Conversation about what we would like ..

[Weeks]

Hi ArtRagers.. This tool is amazing..!

I propose, through this post, that each of us indicates to AndyRage and
his team, what we would like to find in the future release of ArtRage.

Never mind if it's impossible :wink: but like this, they will know exactly our wishes and they will be able to make the good choice...

For me, the metaphor used to conceive the paradigm of ArtRage is very interesting. No "digital" paintings, just the simulation of the natural media. No mather if we are profesional or not.

My personal use is about :reproduction & paintings, concept design, matte paintings and storyboards... For the moment, i cannot do everything.

- The tools settings panel : we keep all the actual tools (of course :D )

1) - Oil brush : very nice, but i would like to be able to change the brush form as simply as possible. Eventualy, to create my own brushes..

2) - Pencil : Ah, very important tool for me. The start and the end of each stoke, as smooth as possible < > like the symbols.

3) - Palette knife : maybe, to see better the structure of the paper, through the color, when used strongly with the pen on the paper :roll: (i don't know if it's clear enough ?)

4) - Airbrush : very nice, more large size..

5) - Chalk : fantastic : don't change anything :)

6) - Glitter tool : for me, very useful.

7) - Paint roller : Aah... Fantastic. Maybe, two things, bigger size and smaller size (less than one %). Maybe two options, water or oil.. Different viscosity.

8) - Paint tube : very interesting tool for me. May be something different about the viscosity.. (Gouache, acrylic and oil..?)

9) - The sampler tool : ? I use Alt. I don't know if it is necessary in the tools settings ?

10) - Felt pen : problem with the transparency... I would like to use it with storyboard, but it's not easy...

11) - Crayon tools : fantastic..

12) - Eraser tool :very good


Tools I miss :

1) - ink pen : to be able to draw large flat colors (black of course and the others colors) Used with a good management of the layers (transparency), I wouldn't need Photoshop anymore.
2) - watercolor/ acrylic and oil juice : you can apply color (the density and viscosity is diff, if it is water or oil) on your drawings
3) - blender to blur everything.
4) - perspective tools : a special layer dedicate to that prob (i have ideas)
5) - stencil tools. just to be able to draw form and to mask the part of the painting (very useful with airbrush)

Otherwise, for me the possibility to merge the layer in good conditions (first layer 100 %, the second 75%, etc) and to get the result you've drawn.

I use precise cursor that i found very good, but i have problems sometimes to re find it on the canvas.. May be it could take the colors choosen in the color picker plus x % density more ? Diff to explain..

The interface is good and we could imagine to customize the tools picker.
For example, when you have the good adjustments for a tool, you can store it with a name and put it back in the tools picker.

For the moment, i don't have any other ideas and I let my friends do their part of the job.. :D

I'm sorry about my english...:(

Weeks

[justG]

I agree that the eyedropper seems out of place in the tool wheel. I do think that it needs to be physically represented in some way - not by just a hotkey - but perhaps it could get a small clickable symbol in the colour picker's real estate itself. I know the traditional eyedropper is oh so boooooring, but... it does work. =] Seems at the moment the dropper is taking up some prime real estate on the tool wheel that the watercolour might just love to have. =]

- Gita

[sbug51]

i go with weeks and GGirl! (justG), the dropper tool could be replaced with the water color brush, (please please consider what i said about having the canvas tilt i will draw you examples if you need!) also like weeks said a strong color ink brush, also i was wondering about the pencil tool cause i use it alot, it would be cool if there is a paperstump, but i guess the knife tool is probably doing the job somehow :)

thats all i guess i will post in some my canvas ideas guys so you see if it will work with you or not :)

[DaveRage]

Thanks for the feedback. I think a global sort of post like this is a good idea, looking forward to hearing everyone's ideas! :)

[sbug51]

this is what i have been talking about!

the angle of the canvas determines how the water color will bleed, and the distance it will travel as well as the speed, time... rather than just have it at upright angle, you get to change the angle from the edit paper settings, what do you think??

[Sweedie]

1. A blending tool for dry materials is needed = a paper stump.
2. A smearing/blending tool for wet/oily materials = a cloth or sponge or water
3. Some new settings for the palette knife.

These 3 first are probably to be combined in one single tool. Next 4 are probably the most necessary for AR to become a true professional illustration software:

Watercolour
A multiply layering method.
Ink.

For airbrushing: a frisket/masking tool

These are my wishes.

[isd]

I guess I have posted a little fast.... in another thread...
sorry...
here are my suggestions :
http://www2.ambientdesign.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=325

(I also greatly support the INK PEN and the layers transparency requests!!! and the start and end of pencil strokes smooth ^^ )

[NewCube]

I'd like to edit the transparency of the felt pen, or, a new tool : "The Rapidograph Pen" that draws a solid precise line with no transparency.

Cheers!

[kazaroval]

Dont ask too much or it will take years before the next update.... OK! i go out...

[kptad2]

1. A blending tool for dry materials is needed = a paper stump.
2. A smearing/blending tool for wet/oily materials = a cloth or sponge or water
3. Some new settings for the palette knife.

These 3 first are probably to be combined in one single tool. Next 4 are probably the most necessary for AR to become a true professional illustration software:

Watercolour
A multiply layering method.
Ink.

For airbrushing: a frisket/masking tool

These are my wishes.

i would have to agree 100% these would also be some ideas i would love to see.. i personally dont want to change the whole the layout i would just like to see some more of the tool be more flexiable in their uses...
.. kp

[Sethren]

An "Aging Tool" for making paint look older over time... one can almost think of it as a enhanced version of the burn tool in photoshop but with the addition of grime/stains/noise/dirt/color losses/slight yellowing/darkening effects... things like that...............

[Aged P]

Now that is an idea!

Possibly also instant paint cracking?

I've done a few old masters for people, in real oils, and they're always expecting cracks. I tried the Italian two part instant cracking stuff but never had much success with it.

But if the ready cracked painting could be printed out onto sticky back ink jet paper then that might look quite good.

[Sethren]

Yes! the cracking part as well... A Crackling Effect! forgot that one... thank you much............... :D

[Charlie]

Since I didn't want to repeat suggestions that have already been made I would like to endorse Weeks original post.

+1

P.S. I would really like to see the oil brush with variable bristle size and transparency.

[Matt]

Regarding brush sizes, if you bring up the numeric option, you can type in brushes above 100%.

[scribbler]

Just found this thread so thought I'd add my 2c worth - a lot of what has already been said but I figured that the more people say it the more likely it is to happen :)

- watercolor brush and watercolour pencils + water brush
- a finger tool (for smudging stuff - wet and dry maybe?, or additional palette knife options would be another way of implementing this)
- masking of some description (for airbrushing, photoshop is still much better in this respect than artrage but it wouldn't take much to bring it along nicely).
- the tools could do with being a bit faster when working on large canvases, they tend to have a bit too much lag. This sounds like it's being looked at for v2.2
- the paint tube doesn't seem to give a blob of paint that blends realistically when you start smearing it around. The paint blob colour seems to disappear too quickly (hope that makes sense?)
- different shaped glitter (round ones would be nice)
- an indication of how the softness setting translates to the HB grading of pencils (when using the pencil tool - I don't suppose this would be entirely accurate but a ballpark figure would be OK)
- levels adjustment (not a traditional tool by any means but one of the joys of digital is that you can change the overall look so easily and this is one of the easiest ways)
- layer blending modes (just a few basic ones would be nice e.g. lighter, darker, etc.)


Just a few things that have come to mind since I started using this. Hope this is useful. Have to say I love this program for it's simplicity (especially compared to something like Painter which is an example of how not to write software) so I'd only want all these things if that simplicity isn't sacrificed. :)

Scribbler

[scribbler]

One more thing: When you work on larger canvases the brush sizes don't scale up proportionally so it means that to cover any area takes a lot of time. It'd be good to have brushes which were scaled up to behave the way thay do with the default canvas size.

[scribbler]

oh yes, and what about airbrush spatter?

[drzeller]

One more thing: When you work on larger canvases the brush sizes don't scale up proportionally so it means that to cover any area takes a lot of time. It'd be good to have brushes which were scaled up to behave the way thay do with the default canvas size.

Do you know that you can type a brush size larger than 100%? If you pop up the edit box for brush size, you can enter a value up to 500.

David

[halley]

If you pop up the edit box for brush size, you can enter a value up to 500.

Even 500% of "maximum" can be limiting when you want to work on poster-scale 300dpi canvases. I understand that the bigger the brush, the slower the processing of each stroke, but as CPUs get faster and memory gets roomier, an arbitrary limit is an arbitrary limit.

[scribbler]

One more thing: When you work on larger canvases the brush sizes don't scale up proportionally so it means that to cover any area takes a lot of time. It'd be good to have brushes which were scaled up to behave the way thay do with the default canvas size.

Do you know that you can type a brush size larger than 100%? If you pop up the edit box for brush size, you can enter a value up to 500.

David

Ooh, I hadn't spotted that. Thanks!