Anacybele Posted June 25, 2014 Share Posted June 25, 2014 Okay, in the past, I was a regular Photoshop user, because despite the sometimes insanely ridiculous prices, it was awesome and provided me with everything I needed to make my drawings, sprite comics, sig graphics, etc. For the sprites themselves, I've got Paint, so that's no issue. But recently, Adobe got drunk or something, because they've started doing stupid monthly fees for their new software and basically taking away customers' rights to their work according to reviews on Amazon. I'm not doing this bullshit, so bubye. I've used GIMP before, but I found it really confusing when trying to make signature graphics. I don't make sigs often, but I still do on occasion, so yeah. Basically what I need is something that has buttons for: layers, pen tool, basic drawing tools (brush, bucket, pencil, gradient, etc.), dodge and burn (not that I use these often anymore, but on occasion I will resort to them), smudge, blur, sharpen, effects, basically a lot of the basic stuff GIMP and Photoshop have. I've also used a program called...damn it, what was the name? It was from Macromeda and I learned to use it back in my high school graphics design class. But Adobe went and bought Macromeda, so that's out of the question. Fireworks! I think that was the name. I've heard of a program called Paint Shop Pro and Amazon has version X6 Ultimate for a nice price, but I know little about it. Any suggestions? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ciarre Posted June 25, 2014 Share Posted June 25, 2014 Try Paint Tool SAI. I find it really simple and easy to navigate and it's a really good program for lineart. And you can even download it for free online and get a trial if you want (there's also a full version which you can find on deviantart I believe but you can also purchase it for legal reasons lol) It has layers and mostly all of the stuff that you asked for, but if it doesn't have them then you can also download and install custom brushes which is also pretty easy to do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vestige Posted June 25, 2014 Share Posted June 25, 2014 Paint.net Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anacybele Posted June 25, 2014 Author Share Posted June 25, 2014 Just lineart? What about coloring though? I like adding color. xP Oh yeah, I've heard of Paint.net. But I know little about that one too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prax Posted June 25, 2014 Share Posted June 25, 2014 (edited) Just lineart? What about coloring though? I like adding color. xP Oh yeah, I've heard of Paint.net. But I know little about that one too. Sai is GREAT for colouring and lineart and has VERY EASY TO USE vector/pen tools (it's different from how photoshop does it though, so you'll need to play around to get the hang of it). UNFORTUNATELY, Sai will be missing some things that you are used to from photoshop: gradient tool, shape tools, text/typing tool, dodge/burn (it kind of has a similar thing, but it's not the same I don't think). It's great for getting the drawing and art done, but it has very basic or none of the colour and photo editing options you might be used to from Photoshop (no fancy filters, no clone or stamp tool, etc.). I use SAI for most of my artwork personally, drawing directly in the program without needing to scan in a sketch, but I still use Photoshop to finish editing if I need to make colour adjustments or even add in my website/copyright/watermarks. If you have the money, downloading Paint Shop Pro would be a good alternative to Photoshop. You can also try out Fire Alpaca, which has a lot of features Paint TOOL SAI is missing and is free (it just has a pop up ad when you start it and maybe the brush isn't AS nice as SAI): http://firealpaca.com/en Or Krita also looks pretty good and has a lot of the features you might like too and is also free--it seems to be constantly improving and I'm pretty impressed with how it looks anyway: http://krita.org/features Edited June 25, 2014 by Prax Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thor Odinson Posted June 25, 2014 Share Posted June 25, 2014 Wait, wouldn't you still have access to older versions of PS or did you only have Creative Cloud to start with? Because I have CS6 and I don't have to deal with this whole monthly charge thing. Anyway I've never used SAI but I've seen videos of my friends using it and the brushes are very nice there. I will have to second FireAlpaca since that's my backup. The lower quality brushes can probably be made up using a bit of creativity anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anacybele Posted June 25, 2014 Author Share Posted June 25, 2014 (edited) I can't find anymore access to older versions of Photoshop. At least a version I want. I see PS Elements on Amazon, but Elements lacks the pen tool, which is one of my most used tools in PS. I know, because I once had Elements 7. And it didn't have the pen tool. Also, I have windows 8 now. I don't know if any older versions of PS will be compatible. Before, I had CS2 and windows 7, but my old laptop died. I got my new one today. Prax: Yeah, I'm pretty used to shape tools... But I'll check out some of those options. Edited June 25, 2014 by Anacybele Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thor Odinson Posted June 25, 2014 Share Posted June 25, 2014 CS6 works fine on 8, 's what I have anyway That's the most recent version prior to creative cloud Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anacybele Posted June 25, 2014 Author Share Posted June 25, 2014 CS6 also costs like $900. Which I simply can't go spending all at once right now. xP Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elieson Posted June 25, 2014 Share Posted June 25, 2014 Doesn't adobe have CS2 up for grabs? I heard something on the radio about it (but haven't looked into it since I own Cs3) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thor Odinson Posted June 25, 2014 Share Posted June 25, 2014 (edited) if you're in a uni of some sort some schools offer a hefty discount to $250 Otherwise earlier versions should still work on 8 if they're in the CS series, I'd probably trust CS4 at least, it came out 5 years ago when I got my laptop so it's not /that/ old and backwards compatibility isn't that awful on 8, and it has canvas rotation and tabs which are my favorite features CS2 is pretty good, it's what I started off on 10 years ago doesn't have built in animation, you need imageready for that but eh Edited June 25, 2014 by Thor Odinson Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anacybele Posted June 25, 2014 Author Share Posted June 25, 2014 I know, CS2 is what I used before my old laptop died. xP And I'm not in school, so... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thor Odinson Posted June 25, 2014 Share Posted June 25, 2014 Might still be worth a try to get free CS2 if you can't, FireAlpaca is decent enough, doesn't hurt to give it a go even though changing interfaces into anything unfamilar is pretty uncomfortable I've always wanted to try SAI myself some day Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elieson Posted June 25, 2014 Share Posted June 25, 2014 Might still be worth a try to get free CS2 if you can't, FireAlpaca is decent enough, doesn't hurt to give it a go even though changing interfaces into anything unfamilar is pretty uncomfortable I've always wanted to try SAI myself some day Turns out, Adobe cut off their registration servers for CS2, so they've put up full version downloads meant for those that wish to bypass the registration (since they won't work without it). The downloads give yuo the full version regardless, but I wouldn't encourage use of these products unless you have the proper legal means to own and operate them, which is in the fine fine print that i'm too lazy to read. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anacybele Posted June 29, 2014 Author Share Posted June 29, 2014 Okay, good news! I managed to find PS CS3 for a good price on Ebay. I just better not regret it. Mainly because I heard sometime ago that Ebay was having security issues. But it was the only place where I could find PS again for a decent enough price. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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