Author Topic: Miser's miser Tips and tricks Extraordinaire  (Read 8520 times)

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Offline Miser

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Miser's miser Tips and tricks Extraordinaire
« on: April 18, 2016, 04:11:05 pm »
   Miser's miser tips and tricks extraordinaire, or MMTTEE for short (The extra 'E' stands for EXTREME!!!!!)

   Greetings,

   Cutting straight to the point, here are some tips, tricks and resources for anyone interested in digital artwork, not exclusively, but you'll see what I mean.
   I've found out about these things over the years, but since I wish someone had told me sooner, the way I'm about to, so here they are, no need to thank me although you totally should
   And of course, as the title suggests, you won't need to spend any of your hard earned money

   Before we go, This type of text represents a link

DRAWING SOFTWARE

Krita - Sketching and painting program

   I wanted to do this sequentially, from beginning to end of the pipeline, however, I want to get this one out of the way. This program is amazing, you would think I was being sponsored by them, since I have no bad things to say about it, but it's just that good, trust me on this, since it's the main reason I'm writing this post, and trust me, this is hard work.

   Why is krita great you ask? Well, first thing's first, it's free, and it has the added bonus of doing everything you need a drawing program to do. I've used photoshop for a long time using the company licence, and I wanted to purchase one for myself, but I found out that you can't do that any more, someone decided to make it a service, instead of a software that ... you know, buy and keep. Krita has most features photoshop has, and more, specialized towards drawing rather than general image editing.
   
   I was sceptic at first, but after spending a couple of hours fiddling with the interface and shortcuts, and about 2 months unlearning what I knew about photosop it felt just like home. I still miss some of photoshop's features, especially the free transform tools, but the ones this program adds are well worth the trade off. I have noticed a lot of people using this Paint Tool SAI, and I tried it out, and I have to say, I don't get it. I find Krita to do whatever that one does and much more, and again, not sponsored.
   
   So, here we go:
   
   
   REASONS TO LOVE KRITA
  • Customizable interface: Add, remove, dock menus around, change shortcuts, select different colour wheel types, change sizes, it's all here, but that one was a given, but it's a good segway for the next one
  • Built in reference browser: The program has a built in image browser which you can move around and have display your references inside the program
  • Colours: Different colour pickers, mixers, and colour history , which comes very handy
  • AUTOSAVE
  • Extensive brush customization: I've recently been working with some brushes I downloaded that emulate traditional media surprisingly well
  • Brush Stabilizer: This one comes incredibly handy when inking your lineart
  • The cage tool

   REASONS TO NOT LOVE KRITA SO MUCH
   I guess ... if you don't mind paying for photoshop and ... are too familiarized with it or ... something, I dunno

   Some resources:
    Youtube channel
    Official Documentation
    Cool features
    Brushes
   
   
GETTING YOUR REFERENCES


Pinterest - finding your references

   You're probably already aware of Furrafinity and deviant art to get furry references, so I'll just hop over those, and bring up pinterest. If you know what this is, keep on moving, or don't, because there's untapped potential here. From what I gather, pinterest gathers images from all over the internet, so it's basically like google image search, but I get better results from it. You can (are forced to) pick some categories which will show up on your main pinterest page, so it's a nice way to get some new ideas, or motivation since it's all in your face.

   It will also allow you to create albums with your favourite references , as well as give you recomendations based on whatever image you're viewing. And if you really like it, you can hop on over to the image where it was found on, and sniff around some more. There's probably a lot more to the site, but that's what I use it for.
   
Image picker - Firefox extension    
   Alright, this one seems out of place here, but it has been invaluable to me. With this little thing, I can drag drop an image and it will automatically save it to my pc, to the specified folder. This is great when I gon on an image saving binge, I drop them all in my "to sort" folder and then never look at them again
   
Bulk Image Downloader - Grabbing your references

   This one may look shady at first, Especially since you can spot a "BUY" tab in the site, however, the limitations are slight. This baby here allows you to download entire image galleries at once*  up to 100 in the trial version
   After you input the gallery url, it will automatically grab the full size image attached to the thumbnail and store it in your pc. The downsides are, it gets all images, including ones you may not want, and it doesn't work on every site. I know it used to work on furaffinity, but not last time I checked.

XnView - Sorting your references

   This one's pretty straightforward. It's a light image browser to help you sort out your references. What I like about it is its ability to set keywords for different images, that way, you can have several in a single picture, and bring up every picture with the attached keyword. It took me quite a long time to come up with a way to sort my references, and still some things were of, since there's not a sure way to get everything in the right category without doubling images.
   
VIEWING YOUR REFERENCES

   So, you have a bunch of reference images and are ready to start, but don't want to keep tabbing away from the program? Well, if you have krita, you wouldn't have that problem now would you? But even with krita, if you're working in full-screen, the menus won't appear, so you have these next programs to help you out.
   
On top replica - View your references

   This one's light, simple, and a lifesaver. Boot it up, select the window you want to always show, and that's it. You can select only an area of the window, or the entire one, lock it, and resize it. You can use this to get your references on screen, or even have a little video running so you can watch while working, all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
   
PureRef - View EVEN MORE of your references

   This one I only recently found out about. It's very similar to the previous one, except it's only for images, and it allows you to position them individually inside the program area. I still prefer the previous one personally, but this one is also quite powerful.
   
ANATOMY

    Zygote BODY - 3D anatomy viewer
   You must register for this one, but I find it to be the best tool for viewing accurate anatomy, since it starts from the skin and there are several layers you can toggle down to the bones, quite literally. Good if you're curious about some specific muscle or part of the body, but since you can't pose it, it may not be that usefull, depending on the situation. That's where the next one comes up.
   
    Daz 3D - Posing tool
   Daz studio allows you to add characters into a scene and pose them according to your whim. I made a forum post some time ago with a more detailed description, so check it out.

    Figure Drawing I
    Figure Drawing II- The revenge
   
   Both of these are similar and very useful. Figure drawing is when you try to sketch the basic form of ... something I think, in a short amount of time. These websites will show you stock images in set intervals, so you can practice that. It may seem boring, but it's a great way to improve on sketching and anatomy skills. The first one deals with humans exclusively, but the second one also deals with animals, although I have very little experience with that one.
   
   Pro tip, You can use OnTopReplica with this site, this way, you can work with virtually the entire screen while using it.
   

OTHER

   I have no idea where to leave these ones, so here they are, in the rejected pile.
   
    Sycra - Youtube channel
    Draw with JAZZA - Youtube channel
    Alphonso Dunn - Youtube channel
    Proko - Youtube channel
   
   
   That's it for now, I hope this has been of some help, and I'll be sure to update it once I find out new things. Now go out there and break a leg, just make sure it's not your own.
If I could have ANYTHING in the world, I would like a sandwich.

Offline Taivana

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Re: Miser's miser Tips and tricks Extraordinaire
« Reply #1 on: April 18, 2016, 05:08:50 pm »
Thank you so much for this Miser, this is extremely helpful! Unfortunately Krita is still very unstable on a mac, but I think you've convinced me that when a stable enough version comes out, I might have to switch from firealpaca :0
The anatomy sites seem very useful too as I have difficulty when it comes to human anatomy, and have to look at stock images on google for reference XD
So again, thank you, this is awesome! :'D


Edit: I NOW HAVE THE DOGSONG STUCK IN MY HEAD
« Last Edit: April 18, 2016, 05:11:02 pm by Taivana »
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