THESE FORUMS NOW CLOSED (read only)
Fun Stuff => MAKE => Topic started by: imapiratearg on 19 Jul 2007, 09:46
-
I want to get a tablet someday soon, because I use one at work, and I mess around with it occasionally, doing little doodles and stuff. But I can't decide what program I want to do my illustrations on when I do end up getting one. I'm thinking just sticking with Photoshop, since I already have a copy. But it doesn't make your lines look all nice and smooth. I hate animating in Flash with a passion (except frame by frame stuff). But I love to draw in it, because it smooths the lines. That being said, I want to try Illustrator.
What do you prefer?
(I apologize if a thread like this already exists.)
-
I prefer flash, Illustrator has some fancy features but i couldn't do without the line smoothing/dragging etc that flash offers. It's also cheaper and doesn't need configuring like hell in order to work for you like illustrator does (at least for me anyway). I don't think I'd consider Photoshop for illustration to be honest.
-
Depends on what kind of drawing you're doing. If you like Flash's drawing then I'd say go with Illustrator, which I honestly think is better at vector drawing than Flash, though that could just be because I learned illustrator first. Photoshop is good if you are doing things where you don't want very defined lines, because it is much better for blending and such. I think with Flash becoming part of the creative suite that in CS3 you can pretty easily bring illustrator drawings into flash to animate. Not sure yet, I need to try it out still.
-
Wouldn't it make more sense to just learn how to draw smooth lines in Photoshop? That's what I did.
-
Yeah. I will. Eventually.
-
What about painter?
I started by using flash for the line smoothness thing, so I know how you feel, but eventually I felt constrained by it. I couldn't draw a decent digital line to save my life when I changed over to painter, but I just made myself do it. You cannot beat the natural media brushes. I haven't looked back since.
If they ever merge the painter brushes with the photoshop functions...
-
It sounds like you already have your heart set on Illustrator. If you'd like to try something similar for free first, Inkscape (http://www.inkscape.org/) is open-source freeware, the vector graphics analogue to the raster graphics GIMP (http://www.gimp.org/).
-
I'm thinking just sticking with Photoshop, since I already have a copy. But it doesn't make your lines look all nice and smooth.
You make it sound as if that's Photoshop's fault :|
There are no magical programs out there that will smooth out your work for you. You just need to practice practice practice. If you're still unsatisfied, draw the original pictures at a ridiculously huge size/resolution. It will help smooth out mistakes or jiggles when you size it down in the end, but it will not make it perfect.
-
Yeah, basically you just need to practice drawing with a tablet more in Photoshop. Unless you specifically want vector art, I would recommend you use Photoshop anyways, because I find it easier to actually draw in. I learned it first, so that may be why, but I still like it better because you can shade and blend much easier and you can free hand things much easier. (I never liked drawing with the pen tool if I didn't have to and the paint brush in Illustrator is just weird.)
So yeah, practice makes better.
-
Why limit yourself to a single tool? Many, many people don't. Hawk from Apple Geeks does his line work in flash and does the coloring in photoshop.
Coming from some one with a bit of natural shake in my hands, I can say that I love using illustrator for line work and often even for base colors. Then, I import it into photoshop to color and further manipulate. If you are happy doing your line work in flash, there is no reason not to keep doing so. If you are using a CS version, it easily exports frames into photoshop or illustrator.
-
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.
(http://keechul.angeltowns.net/upload/theface.jpg)
-
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:
-
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.