So, lately I've been doing concept designs for my games and ideas on Adobe Illustrator, Graphics Gale, and a few other programs. Then I started hearing that Photoshop is the one of the (if not best) preferred choice for finalized graphics and such. I have Photoshop and most of the other Adobe products (Flash, Dreamweave, Fireworks, InDesign, and others), but I never thought Photoshop could be used for graphics editing and such. So what are the pros and cons of using Photoshop amongst all the other graphics programs out there? Edit: I want to thank everyone for their recommendations. I've been using Photoshop frequently now and I've made some decent stuff for a beginner. here's something I just put together for a game idea:
seriously? about the only thing PSD isn't good for, are vectors I suppose. Otherwise it's the most important tool I use every day - besides 3D applications - after 14 years and multiple studios. And every single studio I've worked at has used Photoshop as the primary 2D package (except one, which used Gimp, much to my chagrin) if you're light on it, definitely jump in/buy some books/do some tutorials. you won't even look back.
Alright cool, cause I've been doing a ton in all the other Adobe programs except Photoshop. Not sure why though. I guess I never got around to it
Yes, it is the best. I am being "forced" to use the freeware program/Photoshop clone called GIMP for a particular project and I hate it. HATE I say!!! Okay, just had to vent, sorry. If you have the money get Photoshop.
allow me to non-conform. I hate photoshop. I think its bloated, slow and hard to navigate. I use GIMP instead, which isn't bloated, isn't slow, but is still hard to navigate for beginners.
PSD speed is pretty good even on my old-ass PC, I guess it just depends how you work. Also it is extremely customizable, like any good app, so if you get your workflow all tight then you don't even need to think about how to do anything.. it does take practice, like anything.
Pixelmator (transitioning to a Mac App Store exclusive) is an affordable alternative to Adobe Photoshop. Pixelmator uses far less hard drive space than Photoshop and Pixelmator is pretty fast. Photoshop has more features, but it's far more expensive. Is Photoshop better than Pixelmator? Yes. Is it 35 times better? I don't think so. ...but that's basically the difference in price between the two applications.
If you want to create original content from the ground-up, Adobe Illustrator is the way to go. If you want to polish that newly created artwork, or use pre-existing art to create kickass pieces, Photoshop is king. I use both, but I vastly prefer PSP. It's easier to get something "nice" looking faster.
Isn't that like a major deal breaker when it comes to iphone graphics? If you want your graphics to painlessly scale to different screen resolutions I mean. I've heard most mobile developers use Illustrator. I found it not very intuitive and I've stuck with Fireworks instead. I'd like to know what I'm missing out on by not using Photoshop though.
You splurged over $1000 on the Complete Adobe suite and don't know what Photoshop's purpose is? I smell something *fishy*, arrr....
I've heard this claim before but frankly never really understood it. Obviously you work with high-resolution images anyway. Downscaling has never been one of Photoshop's problems...
Thanks everyone for the feedback. I've been missing out on Photoshop's great capabilities. I'm going to start on it asap. I already have Photoshop, So prices and all that don't matter to me. But thx for the alternative suggestion.
Actually I got it for around 400-500 dollars at a special student deal. But I was focused on using Illustrator and InDesign the most (since I do graphic design and all that), while Photoshop is secondary. I know the basics of Photoshop, but didn't realize it held so much capability for graphics til now.
That's exactly what I was thinking when considering Photoshop as an alternative resource for graphics. Just started using Fireworks though, aside from other programs.
mobile devices are usualy low res devices either.. so photoshop can offer everything most people need.. or lets say a traditional raster image editor.. may it be PS or Gimp or any other... going vector only is more interesting if you actualy need to be able to scale your art assets UP!.. and that usualy is more important in a different area like print, where your images need to be very huge to get proper quality after being printed... in game development you know your target resolutions so you start big and scale down. at the end vector is vector.. its shape based.. and getting details into images can be alot of work... and it mostly useles for drawings.. image editing or texture creation etc. at the end you use the tools to get the job done and don't limit yourself to use tool X and be stuck with what you can achieve with it.. i personaly use photoshop and inkscape for 2d assets depending on what i need.. raster or vector..
I use GIMP for 2D Graphics and Blender for 3D modeling. ( Textures of 3D model is also made by GIMP). Both tools are open source, and I am open source believer. They are cross platform(Windows/Mac/Linux) and free, very good for Indie. Both tools have a little steep learning curve at beginning, but overall it's not difficult to handle. There are tons of tutorial on Youtube and web. Based on your situation, I suggest Photoshop for many reasons.
Yeah, I'll look into those as well. I downloaded Gimp once before, but, much to my disappointment, I never got around to using it when I had other programs to use, and didn't deem it necessary to learn the ropes to another one.
You'd think. There seemed to be a lot of developers suddenly stuck with fuzzy graphics after retina became available.
If developers stuk with fuzzy graphics it would be because they upscaled lower resolution graphics...
