have, like, twenty layers on. Also... I saw the dragging-around thing. It was cool... until I lost my image for a while by accidentally zooming too far out and scrolling waay off to the side.

Of course, I do know that Photoshop Elements is nothing like normal Photoshop (Or, at least that was my experience), so it could be the same thing--In fact, I think I'd like Painter Essentials a little more than Photoshop Elements. I could also easilly be biased. And of course, painter could just not be FOR me. <shrug>

Also...Why's it called OpenCanvas if it isn't actually open-source? I've been misled! And I'm sure you could just pirate Painter somewhere... not that I'm advocating that or anything... <Looks away uncomfortably>

Subhuman · Post by **Subhuman** » Thu Jun 02, 2005 8:12 pm

Oy, another Photoshop vs. Whatever debate. Everyone has their preference, it all depends how you like to work and what tools you use most often, yada yada yada. Hell, for my comic I use Fireworks more than Photoshop, simply because PS is such a memory hog on my sad, puny little iBook.

I've actually never heard of Painter. Is it by Corel?

KODAMA · Post by **KODAMA** » Thu Jun 02, 2005 8:58 pm

hmm.. I remember some time ago, er, a long time ago, I had paint shop pro and photoshop on my computer, so I tried paint for a bit...

....I couldn't figure out where anything was, like um, where is the color picking thing? Where's the pen/brush shape or size changing thing?

...paint seemed to be as useful but also as clunky as using open canvas
XD hmm.. but since I'm not a proficient user of paint, I guess my opinion's pretty slanted.

Jesusabdullah · Post by **Jesusabdullah** » Thu Jun 02, 2005 11:03 pm

I've used Fireworks too. I liked it, but I got too complex for my computer to keep on top of things well I guess, because it started to get slow faster than PS did. Really, I probably shouldn't have had as many shapes in there. I REALLY liked the way gradient/pattern fills worked in Fireworks. Really, that was the best part for me. Yeah, Fireworks was fun, and I'd like to use it again. I also liked that .png's were its native file format. THAT was pretty awesome.

Christwriter · Post by **Christwriter** » Fri Jun 03, 2005 10:30 am

I've tried Corel Painter Essentials (came with the tablet, along with Photoshop Essentials) so I know a little bit about how it is. And I'm not sure if I like it more than I like Photoshop.

The techniques I'm using now could probably be called "cheating" (doing all my shading in a nutral tone-family then coloring it by using the desired color in a layer set to "overlay") but it gets the effect I've been looking for, which is nice, rich coloring without any garish man-this-shade-REALLY-doesn't-work-well-what-the-hell-is-it-doing-in-this-family mistakes because the right series of colors just don't freaking exist.

I don't know if another program would work as well, and I happen to LIKE being able to cheat in Photoshop because I confess, I am a horrible artist. I spent four weeks, solid, trying to figure out how to do water. Not waves, slightly wavy water. After the first week I realized that there was no way I was ever going to get realistic water out of my head fast enough to work in the comic, so I cheated. Went through about ninteen tutorials and found one that does EXACTLY what I want in about fifteen minutes, using exactly one paint bursh, two filters, the opacity settings and a lot of copy/pasting. And I KNOW photoshop really, really well. I'm begining to get a kind of intuitive grasp for how to get what I want out of it EXACTLY the way I want to get it, and it's satisfying. I'm not sure if I'd want to go to another program when I can, say, look at an object in my work that doesn't look precicely right and go "Oh, if I add a black outline to this, and then blur the snot out of it, it'll look better" and do it, and have it be nearly perfect.

To be really honest, though, I don't think that the tool you use is as important as the satisfaction you get when you're using it. Meaning, if you get what you want out of it, use it. If you don't, find something else. It's like the debate me and a friend have had for about a month and a half: "Which is better, rounded or flat tips on your pool stick?"

Answer: Either one.

CW

Zuri · Post by **Zuri** » Fri Jun 03, 2005 11:19 am

Jakkal wrote: Photoshop was never meant to be used as a painting utility - but it CAN be used as one. Photoshop's main purpose is to be used as a graphic design tool, so one must think like a graphic designer in order to use it in the most effecient manner.

Actually Photoshop was ment for touching up photography, hense the name 'PHOTO'shop. But people people figured out you can paint with it and Adobe figured out there was a market.

so its kind of a hybrid of both now, although I have to say, it can do AMAZING things with photography.

Photoshop and painter are both simply tools. Ultimately it boils down to technique and proper utillization of capabilities. I've got painter. I don't really like the interface too much. Its fun to muck with, but I'd never do anything serious in it myself, however I've seen some wonderful work come out of it. Photoshop is my beast of choice because I AM a graphic designer, I work extensively with photography and I've been using Photoshop every day, sometimes for 8-9 hours a day, for the last 8 years. Hell, I even teach a post secondary course on it once a year at a local university.

As great as any program is, it is no substitute for skill, experience, and technique. Thats where most people get hung up. As great as I might be techically with photoshop, I still fundamentally suck with coloring. Photoshop isn't going to magically fix my failings. I'm sure there is a way to do crisp digital inking in photoshop. Quite sure as I know there are professional digital inkers that use it.

Ultimately, each has a very different interface and its a matter of taste as to where you want to spend your time slaving away.