My honest thoughts on photoshop

[kappapeachie]

I'm freaking jealous of any and all people who use photoshop. Maybe I'm bias, maybe I've grown frustrated with the program I'm using (clip paint studio), but my God I wished I had photoshop. I don't have a steady income to afford it but it has so much of everything: graphic designer, image manipulation, fancy effects.

A lot of digital artist use it and each and every day I feel sadden. Like I know it's not a requirement for making webcomics, hell, I seen people make decent webcomics with ms paint. It's really hard to get that professional comic feel clip paint studio. Unless a art program with similar functions comes up but only for making western comics, I won't be as mad. Time will tell I guess.

[joannekwan]

It's funny you say that because CSP is the industry standard, at least in East Asia as far as I'm aware; and I know lots of people who switched to CSP from photoshop and never want to look back.

A comic is only 'western' or 'eastern' depending on where the creator is from and what style they use.

But yeah, I've been working with PS for over 10 years now. It's what I'm used to but fuck Adobe for the subscription shit.

[dfairwise]

There's a way to get it for free. A lot of people do it. But it's illegal. So, that's up to you.

[Hexigate]

I agree with @joannekwan, screw that subscription business model, creative suite for life

[dfairwise]

The sub isn't that expensive I think. Depends on what package you want. It makes PS more affordable and accessible. But if you're broke any payment is expensive I guess.

[feardeer]

I've used Photoshop for over 10 years also. The only thing that ever tempts me to go back to it is the liquify tool/filter. I miss it sometimes when painting.

@Eokorie30
Maybe you can tell us what your frustrations are with CSP? There are a ton of Clip Studio users in these forums, and we can probably help! :>

Also, I'm sure you've probably heard this before, but the most similar program to Photoshop is Gimp, and it's free if you'd like to try it out!

[fuyudust]

Eh what kind of fancy, professional feel effect do you want to make ? I think CPS is quite powerful itself.
I have PTS since I need it for my main job, but when I draw comic, I mostly only use CPS, but yeah, I sometime do wish CPS has motion blur.

[spadesart]

i've used photoshop and honestly its not as great as people make it seem. its got a few extra effects that clip doesnt have but god the pressure sensitivity in it is awful and i find painting really hard to do in it. theres also no stabilizer options (iirc the add on is like $60) and its super processor heavy. out of all the ones ive used csp is definitely the best for drawing and painting.

[spadesart]

I sometime do wish CPS has motion blur.

its under filters as movable blur

[fuyudust]

Ohhh I think I need to update CSP then, I'm still using the super old Manga Studio 5.0

Thanks mate.

[jarzebiny]

I agree that Photoshop could be a little more accessible...I was able to get a "student" subscription because my husband works for a school, and before that I either worked with CS6 (the last non-subscription version) or whatever I had through work.

That being said, I know there are lots of free or affordable options out there! I've heard of people using something called Krita, maybe you can check that out? It's a free program. There are some artists on here who use it and their work is awesome!

[Shanny8]

The main reasons for me why I stick with PS for COLORING on my comic- 1) I started using Photoshop before I started using Clip Studio 2) I have a bunch of Kyle Webster brushes that can only be used on Photoshop, and 3) I like PS's gradient tool- which I feel makes smoother yet subtle gradients than CSP. Other than those 3, I would not say I'd take Photoshop over Clip Studio. CSP has a built in stabilizer which helps you produce great lines- with Photoshop, you'd have to invest in a plug in like Lazy Nezumi(which costs money). PS wasnt made to exclusively do comics; it just ended up becoming a standard...but Clip Studio was specifically made for making comics- it has elements of Photoshop & Illustrator built within it.

Also it isnt the program that makes your comic look Grade A- it's the skill most artists have. I've seen comic creators make masterpieces using just CSP- it may not have every little nook & cranny that Photoshop has, but it does give the most for your money.

@dfairwise Photoshop's lowest costing plan- $10 bucks a month; at 1 year that is $120 bucks. Their "regular" plan above that is $20/month- that's $240/yr...compared to getting CSP Pro or EX on sale for $25 or $90 bucks- a one time payment, and it's yours for life.

its super processor heavy

THIS. Photoshop, for as long as I have had & used it, eats up a TON of memory. CSP doesnt use as much.

[kappapeachie]

Basically...the vector tools are crap. I'm going be really honest. It's hard to make balloon tail tips look decent without a few tweaks.

It's also a chore to make word effects look decent without the use of auto actions. There's is no text warp took soo you have to use the transform tool for that. The text ends up looking like carp as a result.

Those are my gripes with the program.

Oh, and there is no gradient fills for text balloons. I hope they implement this eventually.

While there at it, gradient text.

[Raven_C]

Hmmm yeah, PS has some cool bells and whistles, and photo-editing capabilities (if you're into that), but otherwise it's not really a great dedicated drawing program, imo. I have Photoshop CS6 and I use it only for the font tool tbh. Lol. I guess it's because I don't really care about the fancy effects... So this opinion is coming from someone who doesn't really make use of filters all that much.

What I like about CSP is that it's a smoother experience, and doesn't require 10,000 horsepower and a donkey on a treadmill to use it like PS does.

But i think we can all agree that Adobe CC is expensive as f*ck My sister has the subscription because she's used to Adobe programs, but her wallet is always crying.

[ZombieOwl]

I only have photoshop elements, so it doesn't have a lot of snazzy features. It does what I need it to, though. It was a freebie with the graphics tablet I bought through Wacom (2 programs and a tablet for $200). Hope that helps in your quest ^^

[morcalivan]

I have both, but I can count the amount of times I've used Photoshop for my comic on one hand. It has nice layer effect options, which are especially cool on text... only I have never been able to get any of those to not look cheesy when I use it.

I shifted over to CSP mostly because Photoshop's draw tools felt meh to me. Also panels are a pain to create.

[dfairwise]

CSP has a built in stabilizer

The current Creative Cloud has that now. But it's a very recent addition.

Photoshop's lowest costing plan- $10 bucks a month; at 1 year that is $120 bucks. Their "regular" plan above that is $20/month- that's $240/yr...compared to getting CSP Pro or EX on sale for $25 or $90 bucks- a one time payment, and it's yours for life.

I don't live in the US. Photoshop would cost me in the thousands in my local currency for one time payment. The subs would only cost me a few hundred in a year. That's a great deal to me.

[holithefox]

Hey dude, you should check out Medibang Paint Pro. It's like bootleg photosshop but I used it to kick off and it's pretty good AND free to donwload online.

not promo

[indigodrawing]

What's wrong with Clip? Maybe it doesn't have all of Photoshop's features but it's got more than enough for what I need, plus its vector drawing tools are really nice. I used to use Photoshop but moved to Clip because my old version was getting harder to run on modern OSes and I was no way in hell forking out for a subscription.

[joannekwan]

Per making speech bubbles, I just draw it out by hand with a normal brush/pen.
I've gone 10 years without a stabilizer, you can only get good with practice.

And text does take some extra work in CSP but it can be done.
As for a gradient fill, you could hand-paint a gradient to lay over the ballon or drop in a gradient file.
Same for text, you can render the text layer and then do a mask with a gradient layer.