Making music artwork. Alternatives to Adobe?

[pekbro]

I'd explain the implications of that, but no
one would get it probably...

of course not, you're obviously the only one round here who would be able to understand something like that.

Well, I didn't really mean it like that, poor choice of words. It was more like, nobody cares about
that stuff, trying to explain it, just makes me look like an asshole.

I wrote about R.A.D. tools in another thread the other day, then deleted it for the same reason.
Although, I bet it's true than many around here have never heard of VB or Delphi.

[GaryG]

I bet it's true than many around here have never heard of VB or Delphi.

I still have to maintain legacy VB programs, someone thought it was the way to go rather than use the more modern tools we had available.....

Remember messing with Delphi as a way to get into VST programming (I think there was a popular template knocking about at the time) but never really got that far.

#addingnothingtotheconversation

[zerocrossing]

I'm no fan of AI art. In fact, I hate it

Me too - but we aren't talking something that will hang in art galleries (hopefully). We're talking about an album cover. If it looks good, it would be nice to hear that the musician or perhaps a family member/friend made it, but I don't much give a flip in the end. And I'd rather a good-looking AI cover vs a crappy "authentic" one (Billy Joel River of Dreams, need I say more).

Here’s the thing, the planet is full of good visual art. Go to your closest art school and put up a flyer. Buy someone a dinner in exchange for using their art.

[GaryG]

maybe a gamechanger...

Affinity tools now free

The three previous apps all rolled into one, free to download (account needed natch) and use forever apparently...

from the site:

"Yes, Affinity really is free. You can use every tool in the Pixel, Vector, and Layout studios, plus all of the customization and export features, as much as you want, with no restrictions or payment needed. If you’re on a Canva premium plan, you’ll also be able to unlock Canva’s powerful AI tools within Affinity."

So, guessing they want to drag people away from Adobe by making the tools free and making money from the AI addons? As long as they stick to the 'forever' bit then a good thing it seems...

https://www.affinity.studio

[pekbro]

Sadly, the main problem is that it’s no where near as good as adobe. Interesting development tho.

*Thats from a professional perspective tho, most folks wouldn’t know the difference.

[GaryG]

Oh I'm definitely most folks

I currently hack around in paintshoppro but very aware of it's limitations (limited vectors etc) so jump to inkscape fairly often. Affinity Studio could be a nice consolidation of workflows for casual users like me.

[enroe]

Well, most people here have long preferred the standard programs GIMP, Krita, and
Inscape to Adobe's subscription models. GIMP also handles the newer HEIC and
JPG XL formats better.

[Tracewidth]

It might sound implausible or surprising but I've found that the (cheap) phone app MirrorLab is excellent for making album covers out of any old image files of snapshots.

I'll never give Adobe a red cent again in my life. These days I have all I need with ProCreate and Krita. Since, as an artist, aesthetics are of crucial importance to me, I will not use something called 'GIMP'. Jesus H Chyst.

[pekbro]

Photoshop, believe it or not, is primarily a painting program, the best alternative for it is likely painter from Corel, which can be had for cheap every so often on the humble bundle.

If you're just doing photo-retouching or something, the serif stuff is probably fine for most.

*I stopped buying the latest versions of Painter due to the humble bundle actually.

[GaryG]

Well, most people here have long preferred the standard programs GIMP, Krita, and
Inscape to Adobe's subscription models. GIMP also handles the newer HEIC and
JPG XL formats better.

I found some GIMP project files from ~17 years ago on a backup recently so I've given it many gos over the years but still it just doesnt click for me. I just find it so unintuitive, adding alpha channels before you can cut things out(?) and stuff.

*I stopped buying the latest versions of Painter due to the humble bundle actually.

just remembred you gave me a paintshoppro license a while back from a humble bundle deal, has had a lot of use so thanks. Though i did upgrade to a new version in one of their deals, 76p I think ...

[satYatunes]

I found some GIMP project files from ~17 years ago on a backup recently so I've given it many gos over the years but still it just doesnt click for me. I just find it so unintuitive, adding alpha channels before you can cut things out(?) and stuff.

Same here... I have tried it many times and still do but I always quit after 10-15 mins. Same for Inkscape as well. I am not sure why they try to do some standard stuff in different way. UI for GIMP and Inkscape has improved over the years but UX part needs improvement. The only open source app that I like is Blender and it has come a long way.

Now that Affinity is free, anyone who wants jump from Adobe or any other app should give it a try. Affinity Designer is a fantastic program. It took me a while to move away from Adobe but I have been using it for all my design work since AD v2.

[replicant X]

I tried GIMP before, but I didn't have a very good impression of it.

Recently, I found out about an add-on called PhotoGIMP that makes GIMP more Photoshop-like, so I gave GIMP another try.

However, it didn't feel like Photoshop at all, so I tried using it while researching the controls a bit. I was frustrated at first, but once I learned how to do the tasks I often do in GIMP, I realized it was totally usable.

Then I realized, since I learned Photoshop first, I find GIMP difficult to use, but that's probably not a fair assessment of GIMP. I learned Photoshop in school and used it at work. Thinking back to when I first started learning, I don't think Photoshop was intuitive at all, and I don't think there are many people who can use it after just 15 or 20 minutes of playing around with it.

Most people are able to use Photoshop because they think it's their own fault if they can't use it properly because Photoshop is the standard, so they work hard to learn it. I realized that GIMP isn't as difficult as Photoshop if you just research and learn how to use it step by step.

[pekbro]

just remembred you gave me a paintshoppro license a while back from a humble bundle deal, has had a lot of use so thanks. Though i did upgrade to a new version in one of their deals, 76p I think ...

I forgot about that, glad you were able to put it to good use

[pekbro]

Gimp is perfectly easy to use, I've even used it in major productions. It's just not as good as PS for painting, which is really where PS shines. Me and my buddy craig will use it to say convert a television show that was filmed during the summer, to make it appear as it's winter. E.g. 100 % of the winter environment is painted on by hand, that's when you learn to appreciate PS (or painter). It's often just a matter of preference between PS and painter for actual painting.

*I can't do that btw, I can just take direction from Craig. Craig Mullins, if you watch forrest gump, the china pingpong background scene, all the people etc, is a painting he did for that movie. He's pretty bad ass, lives here on Maui, like me.

He doesn't have to pay for PS btw, he's been a primary tester for PS from day 1.

[forgetitbestie]

I tried GIMP before, but I didn't have a very good impression of it.

Recently, I found out about an add-on called PhotoGIMP that makes GIMP more Photoshop-like, so I gave GIMP another try.

However, it didn't feel like Photoshop at all, so I tried using it while researching the controls a bit. I was frustrated at first, but once I learned how to do the tasks I often do in GIMP, I realized it was totally usable.

Then I realized, since I learned Photoshop first, I find GIMP difficult to use, but that's probably not a fair assessment of GIMP. I learned Photoshop in school and used it at work. Thinking back to when I first started learning, I don't think Photoshop was intuitive at all, and I don't think there are many people who can use it after just 15 or 20 minutes of playing around with it.

Most people are able to use Photoshop because they think it's their own fault if they can't use it properly because Photoshop is the standard, so they work hard to learn it. I realized that GIMP isn't as difficult as Photoshop if you just research and learn how to use it step by step.

I definitely agree with this. Graphics is something I dabble in, so I can't justify Photoshop's expense or learning curve. When I gave GIMP a chance I got quite comfortable (and competent) with it.