WoW Petopia Community

Hey all. I've been inspired by our resident graphic artists to start working on some of my own. I've also been wanting to make my own images for a WoW Blog for some time now. The catch is I need a graphics program. So what are your reccommendations? I'd like to be able to do a little bit of everything, so let me know the pros and cons of the program you like best. Also, include any tutorial sites or books that might help out to learn to use the program.

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Uloo of <Petopians> on Nesingwary, US

I've been using Paint Shop Pro for years...it's not as sophisticated as Photoshop, but to be honest I found it more user friendly, and now that I'm familiar with it I just really enjoy its simplicity. ^^

I don't have much experience with other programs, so that's about all I can say. xD

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signature artwork by d1eselx

I'd say PhotoShop. It's not as userfriendly as Paint Shop, but it's large community means that there's YouTube guides for almost everyhing.

If you're on a tighter budget tough, GIMP is pretty good too. It's about as userfriendly as PhotoShop, it's free, and it's got a ratherlarge community too. I did try Paint Shop Pro a bit, but I found it a bit counter-intuitive. Just my opinion tough, after getting used to PS.

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I also exist on DeviantArt.
"I'll probably be some kind of scientist, building inventions in my space lab in space!"

Moderation note: Saturo is banned from all forums except the RP forum, and only allowed there until the current RP thread ends.

I was lucky to get an older version of photoshop pretty cheap.
I have a friend who actually works with it and he showed me a lot.

I don't know GIMP or Paint Shop, sorry.

So what would be the difference between Paint Shop, Photoshop and Image Ready for people who don't really know how to tell by looking at the box? :3

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Uloo of <Petopians> on Nesingwary, US

Photoshop is a rather expensive tool that is mostly used by professionals.
Whenever you see magazine covers or something, it sure has been touched by Photoshop.

Paint Shop is the free (Is it still free?) counterpart to Photoshop, but it's not as powerful but then, it's not as complicated as Photoshop.

GIMP was, as far as I know, the attempt to create a free graphics program, that is as powerful as Photoshop. I never used it but from what I heard, they, at least, succeeded in making it even more complicated than Photoshop.

Paint Shop (pro) was a program designed for graphic artists and is not connected the adobe, rather it is more connected to corel painter.

Photoshop was originally made for professional photography but is now used by graphic artists as well even though Adobe created a program for graphic artists called illustrator. Image Ready is a program often connected to photoshop created for the purpose of creating graphical interfaces. Commercial photoshop is expensive while personal and educational versions are much cheaper.

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Mains: [Burninrain|Zirconium|Ivoress|Nantosuelta|Sunrain]
Alts: [Emuishéré|Cynderlilly|Runicated|Marcell]

OMG this is getting so complicated! >.<

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Uloo of <Petopians> on Nesingwary, US

Load up GIMP, and see if it gets more complicated.

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I also exist on DeviantArt.
"I'll probably be some kind of scientist, building inventions in my space lab in space!"

Moderation note: Saturo is banned from all forums except the RP forum, and only allowed there until the current RP thread ends.

It's just one of those things you jump in to and get to know after trial and error.

I started out knowing next to nothing about graphics programs, but as you fiddle around with things and read tutorials you get to learn more and more.

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signature artwork by d1eselx

I'm a complicated sort of person. *sexy pose*

Though really, the graphics industry prefers photoshop, and there are thousands of resources out there.

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Mains: [Burninrain|Zirconium|Ivoress|Nantosuelta|Sunrain]
Alts: [Emuishéré|Cynderlilly|Runicated|Marcell]