Dev Blog XX - Tools of the Trade (Patreon)

This is a special Dev Blog that covers the apps/tools I use for drawing.

I often get questions regarding what I used for this and that picture/animation and the answer is not always that simple, because I mix tools accordingly to my needs or even if I used one tool, it's possible to create the same work in any other similar tool and my choice should not influence your pick. I will cover some Pros and Cons and you can of course ask in the comment section or via PM and I'll try to help wherever I can. ♥

1. Hardware

1.1 Computer

HP Pavilion TG01
Intel i7-9700F 3GHz  <-- Most important for 2D animation rendering
32GB RAM  <-- 16Gb would be enough too, 8Gb is too little for animation rendering
Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 Ti - 6GB  <-- Only important for 3D stuff

I think this is a very important part if you want to work with high resolution images and bigger animations, because rendering animation eats a lot of CPU and even large images with many layers will use a lot of RAM. I had a notebook earlier, but when I started some more elaborate animations, it crashed and I couldn't even see the preview without major lags, so I upgraded to a small midrange desktop. The graphics card is not that relevant for me now, but I want to make some 3D stuff next year.

1.2 Tablet

As you may know, before I started Patreon and even for a short time afterwards, I was drawing by mouse. I never had a tablet. As a teenager there were no tablets around yet so I used what was available and as time passed, I either had no money or no chance to switch to a tablet and when I tried one (without a display) it felt of too much of a change and too much effort getting used to it and whatever I made, it was shaky and unsharp, so I kept making sketches on paper, scanned them and colored them by clicking and drawing vector based lines. *click click click*

Here is an example.

Even tho it looks like a pen stroke, I only imitate it by placing points and curves and then add a filler color. This is a very elaborate and time consuming way to draw lines and it often made my wrist hurt, but I had nothing else.

Also, ppl kept saying that vectors are shitty and you can only do tattoo designs with them, but I still made many pictures like that that I'm very proud of. Like this:

This year though I invested in a "Huion Kamvas Pro 22 (2019)" which was a huge improvement. The most important thing for me was to have a huge space to draw and to have a built in display. I used to draw on A4 paper and wanted to have at least that much space even with toolbars around and I didn't want to be distracted by drawing in front of me but seeing the image somewhere else.

It was still very weird to get used to it and even now I'm not really a pro. I had many experimental images at first where I was not happy with the result, but at that time it was the best I could do. I also completely quit to use paper and mouse to force myself to practice with the tablet. I also had to switch programs, because I couldn't use the tablet in the software I used by mouse.

This was the first pic I did by a tablet and I spent like 95% with learning the tools and only 5% by actually drawing ^^:

Nowadays I can pull off something similarly sharp and accurate that I used to draw by mouse.

1.3 Peripherials

This is pretty much what my desk looks like. I don't give much about brands and I try to keep things simple, but also practical.

I have a vertical mouse because I use it a lot and had a very bad tendonitis (Inflammation of my tendons in my wrist-elbow-shoulder) a few months back. They look a bit weird, but I got used to them in no time and they feel a lot better for work.

My keyboard has a solar battery because I don't like switching batteries. and because I have to move it every time I draw, I need it to be wireless. I wanted a wireless mouse too, but because those have batteries, they tend to be a bit heavy which can be a problem if you use them for 8-10 hours a day.

My monitor is a simple 27" screen, it's in front of my tablet, so I can easily look at ref pictures or have other apps open there (like music on youtube).

My chair is fairly cheap, but it's wide. Again, it's not about the brand, but about being practical and it can be a huge problem if your chair is not wide enough (I am pretty broad and heavy myself) and doesn't support your back/arms correctly. It should rotate, even roll if you want (I broke mine, because while drawing I lean forward and put all my weight on the front wheel :X So I switched the wheels to little legs)

Other than this, I have a strong lamp behind me, lighting up the whole room. I don't put any lights directly above the tablet, the glare is distracting, but I have a reading lamp next to me to light up my direct surrounding if needed.

2. Software

2.1 Corel Paint Shop Pro X2/X3 (Image Filters / Vector Art)

Paint Shop Pro was the program I once received on a CD in a magazine. Back then it was made by Jasc and it was PSP 3 or 5 maybe, a very early version. But I was really happy I had something I could digitally color my sketches with, so I kept using each newer version till X2 (X3 was still fine, but they completely butchered the software afterwards) this year. I still use it sometimes to add text or simple vector shapes, because of the easy usage, but it's more for nostalgic reasons.

Pros: Easy to use vector/text handling by mouse
Cons: Not very modern, pressure sensitivity doesn't work, for paintings not useful

2.2 Jasc Animation Shop 3 (Simple GIF Editor)

This was also a program I got from a magazine and I used it alongside PSP to make sometimes little gifs or animated avatars. I still use it, because even tho it's only 32Bit and cannot handle bigger animations, it's a very user friendly GIF editor.

Pros: Very quick and easy GIF editing, you can also make some simple flipchart-like animation with it
Cons: Very old, only 32Bit

2.3 Manga Studio / Clip Studio Paint (Painting, Animation)

https://www.clipstudio.net/
https://twitter.com/clipstudiopaint

This is the software I started using this year, after I switched to a tablet. First Manga Studio 5, but recently I switched to the newest version, Clip Studio Paint EX. I recommend this program for painting and the company has many special events where they sell the software 50% cheaper (Black Friday, Christmas, etc, keep checking back on their page).

Clip Studio has a huge asset database, with 3D objects and models to use as reference, or even brushes, textures, etc. and it is really user friendly (reminds me of SAI, but more advanced).

It also has a comic and animation tool. I haven't tried the comic maker yet, tho I surely will, but I found the animator features very... poorly made and complicated in comparison to other programs. You can still make with it frame by frame animations and use layers and most features the program has, but will stick to Toon Boom for animation.

Pros: Many features, very user friendly, fast, has many free assets, supports animation and comic features. The animatior is not that good, but they still added it and in the end, this is a Painter program and it does that job perfectly.
Cons: None that I know of.

2.4 Toon Boom Harmony (Animation)

https://www.toonboom.com
https://twitter.com/toonboom

And now we arrived to my favorite program in the whole world. Toon Boom is simply the best software for animation (I even paint in it sometimes because I like it so much, even if painting backgrounds can be quite a challenge)

This one was made in Toon Boom:

It has all the vector capabilities that you need, has a very very advanced rigging system, easy to use tools and a library with effects like transparency (fade in/out), cutout, color change, etc etc and the more advanced version has 3D capabilities and particle systems... which I don't really use, I'm happy with the basic version.

I use this program mostly for frame by frame animation which can be done in other programs too and some simple rigging (also doable in other programs), but I love the concept of Toon Boom, that I open the program and can just start drawing. No need to set up tools or look for brushes, everything I need is there and it's built up in a very intuitive and visually easy to understand way.

Pros: Everything. Very advanced, very easy to use.
Cons: Very expensive... This program is meant for companies and not for hobby artists like me. If you don't need fancy features like 3D model importing and particle effects (like me), you can get the basic version, which is wayyyy cheaper, but for simple frame-by-frame animation you can use other, even free programs.

2.5 Aseprite (Pixel Art/Animation)

https://www.aseprite.org/
https://twitter.com/aseprite

Aseprite is build for freehand pixel art and pixel animation. Therefore you shouldn't expect too fancy features like motion blur or whatnot. But if you love pixel art like me, this is a really easy to use program and has most of the basic features you need. Unfortunately it lacks some very important stuff, like color history, or infinite background canvas (in other programs you can move parts of your drawings outside of the camera and then move them back when needed, in Aseprite, whatever you move outside will get cut off / deleted.... which is an absolute no-go for me because I can't even add a sliding background.)

Pros: Easy to use, very good for pixel art. Fair price.
Cons: Lacks some features that would be very useful.

3. The DONTs

I usually don't want to be a hater and everyone is of course entitled to use whatever program best works for them, but I really need to mention that anything that Adobe touches is or becomes a nightmare. Other than "they are industry standard" I hear absolutely nothing positive about them from anyone who uses their products.

I tried to use photoshop a few times, but after a few minutes I was just infuriated about how slow and unintuitive (fucking dumb) it is, with absolutely no regard to user friendliness and missing several features that would make life easier.
The same goes for Adobe Animate (and Adobe Flash earlier). I used that when I started this animation:

And in the end I made the sprites and everything in Paint Shop Pro, exported the parts as PNG and imported them to Adobe Animate, because drawing/animating there anything was just too hard. In the end I dropped this project (but I will probably continue it if I can port it to Toon Boom), because it was too time and energy (sanity) consuming.

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Thank you for reading all this, I hope you found something useful.

If you have questions, leave a comment or send me a PM. ♥