Hello, I've worked with my hands as an artist for most of my life (I'm 51). I've only worked with traditional art materials like drawing, painting, and wood sculpture. I'm blown away by the art I see on Renderosity and I would just love to try doing digital renderings. I've got a whole headful of ideas for renderings, just don't know how to do the technical stuff. Any advice on what the best program would be for a newcomer to start learning with? Any other tips and advice would be appreciated too. Thanks!
Janine (Huntergreen)

Daz|Studio is in it's free beta version right now. You might try it out. It all depends on what you want to do and how much you're willing to spend, really. :) Welcome to R'osity. RC

Attached Link: http://www.renderosity.com/messages.ez?ForumID=107&Start=1

The other one I would suggest is Vue d'Esprit
HERE, this link goes to their forum and the header has a link to buy.

Both these applications have intuitive interfaces and can be learned quickly by an artist, they are after all just new brushes for your work. They will allow you to create within hours of installing the app. and both have tremendous support here at Renderosity in the forums.

If you are looking to create digital babes, Daz Studio would be an additional software to get, it will allow you to put people in your work. All three applications are reasonablely priced and have a low learning curve...

Good luck!

Message edited on: 10/18/2004 01:04

If you're interested in 2D work (digital painting, image manipulation, postwork of 3D renderings...) Paint Shop Pro does a lot for your money. It's similar to Photoshop but much more affordible. If you want to mimic natural media (like oils, acrylics, pencils, etc.), a program called Painter might be of interest to you. You can download free trials of just about any program out there...in order to help you decide. :) Good luck and welcome to the digital arts!

If you can afford it, I would highly recommend Photoshop :)
It is the perfect segue to make the transition from traditional art to digital art painless!

If you cannot afford Photoshop - then I would suggest Paint Shop Pro. Paint Shop Pro also allows you to download and try-out their software for [I think it is 30 day period].

As to getting into 3D - as a traditional artist myself, I started with Poser and Bryce. Loved Poser, but had a hard time getting use to the Bryce interface, and have since gone with Vue d'Esprit, which is a little bit more user friendly for the beginner :)

Let us know which software you decide on and post a link to your first creation.

Again - To get your "started", you might want to try the demo version of Paint Shop Pro - just for the sheer fun of it.

Ohhhhhhh And a MUST have - You have to get yourself a drawing tablet! This is truly a must purchase if you wish to do artwork on the web - it replaces your mouse as a drawing tool!

• Example of a drawing tablets can be seen here
• Paint Shop Pro Free Trial
• Adobe Photoshop Free Trial

Best of luck!
Dee-Marie

If you get Photoshop, I would recommend getting v7 and not CS. CS is sort of crippled, in my opinion. Take a wander through the galleries here. They're sorted by program, and might give you an idea of what you want to start with. But yes, get a Wacom tablet. I am saving up for mine. :) RC

It depends on what your into, from a sculpture point of view try bryce or vue. As far as drawing/painting goes try photoshop with painter it is a very powerful combination.

@rowan_crisp: "If you get Photoshop, I would recommend getting v7 and not CS. CS is sort of crippled, in my opinion." How so? Not arguing, just curious. Two months ago, I purchased CS upgrades for 5 copies of Photoshop 7, as well as five new licenses of Photoshop CS for our marketing department and I haven't heard any complaints. AFAIK, the term CS is simply a marketing ploy to indicate it's part of Adobe's Creative Suite. It's still considered a major upgrade from 7.

I'm 54 and, like you, I was a traditional artist. But in my head I always saw in 3D and knew that was what I wanted to do. I started out with Bryce, Photoshop and PSP. I loved Bryce while I was learning the basic concepts of 3D. Then I moved on to 3D Studio MAX and I love that. I do recommend Bryce for beginners, and perhaps a free modeling program like Wings3d. You won't understand it, and you'll struggle with it, but it will give you a beginning at modeling as you try to learn it.

Thank you all for your great suggestions!! I downloaded the free DAZ studio beta version in the middle of the night last night (couldn't sleep) and I checked out the drawing tablet products. I'll have to save up for one of those. I wish I could get everything at once, oh well. Thanks again! Soon you'll be seeing something by Huntergreen (me) on the screen. Happy creating, Janine (Huntergreen)

I agree with all the above, and coming from a traditional background myself, I would like to add... Get a good flatbed scanner to scan your traditional artworks, to bring into Photoshop or Painter. Now days, the prices are very low, but the quality extremely high. The Epson Perfection 2450 Photo for example, only cost $99.00. With it, you can not only scan your flat artwork, photos, and objects laid on the glass (dried leaves, flowers, etc.), but also does a very decent job on 35mm film and slides. (Also comes bundled with Photoshop Elements, which is a striped down version of Photoshop.... but enough to get your feet wet). The Wacom Graphire 4"x5" drawing tablet ($99.00) also comes bundled with Elements as well as Painter Classic2 (which is a striped down version of Painter7). That along with the free Wings modelling program and DazStudio can give you a good start. SWAMP

I'd recommend looking for a computer magazine (3D World, for instance) with a free copy of Cinema 4D 6 CE, which can be upgraded for 100 euros to a version that can render pictures of 12000 x 12000 pixels (iirc). Cinema is much easier (for me) than 3D Studio Max and the quality is even better. Version 9 demo is available at www.maxon.de And, of course, I support Zhann's suggestion to try Bryce. It's far from being a program for beginners, and you can see that in the Bryce Gallery here. Still, Wings is a good addition, because the modelling tools in Bryce are limited. www.wings3d.com Also, take a look at Dogwaffle and Art Rage, free painting programs that emulate traditional techniques. They don't have the abilities of Painter or Deep Paint, but they are free. :-) http://www.ambientdesign.com/artragedown.html www.thebest3d.com/dogwaffle/free/ BTW, Trust has an oversize-A4 tablet. Cheaper than Wacom if not that good.

Don't forget Pixia as far as free painting programs. Outside of Photoshop and PSP Pixia is my favorite.

Most has already been said above. My favourite tools are Bryce, Photoshop, Painter and Cinema4D. For photographic textures a digital camera and a wacom tablet are indispensable, also. Best have a look at the "most viewed" section of the different galleries to see what can be achieved with the different tools. Not that this will make your choice any easier, though :-) Welcome and lots of success.

Attached Link: http://www.renderosity.com/gallery.ez?ByArtist=Yes&Artist=gerda

A good scanner is also a must for good textures. Sadly, mine's broke lol