Shirt.Woot

blackberryjam wrote:not to get way off topic, but I LOVE Flash- once you figure out how it handles layers and objects, you can create some really cool vector stuff- or import Illustrator and Photoshop files with layers INTACT and editable... The only reason Flash gets a bad rap is that people don't know how to use it correctly. I have found no other program that can do everything that it is capable of doing.

CorelDRAW and Illustrator are similar and do many of the same tasks, they just do a few of them really different.

I have noticed the trend among vector people is that those who learned on Illustrator typically dislike Flash, and vice versa. Both are fantastic programs, they just have different strengths. If Flash would fix it's pen tool to behave like Illustrator's, I would loath it much, much less, hahaha. <--dislikes the messyness of it's lines

I would also like to try Xara, I've heard good stuff about it.

Inkscape is my everything. Free, fairly light-weight, easy learning curve. I wouldn't recommend it for artists who do hand-drawings; it's better suited to designs based on simple shapes. And it's terrible with memory-management on intricate work with lots of lines or halftones. But if your drawing skills are still stuck in 3rd grade, like mine, Inkscape is a great, quick way to get an idea from your head onto the monitor. If you think like an engineer and are ok with clean, logo-esque designs, you can make some really fancy looking stuff.

haxrox wrote:If you think like an engineer and are ok with clean, logo-esque designs, you can make some really fancy looking stuff.

i need something for someone who thinks like an idjit.

bassanimation wrote:
If you think Illustrator is bad, try Flash...

Haha, I love working in flash, but that's probably because I use it more for programming than animation.

As for design, I've been sticking to the Photoshop+CorelDraw combo ever since I can remember.

CorelDraw is way more intuitive and easier than Illustrator, but it's a lot more crash-prone. It's a trade-off.

bottlehed wrote:Haha, I love working in flash, but that's probably because I use it more for programming than animation.

I think that is why I dislike it. It's a very 'coder friendly' platform. I'm used to Adobe (Flash was originally Macromedia), which is very 'art friendly' and mostly human proof. ^^; Flash is like the 2D equivalent of 3D. One check box you miss, and explosions...nothing works, hahaha. I'll get the hang of Flash eventually, but it's been tough to get used to.

Josephus wrote:Oddly, Powerbullet Presenter is pretty usable.

Thanks Joe. Messing around with this program this evening. Seems fairly complicated at the moment, but there are a lot of online tutorials to help me.

I use JASC PaintShop Pro, an oldie but goodie. I also use BladePro for the metals and gems looks. It's super for custom web graphics, can be saved in many formats, has lots of vector,freehand, layer, group, etc. options, but is still simple enough for a non-artist. Some of the custom T's I've made for concerts etc. have my kids' friends asking "What merch did you buy that from?" I will say it doesn't like Windows 7 much, but will work with it.

mikem23 wrote:Inkscape++

For creating original designs it is generally superior. Gimp and Inkscape are in some ways complementary.

Quite right. In fact, Inkscape+Gimp are the open source pair somewhat equivalent to Adobe's Illustrator+Photoshop pair...

WootBot wrote:GIMP 2.6: Freeware
[snip]

The Not-So-Good: [snip] The interface takes some getting used to

That could be said of anything new, and anything that is similar but different from what you are used to.

Show a non-graphics-artist and graphics program, and it will take them a while to find their way around. Show a Mac user a Windows computer (and vice versa), and they'll hate you because they can't find their favourite features/software/toolbar.

WootBot wrote:GIMP 2.6: Freeware
[snip]

The Not-So-Good: [snip] The interface takes some getting used to and [this] is a common complaint even among faithful users

Citation required! :o) I use Gimp a lot, and its user interface has made many leaps forward in the last couple of significant versions.

I have used Photoshop (in fact, it was my first "serious" graphics app), now I now prefer Gimp by a long way. Some of that is familiarity, since the latest versions of Photoshop have also advanced from Photoshop's humble beginnings, and some is just personal preference...

So, for those of you who use GIMP, how do you get around the absence of Pantone licensing?

jabernathy13 wrote:So, for those of you who use GIMP, how do you get around the absence of Pantone licensing?

i can't speak for the real artists, but personally i have to trust the eyeballs and experience of the shirt.woot staff to match colours for me.

New for Gimp: Adaptable Gimp. Adapts the user interface to be more intuitive.

I'm surprised how many people use Photoshop for their Woot designs. That would never have occurred to me, which is not to say that my method necessarily makes sense. I ink my pencils, then scan and transfer to vector in Illustrator CS5 (even though CS4 has better "feel" to it; that's just what I was able to get). I do the rest of the coloring and shading in Illustrator as well.

mikem23 wrote:Inkscape++

For creating original designs it is generally superior. Gimp and Inkscape are in some ways complementary.

Ditto that. I haven't entered in the Derby for quite a while, though
I've lost every single time, but then again, I wasn't expecting to win. And my skills are far from great, as I'm not really serious yet about this whole thing. Just kind of enjoying myself and teaching myself in the process.

But Inkscape and Gimp work very well together, as they both have essential qualities that the other one doesn't have.

And- they're FREE!!!

Spiritgreen wrote:I use humble ol' Photoshop 6 and Illustrator 9 from the year 2000. Sure, they crash when you least expect it and they don't have fancy brushes or effects, their Pantone library is way out of date and they lag in Windows 7 like an 80s transatlantic phone call but...

Wait, where was I going with this?

Same here, PS anyway. A little while ago hub saw my frustration and said 'why don't you just buy the new one, for your little hobby, you'll use it?' Then I showed him the pricetag for CS5 - just the PS piece. Still muddling along with PS6 when I can get to it (different 'puter) and GIMP, which I really, intesnely dislike.

I have a question and I'm not sure if this is the correct place to pose it. Anyway, here goes... I hope someone out there can set me straight.

When using a masked layer as in creating halftones, do each of the grays count as separate colors? The opacity changes but they are actually different tints of the same color.

As to the stated topic, I am comfortable with Photoshop, but have been told that Illustrator produces a cleaner, more professional artwork. Illustrator frustrates me and I suck at it. Is there a simple tutorial or video I should view?

All advice is appreciated.

lepyan wrote:When using a masked layer as in creating halftones, do each of the grays count as separate colors? The opacity changes but they are actually different tints of the same color.

All advice is appreciated.

i shall attempt to answer in my own poor way.

without halftones, before applying halftone activity, each gray is a separate colour.

with halftones, after applying halftone filter... i assume your base layer is a single colour, the only variations are in the mask, and by halftoning, you mean you are turning your mask into an array of various sized dots. where the mask was bright, your mask has big white dots; where the mask was dark, teeny white dots... but each dot in the visible layer ends up the same colour, just differently sized, i think.

If I use Paint.NET and Inkscape for my designs, what do I have to do to make sure I fall under the proper requirements regarding Pantone Solid Coated color swatches and gradients/halftones?

I'm definitely going to take advantage of Adobe's student pricing and buy a suite soon. Any suggestions on which suite?

I've been having fun with Autodesk's Sketchbook (current price $4.99, free Express version) on my iPad. Finally, a program I can do layers with. Have to get shirt templates to import and then try exporting PSD's still. But with the addition of an Alupen stylus, I really like the results so far.

lukas32 wrote:I'm definitely going to take advantage of Adobe's student pricing and buy a suite soon. Any suggestions on which suite?

Buy the creative suite standard. You'll get Photoshop, Illustrator, Indesign, and Acrobat.

That gives you all the tools to create shirts, as well as start up your own graphics design and web firm.

Sometimes I want to go back to school just to get the adobe discount.

lukas32 wrote:I'm definitely going to take advantage of Adobe's student pricing and buy a suite soon. Any suggestions on which suite?

you may consider getting a Wacom tablet, they come with bundled graphic software (e.g. Photoshop Elements, Corel, Artrage...)

i bought a Wacom Bamboo recently and got PE and Artrage.

i like the latter esp. but can't compare to other software. Artrage offers a lot of tools (i mean brushes and the likes), and layers. It's very intuitive, and aimed at people who wanna draw using a tablet (no photo editing tools, no vector graphics). It uses the pressure sensitivity of the tablet.

cptgone wrote:you may consider getting a Wacom tablet, they come with bundled graphic software (e.g. Photoshop Elements, Corel, Artrage...)

i bought a Wacom Bamboo recently and got PE and Artrage.

i like the latter esp. but can't compare to other software. Artrage offers a lot of tools (i mean brushes and the likes), and layers. It's very intuitive, and aimed at people who wanna draw using a tablet (no photo editing tools, no vector graphics). It uses the pressure sensitivity of the tablet.

Thanks guys. Yeah, I'm excited about the Adobe Suite...just need a little more cash. And I'm hoping to find some decent graphic design classes around here. My community college doesn't really offer anything great. And I was checking out the Bamboo and the Intuoso4...both look really nice, and I'm not sure which I'll pick. I am serious about getting into graphic design, it's just a matter of time and money.

lukas32 wrote:just need a little more cash.
.
.
.
And I was checking out the Bamboo and the Intuoso4...both look really nice, and I'm not sure which I'll pick.
.
.
it's just a matter of time and money.

Save some money.
Get this:
Monoprice Tablet
and this:
The Gimp
and/or this:
Inkscape
Upgrade later if needed.

Adobe CS6 is coming out soon, and I've seen some heavy discounts on CS5 Extended already.

I'm surprised none mentioned the aviary tools. Free, powerful, web based alternative to the Adobe tools.

http://advanced.aviary.com/

P.S. I don't work for aviary, I just love their tools.

lonelypond wrote:I've been having fun with Autodesk's Sketchbook (current price $4.99, free Express version) on my iPad. Finally, a program I can do layers with. Have to get shirt templates to import and then try exporting PSD's still. But with the addition of an Alupen stylus, I really like the results so far.

Does it work? I've been using it for a while, and also just bought Sketchbook Ink (not exactly the best, but improvements are being made). I would much rather use sketchbook than try learning these other fancy programs I can't afford.

741wife wrote:Does it work? I've been using it for a while, and also just bought Sketchbook Ink (not exactly the best, but improvements are being made). I would much rather use sketchbook than try learning these other fancy programs I can't afford.

Just ran into an export resolution problem as I was getting a show logo ready for the screen printer. I always merge my derby designs with a shirt template jpeg in Inkscape anyway, where I can export at the woot required higher dpi, but turns out Sketchbook can only do 72 dpi. Read some message boards + there's a lot of call for exporting at a higher dpi feature but no joy yet that I could find.

Seems to be related to maximizing speed + tying into screen size. I export most of my art straight to Tumblr so haven't run into that problem before. That's the iPad version though, not sure about the desktop one.

j5 suggested ProCreate in a tablet discussion thread. Picked it up but need to do some OS/iTunes upgrading before using and my time is committed to other projects right now.

Could anyone help me out with Illustrator? (I would have started a new topic, but for some reason I get a server error every time I try )

Im working on a design, getting the linework done at the mo. Doubt Ill get it finished in time for this derby, but its good drawing practice for me so I dont really care. However I cant seem to get Illustrator to display my work in 300dpi, despite the document being set to 300 dpi when I created it, its previewing at (I think) 72dpi. Obviously, its kinda frustrating as i cant work out whether my lines would be too thin for printing or not because I cant see the actual pixel sizes.

lilsquiggle wrote:Could anyone help me out with Illustrator? (I would have started a new topic, but for some reason I get a server error every time I try )

Im working on a design, getting the linework done at the mo. Doubt Ill get it finished in time for this derby, but its good drawing practice for me so I dont really care. However I cant seem to get Illustrator to display my work in 300dpi, despite the document being set to 300 dpi when I created it, its previewing at (I think) 72dpi. Obviously, its kinda frustrating as i cant work out whether my lines would be too thin for printing or not because I cant see the actual pixel sizes.

You can't start a new topic since this forum is under moderator control.

To answer your question (as best I can, since I don't have Illustrator); Vector based programs
don't deal in DPI until there is a conversion. You tell it the line is 0.125" thick, that's what you get. DPI comes into play when you have to convert, so at 72DPI, 9 huge pixels make 0.125", but at 300DPI, it takes about 38 tiny pixels to make 0.125"
So, you can export a 16"x20" drawling to a bitmap @300DPI and you will get a 4800x6000 image.
Make sense?

Also, be sure to enable/disable the bit that interpolates on a non pixel-grid border, because that will cause anti-aliasing and you don't want that.

eta: So if Woot says their lower limit is 30 dots, then you can't have any lines smaller than 0.1 inches.

j5 wrote:You can't start a new topic since this forum is under moderator control.

To answer your question (as best I can, since I don't have Illustrator); Vector based programs
don't deal in DPI until there is a conversion. You tell it the line is 0.125" thick, that's what you get. DPI comes into play when you have to convert, so at 72DPI, 9 huge pixels make 0.125", but at 300DPI, it takes about 38 tiny pixels to make 0.125"
So, you can export a 16"x20" drawling to a bitmap @300DPI and you will get a 4800x6000 image.
Make sense?

Also, be sure to enable/disable the bit that interpolates on a non pixel-grid border, because that will cause anti-aliasing and you don't want that.

eta: So if Woot says their lower limit is 30 dots, then you can't have any lines smaller than 0.1 inches.

Ok, that makes sense to me. Thank you. Can any Illustrator bods tell me what the size of the brushes refer to, (for example PhotoShop brush sizes refer to the number of pixels in diameter.) since pixels are basically irrelevant until you export? I've just done a quick google but all I can find is tutorials on how to use brushes, but nothing tells me what the sizes actually refer to.

lonelypond wrote:Just ran into an export resolution problem as I was getting a show logo ready for the screen printer. I always merge my derby designs with a shirt template jpeg in Inkscape anyway, where I can export at the woot required higher dpi, but turns out Sketchbook can only do 72 dpi. Read some message boards + there's a lot of call for exporting at a higher dpi feature but no joy yet that I could find.

Seems to be related to maximizing speed + tying into screen size. I export most of my art straight to Tumblr so haven't run into that problem before. That's the iPad version though, not sure about the desktop one.

j5 suggested ProCreate in a tablet discussion thread. Picked it up but need to do some OS/iTunes upgrading before using and my time is committed to other projects right now.

It seems that there is no way to control the size of the file, or to know if you're inside the printable area, as well. Until I can afford a thinkpad, or some other such thing, and photoshop, it appears I will not be able to submit anything. No derbies for me. Thank you for your help. I may try procreate. It looks awesome, if nothing else.

741wife wrote:It seems that there is no way to control the size of the file, or to know if you're inside the printable area, as well. Until I can afford a thinkpad, or some other such thing, and photoshop, it appears I will not be able to submit anything. No derbies for me. Thank you for your help. I may try procreate. It looks awesome, if nothing else.

the GIMP (available at www.gimp.org) is free, although for that you probably still need a computer of some sort.

no1 wrote:the GIMP (available at www.gimp.org) is free, although for that you probably still need a computer of some sort.

I have plenty of computers, and two tablets. The problem is that I cannot use a traditional tablet. I have to move around it, and I don't feel like I get the same control and precision as pen and paper. The adjustment was too much for me. I need a touch screen.

741wife wrote:I have plenty of computers, and two tablets. The problem is that I cannot use a traditional tablet. I have to move around it, and I don't feel like I get the same control and precision as pen and paper. The adjustment was too much for me. I need a touch screen.

oh, when you said "until i can afford a thinkpad" i thought you meant a regular computer, i.e., the lenovo thinkpad brand of laptops.

lilsquiggle wrote:Can any Illustrator bods tell me what the size of the brushes refer to, (for example PhotoShop brush sizes refer to the number of pixels in diameter.) since pixels are basically irrelevant until you export? I've just done a quick google but all I can find is tutorials on how to use brushes, but nothing tells me what the sizes actually refer to.

When it says "pt", it's still pixels, but it assumes 72DPI as that is the display standard (and you're on a display) best bet is to see if you can change units to inches in the brush dialog.

j5 wrote:When it says "pt", it's still pixels, but it assumes 72DPI as that is the display standard (and you're on a display) best bet is to see if you can change units to inches in the brush dialog.

not that it changes the answer, but i thought "pt" meant "points" as in 12 points per pica, six picas per inch. (72 pts per inch, which gives the same numeric answer as yours but makes the abbreviation "pt" make more sense.)

What size should the design be in photoshop?