Replacing other programs?

[BJTrakman]

Hey guys/gals, I am relatively new to TVPaint -- this is my 3rd post on these forums, and I am learning fast thanks to Elodie's tutorials -- however, that said, I am an accredited artist, who uses a Wacom Cintiq Companion with advanced skill levels in Adobe Photoshop and Corel Painter. (I generally steer clear of vector-based programs like Illustrator, Flash, etc. as I just don't like the final look at all, for static and especially animated images... not to mention that they often take a lot of the draughtsmanship/line-skill out of the drawing process.) As I learn more about TVPaint, and become more familiar with it's many capabilities, I find myself using Photoshop and Painter less and less. TVPaint is great for manipulating photographs, it emulates traditional materials very well, AND it's an extremely powerful animation program to boot (it's main purpose, even).

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that it does EVERYTHING that Photoshop and Painter do, and certainly not as intuitively, but for a lot of my uses, it comes pretty close... and in some ways surpasses those programs in their own aims. While Corel Painter was love at first sight for someone who started drawing and painting with traditional materials, I used to say that if I could only have one program for digital art, it would be Photoshop -- given its breadth of use and its relatively new, albeit primitive, animation feature (figuring I could cover all of my bases with it) -- but now I wouldn't hesitate to say TVPaint. The more I learn about this program, the more surprised I am regarding its wealth of features and capabilities. Has anyone here had a similar experience?

[slowtiger]

Each program has its own abilities and - maybe - deficits. I use TVP now for all my illustrations and most animation, but I still do CMYK conversion and photo manipulation in PS, as well as graphics in Illustrator and Indesign. I'm used to have a bunch of programs and switch beneath them.

(Just last month I found an old file from about 1998, listing all applications from my work computer then. It was a whopping 100+. I didn't do a recent inventory, but I guess it's still between 50 and 100 because of all those little helpers for certain conversions and stuff.)

[schwarzgrau]

Since I'm animating nearly everyday in TVPaint, I'm so used to it, that I never use something else to draw. What can be a bummer, cause I would like to use Mischief more often.
However, if I need to manipulate images (Retouching or basic stuff like cropping etc.) I still use Photoshop, since it seems to be way faster and a bit less destructive, in terms of some effects like levels or curves.

[BJTrakman]

True, I think I will forever be going back to Photoshop for CYMK conversion, levels and curves... and do not yet know a way to change the hue and saturation in TVP, so I'll use PS for that too. Also, I don't know any program that quite matches Corel Painter's impasto, ink layers, etc. (although TVPaint is the closest that I've come across), so I still see myself painting backgrounds and such with that.

I'm used to using multiple programs like you, slowtiger -- although certainly not as many as you -- but I do tend to favour one or two, like you schwarzgrau... and given the way that TVPaint's sucked me in already, with its wealth of features, I think it is going to be the top dog.

[marym]

The thing I love about this program is the way it just "feels" when I draw or sketch with it ... even better than PS if you ask me - much smoother!

[Fabrice]

and do not yet know a way to change the hue and saturation in TVP

FX > Color > Curves
FX > Color > Histogram
FX > Color > Color Adjust
etc.

[slowtiger]

Colour Adjust is the fastest, and does the same as cmd-U in PS.

[BJTrakman]

A late thks to you Frabrice, and for your additional insight, slowtiger.