Art Learning Resources
Posted: Thu Apr 26, 2012 7:48 am
I can honestly not remember if there was a topic for this or not, but it's about time we had one if we haven't already. Writing has one and I think it's a great idea.
If anyone knows of any quality art learning resources, whether they are a useful tutorial or an explanation of one of the fundamentals, a good book or website or a post on the forums here, please link it here and I will gather it all into one post so everyone can have access to them. I'll be adding in any ones I know as well. Hopefully this way we can build up a virtual reference library for art resources. I'll be breaking the resources into different categories so you can browse for what you are looking for (which will be a bit of a work in progress while I figure out the best way to sort everything).
So far I'm focusing on resources that help you develop your art skills, but if someone wants to gather free art resources here too, that can be arranged. I'm also focusing on finding ones that are general and explain things well, as opposed to ones focusing on drawing in a particular style for instance. There are lots of resources out there, I'm trying to condense the ones that might be useful to everyone and that help further the understanding of art. If any one has any questions or suggestions, feel free to ask or tell me
I'll be adding to this as I go through what I have (I really wish I could find that cool guide on light...)
------------------------
FAQ
-Do I need to do my visual novel work digitally?
Nope. There is Nothing stopping you from creating traditional work for your visual novel. However, the work will need to be scanned or photographed at some point. It's also a good idea to have an image editing program to give your images corrections and to remove backgrounds.
-Do I need a tablet?
Again, no. Plenty of people use a mouse to create their digital work. However, if you are serious about your digital work they can be a very good investment and save yourself some wrist pain. There are a number of brands available, with the most prestegious being Wacom. They can range from hobbiest all the way up to professional and the prices change accordingly. Do your research into what will suit you best and is within your price range.
-What digital programs are there?
(If people can add to this list I would be grateful )
Bitmap Programs (pixel based)
-Adobe Photoshop- Photoshop is an industry standard amoungst professional digital artists. It is extremely flexible and is capable of pretty much anything in regards to creating art. One of it's main strengths lie in it's adjustment and correction abilities. On the downside it can be a bit overwhelming to beginners, can contain a lot of tools that you might not use and has a huge pricetag.
-Coral Painter- Up there with Photoshop in regards to digital painting, Painters main draw is that it is extremely good at mimicing traditional mediums in a way that is easier than Photoshop. It's a high quality program and can set you back a bit.
-Paint Tool SAI- This program is much cheaper and is a good start for beginners. Many people find the stabilizers useful for lineart and the colouring tools pretty intuitive. I personally think the UI isn't as nice and there are some limitations with layers, but nothing that would bother anyone too much. Downside is that it only is available for Windows and even with winebottle, SAI will not often not recognise tablets on Macs.
-The GIMP- Is totally free and available to download. It is basically a rip off version of Photoshop and has some of the basic tools. It is capable of most basic functions and if you are looking into just trying out a digital program to see how it works. Downside is that it can feel like it lacks a lot, but hey, it's free.
-Deleter CG illust 4.5 and Deleter Comic Works
-ArtRage Studio and Art Rage 2
-Artweaver Free
-RealWorld Paint.COM
-Clip studio paint (Japanese only at the moment)
-Fire Alpaca- A free digital image program. Good for Windows and Mac.
-MyPaint- Free and apparently has an impressive range of tools and brushes.
-OpenCanvas- Only supported on windows
Vector Programs (point based)
-Adobe Illustrator- The industry standard for vectors, it is a very strong program capable of most of what you would want. Downside is that it is expensive.
-Adobe Flash- Actually more of an animation tool, Flash is capable of producing vectors.
-Macromedia Freehand- Macromedia was bought out by Adobe many years ago but many old school people swear by it. They also wish Adobe would hurry up and import some of the better features into Illustrator.
-Freehand- is a free open source vector program available online. I haven't personally tried it out by I expect it to be a scaled down version of Illustrator.
Animation Programs
-Adobe After Effects- an extremely powerful animation tool capable of professional standard graphics and exporting into a wide range of media formats. Very expensive.
-Adobe Photoshop- Later versions (7 and up I think) are capable of creating GIFFs through the use of layers.
-Adobe Flash- a strong animation program that uses vectors.
-Anime Studio- has a small range of different animation programs for sale.
-Plastic Animation Paper- Available for free on Windows only.
-Pencil- is a free open source animation program based on traditional techniques.
-Toon Boom Studio- Has a range of programs for sale at different levels.
-DigiCel FlipBook-http://www.digicel.net/flipbook.htm
-Live2D- Only available in Japanese at the moment. Focuses on 2D animation through 3D.
3D (Thank you to Humbert for providing the 3D program information )
-Maya - Maya is the gold standard of 3D and has been for some time now. It is a good all rounder and is the software used most often in all types of production environments, whatever that means. I like Maya. I have spent the most time in Maya and, though I often leave her, I always come back in the end. If you were family, family mind you, and wanted to know what 3d software to invest money and time in ... Maya and Zbrush.
-3DS Max- Max is the Swiss army knife of 3d software. It has all sorts of buttons that do exactly this and exactly that. If it has what you want, you could get the job down with less of a learning curve and in fewer steps. If it doesn't have what you want, you can purchase expensive addons that add extra blades to your knife. Lucky for us the Swiss didn't think of that.
-Softimage- Softimage and Maya were once the big boys at battle. Maya's predecessor modeled the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park and Softimage was the program that animated it. Softimage had great promise of finally being able to compete with Maya but Avid, they bought it from Microsoft who almost flushed it down the toilet, didn't understand pricing at all so they chucked it to Autodesk. It is a very nice program actually, with some great latent abilities but Autodesk has relegated it to the gimp position as a helper to Maya or Max so ...
-Houdini- is a powerful procedural based 3d software package. Houdini is complex, addictive, and geared heavily toward Special Effects: particles, water, flocking, Lsystems. You want to create a whole city from a bunch of modular building parts? Houdini! You want to animate the love scene in your newest VN? Not Houdini!
-Lightwave- is a 3D program from Newtek like the ones above only not quite as good. It is still used by some studios, often in scifi TV series. They have been promising the the coming of their next gen CORE release which will put them back in the game. Not as bad as Duke Nukem Forever but it has seen one hell of a long delay.
-Modo- made by the lightwave crew that started up another company and another 3d package. Very popular at present. Started as modeling only, added this, added that. Now it is almost an all rounder. Almost but not there yet. Still, very good at modeling.
-Hexagon- Currently free from DAZ3D http://www.daz3d.com is a general boxmodeler without a renderer. On the plus side, it has tools to make sculpies for Second Life.
-Bryce- Also currently free from the above, it's designed to assist in the modelling of landscapes with a minimal amount of additional content. Stiff learning curve for procedurals, but if you can master that, you can master anything.
-DAZ|Studio 4- The pro version is free for the moment, but the basic version is always free, and has everything a conventional artist might want: A single human figure that can be morphed into men, women, and kids of all ages, and then posed and looked at from any angle. Don't like the posing controls myself, but that's me.
-Poser- Similar to Studio, except that it includes the ability to run dynamic hair and cloth simulations. Posing controls are easier to use, and it comes with a number of different models to choose from. You're going to pay out for the extra features, but that's not actually a Bad Thing, especially in the sub-1k range. It also has a full set of animation tools, including keyframe and full graph right in the UI. Good if you're on a budget and need to be able to see a walk cycle or gesture on the fly. http://www.contentparadise.com
-TrueSpace- Big for direct polymodelling and squishy shapes called Metaballs. Version 7.2 is free, but it'll take you some effort to find. The experiment and learn curve is gentler than most.
-Carrara- Also to be found at DAZ3D, you're going to pay for this one, but it has a very nice renderer and can accept Poser files as well as the models you make yourself via box or spline. Current version also renders pretty landscapes, and has dynamic hair, fur, and a way to simulate the effects of wind on dynamic objects
-Google Sketch-up- Has a free and a paid version ($795 for the Pro version that has a renderer) and is a relatively intutive program to use that will cover your basic functions.
-Blender- Also has a free version. The learning curve can be said to be a bit difficult.
-Mudbox- is a sculpting program
-Zbrush- One of the industry standards for scultping and rendering.
-Sculptris- related to z-brush, this sculpting program is currently free to download.
-MARI- Another 3D sculpting program.
-Make Human- An open source 3D program for creating humans.
If anyone knows of any quality art learning resources, whether they are a useful tutorial or an explanation of one of the fundamentals, a good book or website or a post on the forums here, please link it here and I will gather it all into one post so everyone can have access to them. I'll be adding in any ones I know as well. Hopefully this way we can build up a virtual reference library for art resources. I'll be breaking the resources into different categories so you can browse for what you are looking for (which will be a bit of a work in progress while I figure out the best way to sort everything).
So far I'm focusing on resources that help you develop your art skills, but if someone wants to gather free art resources here too, that can be arranged. I'm also focusing on finding ones that are general and explain things well, as opposed to ones focusing on drawing in a particular style for instance. There are lots of resources out there, I'm trying to condense the ones that might be useful to everyone and that help further the understanding of art. If any one has any questions or suggestions, feel free to ask or tell me
I'll be adding to this as I go through what I have (I really wish I could find that cool guide on light...)
------------------------
FAQ
-Do I need to do my visual novel work digitally?
Nope. There is Nothing stopping you from creating traditional work for your visual novel. However, the work will need to be scanned or photographed at some point. It's also a good idea to have an image editing program to give your images corrections and to remove backgrounds.
-Do I need a tablet?
Again, no. Plenty of people use a mouse to create their digital work. However, if you are serious about your digital work they can be a very good investment and save yourself some wrist pain. There are a number of brands available, with the most prestegious being Wacom. They can range from hobbiest all the way up to professional and the prices change accordingly. Do your research into what will suit you best and is within your price range.
-What digital programs are there?
(If people can add to this list I would be grateful )
Bitmap Programs (pixel based)
-Adobe Photoshop- Photoshop is an industry standard amoungst professional digital artists. It is extremely flexible and is capable of pretty much anything in regards to creating art. One of it's main strengths lie in it's adjustment and correction abilities. On the downside it can be a bit overwhelming to beginners, can contain a lot of tools that you might not use and has a huge pricetag.
-Coral Painter- Up there with Photoshop in regards to digital painting, Painters main draw is that it is extremely good at mimicing traditional mediums in a way that is easier than Photoshop. It's a high quality program and can set you back a bit.
-Paint Tool SAI- This program is much cheaper and is a good start for beginners. Many people find the stabilizers useful for lineart and the colouring tools pretty intuitive. I personally think the UI isn't as nice and there are some limitations with layers, but nothing that would bother anyone too much. Downside is that it only is available for Windows and even with winebottle, SAI will not often not recognise tablets on Macs.
-The GIMP- Is totally free and available to download. It is basically a rip off version of Photoshop and has some of the basic tools. It is capable of most basic functions and if you are looking into just trying out a digital program to see how it works. Downside is that it can feel like it lacks a lot, but hey, it's free.
-Deleter CG illust 4.5 and Deleter Comic Works
-ArtRage Studio and Art Rage 2
-Artweaver Free
-RealWorld Paint.COM
-Clip studio paint (Japanese only at the moment)
-Fire Alpaca- A free digital image program. Good for Windows and Mac.
-MyPaint- Free and apparently has an impressive range of tools and brushes.
-OpenCanvas- Only supported on windows
Vector Programs (point based)
-Adobe Illustrator- The industry standard for vectors, it is a very strong program capable of most of what you would want. Downside is that it is expensive.
-Adobe Flash- Actually more of an animation tool, Flash is capable of producing vectors.
-Macromedia Freehand- Macromedia was bought out by Adobe many years ago but many old school people swear by it. They also wish Adobe would hurry up and import some of the better features into Illustrator.
-Freehand- is a free open source vector program available online. I haven't personally tried it out by I expect it to be a scaled down version of Illustrator.
Animation Programs
-Adobe After Effects- an extremely powerful animation tool capable of professional standard graphics and exporting into a wide range of media formats. Very expensive.
-Adobe Photoshop- Later versions (7 and up I think) are capable of creating GIFFs through the use of layers.
-Adobe Flash- a strong animation program that uses vectors.
-Anime Studio- has a small range of different animation programs for sale.
-Plastic Animation Paper- Available for free on Windows only.
-Pencil- is a free open source animation program based on traditional techniques.
-Toon Boom Studio- Has a range of programs for sale at different levels.
-DigiCel FlipBook-http://www.digicel.net/flipbook.htm
-Live2D- Only available in Japanese at the moment. Focuses on 2D animation through 3D.
3D (Thank you to Humbert for providing the 3D program information )
-Maya - Maya is the gold standard of 3D and has been for some time now. It is a good all rounder and is the software used most often in all types of production environments, whatever that means. I like Maya. I have spent the most time in Maya and, though I often leave her, I always come back in the end. If you were family, family mind you, and wanted to know what 3d software to invest money and time in ... Maya and Zbrush.
-3DS Max- Max is the Swiss army knife of 3d software. It has all sorts of buttons that do exactly this and exactly that. If it has what you want, you could get the job down with less of a learning curve and in fewer steps. If it doesn't have what you want, you can purchase expensive addons that add extra blades to your knife. Lucky for us the Swiss didn't think of that.
-Softimage- Softimage and Maya were once the big boys at battle. Maya's predecessor modeled the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park and Softimage was the program that animated it. Softimage had great promise of finally being able to compete with Maya but Avid, they bought it from Microsoft who almost flushed it down the toilet, didn't understand pricing at all so they chucked it to Autodesk. It is a very nice program actually, with some great latent abilities but Autodesk has relegated it to the gimp position as a helper to Maya or Max so ...
-Houdini- is a powerful procedural based 3d software package. Houdini is complex, addictive, and geared heavily toward Special Effects: particles, water, flocking, Lsystems. You want to create a whole city from a bunch of modular building parts? Houdini! You want to animate the love scene in your newest VN? Not Houdini!
-Lightwave- is a 3D program from Newtek like the ones above only not quite as good. It is still used by some studios, often in scifi TV series. They have been promising the the coming of their next gen CORE release which will put them back in the game. Not as bad as Duke Nukem Forever but it has seen one hell of a long delay.
-Modo- made by the lightwave crew that started up another company and another 3d package. Very popular at present. Started as modeling only, added this, added that. Now it is almost an all rounder. Almost but not there yet. Still, very good at modeling.
-Hexagon- Currently free from DAZ3D http://www.daz3d.com is a general boxmodeler without a renderer. On the plus side, it has tools to make sculpies for Second Life.
-Bryce- Also currently free from the above, it's designed to assist in the modelling of landscapes with a minimal amount of additional content. Stiff learning curve for procedurals, but if you can master that, you can master anything.
-DAZ|Studio 4- The pro version is free for the moment, but the basic version is always free, and has everything a conventional artist might want: A single human figure that can be morphed into men, women, and kids of all ages, and then posed and looked at from any angle. Don't like the posing controls myself, but that's me.
-Poser- Similar to Studio, except that it includes the ability to run dynamic hair and cloth simulations. Posing controls are easier to use, and it comes with a number of different models to choose from. You're going to pay out for the extra features, but that's not actually a Bad Thing, especially in the sub-1k range. It also has a full set of animation tools, including keyframe and full graph right in the UI. Good if you're on a budget and need to be able to see a walk cycle or gesture on the fly. http://www.contentparadise.com
-TrueSpace- Big for direct polymodelling and squishy shapes called Metaballs. Version 7.2 is free, but it'll take you some effort to find. The experiment and learn curve is gentler than most.
-Carrara- Also to be found at DAZ3D, you're going to pay for this one, but it has a very nice renderer and can accept Poser files as well as the models you make yourself via box or spline. Current version also renders pretty landscapes, and has dynamic hair, fur, and a way to simulate the effects of wind on dynamic objects
-Google Sketch-up- Has a free and a paid version ($795 for the Pro version that has a renderer) and is a relatively intutive program to use that will cover your basic functions.
-Blender- Also has a free version. The learning curve can be said to be a bit difficult.
-Mudbox- is a sculpting program
-Zbrush- One of the industry standards for scultping and rendering.
-Sculptris- related to z-brush, this sculpting program is currently free to download.
-MARI- Another 3D sculpting program.
-Make Human- An open source 3D program for creating humans.