[ceenda]

I'm thinking about purchasing Painter 6 and wondered whether I could get some feedback from the guys that use it on a number of things.

1) Does anyone know if Painter 7 is round the corner and whether it is a little 'late in the day' to be buying Painter 6?

2) Does the airbrush tool still give a streaky line effect when sprayed into a non-rectangular selection?

3) Someone (Binke, I think) mentioned that the layers don't work in quite the same way as Photoshop. In what way does the layering differ(with regards to the actual effect of painting on a layer and not the actual process of 'using' the layers interface)?

4) Is there any truth to the rumours that Painter 6 crashes alot?

Thanks for your time guys.

[ewiser]

1) Does anyone know if Painter 7 is round the corner and whether it is a little 'late in the day' to be buying Painter 6?

Look for it in the fall

2) Does the airbrush tool still give a streaky line effect when sprayed into a non-rectangular selection?

Not after the last two patches.

3) Someone (Binke, I think) mentioned that the layers don't work in quite the same way as Photoshop. In what way does the layering differ(with regards to the actual effect of painting on a layer and not the actual process of 'using' the layers interface)?

There are a few blending options that Painter has that Photoshop doesn't have.
Painter ---- Photoshop Blend Mode
Composite
Method
---------------------------------------------
Gel --- Darken
Colorize ---- Color
Reverse-Out --- Normal
Shadow Map--- Multiply
Magic Combine--- Lighten
Pseudocolor--- Normal
Normal ---- Normal
Dissolve---- Dissolve
Multiply ---- Multiply
Screen ---- Screen
Difference ---- Difference
Hue ---- Hue
Saturation ---- Saturation
Color ---- Color
Luminosity ---- Luminosity

So you want to watch how you set your layers if you work between Painter and Photoshop.

4) Is there any truth to the rumours that Painter 6 crashes alot?
The only crashes that I had in the years that I have used Painter was when I didn't have enough resources as far as Ram (256 ram now) and Dish space for the image I was working with. Like Photoshop the more ram and disk space you have the better it likes it.



[ May 18, 2001: Message edited by: ewiser ]

[ May 18, 2001: Message edited by: ewiser ]

[ewiser]

Hope this helps

[ May 18, 2001: Message edited by: ewiser ]

[quaternius]

what ewiser said...
plus

the airbrush in ver 6 was a major upgrade. If you airbrush a lot you'll want to take a look at the wacom airbrush tool. Folks I've spoken to who discover this tool don't want to do anything else for days...

My opinion on the layers is they are pretty much industry-standard now. The access to them is still somewhat funky, if you're used to Photoshop.

I don't have crash problems with ver.6 - like ewiser said, you should plan on plenty of memory and disk-space. But that is true for photoshop as well...

I use both Painter and Photoshop - I like the image creation features in Painter better, but the image manipulation features of Photoshop are more robust, easier and faster to use. For the definitive guide on the differences you should take a look at Wendy Crumpler's book - Photoshop, Painter, & Illustrator Side-by-side.

[Crazyquilt]

I'm new here, so be gentle.

I really, really dig Painter, and 6 is an excellent upgrade. Make SURE you get version 6.1 though -- I don't know if that's what's going out on the CD, but you can get the patch from Corel's site. Version 6. was often pretty unstable.

I know from the Painter list that v7 is in betatest, but other than the usual "it's going to be really cool!" copy, I've not heard anything else about it, except that Corel is allowing the development staff (still the same one from the days of MetaCreations) a less rush-to-market atmostphere, so hopefully v7 will come out with fewer birthing pains than the last several versions.

Frankly, I don't understand how people can draw in Photoshop -- its brushes feel so stiff and simplistic in comparison to Painter's brushes. Yes, the interface to Painter is daunting -- but learning it is worth it!

Now, when I composite or process, I jump over to PS -- Painter's ability to adjust images, composite, and run plug-ins is much inferior to PS's.

Incidentally, I've not gotten to use the Airbrush Pen for my Intuos, but I can highly recommend the stroke pen. The tip gives a little, and it has a very rich, fluid feel. If only it had an eraser, I'd never use my regular stylus again.

In terms of painting on layers, the only difference is that you MUST make sure to click the little box on the Layers palette that says "Pick Up Underlying Color." (It's right underneath the "Preserve Transparency" box.) Painter6.0 had a bug where the layer's transparency was funky. I can't explain the bug clearly, but it was pretty irritating, and meant that you couldn't smear transparency -- it turned white.

[ May 18, 2001: Message edited by: Crazyquilt ]

[NukleoN]

Crazy,

Hey I am glad to hear about Painter 7! I am a big fan, so you know I will be checking this out.

I do think that Painter 6 brushes, while better than Photoshop, are not as good as Painter 5.03. I would like layers tho (not in 5.03). The thing is, I can't seem to get my brushes to taper nicely at the start and end of each stroke in Painter 6..would you know how to get this effect? painter 5 does this well.

Yeah I agree with you tho, Painter 5 is awesome for drawing\painting...then bring it in to Photoshop for final stuff, and text in Painter? Fuggedaboudit..use Photoshop.

NukleoN

[ceenda]

Sorry for the delay in replying to this thread, but my internet connection seems to have died. Pressing the 'reply' button took 10 minutes just to load the Post A Reply page.

ewiser: Great info, thanks!

Thanks for the comments as well, some useful info there!

[ReSistanZ]

Can you read in Photoshop 6's PSD files into Painter 6? Because I can't in Painter Classic...

Thanks

[quaternius]

Hmmm... two painter threads;

NukleoN - from the other thread in case you missed it -
Have you tried the scratchboard pen/brush for the tapered effects (ver. 6)? Tweak the settings on this brush and create your own variants. This is a very good brush worth exploring - it will do what you are describing I think. Me likes; especially with the opacity turned down so you get some nice layering - some might say spooge-like.

I also try and use the other new "computed" brushes a lot now because they are noticably faster than the previous version's brushes -- at least for me.

Also, you should be able to tweak the brush settings to get the tapered (pressure) effect with other brushes. I have done it myself - 'cause it's a lot more like what I'm used to with a real brush.

On the eraser hotkey - have you tried locking the eraser in one of the palette drawer positions? That's the closest I've gotten. I've got a couple of the positions locked myself. For those of you who haven't done this - to lock the eraser in position 1, for example, get the eraser to appear in the first window of the "drawer" - click-hold on that picture of the eraser and hold your button down until a little green light comes on below the picture of the eraser -- now that position and tool are locked in place. You'll always have the eraser tool handy.

Crazyquilt -
oops - yeah, well-said - definitely get the latest patch. And da Stroke pen is da best too.

[NukleoN]

Hey there..

I have tried the scratchboard tool in Painter 6, but I found the brush settings to be confounding, counterintuitive and unhelpful. I still couldn't get the kind of stroke I came to love from Painter 5.

I will have to try that eraser trick..sometimes when I don't want to sample the background with the scratchboard tool I will just click the eraser...but it sounds like your trick is a good one. They really do need an eraser tool hotkey..a hotkey for all the tools would be great.