Let's Talk Final Fantasy Digital Fan Art Production

[Wynn]

Several Final Fantasy fan art threads have sprung up recently in addition to MiNuN's long standing unique media thread and Denmo's comic strip, but I didn't want to hijack anyone's thread with comments and questions that were off topic. So I started another one.

I'll wait for you all to finish groaning.







Ok, done? Cool.

First of all, thank you to everyone who shares their creative Final Fantasy themed work with us. It is so enjoyable to see people's Final Fantasy drawings, art work, and comics. I love that we have so many creative people in this community. You guys are truly awesome.

Though I lack the bravery to share my work with this forum like some others have done, especially considering the amazing talent that comes through here, drawing happens to be a hobby of mine. But I was thinking that since there are so many artists here, I wanted to start a thread to talk about what people use to make their FFXIV fan art.

In particular, I'm curious what digital art program(s) everyone uses. I'm a HUGE fan of Manga Studio. I also really like Corel Painter. Never was a big fan of Photoshop, personally, though I know that is usually the program of choice for many digital artists.

Also, for tablet users: I'm interested to know what kinds of tablets people use. I've been using a VisTablet for several years now. It was my first. Before that I was scanning in pencil sketches to ink and color on my computer with keyboard and mouse. I bought the VisTablet over a Wacom simply because it was cheaper but it actually turned out to be a pretty good tablet and I've never regretted the decision.

So what about you guys? What do you use to create your Final Fantasy art? Discuss!

[Vilhem]

I use Wacom because of the close ties it has to the industry. My career is in the digital arts (Graphic Design and Animation).

Right now my tablet is an intermediate level one (Bamboo Create), with 1024 levels of pressure sensitivity. This helps tremendously when "inking" pics in your choice of paint program. I also like to change it up and scan in pencil drawings. It really depends on my mood.

There are a handful of programs that perform the same functions. I use photoshop just because I'm familiar with where all the tools are. But if you know which tool does what, then you can adapt to any program fairly easy. Paint Shop Pro, Autodesk Sketchbook, Gimp, Sai, Corel are all good programs in addition to Photoshop.

If you don't have a tablet but still want to create digital art, Adobe Illustrator (don't remember offhand the name of the Corel equivalent) is a wonderful program for mouse users. Without getting into too much jargon, Illustrator lets you draw curves and lines with the "pen tool" which makes the need to have a steady "mouse hand" irrelevant. All it takes is mastering how the pen tool works, and there's plenty of tutorials that explain the use of it. Coloring in Illustrator is sort of the same way. Pen tool and filling in with layers of color. If anyone is interested in going this route, I can further explain to them about how it works.

Here's an example of how you can manipulate your work in Illustrator:
(inclass doodle <_<;; )


unfinished coloring in Adobe Illustrator:


There's also several "comic" programs out there, such as Deleter Comic Works, where you import line art (either drawn digitally or scanned) and you can add different types of tones to give it that manga/comic look.

Example of "Comic" programs (this is a horrible old drawing of mine but posting for demo purposes xD):


If you have anymore questions, I'd be happy to answer them. :3 Moar art!

[Wynn]

Thanks for contributing to the thread, Vilhem. That's the kind of stuff I'm looking for here. I'd like to not only talk about what are currently using, but also information for people who want to get into digital art.

Sketchbook is a good program that I will use now and then. I've never tried Sai. If I'm not mistaken that is freeware isn't it? I'll have to download it and try it out.

Another really good free art program is one called Phierha which is somewhat comparible to Photoshop. It's features are specificially designed for manga artists so if that is someone's thing I would recommend checking it out.

For people who are interested in painting but can't stomach the high price of Corel Painter, I recommend ArtRage. ArtRage is like a lite version of Painter. I've seen some absolutely gorgeous painterly pieces produced with it.

[Vilhem]

There is always some kind of paint program that's included with a Tablet purchase, so this gives more options for the people that are looking into possibly purchasing a tablet.

For those that are shopping around for tablets and want a good balance of price and functionality, I'll do a breakdown of the main Wacom tablets.

Bamboo Fun (Small/Medium)
active area: 21 square inches (small)
Pressure levels: 512

This was my first tablet and are made for entry level. They can be somewhat hard to find now but are still a good option for those that need something on a smaller budget.
Comes with Adobe Photoshop Elements.

~~~~~~

Bamboo Connect/Splash:
Active area: 5.8" x 3.6"
Pressure levels: 1024
Price: $79.00

I personally rate this one entry/beginner level simply because of the size. It's very small and more suited to quick jobs and general point and click functions. Connect is for more general functions and comes packaged with Autodesk Sketchbok Express, while Splash is more artsy oriented and comes packaged with Art Rage and Autodesk Sketchbook Express.

Bamboo Capture is similar to the above two, except that it also adds touchpad input and retails for $99. It comes with Adobe Photoshop Elements (a watered down version of Photoshop).

~~~~~~

Bamboo Create:
Active area: 8.5" x 5.4"
Pressure Levels: 1024
Price: $199.00

This one is bigger and has touchpad feature (meaning you can use it sort of like an ipad, with your fingers). This is the one I currently have, and I've been really happy with it. Software included is Autodesk Sketchbook Express.

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Intuos 5
Active area: 6.2" x 3.9" (small), 8.8" x 5.5" (medium), 12.8" x 8.0" (large)
Pressure Levels: 2048
Tilt Sensitivity: +/- 60 degrees
Price: $229 (small), $349 (medium), $469 (large)

Professional level tablets. Price is pretty steep but you get what you pay for. 2k pressure levels is really really sexy :3 And of course, you get a pen tilt function, which makes transitioning to tablets from paper so much better!

~~~~~~~

Cintiq

These aren't really tablets. You draw on the display itself. This is what's used mostly in the commercial industry. Their price ranges upwards from $2000. A digital artist's wet dream basically >.>

[Myranda]

Pretty much every piece I make is just a pencil sketch in greyscale to begin with. Then I scan it and use it as a "tracing" layer in Photoshop where I set the original sketch as slightly transparent and use the pen tool to ink it and make adjustments as I go. Once I'm done inking I start coloring in with each section as a new layer etc etc until it's finished.

I have an old intuos2 tablet that I don't use all that often anymore, mostly it's just the mouse, but that's mostly because I'm too lazy to dig out the tablet from its bin usually. On rare occasion I'll actually use a light box to trace over the sketch in real pen onto a new piece of paper, but it's been a long time since I did that.

[DarkkenMoneybags]

Having an Associates Degree in Graphic Design & Animation which has its pros & cons on me but I like doing traditional styles of artwork also has kept me from really focusing on CG arts.

[Vilhem]

Nothing wrong with traditional media if that's what you prefer

[KatoKinko]

Dose anyone use Autodesk SketchBook Express 2011 sp2, GIMP 2.8, or Adobe Photoshop Elements 8.0?
I have some sketches I want to trace, but I don't know witch one I should use for tracing. I use both a tablet and mouse, but I'm not very good at long curved lines and I was wondering if theres a tool to help me with long curved lines.

[Vilhem]

Dose anyone use Autodesk SketchBook Express 2011 sp2, GIMP 2.8, or Adobe Photoshop Elements 8.0?
I have some sketches I want to trace, but I don't know witch one I should use for tracing. I use both a tablet and mouse, but I'm not very good at long curved lines and I was wondering if theres a tool to help me with long curved lines.

For long curved lines, I recommend you hold the pen further back and just move your entire hand. A common thing a lot of people do is they tend to draw "from the wrist", which really limits the distance of a line you can draw. Instead, pick up your entire hand and just glide it in the direction you want to. The result will be a cleaner, steadier line. It's kind of difficult to describe, so I hope it makes some kind of sense lol.

You can also use the Pen Tool (not sure about Gimp or Sketchbook but I'm sure they have it). This lets you make clean curved lines using mouse clicks. It may take you a bit to master its use but there's numerous tutorials on how to use it.



The above image shows what using the pen tool looks like with a mouse. You have what's called "anchor points", reference points where you click down on the mouse. You can go back and adjust these however you want. Of course, on the final output of your image, these anchors won't be visible; just the smooth lines you've created



And here is a cheat sheet for quick guidance on how to use the Pen Tool. The commands are for Mac but just substitute Control/Alt for Command/Option.

[Chardrizard]

Has been using Wacom Intuous 3 mostly, although i was mostly working with digital imaging instead of digital painting being in advertising agency.

If you are new to digital painting, I'd reccomend photoshop first, it's alot more user friendly and tools to helps you blend color easily. However, if you have fine art background, Corel Painter will do you good if you know how real brushes works and different kind of medias like pastels, crayons, oils. Blending colors is a tougher in Corel Painter but it will feel alot more natural and painting-ish.

It's also easier (for me at least) to blend 3D rendering/vectors in photoshop. If Randis stil checks out this forum, he wil probably have alot to say being a professional artist.