Worth buying?
John
I've been running Painter 5.5 for a while as a back up to Photoshop but to
be frank the interface is too idiosyncratic. Version 6 upwards seems a more
standardised with other apps.
I'm wondering if it's now time to upgrade to 7 now that there's a bug fix.
I'm running WinXP home.
Any bad bugs? The upgrade isn't cheap so I'm a little wary!
Thanks in advance for any advice.
John
ron cavedaschi
John
Painter 7 is like the curates egg - good in parts. I keep both ver 6 and 7.
Frankly I think if I were you I'd wait for ver 8. But I suppose it depends
what you use in Painter. For straightforward painting ver 6 is fine. I still
find the water colour brushes pretty much useless in ver 7 - and no Jinny I
have not read all there is to read on the subject. It should work without
being an anorak.
Ron C
"John" <jcra...@freenet.co.uk> wrote in message news:3ceb5aa8_3@cnews...
John
software that they are all so deep it takes ages to master them and Painter
is expensive to upgrade. The brushes and effects are fantastic but it's
interesting to note that Photoshop is bringing in new brushes. Since there's
only so many tools Adobe can invent to touch up pictures it's likely that
the brushes and effects in Photoshop are going to become more advanced.
I'd jump to Painter right now if it had robust picture enhancing tools -
which makes up most of my day to day work - and if it had a logic and
interface similar to other apps - I don't have the time to relearn
everything! But there is so much I love about Painter... I wonder how much
might leak into Corel's PhotoPaint which does have a fair set of effects and
some brushes already.
I'll probably follow your advice and see what version 8 brings. Perhaps
Corel will move some of PhotoPaint's features into Painter - dockers for
instance. I loved PhotoPaint 9 but there were too many bugs that kept
cropping up that made it tricky to rely on when tight dealines loomed. On
the plus side it always seemed to give as much of the screen as possible to
what one was working on, which frankly Painter doesn't... yet?
"ron cavedaschi" <r...@ronschi.co.uk> wrote in message
news:3ceb650e_2@cnews...
MD
I think version 7 shows the promises of what I have wanted since I used
painter the first time in around 1994 on win 3.x, that being COLOR MIXING.
Yes the latest version 7 with update has color mixing similar to photoshop 7
or deep paint. Hopefully in next versions they will bring it out more into
the open and make it more powerful with a color mixing slider and greater
control, but for now you can do basic color mixing in Painter 7 (YAY!).
Don't let anyone tell you that it was there in the 6.1 version. You have to
find how to properly color mix through experimentation though as I think
corel was to scared to write about it for fear of patent infringment issues
with certain other compaines. So I think it might remain a "secret" you have
to figure out how to use for now. But it is there hidden in the realms for
you to figure out.
Also there is much better oil cloning brush which produces excellent
authentic look. Zoom properly works this time in increments. Despite what
others say about the watercolor brushes, they work a bit slow but they look
very nice, better then anything photoshop 7 could ever do or painter 6.1.
There is also a nice sponge brush which produces very realistic light
textures similar to many real paintings on canvas.
About the slowness compared to version 6, I don't notice any difference or
slowness with my athlon 500, 512mb ram, win me. It seems a bit faster
actually not slower except for the watercolor brushes which are a specialty
thing that have a very authentic look to them worth waiting longer for
output. Also you can control the speed of the watercolor as it has sliders
for how much "after effect" of water bleeding/spreading you want. You don't
have to have any which would not make it any slower then other brushes, you
just won't have full spreading effect of water into surrounding areas.
Make sure you experiment with all the sliders as this will be the secret for
you to making it work the way you want. There are a lot of sliders for the
water effects, thousands of possibilites very fine details possible. I
havent noticed any major bugs in the 7.01 update version that isn't in any
other graphic program I have used.
So in closing, version 8, probably August 2003 or so by my guess plus
updates, so if you want to wait that long for a few hundreds bucks, go ahead
but if you can afford it, version 7 is good with the update.
Nice day!
MD.
"John" <jcra...@freenet.co.uk> wrote in message news:3ceb5aa8_3@cnews...
>
Karen Sperling
What are you talking about?
Karen Sperling
Editor/Publisher
Artistry Painter tutorials and classes
http://www.artistrymag.com
MD
HEY, ask nicely.
1)You must have a light touch with a tablet. Pressing too hard will not give
you the mixed combination color but will just fill to the selected color
more fully and will not make you actually be able to see the combination
color because it will be filled in too much if one presses hard or has too
high opacity or other sliders too high.
2)It only works with certain brush configurations, don't ask me which cause
I didn't make any list, I just found it randomly.
3) You have to experiment with sliders of all sorts, don't ask me which ones
cause there doesn't seem to be anything exact concerning this.
4) If you have played with Photoshop 7 or Deep Paint mixing sliders you will
know what I am talking about concerning getting a combination color which is
the scientifically based mix of the 2 or more colors you are mixing
together.
5) I mentioned it is "basic" color mixing as I have found in my experiments,
and hopefully Corel will expand it and make it more powerful and easy to
control. It is not easy to control it or figure it out now.
Thats "what" I am talking about.
"Karen Sperling" <arti...@artnet.net> wrote in message
news:B9145604.9E6%arti...@artnet.net...
Jinny Brown
Betcha he means Brush Loading.
Jin
_____________________
Jinny Brown
Hey! Respond nicely. ;o)
Is it OK if I ask what you're talking about? I was too tired last night
to bother asking and apparently you don't have a clear procedure set up
anyway.. but others do and it's no great mystery. It just requires
learning to use the program.
When you get your procedure figured out, please write a tutorial and
share it with the Painter community. It may be a new and different, even
better way than the ones we've found so far.
By the way, not only the tutorial below, but several of the methods
listed below it (found at In Depth Discussions Painter Can forum) can be
used in Painter 6.1 and/or earlier versions. Color mixing is not limited
to Painter 7, by any means.
Believe it or not! ;o)
Here's at least one way to "mix" color (settings can be varied to suit
the Painter user's taste). Other methods are listed below this tutorial:
1. Open a new white Canvas.
2. Use Canvas > Grid > Show Grid (or click the Grid icon in the upper
right corner of the image window.
3. Use Canvas > Grid > Snap to Grid.
4. Across the bottom of the Canvas, draw two or three rectangular
selections, pick two or three fully saturated colors, and use
Ctrl/Command+F, using Current Color to Fill the selections.
5. In the Brushes palette, choose the Brush's Captured Bristle variant.
6. In the Brush Controls palette's General section, move the Opacity
slider to 21%.
7. In the Brush Controls palette's Well section, adjust the following
settings: Resat: 13%, Bleed: 38%, Dryout: 8.0, Brush Loading box
checked.
8. In the Objects palette's Layers section, create a New Layer and check
the "Pick Up Underlying Color" box.
9. Pick another color to mix with the colors in the Canvas's
color-filled rectangles, then paint on the Layer above each of the
Canvas' color-filled rectangles.
10. Using the Dropper tool, click inside one of the painted areas on the
Layer, where the colors were mixed.
11. Create a small rectangular (or square) selection at the top left
area of the Layer.
12. Use Ctrl/Command+F, using Current Color, to Fill the small
rectangular selection. This is a "color swatch" for the first mixed
color.
13. Repeat Steps 9 and 10, creating small rectangles on the Layer just
to the right of each previously filled "color swatch" until you have
"color swatches" for each of the mixed colors.
There are several other ways to mix colors in Painter and some of them
are explained and demonstrated in the In Depth Discussions Painter Can
threads (URL below my signature). Thread names to Search for:
Quick Color Mixing Method - All Painter Versions
Best way to mix color anyone?
Can I change a Brush into Blender?
Blending Variants - Which Are Your Favorites?
New Tutorial: Painting a Nude
These don't represent all of the methods used by Painter artists, but
they should give the new Painter user some options to begin creating
their own favorite ways to mix color. Many Painter users have created
their own very nice blending variants that are great for mixing color.
Jinny Brown
PixelAlley Section Links Page at:
http://www.pixelalley.com/pixelalley-sections-pages.html
Painter Can forum at In Depth Discussions:
http://www.critical-depth.com/cgi-bin/idd/
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