For this blog, I’d like to bring
people’s attention to a software that I’ve come to grow very fond of,
especially if you’re into Anime or cartoon illustrations. The software/program is called Paint Tool Sai,
and it is from Japan. Paint Tool Sai costs around 50 USD.
One of the reasons I love this
software is that, although it doesn’t have as many tools as Photoshop, it is really
great for outlining scanned drawings and creating ‘lineart’, and I believe is
cheaper than buying Adobe Photoshop. This software is meant to create, edit,
and enhance graphic images or photographs. The interface is pretty simple to
navigate through, but it might take some time to get used to where things are,
as well as trying out the different paint tools. However, once you get the hang
of it (and there are plenty of tutorials out there on DeviantART or YouTube
that you can look into to familiarize yourself with the program) you can create
some pretty amazing art.
One of the things I like most
about this program is how easy it is to manipulate lineart, where you can get
precise contours when outlining your scanned drawings (I recommend using the 'Curve' lineart option). I sincerely love the ‘Pressure’
tool, where you can change the thinness of any anchor point on the lineart you’re
making, and once you have the entire lineart done you can use the ‘Weight’ tool
to change the thickness of the stroke too. The
lineart ends up coming out crisp and clean.
Some great perks about Paint Tool
Sai is that it supports file formats like PSD, BMP, JPG and PNG, so if you feel
like you limited yourself with effects on this software, all you have to do is
save it as a PSD and bring it onto Photoshop where you can make changes and
touch up on your art; Sai has layers like Photoshop, so when you save it as a
PSD it’ll configure and open up on the program just as any document created on
Photoshop itself. A downside to this program is that it doesn’t
support Mac, only Windows PC. Sorry Mac people, but hopefully they’ll make it
available in the future!
Here are some examples of brushes
and their strokes, as well as some of the settings for them that you can
manipulate to your liking. If you’d like to give it a try at this software, you
can download a trial period of 1 month from Softonic.
Thank you for exposing us to some different software! I know when I first got into graphic design I wasn't using the programs we use now. With that being said though, I have grown quite attached to the Adobe programs. They are very expensive though, so this program might be worth looking into.
ReplyDeleteThis software looks pretty interesting. I can see how the line art manipulation would come in handy because photoshop (despite being a great drawing software) doesn't have the best clean line drawing/manipulating tools. The price is also a plus point for them, but our student discounts make adobe programs worth it in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteCool software. I'm pretty hooked on Photoshop, but probably because I already own the program and that makes it way easier. I think this one can be used for Sketching and getting ideas down, but maybe it lacks as an end-game/final rendered image creator (because it lacks the effects). However, I think I'll mess around with it to just see what else is out there, especially since we can get a free trial.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing this! I don't know a lot about what other design software is out there so it is always great to learn more. This software is definitely cheaper than Photoshop and seems to have some similar features, like layers and different strokes. I feel like it's very limiting that the software doesn't support Mac. This software would be great when doing illustrations for projects. I imagine it wouldn't be hard to turn your scanned drawing into line art in the program, since that seems like its' main purpose.
ReplyDeleteOh wow. This is fantastic. I didn't know of its existence until I read this article (not that I looked) and I would love to mess with something like this. My most recent personal project is learning how to illustrate both on and off the computer, so something like this could be handy. I'll have to save the free trial link for summer though, as I don't have the time to devote myself to it now. Thank you for this fantastic bit of knowledge! (Also, PC ftw.)
ReplyDeletePaint Tool SAI is definitely a program I use to work with, especially in paintings. What I really like about it is that it doesn't necessarily use a lot of hardware to work with opposed to Photoshop. The accuracy of the brush stroke is the most important aspect to me too.
ReplyDeleteI've been currently using Manga Studio 5 too and is recommended if people want a more "advanced" version of paint tool sai. I do hope teachers start to recognize this as a viable program other than Photoshop.
Oh man this is so damn cool!!! I find Photoshop to have wonderful painting abilities, this trumps that in my opinion however. I am into illustrations and character design and can see this program providing effective outlets for better design. I like the amount of options there are and how intrinsic the detail can become. It is also very cheap which is another great aspect of Sai. I will definitely research further into this and hopefully purchase it soon! Thanks so much:)
ReplyDeleteHmmm!.. sounds interesting! I'll have to check it out. Thanks for the info, I will look more into this. Some times Illustrator and photoshop are tricky, also very time consuming.
ReplyDeleteI've heard of this program before and have seen some really great work done with it. But never tried it, now that I know there's a trial I think I'll give it a shot. Photoshop has been my favorite for some time, but it never really was created with sketching/drawing as a main focus, so it's always fun to try software specifically created for digital art. The ability to export to .PSD is great because there are a lot of great tools that I love for post-processing that other programs lack.
ReplyDeleteThis program looks very interesting. I'm looking to try and incorporate more illustrative figures in my future designs, so this program looks like it can be a benefactor in helping. Thank for sharing this.
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