Digital Painting Programs ...which is the best?

The question of what application is best for digital painting comes up over and over again.  The fact is that there is no so called "best".  Which application you use is based on a variety of things. such as affordability, platform (which OS), capabilities, hardware and personal preference.  Here is the run down on the ones I would suggest.

Krita For Windows

After going through the hassle of adding a dual boot to my laptop and a virtual Linux machine with Virtual Box on my desktop just to try out Krita 2.4, I come across a Windows installer for Krita.

Blender 2.6.4 Test Builds

Blender Test Builds for 2.64 are out.  That means that 2.64 will be released soon.  Download the test builds and check out the list of new features HERE. 

-Steve

Copying Is Good Practice

There are a lot of ways to learn how to perform a task.  In art one of the fundamental ways is to copy other artists work that you admire taking away skills and approaches that you may not otherwise learn. 

Spring Colors

    

Every spring I am amazed at the colors.  Part of it is how gray winter can be and the contrast that spring brings with it.  But I can't get over how brilliant and bright the colors are.  They seem faked.  If I were to see these same values in a photo or in a painting I would find it hard to believe. 

Blender 2.6.3a Update

The Blender Foundation released version 2.6.3a a few weeks back to corrected a few issues prior to the version 2.6.4 that should be out soon.  The Blender Foundation is keeping a greate pace with release dates being about every 10 weeks.  Blender can be found HERE.

-Steve

GIMP 2.8 Release

GIMP 2.8 was released recently and as usual I like to use the Partha.com builds   I haven't had a lot of time with the new build so let me know what you think.  The GIMP developers have been making good progress so I am looking forward to working with the newest release..

GIMP can be found HERE.

-Steve

Blender 2.6.3 BMesh Modeling System

Blender Foundation still working hard. They have just released version 2.6.3. The biggest update this time around is BMeshes Modeling System. Their quick overview can be found HERE and you can download Blender 2.6.3 HERE. I am very happy and proud of these guys. They have been working hard for years to rebuild Blender for 2.4 series into this modern one.

-Steve

Blender VSE and Avidemux: How To Rotate Video

  

This is part of the Blender VSE (Video Sequence Editor) series in which I demonstrate how to rotate a video clip. I also add a secondary method using Avidemux since both methods will produce varying results. If the original clip had not been a MOV file I could have used Virtual Dub Mod.

Blender can be found HERE

Avidemux can be found HERE

Bledner VSE - How To Adjust the Speed of a Video

  

This is part of my Blender Video Sequence Editor Series. In this tutorial I show how to change the speed of a video clip using Blender. I used a small video clip that is 640x480 px at 30 FPS running around 4 minutes in length.  By adding an effect I change the snowball fight into a high speed chase sequence ...or something like that.

GIMP 2.7.5 Official and 2.7.6 Unofficial Release

I have been using an "Unofficial" release of GIMP 2.7.5 from Partha.com (which is now hosting the Unofficial 2.7.6 version) but earlier this month the "Official" version was released. It is still in development but there have been a lot of great changes. The change log can be found HERE and the Official release can be found HERE. My Personal preference is to the Partha builds.  They seem to be tweeked in a way that suits me.  Both versions can be installed at the same time, so experimenting between the two is easy. Give it a try and let me know what you like or dislike and remember to report any issues. Steve

GIMP vs Photoshop

GIMP vs Photoshop? 

There are many reasons to use GIMP even if when we have Photoshop.  Both Photoshop and GIMP are great tools, though GIMP maybe an alternative to Photoshop. it is not an equivalent.

The Gamut Mask Tool Overview

This is a free online tool for creating Gamut Masks which aids in refining a color palette. This tool was created by Richard Robinson and is hosted on his site Live Painting Lessons.com HERE. The Gamut Mask can be either printed or taking a screen shot with another free tool Greenshot and saved as a PNG (PNGs have more detail than JPEGs). From there you can easily create a color palette in Photoshop or GIMP (not shown here.)

Blender 2.6.2 Released

Blender Foundation has released version 2.6.2.  Blender is a professional grade CG suite and has come along way since their 2.4 version.  Even Lynda.com has created tutorials on Blender HERE.  What irony ...a commercial tutorial for an Open Source application.  Blender 2.6.2 change log and download can be found HERE.

-Steve

Digital Painting instead of Traditional Painting?

Why Digital Painting instead of Traditional Painting? I get asked this question a lot.  Of course neither is better than the other but for me there were many advantages starting with digital painting.

How To Add Google Chrome to Linux Mint-12

Two browsers are better than one.  It will enable you to test web sites and check on browser based issues or incapabilities.  Under Windows we get Internet Explorer and with Linux we get Firefox as the default, which I normally use as my default in both Windows and Linux.  But how about a second browser like Google's Chrome?

JPEG or PNG for Print

Which image format should you use for prints ...JPEG or PNG?  This question eventually comes up when we find that our prints don't look sharp.  Or we do a painting at 300dpi, flatten it and send it off to prints.  The reason is usually that you saved it a JPEG format.  Do you know that differences between JPEG and PNG? 

OpenShot Video Editor for Linux

One thing I have had issues with is doing video editing on Linux.  In Windows I use Authoring Works 4, but I could not find one that was a good alternative.  Then I came across "OpenShot Video Editor".

Blender VSE Part-3: How To Add Fade In-Out Effect

Part 3 of the Blender Video Sequence Editor (VSE) show how to animate the opacity of the image added in Part-2 to create a Fade In-Out effect.

Hope this helps,

-Steve

LINK: https://youtu.be/69KP-8Ezvao

Blender VSE Part-2: How To Overlay Images

This tutorial is Part-2 of the Blender VSE (Video Sequence Editor) series.  This video covers adding or overlaying and image. Overlaying images is useful for adding titles, watermarks or description to your video

Hope this helps,
-Steve

LINK: https://youtu.be/f5uMFrd5El8