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Illustrator vs. Photoshop

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Kana:
Switching over between programs works - even more so since the CS2 (or whatever version you have) has really integrated Photoshop to Illustrator and visa versa really well.  Make sure to match your color formats or you might end up with some bizarre results going from CYMK to RGB.  Personally I think comparing Photoshop to Illustrator is apples to oranges.

Photoshop is for just that. Editing photos, making miner changes, working with layers and adding elements.  It has some tools to draw with, but they're all tools taken from Illustrator put into Photoshop.  I think this is to make it easier to have more to do in one program and because when people generally buy the programs they don't buy the whole CS2 suite like some of us do and Photoshop is the most popular out of the bunch.

Illustrator is pure vector based and honestly I love it do death for everything.  I use it for comics, ad design, and even web design.  The only things that I ever do out of Illustrator vector wise is multi-page advertisements which I use InDesign for - which is just Illustrator but capable of multiple page designs and template setups.

Also for just drawing/sketching/cging/etc - Corel Painter has some really stunning options to make things look great.  If you want a free program to mimick that I'd recommend OpenCanvas.  The pay for version puts Photoshop to shame with the pressure.  You can mimick it in Photoshop, but it takes quite a lot of tweaking and setting up your tablet just right pressure sensitivity wise.  Here's an example of OC's abilities - this is my friend's work, he's talented.

SteveW:
Depending on the kind of art you're doing (if, say, you're wanting to do comics/cartoons) you might want to give the Manga Studio Debut download a try.

I'll warn ya right now, I found the interfaces more maddening to learn than Illustrator is (I still have never gotten the hang of Illustrator, I think its cuz its widget layout is so much like Photoshop visually, that my brain has a hard time switching over from how one *works* to the other, if that makes any sense).  It's essentially an English translation of a Japanese product, but it's got some great tools and features in it (the pen tools are about a brazillion times better than the Photoshop brushes I've been able to figure out, but it also has a lot of nice preset page layouts if you're interested in print-type-stuff).  The coloring isn't so great (you only get 2 colors per layer, apparently), so I'm in the process of moving over from using PS for inking (when I'm not doing it by hand) to inking in Manga Studio and exporting to PS for coloring (though it does have a pretty large amount of comic tones you can utilize if you're into that sort of thing).

Personally, I'd like to learn to use Illustrator some day, but until then this seems to be a workable system.

Now that I'm thinking about it, I dunno why I found MS to be so much easier to learn than Illustrator.  I think it might be how the pen tool works and what not.  Anyway, I'm babbling.  :roll:

EpicPants:
I have both, having just got Illustrator about three days ago.
Messing around, I found Illustrator fairly easy to work with and it works great with the tablet I acquired off a relitive.
As a comparison, between the two, I find Photoshop to be more of a collage program and Illustrator to be more for drawing.
I however use both together; draw a picture, open it in photoshop and work it into other art.

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