Should I order Painter8 ?

[paulette conlan]

Hi

Not sure of the right place to post this but this looked like a good place to start.

Got an early Christmas gift of a Wacom pen tablet and they are offering me Corel Painter 8 at the upgrade price. Wondering how much I would use it if I get it. A version of the Painter software Procreate Painter Classic came bundled with the tablet and I was fooling around with it abit. I'm really not certain if I could do much more in Painter than I can already do with the brushes,patterns etc in Photoshop7. Any advise?

Thanks
Paulette

[DannyRaphael]

If you know how to use it, IMHO Painter's painting and natural brush and media capabilities paint circles around Photoshop - regardless of version. Operative qualifier: "If you know how to use it."

Among the challenges of Painter:
* It's got a pretty steep learning curve
* Learning resources (books, web tutorials) are extremely skimpy compared to Photoshop (but I've heard very good things about the offerings via www.EclecticAcademy.com)
* In order to get what I would consider decent results from it, one should have a fair amount of traditional skills in the areas of sketching, shapes, shadows, etc. (I don't) or be prepared to (or have a desire to) learn them.

Since you've got Painter Classic (Painter 5), I'd say install it and give it a go. Functionally P5 and P8 have a lot of similarities, so if you can get your arms around Classic, see its potential and want more, then I'd look into P8.

Don't be misled by "the upgrade price" promo. When Painter 8 came out that price was offered by Corel to anyone with pulse and a competing product, one of which is Photoshop.

Note: If you do get P8, beware there's a patch for it that literally needs to be installed immediately after P8 installation (without having opened P8).

Good luck and happy painting...

~Danny~

[paulette conlan]

I think you answered my question. I'm going to hold off on the new version. Drawing is not one of my strong points and I'm really more interested in photography. That can be my next project after my slide show one.

Even after 2 college courses in Photoshop I still feel I have a long way to go with some of the more advanced features. Think I'll stay focused on that. Thank you for the link. I'll take a look at it.

Just love following the studio and art forums. My New Years resolution is to concentrate more on things that I really want to do( like photo art) and stop wasting time on stuff I don't care about.

Paulette

[roger_ele]

Be sure to load Painter Classic and you the "just add water" brush on a photo, you a small brush for the details and smoooch those pixels around. It is kind of like a smudge painting, but with painter you have more control.

When you open you photo, (after fixing tones, resizing, etc. in Photoshop). Do File>Clone, this creates a copy like File>Duplicate in Photoshop. Next go to File>Clone Source and make sure you original photo you opened first is checked.

Open the 'Art Materials' Window and select the Color box at the top left. Under the color wheel is a box marked 'Clone Color'. When this box is checked you are painting from your original image (the 'clone source' as checked uder File>Clone Source menu item THROUGH the brush that you are painting with.

I took a class from Jeremy Sutton, a Painter teacher - He messes up a photo until it is all smooshed. Then goes back through with different brushes with the 'Clone Color' checked to bring/blend the image back through. Jump in and try it. It is amazing.

In the Brushes window on the left is the category, on the right is the brushes with-in that category. Start by playing with the brushes in the Liquid and Cloner Categories.

Control the size and opacity of the brush in the Controls window.

Roger

[paulette conlan]

Thanks for the tips guys! Decided that I'd order the upgrade since they are offering it with a training CD included. Have enjoyed working with the painter software but I really have a long way to go with learning it.

Danny, you mentioned a need for a patch. Is that something you think I'll have to download or do you think that when they send me the CD it will have been taken care of.

Paulete

[DannyRaphael]

The 8.1 patch is available at Corel's site. I'm 99.8% sure it will not be included on the CD you receive.

Important:
* To install the 8.1 update, you have to deinstall 8.0 (completely) -- even if you've only started it only once.

So...
* While you're waiting for 8.0 to arrive, download the 8.1 patch from Corel's site
* When 8.0 arrives, install 8.0, but DO NOT START IT YET.
* Install the 8.1 patch

Then you'll be up to date and will have installed 8.1 w/the least amount of hassle.

Speaking of Painter, if you haven't yet, check out the very reasonably priced Painter classes ($20/ea) at www.EclecticAcademy.com. Having taken a couple Painter classes myself + acquired a few books, these look very good.

Happy Painter-ing.

~Danny~