[Ren]

I just got my wacom and was curious, what makes Painter 8 different for Painter Classic? What features could I look forward to if I upgraded to Painter 8?

Thanks,

Rene

[AndyT]

Probably there will be a link to the features of Painter 8 soon!?
It is almost like a completely different program.
A bit like comparing Paint with Photoshop 5.5 maybe!?
Ok a bit exaggerated.
But in Classic there are no layers for example. Guess that says it all ...
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http://www.conceptworld.org

[Jin]

Hi,

In Painter Classic 2, which is probably the version you have since you just got your Wacom tablet, there are:

Layers
Water Color Layers
Liquid Ink Layers


No Alpha Channels
No Layer Masks

A relatively small number of brush variants in a ralatively (relative to Painter 8 and earlier full Painter versions) small number of brush categories, 15 categories to be exact.

We can't add extra brush libraries, art materials libraries, or Nozzles libraries in Painter Classic 2 and the only brush variant adjustments that are available are Size, Opacity, and Grain.

We can't create and save custom brush variants, create custom brush categories, or create and save custom art materials and Nozzles in Painter Classic 2.

We don't have Custom Palettes in Painter Classic 2.

The Effects menu options are very limited in Painter Classic 2.

In Painter 8/8.1, we have:

Layers
Water Color Layers
Liquid Ink Layers
Dynamic Plugin Layers

Alpha Channels
Layer Masks

Over 400 hundred brush variants in the default Painter 8 brush library, in a total of 33 brush categories. There are many extra brush libraries on Painter 8 CD 2 and we can load other brush libraries either created by the user, from third party book CD's, or downloaded from the Web. In addition, we can create endless numbers of custom brush variants, place them in custom brush categories, and place those brush categories in custom brush libraries.

We can also load extra art materials libraries from Painter 8 CD 2, load other art materials libraries created by the user, from third party book CD's, or downloaded from the Web. In additon, we can create (again, endless numbers of) our own custom art materials, such as Patterns, Papers, Gradients, etc.

Painter 8.1 (with the patch installed) provides us with Custom Palettes to hold brush category icons, main menu command buttons, and palette menu command buttons. Using Custom Palettes, we can customize our workspace and workflow for specific tasks.

Painter 8/8.1 offers us the Movies feature so we can create a Framestack of images and save them to a QuickTime movie, AVI movie, or GIF animation.

We can record scripts and play them back into a Framestack so we can have a movie or animation of our painting process (or whatever).

The Effects menu options include, among many others:

Surface Control, including Apply Lighting and Apply Surface Texture (and others)
Objects, including Align and Create Drop Shadow
Serigraphy Effect
Woodcut
Distress
Sketch
... too many more to mention here...


The best way for you to know what Painter 8 contains is to download the free 30 day trial version from the Corel site and play with it as much as possible:

http://www.corel.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=Corel2/Products/AllProducts


In the meantime, explore Painter Classic 2. Though it's only a very limited software to get people interested in upgrading to Painter 8 (or the current version), it does offer some nice features and some very nice brush variants. Read the User Guide (Help > Help Topics) and work through all of the tutorials found in both the User Guide's chapters and installed on your hard drive. You'll have come a long way toward understanding what full Painter versions are about.

Have fun in any case!



Jinny Brown
Painter Classes at TutorAlley Forums
Tutorials and Painter Info at PixelAlley

[AndyT]

[Jin]

Hi AndyT,

If the Art Materials palette isn't open, use Ctrl/Command+3 (or Window > Show Art Materials).

Click the small triangle at the left side of the Layers section name to expand the section.

At the bottom of the Layers section, click the Create New Layers icon (center icon) and choose one of the following:

New Layer
New Water Color Layer
New Liquid Ink Layer

If you don't see a Layers section in the Art Materials palette, you don't have Painter Classic 2.

To double check, use Help > About procreate Painter Classic (or Corel Painter Classic if that's what they're using now that procreate no longer exists) and you should see 2.0.0 if it's the procreate release and possibly if it's the Corel release it'll have a newer number after the 2.....

Painter Classic 1 didn't have Layers at all, only a single fairly useless Floater that immediately dropped to the Canvas the minute you did anything else other than move it using the Floater Adjuster tool. When it was moved, it took a "bite" out of the Canvas, leaving that area blank.


Jinny Brown
Painter Classes at TutorAlley Forums
Tutorials and Painter Info at PixelAlley

[fae]

i've heard a few bad things sometime/somewhere 'bout painter 8 - i use 7 when i use painter, and used to use 6. there are things i like 'bout both of 'em - but i got to use 8 once for a short time, and it didn't seem to friendly to me =(.
_________________
~a shadow, a moment, a memory-- a monument, a legend, a legacy~

[Jin]

Painter 8 takes some getting used to, if you've been used to earlier versions.

It's much better with the 8.1 patch installed and Custom Palettes returned to us.

I hate the Brush Creator! It's a completely unnecessary resource hog and interrupts the workflow considerably.

Ah well.. we shall see what the next version does to us.





Jinny Brown
Painter Classes at TutorAlley Forums
Tutorials and Painter Info at PixelAlley

[AndyT]

Thanks for the reply Jin.

"About Painter Classic" was the first thing I clicked.
The only thing there is "Wacom 1.0" ... and I thought it is not the version number of Painter!?
Maybe it is ...

There are no triangles in the Art Materials.
So I guess my Wacom tablet is a little older than I thought

Thanks again.
_________________
http://www.conceptworld.org

[Jin]

AndyT,

Yep, Painter Classic 1 (the one that says Wacom.... 1.0) doesn't have Art Materials palette sections arranged like they are in Painter Classic 2.

Instead, to open the sections, you need to click the icons along the top of the Art Materials palette, below the words:

Color
Paper
Grad
Pattern
Nozzle

As you can see, there's no Layers section in Painter Classic 1. It does have some nice features not available in Painter Classic 2, though:

We can add extra brush libraries (as long as they're compatible with Painter 5 and Painter Classic 1).

There are some very nice brush variants. The Brush category's Big Wet Luscious variant is a favorite of a lot of long time Painter users.

Painter Classic 1 has the old, much loved, Water Color technology, simple and easy. It's based on Painter 6 and, because the Painter 6 and earlier version Water Colors are painted on the invisible Wet Layer (at the Canvas level), we can paint with both dry brush variants and Water Color variants on the Canvas. As long as the Wet Layer remains wet (is not dried by unchecking Canvas > Wet Paint), we can paint with Water Colors over dry brush variant brushstrokes without disturbing them, and vice versa.

We can also add extra art material libraries.

A lot of Painter users have Painter 7 and still hang on to Painter Classic 1 just for the old Water Colors. Even with the Painter 8 Digital Water Colors which come close to the old Water Color technology, there's enough difference to make keeping Painter Classic 1 (or Painter 6 and earlier versions) installed along with Painter 7 and Painter 8.



Jinny Brown
Painter Classes at TutorAlley Forums
Tutorials and Painter Info at PixelAlley

[makototaramoto]

I little tip, alot of people complain about high $$ for certian software such as Painter or photoshop. Many of them are in colledge or High School but fail to take advantage of this status. Educational Discounts will save you alot of money. My friend bought Painter/Illustrator and Photoshop for little over 300 a good find.



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mercer