Hi

[- JO -]

Hello !

Just about softwares : In order to draw maps like the ones you like, I think PS element will make your work rather tedious... it’s possibilities are limited.
I just wanted to warn you about that : since my computer (with PS) is in repair, I try to work with PS elements, and it’s a great frustration... I think I would prefer Gimp over PS elements. And think about a tablet too (most of us use a Wacom tablet), if you want to draw maps, it’s a useful tool !

[Mouse]

I didn't realise there were such great limitations with any of the PS versions, Jo. Thanks for that

GIMP itself is highly frustrating. It has a really steep learning curve, is non user friendly, and totally illogical in where things are put and how to get to them. You just have to learn it 'parrot fashion' from tutorials here or on YouTube (or if you are very masochistic by reading the manual cover to cover). Oh... and yes - a word of warning. Never put something like "GIMP masks" in a Google search bar. Use something like "Using layer masks in GIMP"

There are many things that annoy the heck out of me with GIMP, but I'm not in a situation where I can actually afford to pay for something like PS - any version of it.

The worst aspects of GIMP are the way it doesn't really deal with labels very well, and the vector drawing tools are so hopelessly bogged down with illogical little idiosyncrasies in the way things are done that if I need to do anything by vector I usually resort to using Campaign Cartographer 3+ (a specialised mapping app), or my 20 year old copy of CorelDraw - even though it crashes unpredictably with Win 10. Some of the filters/layer effects in GIMP are destructive, in that they change other layers or even overwrite them, and you don't have enough control to prevent it from happening. Worse - most of these destructive processes are irreversible, no matter how many undo levels you have set for the program. An immediate and current example I can think of that nearly kyboshed my entire challenge entry this month is the outer bevel effect. Fortunately I had only just saved the file, so I was able to close it down without saving it and reopen it the way it was before the bevel disaster occurred.

Filters in GIMP are never 'live' as I hear they are in PS - if you use a bevel filter, or a shadow filter on a layer in GIMP it doesn't update if you update the drawing on that layer, so a lot of the work I do is guesswork - anticipating how a layer will eventually look with a drop shadow on it because I can't add the drop shadow until I've finished the drawing on that layer.

What I've said sounds very disparaging, but its the absolute truth about my personal experiences of GIMP over the last 4-5 months since I started using it. As for why I continue to use it despite being really unhappy with the way it works? Its because I have managed to adapt my methods to cope with all these little difficulties, and I really can't afford the monthly rent on even the cheapest version of PS. Other free programs like Krita crash too frequently on my machine, or present me with yet another steep learning curve in order to be able to use them as well as I now use GIMP. So - better the devil you know, than the devil you don't!

[Falconius]

I kind of really dislike GIMP, especially since it does weird things with the tablet pen. Kirta is really good I haven't had it crash yet, and I use it over GIMP when ever I can. What I still use GIMP for is selection tools, and for layers. Both of these things can be dealt with in Krita, I just haven't delved into them yet so am more familiar with GIMP in those areas.

That said I think that map could be accomplished in any of the three programs. It'd probably be pretty intense though, that looks like it has a lot of layers.

[Mouse]

The pen problem with GIMP... if you mean where touching the pen to the tablet immediately calls a pop-up menu instead of drawing something... seems to be related to when you plug the tablet into your computer (discovered by trial and error). If you plug the tablet in before you start GIMP the menu thing doesn't happen.

The button on the pen I have certainly doesn't work the way its supposed to in GIMP. I gave up trying to switch between pen and eraser that way and resorted to clicking on either the pen or the eraser tool in GIMP's window.

(Just for the record I have a Wacom One)

EDIT: where Krita is concerned it crashes without warning on my PC, but I think it depends a lot on your PC. I only have a relatively low powered laptop compared to most of you pros

[Falconius]

Nah my pen problem has something to do with the GIMP settings I think, but I've never bothered finding out because I prefer Krita so much more anyways. The problem is it confines the pen to the editing window, which I just don't understand the purpose of why anyone would want that, what with the tool docks and layer docks and etc. that one also needs to use.

[swiss]

Thanks for that. By the way, even though I subscribed to this thread, I did not get a notification of your post. I see a tab where I can view posts in threads I am subscribed to in my profile, but can't figure out how to get notifications or if that is even an option. Noob problems...

[swiss]

I've read the software thread on this forum and here's my dilemma...

I've spent a lot of time in Inkarnate, but I think I'm getting to the point where it feels limiting in what I can do. To be fair, it's a very young piece of software so it may get better. So I want to expand, however I have absolutely no artistic drawing talent, freehand or digitally. So my concern with photoshop is I'm going to invest all this time in the learning curve and ultimately be limited not by the software, but by my own ability.

That's where something like CC3+ looks intriguing, because it has that...forget what you call it...thing where you can just click icons down onto the screen (like Inkarnate). That's very satisfying for someone like me who can't draw. But I'm not blown away by the art styles in CC3 from what I have seen. I wish I could see a full list of their assets/textures.

So that's where I am now...trying to decide which direction to go

[Mouse]

Hi swiss

Subscribing to a thread means that you will receive notification in your profile. If you want to also receive notification via email you have to have the email notification boxes ticked, and the "Default Thread Subscription Mode" set to one of the email options. It may be that this is currently set to "Through my notification panel only".

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Where the software is concerned, I used CC3 exclusively for almost a year until I expanded my toolkit to include GIMP (so that I could hand shade and draw lines by hand and create my own symbols to use in CC3), and a collection of free/not so free 3D modelling environments - Blender, Sketchup, Vue (so that I could use various material and 3D effects that would have been impossible in CC3 and pretty darn difficult in GIMP. I also invested in the basic version of Genetica, which is a seamless texture generator controlled by plugging lots of nodes together, and which I am told will eventually become abandonware (so if you make that particular purchase just bear that in mind - the Genetica forum is spookily quiet). Genetica has, however, helped me generate literally hundreds of seamless textures to use in both CC3 as polygon fills, and in GIMP as homemade 'pattern' files to flood fill bitmap areas. All the seamless textures in my free textures album (linked below) were generated in Genetica.

CC3 is a very powerful programme, and I would not have any of the awards I have today if I hadn't learned what I know (and use also in GIMP), in CC3 first. There is a fairly steep learning curve, but if you are already familiar with using symbol based software like Inkarnate I would think that you may have a slight head start in that direction. Having never used Inkarnate myself, however, I can only guess. When learning CC3 it is crucial that you actually forget all your previous experience with graphic software, since it has nothing in common with apps like PS or GIMP, being entirely vector based (which is why I needed GIMP to draw artistic lines and shade things by hand), and that you work religiously through the user manual example before you try to start a map of your own creation. Many CC3 newbies fall by the wayside by trying to fly before they can walk. Patience is required - patience with ones own learning ability and the need for practice.

You say that you have no artistic ability. I don't believe in artistic ability. I believe in wanting to be able to draw and good old fashioned practice. I would not expect anyone who hasn't ever practiced to be able to draw a thing, even if they had the most creative mind in the universe.

You can draw, and one day you may draw reasonably well, but you have to want it and continue to want it, and you have to practice as hard as you can for as long as your heart desires the ability to draw.

I can draw reasonably well, but I've been doing it and wanting to do it for the last 45 years from when I was only a very small child. Don't let the timescale discourage you, however, since I can draw only fractionally better right now than I could by the time I was 15 or so, when I sold my first painting.

I cannot tell you what to buy, but I can suggest that you try all the free trials you can lay your hands on, and providing the desire continues to burn in you, practice for at least half an hour every day with your drawing - whether that is on paper with pencil, or using one of the trial software apps on your screen.

I hope that was helpful

[swiss]

Good advice - thank you!