Painter 6 - To Buy or Not to Buy
Sceadu
the problems with Painter 7, should I just buy Painter 6? I found where I can get it
cheap. Frankly, I already like the watercolor brush in Painter Classic, and I'm not sure
I want it replaced with the slow, dark, 'n buggy Painter 7 brush. Painter 6 pretty much
has everything I need/want, so is there anything so special about Painter 7 that I
shouldn't just buy 6 and then upgrade to 8? ...if it ever exists, that is.
Sceadu
Jinny Brown
You could by Painter 6, an when Painter 7 settles down, upgrade. The
Water Color Brushes in Painter 7 may never be able to do what Painter 6
Water Color Brushes can, so you'd then have the best of both worlds.
Painter 7 has a lot of potential, once we get the bugs fixed and figure
out how to make the most of it.
F'rinstance, I'm learning more about how to handle the Painter 7 Water
Color Brushes every day, and enjoying every bit of it. The slowness is
not even so much a problem as it was at first... and I don't have a lot
of RAM or speed with this three year old computer.
There's hope (and I'm keeping Painter 5 and 6 on my system too).
Jinny Brown
PixelAlley's Section Links:
http://www.pixelalley.com/pixelalley-sections-pages.html
(Painter 5 and 6 tutorials, Painter 7 info, tutorials, PDF downloads,
brushes)
Contact: jinb...@pixelalley.com or,
Painter Forum at In Depth Discussions:
http://www.critical-depth.com/cgi-bin/idd/
______________________________________
Mur~
I still really enjoy version 5.
Mike~
If you would like to see my original, digital paintings -- goto:
www.MurGallery.com
"Jinny Brown" <jinb...@mindspring.com> wrote in message
news:3BD7A741...@mindspring.com...
techt...@attnospam.net
rocks :-) Beautiful media and effects. How is 6 working out for you all?
Matthew R. McClellan
Hybridigm Media & Design - Charlotte, NC
Find me on the web at: http://hybridigm.home.att.net
techt...@attnospam.net
Jinny Brown
I think everyone's pretty aware of problems with Painter 7. A lot of us
have worked with the Water Color brushes enough now to learn how to
speed them up and more about generally how to use them and the
accompanying Water Color Layer capabilities.
Learning how to use Painter's brush settings requires some time and
study.. and experimenting.. especially for some of the more complex
brushes. As was true for earlier versions, with a lot of the brushes, a
large brush size can slow down performance.
I have a 3 year old Pentium III, 500 mHz, 128 MB RAM system and Painter
7, in general, is not slow for me.
Although it sounds like you've made up your mind, here are some things
you can do to speed up the Water Color brushes, along with a lot of
other information on Painter 7, copied from a message I sent to one of
the newsgroups recently:
_________________________________
If you haven't done this already, please visit my website and follow all
of the links on the right side of the PixelAlley Section Links page.
They all have to do with Painter 7 and contain collected information on
this version, such things as tips, problem reports, workarounds and
solutions where they've been found, three PDF files from Painter
Developer John Derry, his Visual Guides for Painter 7 Keyboard
Shortcuts, Water Color Brushes, and Liquid Ink Brushes. Also a PDF file
contribution from Painter artist, writer, and teacher Karen Sperling, a
solution from Judy Miller and a related tutorial from Painter artist,
writer, and teacher Jeremy Sutton... as well as various contributions
from other Painter users and some things I've added. The URL is:
http://www.pixelalley.com/pixelalley-sections-pages.html
In the meantime, some things that seem to speed up some of the Painter 7
Water Color brushes:
Brush Controls > General (or Controls:Brushes palette): Decrease Brush
Opacity.
Brush Controls > Size: Move the Feature slider to the right (decreases
the number of bristles and can make the stroke less dense, so experiment
to get the best balance).
Brush Controls > Water: Move the Wetness slider to the left (decreases
wetness).
Brush Controls > Water: Move the Dry Rate slider to the right (speeds up
drying)
Brush Controls > Water: Move the Dry Rate slider to the right (decreases
drying time, alers brush characteristics so experimen to find the best
setting).
Decrease the brush size if possible.
When you're at my website checking the Painter 7 links, be sure to
download the brushes on the Painter 7 Custom Water Color Brushes page.
All but the top one are relatively fast compared to the default Painter
7 Water Color Brush Variants, especially Matt's Old Watercolor Brush
that's good for laying down large areas of color pretty smoothly. Still,
beware of overlapping colors resulting in the dreaded "black effect"..
similar to what would happen when overlapping certain color combinations
in traditional watercolor. (Even the top brush, named
WCDryCamel-antique-pool.XML can be made very much lot faster by making
some of the setting adjustments mentioned above. I can even get it to
paint in real time if the brush size isn't too large.)
Good luck, :o)
Jinny Brown
PixelAlley's Section Links:
http://www.pixelalley.com/pixelalley-sections-pages.html
(Painter 5 and 6 tutorials, Painter 7 info, tutorials, PDF downloads,
brushes)
Contact: jinb...@pixelalley.com or,
Painter Forum at In Depth Discussions:
http://www.critical-depth.com/cgi-bin/idd/
______________________________________
Shoshanna Moser wrote:
>
> I purchased the Painter 7 upgrade in late August, knowing that it was
> a gamble to do so, and have regretted it ever since. Do yourself a
> favor and save yourself money, aggravation, frustration, and
> irritation-- buy version 6.
>
> The watercolor situation in Painter 7 is a particularly ugly
> nightmare, and that's only the beginning. The Painter 7 "upgrade"-- a
> misnomer if ever I've heard one!-- remains in my computer, but will
> not be used until a major (and badly needed!) patch appears on the
> horizon. Until then, I will continue to use version 6, and would
> advise others to do the same.
>
> Frankly, I would have returned version 7 for a refund, but events
> during the weeks following my purchase of the software merited far
> more attention than any due a slow and bug-ridden graphics program.
> And the bottom line was that I knew what I was doing when I took the
> chance on upgrading-- over the last few years Corel's track record in
> this regard has been unspeakably bad. If they continue to hold true
> to form, six or seven months from now they will issue a patch, which
> may or may not address most of the serious issues, and may or may not
> solve those problems that most annoy us. If you don't find this
> particularly reassuring, good. Unlike Corel, I wouldn't want to lie
> to you about what to expect.
>
> Shoshanna
<SNIP>
Sceadu
Sceadu
<techt...@attNOSPAM.net> wrote in message
news:Ou0D7.145175$3d2.4...@bgtnsc06-news.ops.worldnet.att.net...
Simon
but still suffers from the slow-down that the watercolor brush causes.....at
least it's a lot better now....
Thanks!
"Jinny Brown" <jinb...@mindspring.com>
???????:3BDCDE06...@mindspring.com...
Jinny Brown
Congratulations! That's a great price.
You'll probably want to download and install the 6.1 patch. Below are
the FTP server URL and some instructions in case you've already
installed Painter 6. Even if you haven't installed Painter 6 yet, follow
the appropriate parts of the instructions installing Painter 6, then the
6.1 patch.. and so on. You'll need to follow the instructions carefully
to avoid problems.
ftp://ftp.corel.com/pub/Painter/6.1
To Uninstall Painter 6, reinstall Painter 6 and the 6.1 patch, and
create a backup copy of the Painter 6 default files:
1. Move any files you created to a folder outside of the main Painter
folders.
2. Uninstall Painter 6.
3. Manually delete any remaining Painter 6 installed folders and files.
4. Reboot.
5. Install Painter 6, then immediately install the Painter 6.1 patch.
6. Reboot.
7. Before launching Painter even one time, create a new folder outside
of the Painter 6 folders and name it something like "Painter 6 Default
Files Backup".
8. Go to the main Painter 6 folder and copy all of the default Painter 6
files.
9. Go to the "Painter 6 Default Files Backup" folder and paste the
copied default Painter 6 files into it.
Now you have a backup set of Painter 6 default files so when one of them
becomes corrupted, which happens on occasion, **with Painter closed** go
to the "Painter 6 Default Files Backup" folder, make a copy of the
appropriate file, then go to the main Painter 6 folder and paste the
copied file into it. This will save your having to Uninstall and
reinstall Painter 6 and the 6.1 patch again if a file becomes
corrupted... and save frustration, too!
Have fun! :o)
Jinny Brown
PixelAlley's Section Links:
http://www.pixelalley.com/pixelalley-sections-pages.html
(Painter 5 and 6 tutorials, Painter 7 info, tutorials, PDF downloads,
brushes)
Contact: jinb...@pixelalley.com or,
Painter Forum at In Depth Discussions:
http://www.critical-depth.com/cgi-bin/idd/
______________________________________
Jinny Brown
Great! Working, even if not perfectly, is better than not working, eh?
<g>
I can't explain it yet, but working with the Water Color brushes in
Painter 7 becomes easier and a lot more fun with time and practice. For
now, I'm mostly at the intuitive stage with them. Somehow things have
gotten better and beyond what I've listed here, I can't say exactly why.
Just know it's more enjoyable and a lot less frustrating... and faster..
and this is no time to quit!
Jinny Brown
PixelAlley's Section Links:
http://www.pixelalley.com/pixelalley-sections-pages.html
(Painter 5 and 6 tutorials, Painter 7 info, tutorials, PDF downloads,
brushes)
Contact: jinb...@pixelalley.com or,
Painter Forum at In Depth Discussions:
http://www.critical-depth.com/cgi-bin/idd/
______________________________________
Simon wrote:
>
> I just tried some of your tips and it works (although not perfect)
> but still suffers from the slow-down that the watercolor brush causes.....at
> least it's a lot better now....
> Thanks!
<SNIP>