CoNsiSteNcY

back in the 00s a single dancing anime chibi gif would feed us for months on end

Hey :)

Camille Fourcade on Instagram

Happy Holidays! I hope you all get to eat an endless amount of good food like your stomach is a blackhole!

being a self-taught artist with no formal training is having done art seriously since you were a young teenager and only finding out that you’re supposed to do warm up sketches every time you’re about to work on serious art when you’re fuckin twenty-five

For the love of god stop

Why Krita is Awesome: A Collection of Reasons Why This Program is Worth Taking a Look At

Krita is a painting program that has been around for a while, and in the last few years, underwent major changes and improvements.  Because of these improvements, many artists are using it not just because it is free, but because it offers amazing features.  These are by no means all of the great things Krita has to offer, but simply some of my favorite features of the program.

1. The Brush Engines.

Yes, engines.  As in plural.  There are many.  And they all do different things.  There is no way you could possibly capture all of its possibilities with one screen shot, but here are just some of the possibilities. Along side standard round, square, and shape, and textured brushes, there are brushes that smear, blend, and create interesting abstract strokes.  There are brushes for filters, and one of my favorites, the Experiment Brush, which is basically a pre-filled lasso tool. 

Brushes also support weighted smoothing, or brush stabilizers.

This is incredibly useful for line art.  And while I do not usually use this feature, it is something that I feel many programs are lacking, such as Photoshop.

But its brushes aren’t the only thing about Krita with variety.

2. Color Selector Customization. 

Whether you prefer something basic, or something more complicated, Krita will likely have what youre looking for.  You are not likely to find yourself missing your other program’s color wheels.  There are even more options than this, and other color selectors.

Gotta love that customization.

Krita also has some great naviation tools.

3. On the fly rotation, zoom, and brush sizing.

With krita, zooming, rotating, and brush size scaling are all smooth, and dynamic with the use of hot keys.  These are features I miss when in other programs.  To zoom, Ctrl+Middle mouse button, hover over the screen to zoom in and out.  The same with shift rotates (press the ‘5’ key to reset rotation).  Holding down shift and draging your brush on the canvas dynamically changes its size, allowing you to see the change, and get the exact size you want without brackets. Brackets also work, if that’s what you are used to.  Krita also has highly customizable hot keys.

4. The Pop Up Pallet

The pop up pallet is a set of your 10 favorite brushes (which you can edit), and a built in color wheel that appears when you right click on the canvas.  It is incredibly useful for switching between those few brushes that you use in almost every picture.

5.  Real time, seamless tiles creation.

Pressing the W key in Krita will infinitely tile your canvas, and allow you to work real time on simple to complex tiled images.  You can zoom in and out to see how your tiles work form a distance, and paint freely to create seamless artwork easily, without having to check using filters and manually tiling. Very usefull for patterns, backgrounds, and games.

6. The Symmetry Tool

This one goes without saying, Krita supports both horizontal and vertical symmetry, along with a brush that is capable of radial symmtry with as many directions as you like.

Go nuts, kid.

There are many more reasons why this program is awesome.  And it is only going to get more awesome.  And the coolest thing about it, is that it is 100% free.  So go check it out!  There’s nothing to lose. Krita isn’t for everyone, it can be hard to get the hang of, and it is not meant for photo editing, it is a program completely focused on digital painting from start to finish. 

Give it a go and see if Krita is the program for you.

choirs of angels sing my praises for I have finally worked out a fast and clean way to draw foliage that doesn't look like ass or take one million years

Top 8 apps for 2D animation

Hello amazing people!

After the success of our Top 12 alternatives to Photoshop for digital painters and illustrators article, a few questions regarding animation programs appeared in our inbox. There are many, many apps to animate today: in this list we included 2D animation programs only, but these are the best of the best.

Formerly known as Flash, Adobe Animate helps you create interactive web-based content for games and ads using powerful illustration and animation tools.

Pros: user-friendly interface; many, many features; customisable layout

Cons: there are so many features that a few may remain hidden; it may get sluggish with big files (performance depends on the running machine); limited audio tools

Paid

Animation Pro is an app for iPad and it works like any powerful animation app!

Pros: drawing features; layers; lip-synching feature; affordable

Cons: the interface can look confusing to a beginner

Paid

Illustration or animation, CLIP STUDIO PAINT may be the answer to your needs. This program is powerful and full of amazing features and tools for the professional artist - and it made the top ten in our Top 12 alternatives to Photoshop for digital painters and illustrators list.

Pros: several illustration tools exclusive of the program; powerful

Cons: limited audio tools; limited script tools; limited technical support

Paid

Certainly one of the most used programs in the industry, Toon Boom Harmony is a powerful animation program for professional artists. It’s been used for well-known series and films, such as Makoto Shinkai’s Your Name, Rick and Morty, The Simpsons and The Princess and the Frog.

Pros: powerful tools; smart colour palettes; features for character artists; many tutorials

Cons: not easy to use; pricey

Paid

Moho Pro (Anime Studio) is a 2D animation software for professional artists distributed by Smith Micro Software.

Pros: advanced animation tools; user-friendly interface; compatibility with vector programs (ex. Illustrator) for import/export of files

Cons: N/A

Paid

We’ve already talked about OpenToonz, an open-source animation program (see this article).

While this version is the program customised by Studio Ghibli, Toonz was created by Italian Digital Video S.p.A., which distributes other important programs: Toonz Premium, Story Planner and Toonz LineTest. 

Toonz is used by important studios, such as, of course, Studio Ghibli (Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away) and Rough Draft Studios (Futurama, The Simpsons).

Pros: open-source; powerful tools

Cons: not easy to learn; hidden features; “old” interface

Free  

Pencil2D Animation is another open-source program for beginner and professional artists.

Pros: simple, user-friendly interface; 

Cons: minimal features

Free

Another well-known animation program is TVPaint Animation. Perfect for frame-by-frame animation, this is a powerful program and may even be considered Harmony’s rival. Notable productions are Song of the Sea, Zima Blue and Kitbull.

There are two versions of the program, TVPaint Animation Professional and TVPaint Animation Standard.

Pros: powerful; many tutorials

Cons: pricey;

Paid

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As always, let us know what you think of these apps and what we missed. We still hope you’ll find this list useful!

Thank you and peace out,

G&M

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Other articles:

10 inspiring and helpful YouTube channels for digital artists

6 inspiring Art Podcasts for digital artists

Top 12 alternatives to Photoshop for digital painters and illustrators