03-11-2023, 01:23 AM
I've used Corel Painter 9.5 most of all. Painter is kind of like an idiot savant that can perform musical pieces from memory at a professional level but can't tie their own shoelaces.
The blending, the look of brush-strokes, and the handling of paper textures just feels "nicer" than it does in other programs. The only thing that it's really lacking is Photoshop-style opacity handling, which has been remedied in later versions, but I prefer to use 9.5 anyway because they mostly just kept adding ridiculous amounts of bloat and bells-and-whistles to later releases. Plus, long-time Painter users all seem to agree that it was the most stable release since Corel bought it from Metacreations.
I always preferred OpenCanvas for sketching though, because it's so light-weight and simple.
I might agree with you about what the ideal dream engine is like. I do not like extensive traditional simulation. It never looks as good as the real thing, and it usually makes the process of digital painting feel more slow and cumbersome, when the whole point of digital is the speed and convenience. Painter has a good balance of imitating some of the look of traditional art while maintaining digital speed, depending on which brush categories you use.
The blending, the look of brush-strokes, and the handling of paper textures just feels "nicer" than it does in other programs. The only thing that it's really lacking is Photoshop-style opacity handling, which has been remedied in later versions, but I prefer to use 9.5 anyway because they mostly just kept adding ridiculous amounts of bloat and bells-and-whistles to later releases. Plus, long-time Painter users all seem to agree that it was the most stable release since Corel bought it from Metacreations.
I always preferred OpenCanvas for sketching though, because it's so light-weight and simple.
I might agree with you about what the ideal dream engine is like. I do not like extensive traditional simulation. It never looks as good as the real thing, and it usually makes the process of digital painting feel more slow and cumbersome, when the whole point of digital is the speed and convenience. Painter has a good balance of imitating some of the look of traditional art while maintaining digital speed, depending on which brush categories you use.