Professional Software List

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Tsui
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Professional Software List

Post by Tsui »

This list is intended to help both regular artists and newbie artists find the right program when and if they make the jump to professional, commercial software. This is not an advertising topic. I list prices so it's easier for those of us with little money can find something reasonable, y'know? And if that's still too much, because sometimes it just is, I've listed free alternatives to some of them.

For nothing but freeware go here. Have fun being creative! :herosway:
_______________

Systemax - PaintTool SAI (2D Illustration)
http://www.systemax.jp/en/sai/
¥5400 JPY (~$54.00 USD)
Very popular, very good, and relatively cheap compared to other products.
Alternatives: FireAlpaca, Krita, MediBang Paint Pro

Adobe - Photoshop (2D Image Editing, 2D Illustration, 2D Animation/Storyboarding, Spriting, etc. ...)
http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop.html
$19.99 USD/month
Standard. Primarly a photo and image editing software, but capable of being a drawing and animation program as well.
Alternatives: CELSYS - Clip Studio Paint, AKA Manga Studio (2D Illustration, Comic Illustration)
http://www.clipstudio.net/en
http://my.smithmicro.com/manga-studio-c ... tware.html
Pro: $47.99 USD, or ¥5000 JPY (~$50.00 USD)
EX: $209.99 USD, or ¥10000 JPY (~$100.00 USD)
Standard; the illustration software to Photoshop's image editing software.
Alternatives:
  • Illustration: ^see PaintTool SAI^
    Comics: ???
portalgraphics - Paint Soft openCanvas, AKA GraphicEditor openCanvas (2D Illustration)
http://www.portalgraphics.net/en/oc/
$59.00 USD, or ¥5800 JPY
Another popular professional illustration program.
Alternatives: ^see PaintTool SAI^

portalgraphics - ComiLabo, AKA MangaLabo (Comic Illustration)
http://www.portalgraphics.net/en/cl/
¥5800 JPY (~$58.00 USD)
Comic drawing program also published by portalgraphics.
Alternatives: ???

Corel - Painter (2D Illustration)
http://www.painterartist.com/us/
$406 USD
Digital painting that mimics traditional painting.
Alternatives: ???

Adobe - Animate (2D Animation)
http://www.adobe.com/products/flash.html
$19.99 USD/month
Formerly known as Flash Professional.
Alternatives: Synfig?

Toon Boom - Harmony (2D Animation)
http://www.toonboom.com/products/harmony
Essentials: $180 USD/year, or $375 USD one-time
Advanced: $456 USD/year, or $975 USD one-time
Premium: $876 USD/year, or $1975 USD one-time
2D animation standard. Often used professionally, along with Storyboard Pro.
Alternatives: Synfig

Toon Boom - Storyboard Pro (2D Storyboarding)
http://www.toonboom.com/products/storyboardpro
$456 USD/year, or $999 USD one-time
2D storyboarding program often used alongside Toon Boom Harmony.
Alternatives: Blender

Blender (3D Modeling, 3D Animation, 2D Storyboarding, Game Creation)
https://www.blender.org/
Freeware!
Free and open source program capable of 3D modeling and animation first and foremost, includes its own game engine, and also capable of storyboaring via the Grease Pencil tool.

Metasequoia (3D Modeling)
http://metaseq.net/en/index.html
Standard: $45.00 USD, or ¥5400 JPY (~$54.00 USD)
EX: $150.00 USD, or ¥19980 JPY (~$199.80 USD)
Somewhat common 3D modeling tool, fairly easy to learn to use.
Alternatives: Blender

Adobe - After Affects (Post-production)
http://www.adobe.com/products/aftereffects.html
$19.99 USD/month
It's like Photoshop. But for videos.
Alternatives: ???

Aseprite (Spriting)
http://www.aseprite.org/
$14.99 USD
Sprite animation and pixel art program. Very cheap and is easy to learn to use, especially if you've previously done spriting in Photoshop.
Alternatives: ???
Last edited by Tsui on Tue May 03, 2016 7:51 am, edited 1 time in total.
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chaoadventures
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Re: Professional/Commercial Software List

Post by chaoadventures »

Things to add:

2D Animation:

Anime Studio
http://my.smithmicro.com/anime-studio-2 ... tware.html

CelAction2D
http://www.celaction.com/

Video Game Creation:

Construct 2
https://www.scirra.com/construct2

Game Maker
http://www.yoyogames.com/studio
Image


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Tsui
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Re: Professional Software List

Post by Tsui »

Reworked the entire list, plus basic info on every product listed.

Recommendations? Personal favorites and reviews? Did I leave out something important? By all means, let me know.
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Jeffery Mewtamer
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Re: Professional Software List

Post by Jeffery Mewtamer »

I've never used them and have no idea if they're still relevant, but 3Dmax and Maya should probably be added to the 3D modeling section. Also, should probably mention that there's a freeware version of metasequoia whose biggest limitation is only being able to save to the programs native format.

Even if you want to stick to software for visual arts, I'd suggest adding a section for Computer Aided Design(CAD). SolidWorks and AutoDesk's AutoCAD suite are industry standards but prohibitively expensive, Rhino3D is a cheaper alternative, Google SketchUp is a freeware CAD application, though somewhat limited in capabilities from what I hear, and my personal favorite is FreeCAD which is freeware and FOSS.

Might also want to include what OSes these software packages run on, or at least mention when they also run on Linux or OSX. Blender and The GIMP run on Linux and are basically the de facto standard for doing what they do on a Linux system. I'm pretty sure most of the software I mentioned is Windows-only, though I think Rhino3D has a Mac port and Metasequoia runs fine in Linux under Wine as long as you use the built-in or OpenGL renderers(Unless DirectX support in Wine has improved vastly in recent years, the Direct3D renderer in Metasequoia will leave you with an empty viewing window). Also, FreeCAD runs natively on Linux, OSX, and Windows, and I think it might even have official BSD binaries.

Also, not actually software, but if you add a CAD section, you might want to include services for having designs 3D-printed. Shapeways, I.materialize, and Sculptio are a few examples of such services, though Shapeways is the only one I have any experience with.
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Re: Professional Software List

Post by Crash32 »

It's posted in the artwork and movies board, so some of that is a bit excessive
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