Ok, I’ve asked this on a lot of different forums, and it looks to me like I’ll be able to do what I want with PSP (Paint Shop Pro), which is making sigs/textureing for meshes.
I’m looking into PSP because I’m not sure that the Gimp is quite powerful enough.
I read one review that said PSP had about 80-90% of the power of Photoshop.
Is this true?
And what about the newest version? Corel PSP X? Is it any good? It got only like 3.5 stars on Amazon; a lot of people d it…
Is it actually pretty good or should I stick with an older Jasc version?
For sigs and texturing? I’d bet that GIMP is plenty powerful enough. Have you given it try? If not, it’s definitely worth the download and effort. I’ve been using PS for years, and although I miss some of it’s workflow, GIMP has been a pretty decent replacement. I haven’t tried GIMPshop yet (GIMP made to look and feel like Photoshop), but will probably give that a try some day too.
PSP? Sorry can’t help there, but have heard good things about it.
I pretty much agree with bigkahuna. I’ve used Photoshop for years (since 1996) and there’s nothing that can touch it. Most powerfull and stable. The only app I’ve used that extensively that’s never crashed. It is not very expensive at all, compared to a lot of other proprietory software that is filled with bugs, features that simply does not work (3ds max) and keeps on crashing away on Windows, but only works on Windows…
However GIMP is certainly powerfull enough to do any texturing and, of course, its open source!
Personally, I would try the GIMP first, and if you find that it doesn’t meet your requirements, buy Photoshop.
I’ve tried the Gimp, I guess I need to do some more digging
What do you mean Photoshop isn’t very expensive:confused: It was like $600 the last time I checked…that’s expensive on my budget…which is less than $100.
And I had trouble figuring out that Gimpshop thing; its hard to navigate these open source download sites (sourceforge, and wherever I got Gimpshop from…).
I agree ebow3d. Give the gimp a try (and if you are familiar with the paintshop interface use gimpshop which I am using right now. I havnt used photoshop though so I can’t tell you the differences but I find that gimp fills all my 2d image editing needs.
Photoshop has a lot of features, but alot of it is bloat ware too.
I own adobe creative suite and i could easily do without a lot of features, not because I don’t personally use them, but because it’s pointless crap especially 99% the filters.
Theres 3 real core feature that are used in digital imaging apps:
The brush and similar tools for painting and alike.
selection and shapes tools.
attribute editing (such as levels)
Depending on what you want to do, though most of those feature are present in almost every imaging app to a decent degree.
Anyway u can buy photoshop at the discounted price education version if you wanted, you can use that for comercial work.
ehhhhh… I don’t think so. I have quite some educational versions, but none of them can be used for commercial work. Would be quite stupid from the manufacturer to allow that, wouldn’t it?
Actually the only allowed purpose for educational software is… well, education/training.
I know $600 isn’t a little money ( you should check it in my country’s currency…), however, compared to a lot of other propriatery software prices, its cheap. Look at 3ds max for instance!
Remember Photoshop is seen by most, if not all, professionals as the standard in 2d imaging. It is so good that even open-source supporters , like me, don’t really rip it off!
Still, I’m sure that GIMP would fullfill all your needs.
I’ve played with Gimpshop, but did not find any advantage over the standard Gimp. Its just an interface difference, and the standard Gimp interface does not really bother me.
Student question
"I’m very interested in buying the Education version of Adobe Creative Suite, but first I want to know if the software can be used to produce work for paying customers once I am working in the industry, or do I have to buy a different version of Creative Suite once I’m working in the industry?”
<b>Answer</b>
Good news! You can use Adobe Education software (any title!) to produce commercial/professional paid-for work when you leave school, or even while you are in school. In this regard, Adobe does not limit how student software is used. So students can use it to learn and to make money!
(Of course, students must agree to the terms of the End User Licensing Agreement — which appears during installation — just as every software customer must do.)
Times are changing. I think the whole can’t use adobe education for commercial purposes is retailers basically saying so without facts. Infact, when i was shopping for adobe creative suite CS2 i came across the education version and thought about getting it, and all the sellers said its not for commerical purposes, rather home /person etc… and i only bought Adobe creative suit like a couple of weeks ago.
If you only have $100 to spend, put it in the bank and save it for something really important. If you had problems with Gimpshop, forget it, just use Gimp. If you have problems installing regular Gimp (which is kind of hard to fathom) go to one of the Gimp forums (like this one: http://www.gimptalk.com/index.php ), or even here, to get some help. Honestly, for textures and everything a 3D artist needs to do, Gimp will do it. It’s just a matter of sitting down and learning. Believe me, it will be a whole lot easier than learning Blender… (which isn’t that tough once you’ve put your mind to it).
Yeah, I never upgraded to the latest Photoshop because most of the new features are for the print industry, and the hardware requirements have become rediculous (not to mention their new installation / copy protection scheme which is a pain). I’m using Gimp now as my primary paint app, it’s probably a bit tougher since I’ve got so much history with PS, but it does the job.
I’d tell you to go buy a used copy of Photoshop 7 for $100 (I see them on eBay all the time), but chances are you’d be buying a ripped copy, not many legal copies for sale out there. So really your best option is Gimp.
Photoshop Elements is a stripped down version of Photoshop. I have Photoshop 6, Photoshop Elements 2 and of course the Gimp.
PSE 2 i my primary tool at the moment. I has the best user interface of them all, it’s stable and has the jitter brush (which is essential to me). (And please don’t tell me about the jitter brush in Gimp. That version nearly made me punch a hole in my notebook screen… Maybe it’ll all be good when 2.4 is out)
The most noticable drawbacks of PSE are the missing professional print stuff and less options with the layer styles, but it’s still a powerful tool. Why not download the demo version?
It’s more that they removed some of the stuff that professionals are more likely to use. But like I say, you can only decide if it’s enough for you by trying it:
Not trying to ruffle any feathers, just trying to be objective:)