Patriot
Active Member
So you want to be a fantastic artist but like all artists you have no money? In this day and age, no problem. There are many free and open source alternatives to the big name art software brands. While they may not be quite as feature rich, most have a dedicated core of developers and a large user base who are generally rather helpful with questions.
2D Raster Graphics (i.e. Photoshop):
Software: GIMP
Description: The filter set is not nearly as comprehensive as Photoshop (certainly no easy button), but if you are adept at programming you can write your own filters and macros. The primary feature of Gimp is the price (Free). It has support for pen & tablet (I have the really cheap Bamboo pen). It has full layer support though experienced users of Photoshop will probably miss the layer effects that they get with their expensive program.
2D Vector Graphics (i.e. Illustrator)
Software: Inkscape
Description: Not having used Illustrator myself I can't provide a decent comparison. I do know that Inkscape does work for various vector graphics creation as I have used it for that.
3D graphics (i.e. Maya, 3Ds Max)
Software: Blender
Description: Blender is a fairly mature 3D creation suite. Having purchased (student discount) and owned a version of Maya I was rather put out when I watched my investment become practically worthless as each new version came out without a decent upgrade price for myself. Blender is regularly updated with free downloads for all. It has a very strong community for development and support. They produce some of their own products which they sell to keep the developers employed. The features rival that of the major software names and actually surpass that of the version of Maya I had owned. The learning curve is a bit steep as much is accomplished with keyboard commands and the interface is not entirely intuitive (in their defense, it is laid out more for workflow than for beginners to pick up). With a recent update the interface can actually be change to mimic that of the other software giants. Many great tutorial sites exist (with free tutorials) that help the beginner to get started with the program.
There are many other alternatives, these are just the primary ones. http://www.osalt.com/ has a fairly good listing of open source alternatives. Feel free to mention any I might have skipped.
2D Raster Graphics (i.e. Photoshop):
Software: GIMP
Description: The filter set is not nearly as comprehensive as Photoshop (certainly no easy button), but if you are adept at programming you can write your own filters and macros. The primary feature of Gimp is the price (Free). It has support for pen & tablet (I have the really cheap Bamboo pen). It has full layer support though experienced users of Photoshop will probably miss the layer effects that they get with their expensive program.
2D Vector Graphics (i.e. Illustrator)
Software: Inkscape
Description: Not having used Illustrator myself I can't provide a decent comparison. I do know that Inkscape does work for various vector graphics creation as I have used it for that.
3D graphics (i.e. Maya, 3Ds Max)
Software: Blender
Description: Blender is a fairly mature 3D creation suite. Having purchased (student discount) and owned a version of Maya I was rather put out when I watched my investment become practically worthless as each new version came out without a decent upgrade price for myself. Blender is regularly updated with free downloads for all. It has a very strong community for development and support. They produce some of their own products which they sell to keep the developers employed. The features rival that of the major software names and actually surpass that of the version of Maya I had owned. The learning curve is a bit steep as much is accomplished with keyboard commands and the interface is not entirely intuitive (in their defense, it is laid out more for workflow than for beginners to pick up). With a recent update the interface can actually be change to mimic that of the other software giants. Many great tutorial sites exist (with free tutorials) that help the beginner to get started with the program.
There are many other alternatives, these are just the primary ones. http://www.osalt.com/ has a fairly good listing of open source alternatives. Feel free to mention any I might have skipped.
