New to the board enjoy reading

[Phillysoul11]

gimp is about as helpful as MSpaint when it comes to web design, its only useful for digital painting and basic photo editing IMO. Other than that its just a dressed up MS paint. You can get lots of discounts for adobe products these days, I bought adobe creative suite (after effects, illustrator, photoshop, indesign, dreamweaver, and flash) CS4 for 320$ from my university with a student discount. I would highly recommend checking adobe out, they are hands down the best in the business right now. I have been using photoshop for around 4 years, doing freelance work for some companies. Some small, some large. Mostly small things like logos, and basic website design but nothing to difficult. What about yourself?

Well that actually makes me happy.  I don't know where you quoted that from, but it means to me that a lot of these so called professionals have to use all that expensive software to create digital effects which are easy to pick out to a keen eye.  I think GIMP is a far cry from MSpaint but I see your point.  I know for illustration work adobe is probably the way to go, but I am finding shortcuts to doing a lot of things that adobe has packaged in their software.  I guess it just depends on the user and what they want to shell out.  I think for the average user, GIMP is great way to get started without the expense.

I'm glad I made you happy :]
Gimp is the best open source image editing program currently available, gimp is pretty much equal to photoshop when it comes to digital painting, all you really need to digitally paint is a tablet, which are cheap these days.
Another decent program is Photoshop Elements, its basically a watered down photoshop but its definitely a step up from gimp, its pretty cheap too.

[UVsaturated]

Oh you guys might enjoy these also:




My philosophy is that if God is all things then he must also be a comedian as well and be able to make jokes about his son.

[SallyMutant]

Hi, I enjoyed the art you posted.
The Gimp vs 'Shop debate is interesting too. My 2 cents: depends on your output goal. Professional work for graphic repro (iGen, web press, etc.) needs 'Shop, but how many other personal outputs  and postings can use, well, everything, to good effect.

[Whitney]

Another decent program is Photoshop Elements, its basically a watered down photoshop but its definitely a step up from gimp, its pretty cheap too.

I got photoshop elements for free when I bought my pen tablet.  I don't like GIMP, it's not intuitive.  It's good for open source, but you get what you pay for.

I wish I was still in school so I could buy some adobe products for cheap.  I actually do have a 50% discount on Photoshop when I buy it...too bad it's not a discount on Illustrator.  Between Elements and Illustrator I can do pretty much everything I need to do right now; but I am going to get the CS4 photoshop since Elements is set up in some ways that annoy me.

[joeactor]

Hi UV - Welcome!

You get my vote for fastest growing intro thread ;-)

Very interesting view on your faith.  I can't wait to hear more from you in the discussions.

Cheers,
JoeActor

[Phillysoul11]

Another decent program is Photoshop Elements, its basically a watered down photoshop but its definitely a step up from gimp, its pretty cheap too.

I got photoshop elements for free when I bought my pen tablet.  I don't like GIMP, it's not intuitive.  It's good for open source, but you get what you pay for.

I wish I was still in school so I could buy some adobe products for cheap.  I actually do have a 50% discount on Photoshop when I buy it...too bad it's not a discount on Illustrator.  Between Elements and Illustrator I can do pretty much everything I need to do right now; but I am going to get the CS4 photoshop since Elements is set up in some ways that annoy me.

Yeah student discounts are pretty amazing. I can get Creative Suite Design Premium CS4 for 300$ but I think I'm going to wait until CS5. PS CS4 is loads better the PE.

[Whitney]

[

Yeah student discounts are pretty amazing. I can get Creative Suite Design Premium CS4 for 300$ but I think I'm going to wait until CS5. PS CS4 is loads better the PE.

I might see if my husband can get a discount since he's a teacher.  I also might see if I can convince them that I am a 'student' since I'm in the intern phase of my career.

Honestly, it would almost be just as expensive to enroll in a college class just to get the student discount.  Then I'd at least get the software and some education.