Art Program Help

[DragonGirl10188]

I really want to learn how to animate things but I can't seem to find a good program. I've tried Flash CS5.5 but it's not really working out for me. Any suggestions?

 

Also, how would you recommend I go about lip-syncing? It's hard to make my characters actually look like they're saying their lines.

 

And what technique would you suggest for shading on Paint Tool Sai? I use the airbrush and color parts black before changing the opacity and using the blur tool to soften the edges. I don't like the effect that much as it looks too dim.

For the shading:

 

You'll want to have your layers where the colours are on, and make a clipping layer on top of that. It's under the opacity button and if it's a clipping layer, the colours can only go where the layer it's clipped onto are. It's hard to explain, but if it's a clipping layer, a pink bar will come up next to it. Just experiment.

After that, grab a dark blue/purple colour, or whatever colour you wish. I suggest not using black, it doesn't look great.

 

The way I do shading is I colour the whole subject in the colour I'm going to shade in, turn the opacity down then erase where the light would hit.

Or you can just make the shaded areas with the dark purple/blue and blur. If you're cell shading, don't blur at all. Make sure to shade it with your main shading colour, then slowly add on darker layers.

The shading colour doesn't have to be dark purple/blue, I sometimes use dark pink or red, depends on the mood and image. I find if you use black, it looks a bit fake, because if you put your hand over your computer desk right now, or whatever's next to you, it isn't exactly black.

 

You could always go on deviantART and look up 'sai shading tutorial' too c:

 

Sorry if that made no sense, I'm terrible at explaining :'D

Basically, try not to use black, it doesn't look as great.

 

[wolfygirl4]

I recently got a drawing tablet and I really wanted to draw some Anime/manga. I have tried using ms paint with a mouse and my tablet but it isn't really working for me. I then got Paint tool Sai and was wondering if anyone could help me understand how to get the lines right and how to shade using that program. Just wondering if anyone can help? ^-^ Thanks

[TehUltimateMage]

I'm not too experienced using SAI (I prefer Photoshop), but I think most people who use it for anime and manga do their lineart using the pen tool, which lets you edit the lines easily even after you've drawn them. If you want to sketch by hand, I usually use the Ink pen tool, because the Brush too gives you this fuzzy thing that's useful for painting/shading (water brush is good for shading I think?) but not lining. ^^

[KageSora]

Not teeechnically a program question, but it's about digital art stuff, so...

 

Anybody have any tablet suggestions? Mine seems to have, well, vanished. It's years old and the pen was literally falling apart and it would have times it wouldn't work quite right (I mean, it was probably almost 10 years old and I'm not exactly easy on tech), so I'm not super crushed because I've been meaning to look into replacing it for a while...

 

So, what does everybody use?

 

I don't need something crazy fancy, just something that I can use for drawing.

[TehUltimateMage]

Not teeechnically a program question, but it's about digital art stuff, so...

 

Anybody have any tablet suggestions? Mine seems to have, well, vanished. It's years old and the pen was literally falling apart and it would have times it wouldn't work quite right (I mean, it was probably almost 10 years old and I'm not exactly easy on tech), so I'm not super crushed because I've been meaning to look into replacing it for a while...

 

So, what does everybody use?

 

I don't need something crazy fancy, just something that I can use for drawing.

The things that come to mind for an alternative to Wacom are my past tablets before I bought an Intuos: the Monoprice tablet and the Lapazz tablet. I can't say I recommend either of them, they're bulky and don't respond well and the pen needs a battery, even if it seems to support all these fancy pen gestures.

 

My recommendation is to just get a smaller Wacom Bamboo, since things are going to run you at least 60$ even if you look at cheaper ones.

[Wildmoon]

Hi, so, I wasn't entirely sure if this was the right thread/topic to ask this, but...

 

Recently, (well, just after christmas) I decided to finally buy myself a tablet. In which I purchased a Huion DWH69. It was around $100 dollars, so it was reasonably priced, not overly cheap, yet not overly expensive. And reviews seemed to be pretty decent too.

 

After it arrived, I set it up, and tested it all out, and it worked just fine.

 

Unfortunately, I got bogged down with random stuff and was too busy to take the time to use it until around a month later, and when I tried to use it again, it just would not work at all. The drivers all indicated that it should be working, but the pen would not "write or draw" at all.

Has anyone else had this issue with a tablet, is it a known issue with the company? And is it possible to fix?

[Evlon]

I recently got a drawing tablet and I really wanted to draw some Anime/manga. I have tried using ms paint with a mouse and my tablet but it isn't really working for me. I then got Paint tool Sai and was wondering if anyone could help me understand how to get the lines right and how to shade using that program. Just wondering if anyone can help? ^-^ Thanks

There are so many different methods for this depending on the look you want. My recommendation would be to hit up deviantart for tutorials that show the kind of look you want to use, and explore & experiment for yourself.

 

Personally I use a custom brush that mimics a brush tip marker-pen, since that's similar to what I would use in real life as well.

[Obscure_Trash]

Hi, so, I wasn't entirely sure if this was the right thread/topic to ask this, but...

 

Recently, (well, just after christmas) I decided to finally buy myself a tablet. In which I purchased a Huion DWH69. It was around $100 dollars, so it was reasonably priced, not overly cheap, yet not overly expensive. And reviews seemed to be pretty decent too.

 

After it arrived, I set it up, and tested it all out, and it worked just fine.

 

Unfortunately, I got bogged down with random stuff and was too busy to take the time to use it until around a month later, and when I tried to use it again, it just would not work at all. The drivers all indicated that it should be working, but the pen would not "write or draw" at all.

Has anyone else had this issue with a tablet, is it a known issue with the company? And is it possible to fix?

I would probably go to Q&A in General Discussion, as that'll most likely get more traffic.

 

I don't have a tablet, but when my iPad does things like this, a reset will clear it up. Is there a way to reset/force reset/restart the tablet?

 

Or sometimes on my iPad, something like netflix will just quit working, and I have to delete and re-install netflix for it to work. Is the pen just like a stylus or is there software connected with it that you can reinstall?

 

Sorry I don't have anything better. Tried looking up your device for advice but could only find pages with reviews, not support. Good luck!

[TehUltimateMage]

Hi, so, I wasn't entirely sure if this was the right thread/topic to ask this, but...

 

Recently, (well, just after christmas) I decided to finally buy myself a tablet. In which I purchased a Huion DWH69. It was around $100 dollars, so it was reasonably priced, not overly cheap, yet not overly expensive. And reviews seemed to be pretty decent too.

 

After it arrived, I set it up, and tested it all out, and it worked just fine.

 

Unfortunately, I got bogged down with random stuff and was too busy to take the time to use it until around a month later, and when I tried to use it again, it just would not work at all. The drivers all indicated that it should be working, but the pen would not "write or draw" at all.

Has anyone else had this issue with a tablet, is it a known issue with the company? And is it possible to fix?

Aha, I think they mean a drawing tablet, Sock.

 

I don't have that specific tablet, but most of the issues can be solved by uninstalling the drivers and reinstalling them. You should also check if the batteries in the pen are still working (some tablets have batteries in the pen).

[Obscure_Trash]

Aha, I think they mean a drawing tablet, Sock.

Sorry if it wasn't clear - I did understand that. It's just dealing with my iPad is the closest I can get to suggesting any possible routes to try. =o

 

Anyway, I'm glad you could be of more help!

Edited February 22, 2016 by SockPuppet Strangler

[Guillotine]

Hi, so, I wasn't entirely sure if this was the right thread/topic to ask this, but...

 

Recently, (well, just after christmas) I decided to finally buy myself a tablet. In which I purchased a Huion DWH69. It was around $100 dollars, so it was reasonably priced, not overly cheap, yet not overly expensive. And reviews seemed to be pretty decent too.

 

After it arrived, I set it up, and tested it all out, and it worked just fine.

 

Unfortunately, I got bogged down with random stuff and was too busy to take the time to use it until around a month later, and when I tried to use it again, it just would not work at all. The drivers all indicated that it should be working, but the pen would not "write or draw" at all.

Has anyone else had this issue with a tablet, is it a known issue with the company? And is it possible to fix?

Reinstall the drivers from the disk. Sometimes the OS deletes the tablet drivers because ???????

[Meg_752]

I'm looking to get a program for sketching, as I have a lot of drawings that I'd like to scan in and color. What program would you reccomend?

The only one I have right now is Paint.net, which is good for pixel art but I haven't been able to use it well for sketching.

I'd be open to whatever!

[TehUltimateMage]

I'm looking to get a program for sketching, as I have a lot of drawings that I'd like to scan in and color. What program would you reccomend?

The only one I have right now is Paint.net, which is good for pixel art but I haven't been able to use it well for sketching.

I'd be open to whatever!

GIMP is an alternative to Paint.NET but personally I've never got GIMP to work. I hear Krita is a pretty popular free drawing program which might suit your needs better.

[Wildmoon]

Ok. Its a nuisance, but I'll try reinstalling the drivers, thanks!

 

And there's a lot of good art programs. Photoshop is what I use, as its good for pretty much anything. Unfortunately, its rather pricey at above $500 :I

If thats an issue, There are a good alternatives I've heard of or used in the past though, I reccomend ArtRage which is $50, or you can get a free demo version. But the demo lacks the tools of the full version. Its a pretty simple program that emulates real tools pretty well. It is more geared towards tablet users, but can be used pretty well on a regular computer. It also has a feature for "Reference" pictures and "Tracing". But if you use OS X you will need to have an Intel computer in order to use it.

 

Failing that, there is "GiMP", this is a completely free program similar to photoshop, it has many of the same features, but I simply never found it as easy to use, although a lot of people do find it easier to use, so that may just be me.

[Astral]

I'm pretty well versed in Photoshop, so if anyone needs help with making gifs, blending modes, etc. I would be happy to help!

[Royal-Tentacle]

I'd like to announce a PSA.

 

I found a neat thing that pixel artists can use. I can't explain it since I don't know all that mumbo jumbo about using photoshop or gimp for pixels, but it seems pretty helpful. To quote a tumblr user that I found this from: "Lets you paint pixel art in Photoshop in a non-destructive manner, and lets you use pretty much every tool in a perfectly pixel-gradient fashion".

 

Link

[luketriton]

a really good art program i use is medibang paint pro! you can use it both on your desktop and mobile devices and there's tons of preset brushes you can use to draw with

 

if it doesn't work well with your device, you can also use firealpaca! it's a version of medibang that's more compatible with slower devices and you can also use onion skin to animate on it!

Edited May 21, 2017 by luketriton

[Obscure_Trash]

if it doesn't work well with your device, you can also use firealpaca! it's a version of medibang that's more compatible with slower devices and you can also use onion skin to animate on it!

Just a note. I use FireAlpaca and have noticed that it distorts slightly saturated colors/brighter colors (especially on sprites) if you paste them into the program rather than saving and opening them (experience from lineage templates).

[RainbowTheAlbinoServal]

Can someone tell me how to really use the free version of Sai?

Like I can't really draw there. The results looks nothing like my style. (and how to shade eyes?)

[TehUltimateMage]

Can someone tell me how to really use the free version of Sai?

Like I can't really draw there. The results looks nothing like my style. (and how to shade eyes?)

Depends what you want to do! Could you be more specific with what you're trying to draw on paper VS what you're trying to draw on the computer?

[irrelevantindigo]

Can someone tell me how to really use the free version of Sai?

Like I can't really draw there. The results looks nothing like my style. (and how to shade eyes?)

How can't you draw there?I don't think I know what you mean.

I know I'm super shaky, so I usually have the stabilizer cranked up to 15, or S7 when I'm doing linework. It helps things looks like when I actually draw on paper. :0

Also, I have a collection of lil tips and tricks for SAI? Maybe you'll find them helpful.

...although. I have the paid version of SAI? I heard they're functionally the same but I could be mistaken.

[Morell]

I use mainly Photoshop, but also Sai. Both work with graphic tablet well, but main part of all drawing is in your hand and head. You can ask, how to shade with pencil too, but you really learn it by trying it. And this is the same with digital art. You have to try, improvise, and do a lot of try and error, experiment.

Don't fear that you'll screw the pictures at first, because you will. Don't be bothered by it, each picture will teach you something and move you forward better artistic style, that will be your own.

Try to find your own way to do things with graphic programs, you'll find that many tools have much more uses than just those you are being given.

 

Edited July 9, 2017 by Morell

[AlaClaire]

I just started digital art. I want to figure out how to use Krita and their brushes. How does one achieve realistic fur on this program? thank you

[SomeRandomCorviknight]

Hi! Does anyone know if there is just like a solid-colored brush on firealpaca? Trying to make some pixelart stuff and the pen tool is extremely transparent on such a small scale.

[Fuzzbucket]

There are a load of brushes you can add, and choose their width.

 

https://firealpaca.com/en/topics/Add+brushes!

 

Not that I have ever seen this programme before....