Ipad or mac for artwork?

inkoqnito

Hello all!

I have tested vectors on ipad with iDraw and its ok but missing a few features. Does anyone use ipad for artwork? Maybe in combination with a stylus?
I have seen inkpad is this better than iDraw?
And one last question do anyone use a 3d app to produce artwork? Like blender?
Or is vectors the way to go:)?

Kind regards

MotherHoose

for any image you want to create …
1st use whatever graphics program gives you the best beginning look
then use other programs to perfect it! sometimes vector … sometimes raster … depends on the image look you want
and, eventually use ImageAlpha and ImageOptim to make their filesSize efficient!
I do many beginning art Sketches on my iPad (no stylus … the pencil tools work well) … email myself that workup … open in the gfxProgram that will work best for what I want to do with that image … and maybe open it in another one for other effects.

computing screens are flat … they have Width and Height
Depth is more perception … not an actual dimension
Look at: GS video 1:09 sec
the coins certainly appear to be 3D … but, they are a series of flatImages

simplifying things:
objects/parts in back/furtherAway are: darker, shorter, narrower, and less distinct
objects/parts in front/closerTo are: brighter, taller, wider, and sharper

using lights/shadows/bumps gives an appearance of depth to individual objects

@};- MH

RP

If it is one or the other, Use a Mac. You are seriously going to limit yourself by depending upon a tablet device as your main means of design. Not to say you can't create some cool stuff on the iPad via various apps, but again they ARE all extremely limited (hardware and software limitations). I have an iPad w/stylus Sketchbook Pro and Inspire Pro (tried some others as well). I don't think I would use either for anything other than backgrounds, textures or creating concepts that will be executed on the the Mac via more robust graphic editing software.

Have blender, it's cool, but there are alternatives for creating 3D art and with GameSalad you are confined to a 2D realm so any 3D moving or rotating objects are going to have to be exported into frames and re-imported into GameSalad as animations. Like MotherHoose said, there are ways to mimic 3D and no one will know the difference...well, say for some!

Vectors although having clean lines and scalability are NOT always the way to go. Nothing wrong with raster images.

calvin9403

I don' think an ipad will be good for pro drawing(at least now)

go download some software and see what you like the best

Clouds

And one last question do anyone use a 3d app to produce artwork? Like blender?
Or is vectors the way to go: ?

The two methods are deigned for creating entirely different things,, which is best will depend in what you want to achieve, vector style illustrations or 3D animation/illustration.

inkoqnito

Thanks for the answers, i dont think you understand the blender question though. I dont mean to create 3d in blender but 2d, you can render out images that looks 2d in blender. The advantage would be that you dont need to re draw any object just animate it and render as a series of i images for an explosion for example:)
You can also get an illusion of 3d with rendered images from example blender:)

What do ipad miss that a stationary mac has? I tried iDraw and drawed a landscape with hills,stars and a moon and it came out pretty nice for a little iphone game i dont think you need a very powerful setup:)

And i just interested in other opinions, lots sounds they are using illustrator and that app may be good but its very expensive so most indie developers wont afford it. If you dont pirate it, and steal something to build something dosent sounds right to me:)

Cheers:)

Sorry for my english aint my native language:)

RP

@inkoqnito
What Mac are you running GameSalad on? If you have an Intel Mac, it is going to outperform your iPad in many, many ways. It is a different hardware architecture. The software running on the iPad is going to be a seriously striped down version of any Mac version counterpart (limited undos, layers, effects, plugins etc.). In terms of performance and capability It's like comparing a Ferrari to a motor scooter.

There are free programs for Mac for doing design such as inkscape. I suggest you check it out. http://inkscape.org/

Seriously though, the iPad is not going to come close to what you can do in terms of graphic creation on the Mac. Once we have iPads that perform more like a Modbook, then the time will be right. http://www.axiotron.com/index.php?id=home

MotherHoose

Personally, and for many,many reasons I like Gimp and it free
Seashore is great for beginners and also free.

have worked in most all the available programs Illustrator, Photoshop, Pixelmator (low price on this), CorelDraw. etc.

currently have 14 graphics creation applications on the desktop and often use them …
even sometimes put an image in Art Text2 for shadows/lights/textures

and, do enjoy the 6 or 7 on the iPad … especially Art Studio! but primarily for bits and pieces … a flower/bush/tree/animal

what you use … depends on what you want to do … and how comfortable you are with the way the program runs

@};- MH

old_kipper

I use a lot of different apps on both ipad and mac. Pencil (free at source forge) which is little weird and buggy but fab for drawn animation, PS and AE, hardly ever Flash, but do play with DoInk on ipad for animation. I also use paper a lot and scan drawing and animation and clean them up in PS. Truthfully I think using a wacom tablet is so much easier than the ipad for drawing that I avoid the ipad for art unless I am travelling. My choices are very much down to years as an illustrator/animator, using natural materials and drawing every day. The wacom is like drawing with a crayon after a real brush or pen and the ipad feels like walking through glue (and you can't see the point of contact of your touch).

kipper

inkoqnito

Hey everyone!
Fun to hear everyones opinions about different apps. I have been experimenting with blender found on www.blender.org and have found bezier curves. With the help of these i have made an image much like you do in any vector program. Its just flat surfaces in front of each other.


Why i like to use blender for this is that you have lots of effect, you can control light, you have blur, invert colors etc with the compositor.
However my test pic aint using any special effects i like it simple and clean:) But you can if you want:)
And the biggest plus for using blender is that you can easy create animations if you like. You can even paint your own textures if you don't like to use materials=)

From now on i think i will use iPad for creating sketches both in painting apps and in vector apps and then using blender for creating the final work.

Feel free to comment bad vs good about this test=)

Cheers

inkoqnito

@RP : I don't really agree on that about limited undos and of course you can do much more advanced creations on a mac, but is that really neccesary for an iPhone game? Most game i have seen especially on gamesallad don't have that advanced graphics=)

@MotherHoose : Problem with using lots of different programs is the cost, it pretty fast will be pretty expensive=) But i just love Pixelmator its one great program the vector tools aren't that great though=)

@old_kipper : Yes that really is a problem with the iPad not being able to see where you paint, i had big problems to use with vectors on the iPad until i bought an stylus then it worked a little better:)

@Tynan : If you look at my test i think you can achieve vector style art with blender too=) I wasn't meaning to create 3d art=) However that would be possible to and then just render an image and use that image as an actor in gameSalad. That way you would get a semi 3d effect=)

Kind Regards

MotherHoose

about expense … try always to put things in terms of how many pizzas rather than how many dollars

EX: pixelmator costs: 2 pizzas …
give up the pizzas which body will probably get benefits from for less than a day! and buy the program which your mind will enjoy for a couple of years!

Art Text 2 costs: 1 and 1/3 pizzas I use it to quickly do titles/buttons and uniform smashing text in every game! and, wont give it up; don't miss the pizzas!

@};- MH

inkoqnito

@MotherHoose : Haha=) You got a point there;)

old_kipper

@MotherHoose I heard a story of a geek on the Microsoft campus that lived on pizza as it was the only food his friends could slide under his door.

RP

@inkoqnito

I'm not sure how or why you cannot not agree with a fact. But hey, whatever. It sounds like you already made up your mind.
You are asking people in the forums that DO, do design professionally or are advanced in know-how (I have done this for fortune 500 and international companies), we are not trying to pull your leg, but offer you solid advice. As far as games with advanced graphics, there are quite a few Gamesalad games out there with "advanced" graphics albeit they are in 2D format. Static backgrounds, while not interactive can take days to make depending on the levels of details. My Backgrounds now have more layers than all the cake I have eaten in my lifetime.

It boils down to your capability, necessity, resources and expected results. I don't know what your "capability, necessity, resources and expected results" are. Yes, you can surely create your graphic assets with your iPad, but by depending upon your iPad alone, you are limiting your resources; even when there are free alternatives out there that will outperform/outfeature your iPad apps.

If you feel the iPad is a good fit for your design needs or are more comfortable with it, then go with it.
I'll leave it at that.

Clouds

@inkoqnito

"If you look at my test i think you can achieve vector style art with blender too"

Looking nice ! the subtle shading/shadows gives it a really nice feel.

inkoqnito

@RP : Hey RP, the reason why i can't agree with is the limited undos, the iPad apps i have used i never ran out of undos and when i use different mac apps you don't have unlimited undos at least what i learnt. Undos take memory and often i have got the advice to set the app to not have to many undos. This is with 3d apps so that maybe don't apply to programs like illustrator or inkscape?

About the games graphics i can just speak about the games i have seen and most are pretty simple anyways=) Of course there are exceptions:)
I don't know they i am having this conversations any longer because i have stated that i like blender to create the art, but just wanted to explain what i meant by my previous statement:)

And of course do i know that an mac app beats an iPad app by far, but it would be pretty fun and amazing to see an game that had all its graphic created on the ipad=)
Did not try to offend or criticize anyone=) Just thought it was an interesting subject and as you can see my opinions change as i discover and test different apps and ways to create art/graphic:)

have a nice day:)

RP

@ inkqnito

No offense or criticism taken!

I hope I did not come off brash, I'm tend to be pretty direct about things!
Having fun while you are creating IS very important and it sounds like you are enjoying doing so on your iPad, so go with it!