Fractal Painter
You could use any Photoshop or Photostyler compatible filters with Painter, so
you have Aldus, Adobe and KAI plug ins to choose from (a batch-like feature
will be available in X3). It have a pretty good number of spectacular and
dramatic effects by itself and more than the basic general image manipulation
tools (from brightness and contrast adjustment to any other image adjustment
–all within the RGB, CMYK or NTSC fields). X2 will let you have all the
Altamira capabilities and more, so you have object oriented image manipulation
with infinite alpha channels, portfolio libraries, object listing with
subordination and grouping (here is a neverending list 🙂 …
You have session playback capabilities, which let you use any series of general
retouching and/or fine painting, record them, and playback in each of the
desired images. Furthermore, you can increase resolution with any replay, so
you can save a lot of precious memory and time (i.e. Get a low resolution image
from 3ds… want to add neat effects, clone, draw, whatever… do it. Then
render at high resoultion -say for a dye sub print- change the resolution and
replay the session with the new res settings. Voila! Instant automatic
superspeed replay). More? The cloning. Probably one of the most powerful
Painter (well, all of them are powerfull 🙂 features. You may not be an artist,
but the cloning capabilities of the program will give you infinite posibilities
of image manipulation. Not just simulation of traditional media but also other
neat image processes unavailable in any other program. And you won't have to
get the skills, just the right eye.
And all of this without pressure. Just a plain mouse. And there is more that
doesn't need pressure. (BTW, don't get the wrong idea, all the program features
and tools are available throught mouse and you will have access to pressure
throught the keyboard)
A Wacom? IMHO (and most of the artist I know) a pressure sensitive tablet is
the ideal complement to the program (there are more opinions: some people like
Doug Wolfgram will tell you that they don't need a tablet for painting —I
won't :). You can live without it (specially if you won't use the program as an
art creation tool (from scratch) but as an tool for image enhancing and
retouching). However, once you try it… well, that's another story <g>
ana /krazy images
ps.And wait to see the textures you will create with it!