Plantman
It's only Forever... Not long at all!
Age: 44
Joined: 14 Mar 2005
Posts: 1819
Location: Mexico
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 Posted: Tue Sep 26, 2006 9:53 pm Post subject: REO's Help Topic - Resources, Tutorials, ETC. |
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Due to the several times this kind of things have been asked in the past, the staff decided it was time to have a resources and help topic. We'll post links and recommendations to different softwares, hosting services, tutorials, etc., for your arty and graphic needs. If you know of any resources that you think we should add to this list, please PM it to any of the Fanart Staff (Tabby, Malik and Plantman) to review it and add it to our list.
Please remember we won't list warez nor illegal ways to acquire software or other resources alike. So please don't even bother to ask.
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Free Image Hosting Sites.
The following places are some of the most commonly used websites that offer free hosting for images.
Each site has fairly easy instructions to upload and link the files from. If you know of any other recomended sites please feel free to pm the staff to add them to the list.
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To link from deviantart please post the link to the deviation in link form, like this:
http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/yourdeviationsnumbergoeshere/
To post a link from an image host/webserver simply post the link provided by your host through the "insert image" button in the post's menu.
Please make sure your file is in jpg or gif formats, some forums cannot display png properly.
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Art Software
I'll list here some software used mainly for art work purposes. I'll list other software that is suitable for both, artwork and graphics in a separated section.
ArtRage 2 - A rather simple to use software that focuses in emulating real mediums. While not possessing the greatest variety of tools and features, it's a fairly good software. ArtRage 2 has two versions, a FREE and a FULL version. The free version, while limited compared to its full version, allows for a full use of all the avaible options and, unlike other trials and free versions, allows you to save up your files in a wide variety of formats. Full version costs $19.95 USD. One of the most affordable art programs out there.
OpenCanvas 1.1 - One of the oldest, most widely used art softwares avaible. OC1 is completely FREE and is capable of holding network connection to host or participate in drawing sessions over internet with other OC1 users. Although it's very limited in regards of features and tools compared to other software avaible.
Deleter CGIllustrator - This is actually a clone of OpenCanvas 2 with a few minor tweaks and features cortesy of Deleter. It has all of OpenCanvas 1's components minus the network capabilities. You can download a trial version of it or purchase the full version for $96.89 USD.
OpenCanvas 4 - The latest version of OC. Unlike it's predecesor, OC 4 has a wide variety of new tools and features in adition to its trademark 'digital water color' brush, along with compatibility with other file formats not supported in OC1. OC 4 comes in two versions, Regular and Plus. The Plus version supports PSD format, allows to manipulate and customize several of the default tools of the regular version and adds up the usage of tones. OC4 Regular version costs 5000 Yen (About 50 USD or so) and Plus costs 7800 Yen (About 80 USD). I'd definitively would recomend this software over Deleter's.
Corel Painter IX - This is one of the babies I use to produce my artworks (I use several XP). Painter especializes in the emulation of real art mediums, such as realistic watercolors, inks, oils, acrylics, and so on. However, it's a program that will kick your RAM's posterior to the ground, due to the wide variety of tools, brushes and other features included with it. One of Painter's biggest 'downfalls' is the way their layer system works, which can turn away users more familiar with Photoshop. You can download a trial version of Painter in Corel's website, or purchase it at $379 USD Either downloaded or boxed, the shipping's free. While nowhere as expensive as Photoshop, Painter really shouldn't be purchased as a replacement for said software, as it's not a software meant for graphics and picture treatment.
Artweaver- This is a clone of Painter IX that bounds together some of the best qualities of Painter with the much simpler layer treatment of Photoshop along with other options. The software does a good job at emulating painter (although it's much more limited in the amount of brushes and real materials emulation), and it's definitively my recomendation for those that don't like Painter or cannot afford it. If anything the pressure sensitivity and response for a tablet works a lot more like Photoshop 7's it's still a very good option. And highly recomended if any because it's FREE. That's right, utilizes a lot less memory than Painter, the setup file is a mere 6 MBs and supports most major file formats along with its own.
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Okay, I'm tired and I had to re-type this twice XD I'll post the general graphics software and tutorials in a little while. I hope this'll be of help.
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 Hecha en MÉXICO - Avatar by Me.
"Logic is the Ultimate Weapon." |
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