Artrage 3 vs Painter

[ecofugal]

hi everyone,
i mostly use Photoshop for digital painting but lately i have been looking at trying two other painting programs, Artage 3 and Painter 11.

From what i have read I sense Painter is a huge program with endless options whereas Artrage 3 is simpler and more intuitive.

does anyone have any recommendations of one over the other?

heres a recent podcast on artrage3

http://ninjamountain.blogspot.com/20...-45-radio.html

-------------------------------------------------
Artage 3

http://www.artrage.com/

Painter 11
http://www.corel.com/servlet/Satelli...3#tabview=tab0

[mattchee]

Well I can't speak for the newest versions, but I have both ArtRage 2 and Painter X.

I have a hard time taking ArtRage seriously. Things may have improved (i notice in your links the price has gone up and they have a "pro" version now), but on the whole, I'd say ArtRage felt like a "for fun" program, while Painter feels like a serious art program.

On the other hand, I find Painter to be way more draining on my system resources than I'd like it to be (especially considering my computer far exceeds their "recommended system requirements"), and that's not the case with ArtRage.

At the end of the day, though, if I had a choice, I'd take Painter. With artRage the scope of what you can do is limited, the interface feels hokey, and (at least in my version) it lacks some of the most basic art program tools such as paint buckets and normal marque/masking/selection tools (instead you get "stencils" and things like simulated french curves).

While you're researching natural media programs, you may want to take a look at ArtWeaver. It aspires to be a Painter-like program, and its free*. I played with it a bit and it seemed pretty cool, but then I moved on to Painter.

*Edit: I was looking into it and saw that now Artweaver has gone to a v1.0 and introduced a paid version. They still have a free version available with some limitations.

[Guru_George]

Mattchee right. Some brushes and texture in painter will eat up your ram and computer resources, but if your computer can handle most of the brushes in painter then you’re good to go with painter.

[Voider]

I have a hard time taking ArtRage seriously. Things may have improved (i notice in your links the price has gone up and they have a "pro" version now), but on the whole, I'd say ArtRage felt like a "for fun" program, while Painter feels like a serious art program.

Pretty much this, couldn't have said it better, even thought AR3 is more advanced it's still very much like a program for kids and people who like to draw and paint for fun (as in: not for print), I also found AR3 really slow and award to use, the brush controls although simple are very confusing, imo.
Painter is still miles more practical but it's full of bugs and you need to mess with the brushes in order to make them a bit faster.

I would recommend Paint Tool SAI, Photoshop and Manga Studio as real alternatives to those programs. I know loads of people who just use SAI and CS because one has the blending and lineart pens the other the color control.

[Rey de las Cabras]

I don't know that it is really fair to compare the two. Painter at its lowest price is four times the cost of ArtRage. I have been a fan of ArtRage for awhile and have been considering purchasing the most recent iteration (though I can get for half price since I own the previous version...I wouldn't really consider it for full price). I will fully admit I do not use ArtRage for my 'serious' art, but it is a lot more fun than the more serious programs. Fun and play are important aspects of creativity as well!

I can't speak to Painter, its been a long time since I used it, and was very put off by earlier versions. I have considered picking it up again, but the price of admission is a bit too steep for me.

Another piece of software I have been messing about with recently that 'imitates' traditional media is Autodesk's Sketchbook Pro, but I have to say I am really disappointed. The Pan and Zoom to navigate around your drawing is super awkward and the paint brush really just sucks. Honestly I think the iPhone app is a better application that the full version.

[malachimanson]

I really like artrage. I lost my copy of it =( . However I always managed to go back to photoshop. Its just one of those things. I've tried Sketchbook pro. I still have the trail on this computer. However I have yet to figure out how to get my wacom tablet to work properly with that program. My mouse arrow disappears when I go to use it. No matter which tool I used it vanishes. I'm thinking its a Windows 7 64bit issue.

[ecofugal]

Thanks

many thanks for the great feedback everyone.
i just downloaded Artrage 3 demo and will try it out

[Symson]

ArtRage can be used for professional work and has been used on some comics also. You do have to import the final art into Photoshop to save it to the correct color space for printing.

I started doing a video demo for 2.5 using a touch screen, but now I'll switch to 3. 0 and do demos for that from now on.

You can see the first one here.

[Aurora Borealis]

I've only tuoched artrage 2 and painter x too.

My contact with Painter was limited to starting it up and having it crash on me half hour after that. I'm sorry, but if a program crashes on me nearly straight away when I'm just messing randomly with tools and brushes, there's no way I am going to trust it while working on actual art.

Artrage on the other hand fired up smoothly and worked fine, but I can't really use it due to my screen being crap (colors change value depending on their amount on the screen, position, neighbouring colors etc. not good for painting at all). I'll see it again once I can afford a better screen.

I've been sitting in Photoshop 7 for the last 5 years and I think it has crashed on me... three times total?

[Huerta]

It honestly doesnt really matter what you use as long as you know what you're doing.

Ive been using photoshop ELEMENTS for the past 6 years and thats been working fine for me.

[Dan 3000]

I know I'm a little off subject here but I have been trying Sketchbook Pro (trial version) with mixed results. First the brushes, I downloaded some thier brushes and I now started to make Custom brushes and I like it. They work well and you can add some good texture but its difficult to get that tighter smother look. Then there's the interface, its meant to be used with a Tablet. Which, after some exploring, is pretty well thouhgt out. All you need is the key board and the pen to do everything. So overall I would recommend it if you are looking for a drawing app. I have also seen a few people online use it with some success .