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Art Programs!

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Coffee_Geek

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Hello Artists!

As stated in the title, I am going to recommend art programs that I have tried out or what others have tried out (comment in the thread!). I will add others' experiences/art programs here!

Firealpaca

Very much like Paint Tool Sai, it does not come with vector tools (Mouse Users.) Easy to understand and is free.
[expired image]

Sketchbook Express/Pro
It's best to get the free version. Comes in various medias, Easier to understand and is pressure sensitive.
sketchbook-express-20.jpg

Gimp
Has vectors and is free
My favorite of all the time. Very simple to use, available on every operating system. Another cool feature is that you can write plugins if you know how to program in Python. It's open source and 100% free.

gimp28.png
Paint Tool Sai
Commonly used, same dynamics as FireAlpaca, but with vectoring. 54$ for Full version, there is a 30 day trial available. Not compatible with Mac.
23vghoy.png

Krita
Recommended by many people on this thread it is free and has many tools to choose from. As of now, they have been trying to implement animation (sort of jittery at the moment) but a very good program overall. The website has free sources and guides that will give you tips/tricks/advice on using the program.
Just in case no one has mentioned it or some of you don't know about it - Krita is a really good, free, open sourced program made by artists, for artists.

Here is the website: [x]
I advise putting Krita. It can be a tad difficult or complexed to understand at first, and it's always a learning process. However, I do feel it would be good use considering they have a free version packed with some good tools, and it can be like photoshop or sai. Or both, really.
IMG_9408.jpg

Open Canvas
Hmm, I use OpenCanvas 6 which I paid $50 (USD) for. I would recommend the software too since I have had it for almost 2 years now. You can purchase it off their website or off steam. (I would recommend steam since it is a bit cheaper, website sells it for $59 while steam sells it for $50)
http://www.portalgraphics.net/en/oc/
There is a free trial on their website you can download too. Also at the bottom of the page tells you about the system requirements. (I don't think it works with mac, sorry :C)
(There is a little bug with the Wacom's tablet driver V6.3.14-1 that causes you to be unable to draw. If you have it, on their website they provide a link to download the latest version if it from the Wacom's website)
http://store.steampowered.com/app/301610/
The app on steam has videos on the store page of speed paints with this software if you'd like to watch it. Along with some photos of the tabs. I also have a screenshot to show them too. Forgive my bad handwriting, I slur the letters together a lot. I tried not to.
If I got carried away showing buttons forgive that too >.> (Haven't really made an example for software I use before so don't really know what all to put.)
Some examples of things I have made in this software:

Medibang Paint
Available on IOS devices (IPad/IPhone) and Windows/Mac. It was created by the same creators of FireAlpaca and it does have a few similarities with FireAlpaca/Paint Tool Sai. It is free and comes with comic patterns; Pressure sensitive and have an online community (if you're using the app on a mobile device.)
IMG_9410.jpg

Apple Applications

If any of you are ipad inclined, here's a few apps you might try:

Procreate - Literally the best ipad drawing app on the market. Really supportive of artists, you buy it once and you've got it forever. No subscription, and their forums have a crap ton of free brushes and other resources. I've used it for drawing mayors, and writing/illustrating a children's book. It's the best of the best.

SketchClub - Decent set of tools, and has a unique "club" aspect where you can live stream work and also share work with a community. Decent for the price.

Adobe Sketch - Has some really neat watercolor brushes that actually behave somewhat like water with pooling and such. Worth experimenting with.

Assembly - Not exactly a "drawing app" but more of a vector app where you can make stickers by layering shapes. However, I have a good friend in real life that was able to make a really cute chibi of my mayor with this app, so if he could do it, you could make some pretty unique things too.

A few other apps that might be worth trying, but aren't notable enough (to me) to warrent a paragraph: Inspire Pro, Paper, Sketches Pro, MyBrushes Pro, Brushes Redux.

Clip Studio Paint
A highly requested drawing program that has been gaining popularity over the years - price is about $50-$220, $50 is standard and $220 is the full featured CSP. However, I believe it's worth trying because there's plenty of resources it comes with such as, 3D models, tools to replicate manga/comics, screen toning, effects, and much more! Animation was recently added as well.
func_anime_04_en.jpg

4cb0895e-87a5-403c-b754-bd65268206f7.jpg

Clip-Studio-Paint_2.jpg

Animation

GraphicsGale

Program for pixels! As of now I believe it is only available for Windows. Great for making sprites/pixel art and animating pixel art. There are plenty of guides on using it and it is free!
IMG_9411.JPG

I only use Macromedia Flash 8 and Photoshop CC for animations.
-Macromedia Flash 8 is free! Many guides/tutorials to find out there.


If you would like to add extra notes to these as well, tell me and I will happily edit it in!!
 
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This is veeery helpful!!! Thank you so much!! I would definitely check out "Graphics Gale" as a contender for the post. I just discovered it and it looks amazing for anyone who likes to pixel! Haven't used it yet but I've only heard good things.
 
Tried and seen friends use all of these but the animated part. XD
Nice to see someone made a thread.
 
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This is veeery helpful!!! Thank you so much!! I would definitely check out "Graphics Gale" as a contender for the post. I just discovered it and it looks amazing for anyone who likes to pixel! Haven't used it yet but I've only heard good things.

yep i can agree on this too,
i use graphics gale & its a really good pixel program, has grids and you can even do your animation on there!!
 
you might wanna mention that some of these (notably sai and graphicsgale which other ppl are mentioning, I'm not sure about the others bc I haven't tried them) aren't compatible with a mac.

idk if you've tried painter and opencanvas, but opencanvas was my fav program before sai was released, though unfortunately that isn't compatible with macs either sigh

idk about the most recent version but the opencanvas I had had a drawing playback option, where there was a button you could press after you finished your art that could make a video (in opencanvas format) that other ppl could open in opencanvas and view, and it would show all the layers and things too and you could like toggle diff layers after the playback finished playing. I thought that was neat and it's the only program I've used that had that feature.

otherwise great list!!

edit/ oh and if you're too lazy to download programs there's always online drawing options like drawr and whatnot!! :)
 
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you might wanna mention that some of these (notably sai and graphicsgale which other ppl are mentioning, I'm not sure about the others bc I haven't tried them) aren't compatible with a mac.

idk if you've tried painter and opencanvas, but opencanvas was my fav program before sai was released, though unfortunately that isn't compatible with macs either sigh

otherwise great list!!

Sigh, wish I saw this earlier @_@ not many programs are compatible with mac, it seems...shame cause graphics gale seems pretty cool.
Seriously missing sai's color wheel. I've installed firealpaca but I havent got the motivation to learn it @_@

I've heard about inkscape which is a vectors program, but haven't tried it.
 
Sigh, wish I saw this earlier @_@ not many programs are compatible with mac, it seems...shame cause graphics gale seems pretty cool.
Seriously missing sai's color wheel. I've installed firealpaca but I havent got the motivation to learn it @_@

I've heard about inkscape which is a vectors program, but haven't tried it.

yea this is why I've forced myself to finally learn to use photoshop properly, it's one of the few art programs that are compatible across all platforms haha having to blend manually after being used to sai's nice blending options was not fun :(
I installed firealpaca for a while too but mine just... kept crashing so I gave up...
 
yea this is why I've forced myself to finally learn to use photoshop properly, it's one of the few art programs that are compatible across all platforms haha having to blend manually after being used to sai's nice blending options was not fun :(
I installed firealpaca for a while too but mine just... kept crashing so I gave up...

Firealpaca literally just sits in my document folder, dunno why it's even there since I never open it. 8(
 
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Oh cool this got stickied. :O I guess I'll mention the program I use for digital art right now. It's called ArtRage Studio and its main feature is to closely imitate the effects of traditional mediums (incidentally because of this it's not possible to do pixel art with the program). It has a very simple interface and it's easy to learn how to use for beginners, it's been great for a digital art noob like myself.
I'm not sure where to download and if it's free or not though, but it does run on Mac. :) I have the old version I got free with my tablet, I think the new one is called ArtRage 4 but I haven't tried it.
 
Oh cool this got stickied. :O I guess I'll mention the program I use for digital art right now. It's called ArtRage Studio and its main feature is to closely imitate the effects of traditional mediums (incidentally because of this it's not possible to do pixel art with the program). It has a very simple interface and it's easy to learn how to use for beginners, it's been great for a digital art noob like myself.
I'm not sure where to download and if it's free or not though, but it does run on Mac. :) I have the old version I got free with my tablet, I think the new one is called ArtRage 4 but I haven't tried it.

I tried artrage studio in my attempts to fill the hole SAI left lol

it seemed interesting, there's some brush options (but it didn't seem customizable). ultimately decided to uninstall though since my motivation for art has been on the decline recently....

i think there's a free trial for like 15/30 days, and if you want to buy it, it's $50, or something decently priced!

>link: http://www.artrage.com
 
I personally like to use paint.net. It's a free, easy-to-use program that in some ways rivals big-name programs like Photostop. There are tons of plugins available, so you can run it how you like it. Unfortunately, pressure sensitivity and Mac capability are not available at the time. I think that some older versions have pressure sensitivity, though. It's arguably the best program to use if you can't afford a tablet (like me) for Windows.

I'm bad with descriptions, so check it out for yourself at getpaint.net.
 
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I personally like to use paint.net. It's a free, easy-to-use program that rivals big-name programs like Photostop.

Nah, wouldn't say that it rivals Photoshop since Photoshop can be used for more than just drawing and animation.

But I really recommend FireAlpaca and/or Photoshop to Mac Users. Sketchbook Express is good for sketching IMO.
 
I used to be big into Photoshop, but the program is so big, and has so many things I don't use. SAI is the one that currently has my heart. Super easy for painting, and it lags significantly less while doing what I was trying (and failing) to do oh Photoshop. I do miss the variety of layer styles Photoshop offers though. Occasionally I have to go and tweak some things on there. With SAI being able to save things as PSD though, it's a pretty easy transition. This makes me pretty happy that I don't have a Mac, though. If I did, I would have been too lazy to try it, and would have seriously missed out.
 
cRies I use firalpaca yey

- - - Post Merge - - -

I personally like to use paint.net. It's a free, easy-to-use program that in some ways rivals big-name programs like Photostop. There are tons of plugins available, so you can run it how you like it. Unfortunately, pressure sensitivity and Mac capability are not available at the time. I think that some older versions have pressure sensitivity, though. It's arguably the best program to use if you can't afford a tablet (like me) for Windows.

I'm bad with descriptions, so check it out for yourself at getpaint.net.

I used to aways use paint.net, loved it. Then I went to firealapca and realized how horrible paint.net is..


The lines are always really thick, no pixels, layers are weird, etc
 
I've heard good things about FireAlpaca, but does anyone know if it will run with a Yinova MSP19U tablet monitor? I'd rather know before I install the program, but google has been failing me on information so far.
 
I've heard good things about FireAlpaca, but does anyone know if it will run with a Yinova MSP19U tablet monitor? I'd rather know before I install the program, but google has been failing me on information so far.

It works with FireAlpaca, but you need to set it up: If you go into File->Environment Setting and set ?Brush Coordinate? to ?Use Mouse Coordinate? instead of ?Use Tablet Coordinate (recommended)? both the line and the offset are fixed.
 
It works with FireAlpaca, but you need to set it up: If you go into File->Environment Setting and set “Brush Coordinate” to “Use Mouse Coordinate” instead of “Use Tablet Coordinate (recommended)” both the line and the offset are fixed.

Oh, my question is about my model, specifically. Sorry for not clarifying further. You see, when I got the Yinova MSP19U, it specifically stated that the tablet does not work with Paint Tool SAI. Fire Alpaca didn't even exist (or at least I didn't know of it yet) when I bought my tablet monitor about two years ago. Since FA is similar to SAI, I want to find out in advance if it would even run on my specific model or not.

But thanks for the info, nonetheless!
 
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