Programs - Tumblr Posts
apparently ppl don’t know about waifu2x??? despite its… concerning name it’s literally the most convenient website i’ve ever come across as an artist
it allows you to resize artwork without it becoming pixellated. this is a MASSIVE help if you, for example, make lineart too small or something. it works best with things that 1. have no textures 2. have smooth lines 3. have cel shading, but it still works really damn well for things that don’t fit that profile
here’s an example:
normal size
2x in paint
2x in waifu2x
so like, there’s that. go wild
burning text gif maker
heart locket gif maker
minecraft advancement maker
minecraft logo font text generator w/assorted textures and pride flags
windows error message maker (win1.0-win11)
FromSoftware image macro generator (elden ring Noun Verbed text)
image to 3d effect gif
vaporwave image generator
microsoft wordart maker (REALLY annoying to use on mobile)
you're welcome
some people think writers are so eloquent and good with words, but the reality is that we can sit there with our fingers on the keyboard going, “what’s the word for non-sunlight lighting? Like, fake lighting?” and for ten minutes, all our brain will supply is “unofficial”, and we know that’s not the right word, but it’s the only word we can come up with…until finally it’s like our face got smashed into a brick wall and we remember the word we want is “artificial”.
So, hi! I really like your blog and i have a question: do you know some apps or "programs" (idk) for writers?
Hey, nonny! I’m glad you like the blog, and thanks for your question
Here’s a huge list of some writing programs I found:
FREE
FocusWriter
-designed to keep you focused and distraction-free
WriteMonkey
-writing and editing software to keep you focused
LibreOffice
-free alternative to Microsoft Office
Scribus
-formatting and publishing software
FreeMind
-mind-mapping and organizing program
Trello
-idea organization
-pin pages to reference later
Twerds
-reminds you to write daily and tracks your writing
oTranscribe
-transcribes audio quickly and conveniently
Coffitivity
-a white noise player to help you focus
ZenPen
-minimalist writing software so you don’t get distracted
Power Thesaurus
-a crowdsourced thesaurus
Twinword Writer
-writing software with a built-in thesaurus
Cliché Finder
-finds the cliches in your writing
Calmly Writer
-an extremely simple interface to help you focus when writing
The Most Dangerous Writing App
-if you stop writing for more than about three seconds, it deletes everything you’ve written
Ilys
-an interface where you can only see the last letter you wrote, to help cure writer’s block
PAID
Daily Page
-sends you a prompt every day to get you writing
ProWritingAid
-reviews and evaluates your writing for grammar and other mistakes
Blank Page
-a simple writing program that allows you to set goals for yourself
750 Words
-a writing interface that encourages you to write 750 words (about three pages) every day, and allows you to analyse your writing. my personal favourite.
I hope that helped you out! (Side note: most of the paid programs have free trials.) If you have another question, feel free to ask us!
-Mod Gen
If you need advice on general writing or fanfiction, you should maybe ask us!
what a fantastic post, actually. i use so much free software, and i absolutely love open source stuff, so helpful when you’re trying to learn everything!
Interedting, I'm going to look into this more.
so I downloaded a new art program recently
It’s called Krita. Maybe you’ve heard of it, but in case you haven’t, seriously, check it out! It’s really nice!
The best way I can describe this program is that it’s a combination of Easy Paint Tool SAI and Photoshop. And the best part is the program is completely free to download from their website. I think what I like most about it is that not only does it have a Stablizer like SAI does, but it has practically all the tools I ever use from Photoshop. Not saying it’s going to replace SAI or PS for me (at least not yet; I’m still learning my way around Krita lol), but it’s probably the only thing I’ve ever found that is coming close to doing it.
I put some screenshots under the cut!
Keep reading
Job assessments from the deep: The repetitive redundancies.
How many places have you worked at in the past? None, this is my first job.
How many times have you been fired? None, because this is my first job...
How many times have you received a promotion? Didn't I just answer that a second ago?
How many times have you been suspended from work? Look, I know this is an automated program, but you could've at least programmed in a skip for these questions.
Studio Ghibli’s animation software will be made available via open source this month.
That’s right…💯% free.
Read more on CartoonBrew.com
For anyone who wants a free pose-able human reference for drawing
The other day I came across this awesome program by accident (I don’t even remember what I was actually searching for, but on the several times I’ve looked for a program like this I’ve had no luck). It’s cool enough that I wanted to share it.
It’s called DesignDoll (website here) and it’s a program that lets you shape and pose a human figure pretty much however you want.
There’s a trial version with no expiration date that can be downloaded for free, as well as the “pro license” version priced at $79. I’ve only had the free version for two days so far, so I’m not an expert and I haven’t figured out all of the features yet, but I’ve got the basics down. The website’s tutorials are actually pretty helpful for the basics, as well.
Here’s the page for download, which has a list of the features available in both versions.
There are three features the free version doesn’t have:
Can’t save OBJ files for export
Can’t download models and poses from Doll Atelier (a sharing site for users; note that the site is in Japanese, though)
It can’t load saved files
The third one means that if you make a pose, save it, and close the program, you can’t load that pose/modified model later. You have to start with the default model. I found that out when I tried to load a file from the day before (this is why reading is important…). Whether saving your modifications (and downloading models and poses) is worth $80 is up to you.
But, the default model is pretty nice and honestly if all you’re looking for is a basic pose reference it should work fairly well as it is. Here’s what it looks like:
There’s a pose tag that lets you drag each joint into place and rotate body parts. The torso and waist can be twisted separately, and it seems like everything pretty much follows the range of movement it would have on an actual human.
Even the entire shoulder area is actually movable along with the joint! See, like how the scapular area of the back raises with the arm:
The morphing tag is one of the coolest features, in my opinion. It lets you pick and choose from a library of pre-set forms for the head, chest, arms, legs, etc. It has some more realistic body shapes in addition to more anime-like ones. Don’t like the options there? Mix a few to get what you want! Each option has a slider that lets you blend as much or as little as you want into the design.
So you, too, can create beautiful things like kawaii Muscle-chan!!
The scale tag lets you mess with the proportions and connection points of different joints. This feature combined with the morphing feature not only allows more body shape variations, but it also means that you can do things like make a more digitigrade model if you want. (The feet only have an ankle joint, but for regular human poses that’s all that you really need, so whatever.)
Or you can make a weird chubby alien-like thing with giant hands and balloon tiddies if that’s more your thing.
The ability to pose hands to the extent it allows is far more than I could have hoped for from a free program. Seriously, you can change the position of each finger joint individually, as well as how spread out the fingers are from each other. Each crease on the diagram below is a point of movement, and the circles are for spread between fingers.
And to make it a bit more convenient, there’s a library of pre-set hand poses you can pick from as well, and then change the pose from that if you like.
In both versions, you can also import OBJ files from other places for the model to hold, like if you wanted to have them hold a sword or something.
Basically, this program is awesome and free and you should totally check it out if you want a good program for creating pose references.
Reminder that the drawing program Krita is completely free and tons more user-friendly for artists than Photoshop while at the same time very similar to it in its layout.
do you ever read fanfiction so good you wish it was a book that you could buy and put on some shelf in your bedroom and gaze at sometimes and remember how amazing that motherfucker was instead of having to squint at it on your too bright phone screen at 3 am
If we used Lulu to print out books, is it okay to use your art as a cover? with credit and for personal use only of course!
I don’t know much about Lulu’s legality yet (I DO know that they allow fan fiction to be printed, but you have to do it a specific way) and I’m okay with my art being used as a cover, as long as permission for that art is gotten first (whether it’s a full public green light or just a dm is whichever) so I guess I’d just need to know which piece
Also, if the art piece you’re wanting to use is a Commission I did for someone, I ask that even if you get permission from me, please ask the commissioner who paid for that piece their permission as well
As far as I’m aware, I think I have to be the one to put the books up for printing??? I’m not sure how all that works, give me a few minutes and I’ll update
totally legal things ive collected over the years
beginner’s guide to legally doing things - use this browser for doing legal things - use this free vpn for doing legal things - the vpn’s playstore app - webrtc leak shield - photoshop - paint tool sai - she-ra 1 2 3 4 5 - movies in the us - movies in other countries - suf - ninjago - ninjago movie - pokemon movies - lego city adventures - film ebooks - freddy files (fnaf) - learn greek - toxicity awareness (ebooks) - 3ds emulator - 3ds roms - more 3ds roms - sun and moon rom - tomodachi life rom - even more roms
My 3 Unfortunately-Secret Programs for Illustrators
There are a few programs I use on an almost daily basis as an artist and illustrator which I find invaluable, but that seem to be unfortunately more secret than they deserve to be. Which is too bad, because they solve a lot of small workflow problems that I think a number of people would find useful!
I’ll keep this list limited to my big three, but it is organized in order of usefulness. (And incidentally of compatibility, as the latter two are Windows-only. Sorry! Please do still check out PureRef though, Mac users.)
1. PureRef
PureRef is a program specifically designed to make it easier to view, sort, and work with your references. I actually put off downloading it initially because it seemed redundant– couldn’t I just paste the refs into my PSD files? Indeed, the only real barrier to working with PureRef is that learning the keyboard shortcuts and the clicks to move around the program takes a little while. But getting over that hump is well worth it, because it has some distinct advantages over trying to organize your refs in your actual art program.
Firstly, you’re no longer bogging down your actual PSD file with extra layers, nor having to fight with said layers at all– PureRef has no layer panel, so you never have to scramble to grab the right one. All images you paste into the program retain their original resolution data, so you can resize, rotate, crop, etc as needed without distortion. If you find yourself needing to adjust the values, color, etc of a ref image, you can just copy paste it into Photoshop, make your adjustments, and copy paste it back into PureRef.
The other great advantage is that you can toggle the program as ‘Stay On Top’ and keep it above Photoshop (or whatever else)– which was always a problem when trying to make a reference collage in a separate PSD file. I find that I just don’t look at my references as much as I should when they are on a second monitor, and this solves that problem.
I’ve used it religiously for about a year now, creating a new PureRef file for every illustration I do, as well as a few for specific characters, cultures, or settings in personal projects. As you can see in the example above, I like to sort my images into little clusters or ‘islands’ of specific content, so that I can easily scroll out to see the entire reference map, then zoom in to the relevant cluster easily.
There is one big tip I would suggest for using this program, if you have the harddrive space: As soon as you get it, turn on the ‘Embed local images in save file’ option. This will make your PureRef files bigger, but you’ll never have to deal with a ‘broken link’ if you move around the source files you originally dragged in.
2. Work Timer
This is such a simple little app that it doesn’t have a very formal name, though I think of it as ‘Work’ or ‘Work Work’ (for some reason.) It’s a timer that counts when your cursor is active in any (of up to 3) program you set it to count for, and stops counting when you change programs or idle. No starting, pausing, stopping, or forgetting to do any of those three things.
I use this one to accurately track my hours, both to inform myself and for commissions or other client work. At the end of a work session, I take the hours counted and add them to the hours I’ve already spent on that image in a spreadsheet.
I have it set to count my three art programs (Photoshop, Painter, and Manga Studio), so based on the settings I use, it doesn’t count time that I spend doing relevant work in my browser (such as looking up an email to double check character descriptions or ref hunting), so to counter that, I set the ‘Timeout’ option in it’s menu to 360. This means it will count to 360 seconds of cursor inactivity before it considers me idle and stops counting. Since it instantly stops counting if you switch to ‘non-work’ a program, I figure this extra time just about cancels out relevant time that it ignores in ‘non-work’ programs by counting an extra minute or so when I walk away from the computer to grab some water or what-have-you.
3. Carapace
I use Carapace the least of these three, since my work doesn’t often have a need for creating perspective lines. But when there is architecture involved in something, this proves invaluable in simplifying that process.
Carapace lets you copy paste an image into it, and then drop in vanishing points and move them around to create perspective lines. (Though you’ll want to scale down your full res drawing or painting a bit to avoid lagging the program.) Like with PureRef, fighting the shortcuts is the worst part of it, though for myself it’s more of an issue in this program because I don’t use it often enough to remember them. Still, it gets the job done, and it’s easy to adjust the points to feel things out until you get them ‘right’. Then you just copy and paste the grid back into your art program and you’ve got that information to use as need be on its own layer.
Of course, using Carapace isn’t a replacement for actually knowing how perspective works– you still have to have a sense of how far apart the vanishing points should be placed to keep things feeling believable. But it sure does save you a lot of trouble once you do have that knowledge.
So, there are my big three recommendations for programs to help your art workflow. I hope people find them useful– if you do, please share so that they climb a little higher out of their unwarranted obscurity! And if you’ve got a favorite tool like this that I didn’t cover, feel free to share it in the comments. I know I’m curious to see what else is out there, too. Also, if Mac users have any suggestions for programs that fill similar functions, feel free to share there as well!
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Top 12 alternatives to Photoshop for digital painters and illustrators
Hello there!
Yes, we haven’t done this in a while… but our inbox and chat are swamped with questions on the subject, so this article was very much needed.
it’s a simple list of art apps, but we know you love those :D
Enough with the intro, here it is, a list of twelve art apps you may want to check out.
ArtRage is an art program for beginners and professionals. With its minimal interface, it’s easy to keep the essential tools at hand without stealing space from the canvas. Panels can be moved around and tools can be customised. We all know how important it is for digital artists to be able to modify brushes!
Pros: easy to use; friendly interface; essential tools from professional apps available; available for iOS, Android, Windows and Mac
Cons: it may get sluggish with big files and when using big brushes, but performances also depend on the running machine; limited selection of editing tools if compared to Photoshop - ArtRage is more of a painting program rather than an editing one.
Paid
ArtRage Lite is a different version at a cheaper price, mostly for beginners, but also for professionals if they need the essential.
Now free, Sketchbook is the famous app created by Autodesk for various platforms.
Pros: clean, friendly interface; easy to use; professional features; autosave feature
Cons: lack of official tutorials; doesn’t offer as many tools as other apps (it’s down to the essential); paid subscription in Adobe style for Enterprise License
Free and paid
Black Ink is a powerful little program few actually know, but there’s a reason: this isn’t your classing drawing app. What’s cool about it is the vast selection of special brushes, completely non-realistic, and definitely able to boost your creativity.
Pros: vast selection of customisable brushes; excellent performance
Cons: not very easy to use; non-intuitive interface
Paid
This is probably the most complete software for painting, drawing and animation. It was originally known as Manga Studio, but with its updates and addition of features, it became Clip Studio Paint.
This doesn’t say much about the quality of the features themselves considering the affordable price (if you haven’t used the app yet, that is), but among graphic apps, this one is the top seller.
Pros: professional features for illustrators; layout tools for comic/manga artists; 3D reference models; customisable tools; various sales with special prices
Cons: the interface may not appear intuitive at first; the program may lag (again, performance also depends on the running machine)
Paid
GIMP is the famous open source image editor originally created for GNU/Linux and available for OS X and Windows.
Best known as Photoshop’s main competition, this is a manipulation program for both beginners and professionals who love design.
It offers many professional features, making the program a powerful tool.
Pros: professional editing tools; supports different formats; supported by different platforms; active community
Cons: in spite of the simple design, many options are hidden and it takes time to discover all the features; slow startup
Free
Krita is an open source painting app created by artists for artists.
Pros: easy to use; intuitive interface; great brush workflow; brush stabilizer; customisable brushes; general good performance; very enthusiastic, although small, community
Cons: it may be slow or even crash depending on the running computer and the app’s version; very few editing tools compared to Photoshop
Free
MediBang Paint is a free and light app for drawing and painting, perfect for manga and comic creation.
Pros: vast selection of brushes; cloud sharing; friendly, minimal interface (non-desktop app); also available for iPad, iPhone and Android
Cons: requires an account to use all features; non-intuitive interface (desktop version)
Free
Mischief is a sketching app with essential tools, useful for brainstorming and ideation.
Pros: infinite drawing canvas; friendly interface; easy to use; cheap pro version
Cons: few updates; offers only the essential (but that’s the point); no editing/adjustment tools
Free and paid
Corel’s jewel, Painter is the most famous software that offers digital tools able to give a traditional feel to brushes and canvas.
Pros: different selection of media; many professional features; PS-friendly
Cons: certain brushes may work slow; not easy to use at first; the software may crash (this is the most common report); pricey
Paid
Paintstorm Studio is a professional software for digital painting. It’s focused on the use of brushes and blending, which makes the software a little gem in the digital painting field.
Pros: good brush workflow; brush stabilizer; “close gap” feature; customisable interface and tools; professional features; affordable price
Cons: non-intuitive interface (desktop version)
Paid
Procreate is the powerful drawing app for iOS.
With the very sensitive Apple Pencil, Procreate is so easy to use that many artists chose the iPad over the most famous graphic tablets.
Pros: friendly interface; makes it easy to organise files; excellent brush workflow; customisable brushes; video recording; affordable price
Cons: hidden features; only available for iPad
Paid
SAI is a simple app for artists who want to focus on painting and drawing.
It’s well known for its good pressure support and its essential tools for manga artists, but SAI can be used by any kind of artist who wants to paint.
Pros: easy to use; friendly interface; light software; customisable brushes; tons of (non-official) tutorials
Cons: limited selection of tools, even basic ones; limited canvas sizes and uses; it might crash from intensive work, especially with big canvases and brushes; supports only RGB colour mode; lack of support
Paid
HONOURABLE MENTION
Many call this app an advanced PaintTool SAI, and for a reason. FireAlpaca offers almost everything PTS has and more.
Pros: friendly interface; brush stabilizer; lineart selection; customisable brushes
Cons: no colour slider; limited brush control; although more advanced compared to PTS, the features are quite basic.
Free
We hope you’ll find this list useful.
If you think there are other apps that should have made this list, don’t hesitate to let us know!
Thank you and peace out,
G&M
Other articles:
10 inspiring and helpful YouTube channels for digital artists
6 inspiring Art Podcasts for digital artists
7 amazing Photoshop extensions and tools for digital artists
