Looking to upgrade to/ try a different graphics editing program

[Bastrophian]

So i was really thinking about buying a PS subscription and start learning how to use it. Since even though gimp can do many of the same things but just not all things, Im wondering again if its worth it. Im wanting to get into graphic design, next year im planning to take it in school, i know that most professional artists use PS so im thinking im gonna do that. But im also looking at Pyxel Edit, it says its geared towards making animations and tilesets which is great, but cant PS do all the same things it can, just as capably?   

 

[noctiluca]

There are still a lot of things that Photoshop can't do very well especially when it comes to digital artwork (like easily making seamless tiles, or having multicolored brushes... I have no idea why they aren't features yet. Then again I have an "old" version CS5 bought outright because I hate the subscription model, so I don't know if they plan on updating soon or not). Photoshop was originally intended for doctoring photographs after all. Some of the other design features like decent vector tools or page layout tools are split into Illustrator and InDesign.

If you plan on taking graphic design classes I would wait and get the student discount. The graphic design classes I've taken though were all analog and we did everything by hand when we could; Photoshop was completely optional.

Also depending on what it is they want to do, professionals use all kinds of programs in their work. If you're working in a company where they provide the software though, yeah it's usually photoshop. So it's still valuable to know how to use it.

 

[Bastrophian]

There are still a lot of things that Photoshop can't do very well especially when it comes to digital artwork (like easily making seamless tiles, or having multicolored brushes... I have no idea why they aren't features yet. Then again I have an "old" version CS5 bought outright because I hate the subscription model, so I don't know if they plan on updating soon or not). Photoshop was originally intended for doctoring photographs after all. Some of the other design features like decent vector tools or page layout tools are split into Illustrator and InDesign.

If you plan on taking graphic design classes I would wait and get the student discount. The graphic design classes I've taken though were all analog and we did everything by hand when we could; Photoshop was completely optional.

Also depending on what it is they want to do, professionals use all kinds of programs in their work. If you're working in a company where they provide the software though, yeah it's usually photoshop. So it's still valuable to know how to use it.

Waitings probably a good idea, but yeah the subscription thing is what sorta turns me off too.

 

[Sharm]

I've moved this thread to Program and Utility Discussion. Please be sure to post your threads in the correct forum next time. Thank you.

It really depends a lot on what you're doing.  If you're used to GIMP, switching to Photoshop may not actually be the best move.  There are a lot of things that other programs do much better and for everything else GIMP does equally as well.

Pyxel Edit is really quite wonderful, I've got it running right now.  It's pixel art only though, so if you're wanting to do other style graphics it isn't going to work for you.  Photoshop does not do what Pyxel Edit does at all.  Pyxel Edit is optimized for making tilesets, so everything about it is set up to optimize doing just that, like being able to map with the tiles and draw on the map and have the tiles update in real time.  If making pixel tiles is something you want to do, even casually, it's worth every penny and more.

If you want to do tiles more like Ace's or MV's RTP, Krita might be a good move.  It's not as awesome for making tiles as Pyxel Edit is, but it does have something that is impossible to find in any other painting program, a wrap canvas feature.  Okay technically it does exist in Painter too, but the one in Painter is terrible to the point of being useless.  Krita's got some crashing problems and it isn't good for editing things, but for making things from scratch it's really great and beats photoshop in a few things, like brushes and tablet support.  Plus it's free.

 

[Bastrophian]

I've moved this thread to Program and Utility Discussion. Please be sure to post your threads in the correct forum next time. Thank you.

It really depends a lot on what you're doing.  If you're used to GIMP, switching to Photoshop may not actually be the best move.  There are a lot of things that other programs do much better and for everything else GIMP does equally as well.

Pyxel Edit is really quite wonderful, I've got it running right now.  It's pixel art only though, so if you're wanting to do other style graphics it isn't going to work for you.  Photoshop does not do what Pyxel Edit does at all.  Pyxel Edit is optimized for making tilesets, so everything about it is set up to optimize doing just that, like being able to map with the tiles and draw on the map and have the tiles update in real time.  If making pixel tiles is something you want to do, even casually, it's worth every penny and more.

If you want to do tiles more like Ace's or MV's RTP, Krita might be a good move.  It's not as awesome for making tiles as Pyxel Edit is, but it does have something that is impossible to find in any other painting program, a wrap canvas feature.  Okay technically it does exist in Painter too, but the one in Painter is terrible to the point of being useless.  Krita's got some crashing problems and it isn't good for editing things, but for making things from scratch it's really great and beats photoshop in a few things, like brushes and tablet support.  Plus it's free.

Thanks for moving it Sharm sorry for the trouble.

Yeah, i think ive tried krita before on my old computer. I could give it a try again now that i have a new one. On my old one it had this really weird lag problem. About Pyxel Edit, I know you said it wouldent work well for making painted style tiles, but would this work well for making parallax maps with the painted tiles....i hate copying and pasting in gimp....its gotten to where i get anxious just opening a file now XP lol?  Thanks again !

 

[noctiluca]

For making parallax maps w/tiles I actually recommend Tiled. It works a lot like the MV editor with many more features and (basically) unlimited layers. You can export the maps as images, either composited or by individual layer.

There's also a plugin for MV that supports Tiled but it's fairly basic and I don't really know how to use it effectively (or what it would take to get it to display isometric maps properly... like, I see what it is that isn't rendering properly and what would need to be fixed, but when I look at MV's code I can't find the important parts and my eyes glaze over. *sigh* someday...)

 

[Helladen]

Pyxel for sprites works great. Paint.net works fine for other stuff.

 

[fallenlorelei]

Everyone already has some great advice for you, but I thought I'd go a little off-topic about Photoshop. If you're going to take a graphic design class, you will most likely be asked to acquire Illustrator as well. Also - as a student - you can get the whole Creative Suite for relatively cheap, which comes with all the things you could ever need. It's true it's subscription based but you pay for the whole year, and it probably costs as much as a biology textbook

I love Photoshop for parallax mapping (Tiled is apparently really good, I haven't tried it yet myself) and for making title screens and all that fun stuff. Maybe wait for your graphic design syllabus before making any big purchases, though =] GIMP and Tiled will get what you want in the meantime.

 

[arcthemonkey]

I just wanted to thank this conversation as a whole (and the people involved) for introducing me to Pyxel Edit. I was still using GraphicsGale. I think I'm going to start using a Pyxel/MV/Tiled combo, and potentially cut GraphicsGale and Photoshop out entirely. My life is changed.

For $9.