Stop & Post Feb 2008

[David O'Neil]

I use a simple little program called GIF annimator 5.

Have you ever played with Artrage? It's also simple, and pretty cool. The non-time-limited trial doesn't have layers, but for only $25 you get layers and some more cool tools. I'm curious to know how responsive it is on big canvases compared to Gif Animator (which I've never used).

[gray]

I did try the free version of Artrage several months ago. It seemed like a pretty good little program. I can't remember how it handled large sizes though. GIF Annimator only handles upto 2000 pixels, but it works OK for what I use it for.

[David O'Neil]

So your posters are really only 100 dpi, stretched to 300 dpi? I just tried Artrage on a 16in X 20in 300 dpi canvas, and it handled it. Output a 23MB PNG file at 4800 x 6000 pixels. It took about 40 seconds. Saving the file (with two layers) took about two minutes (I only have 512 MB memory is part of the problem). Opening the file took about 45 seconds. Painting is snappy, only moving layers around took ~15 seconds. I don't think you would want many layers at that size!

Oddly, when the test PNG was brought into Xara, it said it was 120 dpi, but it had the right number of pixels. Oh--I know why--my screen is at 120 dpi, so Artrage must be using that information when saving the PNG.

All in all, I'm impressed, but I can't do what you can with GIF Animator.

I'm not trying to get you to switch, I just thought this information was interesting enough to post.

Best wishes,
David

[gray]

I don't worry too much about dots per inch now David. If one thinks of traditional paintings they would probably have an equivalent of 10 dots per inch. I do use a lot of layers though. Usually in the 120- 200 range to get the subtle colour cahnges. One of these days I'll upgrade to a good paint program.

Cheers.

[David O'Neil]

Usually in the 120- 200 range to get the subtle colour cahnges.

Am I correct in assuming that most of them are pretty transparent (< 10% opaque)? That may be too many for AR to handle nicely, unless you continually merge layers once you are happy with it.

[gray]

If I do the image all in Xara vectors I use a lot of highly transparent layers but in the paint program not so much. I find that vectors are a much crisper form of graphics and require a lot more feathering and transparency to soften them up.

Gray.

[David O'Neil]

Now you've gotten me even more curious about your painting techniques (not the vector ones). What is the purpose to 150 layers when you aren't using much transparency? After all, anything deeper than ~20 layers won't show through if they aren't very transparent. Or do you use a different layer for each different color, to make it easier to work individual colors? Whatever the reason, the end effect is brilliant!

David

[gray]

There are so many subtle colour changes in the subjects I do I try to keep all the colours on separate layers, otherwise they just tend to form blotches of colour. I do use high degrees of transparency for the colours though, preferring to build the final colour with many layers, but still not as much as with vectors. Could also be due to the simple paint program I use.

[David O'Neil]

That makes sense to me now. It seems like a logical method, and not like a program limitation. Thanks for taking the time to respond--I learned some new stuff! Now if I can just put it to some use.

Best wishes,
David

[JokeArtist]

Started work on a new picture. It is on Antwerp from my womans appartment.