I have seen the forums you guys have put onto the website and they look great. I want to know what programs you guys actually use. I tryed dogwaffele but it sucked and I can’t erase it of my computer.
Do you mean 2d for image editing.?. or do you mean for 2d animation.?.
For 2d image editing, that is free, is GIMP.
I mostly use photoshop 7, just because last I checked GIMP it did not have an action section. So that I can record some of my own editing and then play it back with just a mouse click, for any image, without having to do it again manually. GIMP does have some very cool features that photoshop does not have. GIMP has a nice flare system, cloud generation, and more, but I mostly use actions, So I pretty much only use Photoshop. I still will sometimes use GIMP for things I cannot do in photoshop.
For animation, I am not sure of a good one yet…
I use gimp for most of my (really rare) cg drawing/painting. I don’t really have much of a use for painting in CG, being colorblind, so i pretty much just use it to clean scans, but i do use it to do some painting work and sketching here and there. Pretty solid, probably the closest you’ll get to photoshop without spending, but if money is no object you should check photoshop out.
If you want a more ‘painterly’ type image you can try Artrage.
http://www.ambientdesign.com/artragedown.html
There’s a free version and a full version. It’s like a poor man’s version of Corel Painter. I just like free software 
Photoshop/Gimp are probably the two most common 2d apps around these parts tho.
Inkscape (Vector artwork, like Adobe Illustrator)
GIMP (image manipulation program, like Adobe Photoshop)
Those two are great. Inkscape is especially good if you want to be a logo designer, because it’s vector, so you can scale your work large or small without losing quality.
wow artrage is pretty fun, just tried it out. dunno how I’d never heard of it. its is a lot more intuitive than dogwaffle but dw is really powerful too. much steeper learning curve though. sort of like some other program…:rolleyes:
There’s a new kid on the block called Artweaver (http://www.artweaver.de). It’s freeware and available for Windows.
I have not gotten it to work on Ubuntu yet so it’s a bit hard to form an opinion about it.
Another options would be Krita (works on linux but needs KDE packages) and Gimpshop.
For animation, there’s a program called synfig that I’ve heard is pretty capable.
I tried synfig on my computer and could not get it to run… but I have windows… also they are still kind of in the development stages of that… But it does look very impresive
Now what I’m talking about is a program not for editing I don’t need that because I currently have adobe photoshop elements 2.0 so I don’t need anything else. What I need to get is one I can create pictures that look good and proffesional. I don’t know how to use 2d design very well because I can’t measure anything and if I don’t measure my stuff comes out sloppy so is their a program that can help me make good quality pictures and measure and curve things.
Well for the measurements, photoshop has the grid/measure on the edge of a picture… if you have it enabled, and for the curve things… it all depends on what you mean by “curve”… you distort objects a lot of different ways… but I would need to know exaclty what you what with curving…
Also kind of a dumb simple way… is just get an ordinary ruler in real life, and just measure what is on your computer screen manually… 
sounds like you’re looking for inkscape (free) or adobe illustrator (not). they both use vector graphics for perfect resizable shapes and clean measured lines. but no program is going to draw for you or have a button that says “make good”. read some books and practice sketching from real life
well, if you’re talking about websites, I use Macromedia Studio 8, so Fireworks. As for general image editing, i usually use gimpshop.
~Nyth
vector
yup! vector!
that is true to. ^^ so you need a vector graphics editor, id allso go with incscape. i mean its free!
If you are on Linux, you could try free Xara LX.
You see I don’t have a gift for 2d design and I can’t make pictures just edit them. THis is why I use adobe 2.0 to edit pictures. I was wondering how do you guys make picturs.
We draw them, or paint them, depending on what you want. Also, we practice a lot and learn a lot, much like school (or in school if you are lucky and really want to go pro) and tho I’m still no good at all, I’m definietly improving. Really, if you want to learn to draw, all you need is a piece of paper and a pencil. For painting, first a piece of paper and pencil and when that goes well, some natural media software like painter. But I have seen nice results with gimp as well, and then there is artrage, which is pretty much like oil painting, tho definietly harder to use then painter (for me). Or you can buy some tools and paint in real life, tho that’s messier. And of course you need a tablet to paint on computer, unless you are as good with the mouse as some people out there, but that’s rare.
But basicly it’s practicing and learning, understanding perspective, light and shadow, anatomy, colors, etc. the tools only matter later.
Could you tell me the techiques you use or point me to some tutorials on 2d painting techniques.
cgtalk.com art techniques, theories form (or something like this). Especially the Art Tutorials, Theories, and Book Recommendations sticky.Some great books there on color theory and perspective, but on the other topics as well. I can’t say what I do, since I’m not a great artist and I will never be, because I don’t have enough time to practice. But still, I’m better (tho still bad) than I was when I started.
I’m not talking about color I’m talking about creating things from a paintbrush. Or making a texture for another program. I am also talking about making a intense scene to because on this forum I’ve seen some good work and I want to learn to make that too. So can anyone point me into the right direction.
Finaly you actualy tell us what you wanted , before you were just asking preety much this: “HOW I BE GEWD AT ART?!” and there is no tutorial for such a thing so next time your time you requesting tutorials remember actually a request specific kind of tutorial.
Making things straight from a digital brush?!?! ZOMGWTFBBQ?! ive literally never heard of ANY ONE doing this ,preety much all of them(espically the really good ones) tend to first draw it out on pencil and paper , scan it onto the computer , and colour it . If you were trying to make them straight from a brush on the computer no wonder you questioned why people on here were so good , that way would just be akward and imposible.
Texturing help depends on the program your using, i dought you will get any real help with photoshop elements , youd be better off with photoshop cs2 or gimp 2.3(or 2.2.13 if your on windouze) i my self have both gimp and photoshop cs2 i tend to use gimp more , i like the colour choosing systems they have in gimp better , the plasma and cloud plugin tends to help if making textures in it as well. any way google is your friend so google " texturing tutorial in (what ever program you use)"
making an intsense scene is a harder thing to get help with its mostly, well just a talent some artists have not all have it and they are still good.( that is if your talking about the concept and idea of the scene not the effects used in it)