Digital Art Supplies
When you're in art college, you'll mainly see Adobe products on your digital art supply lists. They're there for a reason: Adobe has a lot of great products (depending on what you plan to get, you can save some money by buying a bundle pack). However, I know of several other great programs that I'm going to point out. But first, lets talk about the obvious one: Adobe Photoshop.
I suggest that every artist, digital or not, own some copy of Photoshop. It can help a lot when your scanner sucks the color or contrast from your traditional piece, and you can use it to stitch a piece together if it was large and you had to take photographs of different sections. In general, if you want to make your traditional art digital for any reason, I think you should have Photoshop. And of course, CG artists need something to paint textures in, and Photoshop is great for that. However, not everyone needs what I call the "big" Photoshop (any of the CS series). When I first started out, I had Photoshop Elements 5.0, and I would have kept using it for many years. I only got Photoshop CS5 Extended last year because I needed it for a college class. The main differences are that in the CS version you have the pen tool, finer control over color and value adjustments, easier control over making animations, brushes that are tilt sensitive (for graphics tablet users), better compatibility with 64-bit computers, and some sort of 3D thing that I've never looked into. Now that I have CS5, I only occasionally use Elements (usually just when I need to do something small and quick). However, I never felt that Elements was lacking (though it was difficult to follow a few tutorials because of the differences). So I say, start with Photoshop Elements
(unless you know you'll need those added features), then move on to the CS series
when you're ready (I suggest getting the Extended line, which is what I have).Corel
Now, Corel has a variety of programs. I've only ever used Corel Painter Sketch Pad, which came free with my Intuos 4 and is a lot of fun. However, I believe that CorelDRAW(which is a vector program like Illustrator) and Corel Painter (a raster program like Photoshop) are the main Corel programs that artists using (Corel Paintshop actually seems to be photo-editing related, not painting related). Of those two, Corel Painter seems to be the most well loved (or at least the one I hear the most about). Painter is actually in my art program wishlist. I've seen some great art made with it, and never heard any major complaints about Corel, so I suggest both CorelDRAW
and Painter
(there appears to be an Essentials version of Painter available, just like with Photoshop).
IllustratorI'm not much of a vector artist, but I've seen some stunning vector work. I've used Illustrator enough to be reasonably comfortable with it (it was part of my Advanced Computer Arts college class) and it seems to be pretty awesome. I don't have CorelDRAW, so I can't compare them, but I image they are similar enough. So I also reccomend Illustrator
.
One of my personal favorites, this is a free open-source art program. Because it markets itself as a program that replicates traditional media (like Painter), I like to call it a poor-man's Corel Painter. It looks like it hasn't been updated since November 2011, but I'm fine with my current copy. It lacks a few things that would be nice, like to ability to make a selection and move it, or do simple contrast adjustments (which means that it's good if you have a copy of Photoshop on hand to tweak your work afterwards if necessary). But if you think about it, in traditional media you can't do any of that, so this is just a very realistic digital version of working in traditional media. I especially like to use it when I'm sketching, because it has an infinite canvas (that you can crop down if you like). There are tons of different brushes, for dry media and wet media, and they do a pretty good job of replicating their real-life counterparts. So if you're like me and can't get Corel Painter just yet, I definitely suggest downloading MyPaint.
This free program is extremely popular as a Photoshop substitute (I've never used it). There are also tons of tutorials available for it. Personally, I would still suggest you get some version of Photoshop if you know you're going in the digital art direction, because when you become professional you'll probably want to use one of CS series and you'll be familiar with the software (I am not aware of any professionals who use GIMP, though I'm sure some exist). But if you're a traditional artist checking out what all the digital stuff is about, GIMP is a free way to try it out. And if you can't afford any of the Photoshops, then it appears to be a great substitute. You can download it here.
I see Paint Tool SAI being used very often, and people really seem to like it. I've actually never used it, simply because I already have Photoshop and MyPaint, and Paint Tool SAI isn't free. It may appear that you can get an English version for free if you simply Google "Paint Tool SAI", but what you're getting isn't the full program, just parts that are edited to give the program a better translation (as clarified here) because the company is Japanese. You can get a trail/buy the program here and get the translation pack here.
Graphics Tablet
Now, while there are great examples of mouse-drawn digital art, I highly suggest that anyone who plans to even be simply a digital art hobbyist get a graphics tablet. They make the digital art process so much easier. Wacom rules the graphics tablet world, and for a good reason. I started out with a Wacom Graphire 4 without doing too much research into tablets, and loved it until the day I noticed it was dying (it wasn't very pressure sensitive anymore). I started researching other, cheaper brands, but couldn't find a single true competitor. The other brands are cheaper, sure, but they're not as good as a result. Luckily for me, my parents got my a Wacom Intuos 4 for Christmas, and it is wonderful! It's large (I have a dual-monitor setup, so it has to spread its control over a lot of pixels), it's wonderfully sensitive, has different pen nibs to allow it to feel more like a soft brush or firm pen (it came with a generous amount of replacement nibs, but I haven't had to use them yet), and I can use the tilt sensitivity features in Photoshop CS5. However, I am in art college, and plan on taking this tablet with me into the "real world" where I expect to put it to good serious use. If you are just a hobbyist or a beginner, one of the Bamboo versions will probably work fine for you (Bamboo is Wacom's newer version of the Graphire line). If you already have a tablet and are ready to step it up, then the Intuos
is great. The legendary Cintiq
is probably ten times greater (I've seen a few at my college, but never been able to use them). The tablets come in many different sizes, so make sure to measure your desk to make sure it'll fit. And one important tip: make sure to check the size of the tablet's "active area." This is the amount of space of the tablet that you actually have to draw on. A lot of the size of these tablets is inactive surface and button surface area.I hope this was helpful! If you agree or disagree with my recommendations, feel free to leave me a comment!
Until next time!
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