What software do you guys use for your digital art and what are its benefits over other ones?

[Gremlythebeliever]

What software do you guys use for your digital art and what are its benefits over other ones? I'm going to be using a drawing tablet more and more and want to find a suitable software, I've tried Adobe animated but I dont think it's for me, I'll keep trying that for now to try and figure out if there's something I'm missing but it feels quite limited in its tools, can any of you drop some applications you use for your art and your favourite things about it?

[Tenebrare]

Whatever you do, do not use Adobe Photoshop. It is a overpaid dinosaur which people like me use either a. because of work b. because of habit c. because a-b making change tedious task.

PS is not even best in market (was back on days, but no longer), it is nowadays a bloated useless memory hog with its creator paying "evangelists" to promote generative images instead of improving the actual software. It has more bugs than my neighbors ant farm.

if you didn't figure it out yet, I use above mentioned Photoshop and it has absolutely 0, none, nada benefits. It is a trash and no I am not being sarcastic nor ironic. If i could use my brushes, macros and lookup tables anywhere else, I'd probably change on instant.

[RepriseAgain]

At 12/14/23 06:01 AM, Gremlythebeliever wrote:I've tried Adobe animated but I dont think it's for me, I'll keep trying that for now to try and figure out if there's something I'm missing but it feels quite limited in its tools

Animate can be useful if you want to want to draw in vectors. I've found that its symbol/movie clip features are useful for turning elements of a piece into "assets" and being able to tweak them individually. It also allows for some filters such as bevels and glows that you can use to your advantage.

Take this collab entry for example. I turned the highlights and shadows into movie clips then added blur filters to make them look more blended and to give the stone more depth.

The highlight without the blur filter.

Idk if it's strange that I don't use Animate for - you know - animation, but it's definitely my favourite art software.

I think that Animate can be useful if you experiment and see how far you can go with it.

[lucifertan]

krita. works on linux, free and open source, the community on their forum is nice and helpful with lots of free plugins and brushes on it too.

[StevSteelEn]

I use medibang but i cant say it has alot of benefits compared to the other programs, its just easy to use so its user friendly just like firealpaca. Krita and clip studio paint has more features but might be overwhelming but i speak for myself.

[Czyszy]

I use Krita.

This tool pretty much revolutionized my workflow. :P

Ever since I started taking advantage of it when doing shape-based constructions, drawing became easier, more flexible and more manoeuvrable for me.

[tchatcha29]

I use Clip Studio Paint, i used to draw on SAI but it was too limited

[Urichov]

Affinity Designer

Pros:

-Vector program, has a pen tool. Since I have no tablet and don't feel comfortable free-handing with a mouse this is what I use.

-Considerably cheaper than Adobe Illustrator.

Cons:

-Vector program, my laptop often has trouble running it. Have to close and re-open on a regular basis or run the risk of unresponsive task hell.

-Fairly new and presumably made by a smaller team, thus missing QoL features Adobe Illustrator had back in 2007.

[KhaosKitsune617]

At 12/14/23 07:29 AM, RepriseAgain wrote:

At 12/14/23 06:01 AM, Gremlythebeliever wrote:I've tried Adobe animated but I dont think it's for me, I'll keep trying that for now to try and figure out if there's something I'm missing but it feels quite limited in its tools

Animate can be useful if you want to want to draw in vectors. I've found that its symbol/movie clip features are useful for turning elements of a piece into "assets" and being able to tweak them individually. It also allows for some filters such as bevels and glows that you can use to your advantage.

Take this collab entry for example. I turned the highlights and shadows into movie clips then added blur filters to make them look more blended and to give the stone more depth.

The highlight without the blur filter.

Idk if it's strange that I don't use Animate for - you know - animation, but it's definitely my favourite art software.

I think that Animate can be useful if you experiment and see how far you can go with it.

&

[lucifertan]

At 12/14/23 05:06 PM, CzySzy wrote:I use Krita.

This tool pretty much revolutionized my workflow. :P

Ever since I started taking advantage of it when doing shape-based constructions, drawing became easier, more flexible and more manoeuvrable for me.

i had no idea what the circled tool is even thou i use krita regularly. on further investigation, it is the transform tool which i use all the time. now i realised i don't really look at that panel haha, i only rmb the tools by keyboard shortcuts since it's my preferred way of switching tools.

[Czyszy]

At 12/14/23 07:00 PM, lucifertan wrote:

At 12/14/23 05:06 PM, CzySzy wrote:I use Krita.

This tool pretty much revolutionized my workflow. :P

Ever since I started taking advantage of it when doing shape-based constructions, drawing became easier, more flexible and more manoeuvrable for me.

i had no idea what the circled tool is even thou i use krita regularly. on further investigation, it is the transform tool which i use all the time. now i realised i don't really look at that panel haha, i only rmb the tools by keyboard shortcuts since it's my preferred way of switching tools.

I forgot to add that Krita's transform tool is really powerful.

[mawibblap]

microsoft paint and magma dot com.

uhhh, it's free and simple.

[TheBestBroster]

At 12/14/23 06:01 AM, Gremlythebeliever wrote:What software do you guys use for your digital art and what are its benefits over other ones? I'm going to be using a drawing tablet more and more and want to find a suitable software, I've tried Adobe animated but I dont think it's for me, I'll keep trying that for now to try and figure out if there's something I'm missing but it feels quite limited in its tools, can any of you drop some applications you use for your art and your favourite things about it?

Krita. It's free, open source, runs nicely, and gets the job done. Simple as that

[FalenDemo5]

At 12/14/23 06:32 AM, Tenebrare wrote:Whatever you do, do not use Adobe Photoshop. It is a overpaid dinosaur which people like me use either a. because of work b. because of habit c. because a-b making change tedious task.

PS is not even best in market (was back on days, but no longer), it is nowadays a bloated useless memory hog with its creator paying "evangelists" to promote generative images instead of improving the actual software. It has more bugs than my neighbors ant farm.

if you didn't figure it out yet, I use above mentioned Photoshop and it has absolutely 0, none, nada benefits. It is a trash and no I am not being sarcastic nor ironic. If i could use my brushes, macros and lookup tables anywhere else, I'd probably change on instant.

Photoshop is not really a art software, it's more of a photo editing software.

Also returning to original question: Krita, it is both free and has professional feel to it, also multiple types of brushes.

[Tenebrare]

At 12/15/23 05:25 PM, FalenDemo5 wrote:Photoshop is not really a art software, it's more of a photo editing software.

Of course it is an art software, it has not been 'just photo editing' software like its 2nd windows version, where they introduced layers. It used to even have leading brush engine until Corel did better one, as well all those blending and other mechanics. They were pioneers. Just in 2023 for traditional paint effect art rage, rebelle and corel paint are better and have bypassed PS by miles.

PS problem is that since CS 6 they haven't done any actual updates other than adding LUT support in 2020-ish and AI in 2023.Outside those 2 updates Photoshop is exactly the same program as in 2012, when CS 6 had some major updates to brush engine (that is 11 years ago!).

If one would claim PS is mainly photo editing tool, then are Procreate and Krita and SAI etc, as Photoshop has pretty much all those features already in 2012 version that exist in modern drawing and painting programs.

The key thing here what makes Krita better in 2023 is that it is free and has main features you need for drawing and only an idiot would pay for 50 euro a month for Adobe license. Not that Photoshop is worse for drawing and painting.

[EpiqueCrimson]

I personally use Firealpaca! It's completely free and it only has like an ad popup thing when you start the program up but it's just an image you can immediately click off and the program has all the essentials 'n stuff so i personally like it

[camelJohnny]

At 12/14/23 06:01 AM, Gremlythebeliever wrote:What software do you guys use for your digital art and what are its benefits over other ones? I'm going to be using a drawing tablet more and more and want to find a suitable software, I've tried Adobe animated but I dont think it's for me, I'll keep trying that for now to try and figure out if there's something I'm missing but it feels quite limited in its tools, can any of you drop some applications you use for your art and your favourite things about it?

Krita all the way. Drawing on there feels better than drawing using photoshop. It's got everything you could ever need for drawing, and it's open-source

You could do frame-by-frame animation on it too, there is a timeline. Adobe animate is probably better in the animation department tbh, expecially when it comes to exporting everything.

[deathchimera]

Azpainter & Opentoonz. Both free, both have their flaws, but they're light and get me right into working on my art. Azpainter is surprisingly robust for both illustration and comics, and Opentoonz is the top-dog of animation software in my opinion. The Xsheet and FX schematic being the main draw, among many more convenient features.

I prefer open-source software for secure archival and convenient file-sharing. Its also very satisfying to grow alongside the software. I will occasionally use Krita to make some specific assets that AzPainter can't achieve with it's basic brushes and filters.

[spindashie7]

I mostly use

paint tool sai - great brushes and brush textures, doesnt have any real shape tools though, or a text tool, and the fill bucket settings are kind of weird, I mostly use it for attempting to digital paint

firealpaca - completely free, good brush control, autosave feature, nice pen pressure even though I dont really use pen pressure, has a lot of free brushes you can download, I use this program for mostly other things

ibis paint x - gets the job done quite well for a phone app, very diverse custom brush feature, does have mobile ads, you also have to watch an ad to unlock all the brushes but you do get them for a long time, I use this for when I'm just laying in bed and wanting to draw without getting any stuff out

[Narratorway]

Clip Studio Paint because up until I bought it, I'd been using Photoshop and Flash CS4 as my "animation programs" from damn near 20 years ago. CSP is fine enough for its price when I got it, though to be fair I don't have a lot to compare it to. If I knew about Krita or FireAlpaca I might have held off the purchase, but what'cha gun do...

[Foxmosis]

I use Clip Studio Paint, it's served me well for getting the bulk of things done. I also still use MS Paint for very simple crops and for doing thumbnails.

[Immortal-Cactus]

I'm not much of a digital artist, but when I do go digital I like to use Krita and Affinity Photo.

Krita is excellent for digital painting, but I find it limited when it comes to sketching and editing line art. When I'm sketching a digital drawing I like to be able to scale/warp the lines to adjust proportions, and while Krita does give you the option to do this, the menus for these features are slow to navigate, and you don't get a live preview, so have to just kind of wing it. For me, this is Krita's major flaw. Maybe they have since changed this or maybe there is a feature I do not know of, but this is my impression. Otherwise, it comes with a lot of different brush types, and it has most of the basic tools you need. Overall it is totally worthwhile. It's free to download, and I actually donated to the developers because I like it so much and also hate Adobe.

Affinity Photo is an image editing program similar to photoshop that isn't the best for digital painting, but it's great for making sketches, and making final edits of finished artwork. Its intended use is photo editing, but I really like sketching line art in this software because you have a lot of options for adjusting/resizing it in real-time. As for editing finished images, there are also a lot of useful features for applying effects and adjusting levels. I produce more traditional art, and this software has been very useful for web-versions of my work after getting it scanned. It costs $70 which might put some people off, but it's a one-time payment and then you have it - not some subscription scam.

[Geekygami]

I use Krita and Inkscape.

Krita's advantage is that it's free, open-source, crowd-funded,

and the workflow and available tools mirror Photoshop for everything that matters to a professional infographist.

It also supports direct integration with Stable Diffusion provided the right extension.

To top it off, it does better photo manipulation than Gimp, and its brushes are better than Clip Studio Paint, Photoshop, Painttool Sai, and most things I can think of.

There are three things I can think of that are subpar:

You don't have an "edge refine" mode for selections or masks.

You don't get an eye-dropper tool on the color curves filter.

You can find it on a filter that is built for that functionality however, but it's not ideal.

There is, as of yet, no .DDS support.

As for Inkscape, it's unfortunately the absolute best open-source application you can find that replicates the functionality of Illustrator.

It has two major downsides:

No direct CMYK support. It only supports CMYK through PDF, and only on export.

The gradient meshes are more like a gradient inside of a shape, rather than the shape becoming a mesh in and of itself, making it impractical for opacity tricks that would involve the edges of the shape becoming 100% transparent.

Not ideal, but it's otherwise the best around when it comes to a 100% focus on vector.

When you have both Krita and Inkscape working together, you can sketch in Krita, make your vector linework in Inkscape, import it back in Krita, even as SVG, and then do your flats and shading underneath in Krita as necessary, if at all.

[Tapestoppa]

krita. tons of useful brushes but beware of the stabilizer, its trash

[RjainXIV]

Procreate on the iPad Pro with Apple Pencil. It’s very cheap and very good, and feels fluid to use. I dunno what it costs now but it cost me $8 when I bought it. That said, if you don’t have the hardware then it’s obviously a much more expensive investment. Has amazing brushes and stability. I’d say the only downside is if you’re an artist that tends to have like 200 unnecessary layers you might be in a bit of a pickle, since high resolution pieces limit you to around 20-30 layers. I can easily force myself to remain in that limit though.

I also do some final edits and text work in Adobe Photoshop CS5. I was lucky to purchase the suite of Adobe products back before it became the slow and janky subscription-based garbage dump it is today. I highly recommend avoiding the current products.

[Chuw-Croissantier]

People tend to understimate SAI saying things like: "Sai it's just for backgrounds lolz" or "SAI is a limited shit" and lemme

tell you... YOU'RE WRONG, YOU'RE SO FUCKING WRONG.

Sai can help you with a lot of things, you strugglin with straight lines?? PAM USE THE LINE TOOL FOR PERFECTLY

STRAIGHT LINES, you struggle with curve lines? PAW USE THE CURVE TOOL and if you need to adjust your curve line a little bit you use a tool named "edit", SAI is easier from what it looks, at least for me and people saying: "you can't make bangers there" not only they're wrong, they have skill issue

i mean look at this LOOK AT MF THIS, ARE YOU TELLING ME THAT THIS IS NOT A BANGER?!! NUH UH THAT'S YOUR SKILL ISSUE MF

Of course i won't deny that there are better program than SAI but you can't go there saying: "it's for backrgounds/yu cen't meik bangers der" when the only thing you need to do is learn to use this program and get familiar with some tools, some are situational yeah but they're extremely useful when you use them soooo go ahead and try SAI it's much more simple than you think! and if i can make a banger with this program, you can do it too ;D

PS: Forgot to add the "pressure" tool, if you want lines thicker or thin you can use it for add or reduce lines sooo yeah there's my point lmap

[Toniestbook]

Procreate it’s just been kinda simple they have brush options and it was a birthday gift so I’ve just stuck with it