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Free tools for the artist running Windows |
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Saturday, 09 August 2008 |
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Here are, in my opinion, the best free graphics applications available for Windows. These tools effectively replace the need for expensive tools, like Adobe products. I use these along side some commercial applications and they integrate very well with little effort. There are a lot of lists that consist of free Windows graphics software out here, but I actually use these products unlike many of the people listing tons of programs. Check my links for resources , like free and open clipart, stock photos, fonts, etc... If you're also wanting some nice plug-ins for Photoshop, there are some really nice ones here . A bigger list can be found here .
Artweaver (Similar to Corel Painter) Natural painting application. Also see Pixia
Paint.Net (Similar to Adobe Photoshop) Image editor. Also see The Gimp
IcoFX Icon/Pixel editor
InkScape (Similar to Adobe Illustrator) Vector editor
Pencil 2-D Vector and bitmap cartooning and animation. Also see Synfig
Scribus (Similar to Adobe Pagemaker) Desktop Publishing.
Blender3D (Similar to Lightwave 3-D) 3-D modeling, rendering, and animation. Also see 3DCanvas
FontForge (Similar to Fontographer) Create true type fonts. Also see Win XP built in editor, type eudcedit in a run dialog. MakeHuman (Similar to Poser) Easily edit and render the human figure in 3D.
Fyre Computational artwork based on histograms of iterated chaotic functions. Uh, yea, it makes cool images...
Fractal Explorer 2D, 3D, and Land fractals.
For a complete all in one graphics suite check out FreeSerif. Here are a couple for OS X so you don't feel left out, but most of the above also have a OS X versions. Have fun! ArtRage2 Natural painting application. Free version and commercial version available. Also runs on Windows.
LiveQuartz Image editor. Also see Seashore
Pixen Icon/Pixel editor Xaos Fractals |
