Procreate: The Rival App to Adobe?

Along with the rise of digital and social media, digital painting has also gained in popularity. There are many apps to make digital creations but Procreate has definitely rose to new heights in this era of illustration since its launch. Packed with a unique and vast brush library, is this the application that can rival powerhouse giant, Adobe?

What is Procreate?

This Australian-based creativity tool is an app that allows anyone to digitally paint anything they want without restriction. The app was created and launched in 2011, inspired by finger painting. There are other apps in this space, like Adobe illustrator and Photoshop, but this one has gained immense traction in recent years. With the rise of independent creators, this budget-friendly app is more often chosen due to its mobility.

Procreate was created exclusively for Apple’s infamous iPad platform. The ability to be completely mobile, to create from absolutely anywhere without heavy equipment, makes this app very attractive (especially to Millenials and Gen Zers). The brushes are the main star of this app with multiple brush packs to download or create yourself. The app encourages creators to make their own custom brushes and it’s pretty simple to do.

The Basics

Getting started in this app is easier than one might think, the developers provide mass amounts of information online on how to use their product (this is updated regularly). The best way to get started is to select a brush and start drawing. The only way to understand how something works is to test it out. There are vast amounts of brushes and tools to choose from, pick a simple Monoline brush or a more adventurous texture brush and paint the artboard.

This app has the default setup of Layers, Tools, Adjustments, Brushes and Settings. Exploring the features from the Layers panel, learning how to duplicate a layer and delete a layer is simple. The Tools and Brushes panels are straight-forward and fun to test out.

Brushes

The default brushes are superb, having many categories from Calligraphy, to Texture, to Elements, to Inking and of course Painting. One can really create just about anything with the default brushes alone. Why stop there? The developers make it very easy to create your own custom brushes of anything you can dream up. There are a few ways to do this but one way is to alter an existing brush. Simply choose a brush, duplicate it in the menu and change up the settings.

A popular way of creating unique brushes is to make shape brushes. Similar to adjusting an existing brush, the main difference is initially creating a shape. The sky is the limit with this, or rather, your imagination is the limit. Any shape can be made into a brush to either save time or to make a pattern.

Step 1

Draw any shape

Step 2

Turn off the background layer

Step 3

Copy & Paste the new shape layer as a new brush

Step 4

Change up the settings and test

Adjustments

There are other selections and adjustments to choose from to allow for blends, shadows, gradients and patterns. There are multi-touch gestures, like the two-finger tap to Undo or the three-finger swipe down for shortcut tools, for ease of access and efficiency. These gestures are an homage to the apps’ initial inspiration. There’s also many color options to pick from and paint with, as well as many color pallets one can dream up and create.

Adjustments are also featured in this app, similar to that of Photoshop, that can tranform and distort artwork. Adjustments like Opacity, Liquify, Blurs and basic photo adjustments. These all lend themselves to manipulating the art and creating some fun visual effects.

Whether you are a professional artist or a beginner, this app is easy to use with a limitless amount of possibilities. The brushes are quick to implement and a joy to customize. This may very well be Adobe’s biggest rival in the creative app space.

New Year for Design Trends

Happy New Year Creatives!

It's a new year and a fresh start for design. Resolutions, goals and objectives are renewed along with a new workload. Last year, we saw many advancements in virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) and technology for design along with design centered around a cause and personalized design.

BOLD CUSTOM ILLUSTRATION

This year we will see illustrations dominate the market with more customized illustrations. These illustrations will be endowed with bold colors and fonts, high saturation, minimalist layouts, element overlap and breaking the grid.

WEB DESIGN

In web design, we will see these custom illustrations and more illustrated icons becoming prevalent. This year, along with the minimalist layouts, miniature animations will enter the scene. This will catch visitor attention and keep visitors interacting on sites for longer.

Augmented reality (AR) has been increasing and is making its way into web design. More interactivity between smartphones and websites with this new technology will continue to enter the market of web design.

UI/UX TREND & MOBILE

Last year, we saw the emergence and release of Adobe XD into the Adobe creative program family. This program has made UI/UX design easier, if you are not a designer skilled with coding, when creating mobile apps. More efficient workflows for UI/UX will come from utilizing and mastering this new program.

Mobile apps are everywhere, nearly every business, if not all, have one. With the ease of Adobe XD, we will see more micro-interactions within these apps. Micro-interactions meaning miniature gif animations on apps and websites. Due to Adobe XD being seamlessly integrated with Adobe Illustrator, has made the process of creating these micro-interactions and apps easier. More of these mini animations within the web and apps will pop up throughout the year, many businesses are already including them.

There is plenty of new design trends to utilize in the world of design this year. From new programs and ease of workflows, to mastering typography and composition, which design trends will you incorporate?

See You Soon Creatives!

Tech For Graphic Designers

Hello Creatives!

In a world immersed in technology, designer's have plenty of choice for hardware and software to use to create. Designers and creators of all kinds used to be limited to their desktop computers. Now we have desktops, laptops, phones and tablets of all kinds to create and showcase our work. With so many types of products, how does one choose?

HARDWARE

Most of the buying decision of hardware is up to personal preference and the needs of the creator for the hardware to perform certain processes required by the creators programs.

Things to Consider

1. Speed (Processor)

2. Storage (RAM)

3. Visuals (Graphics Card)

Some things to consider for hardware are speed, storage and visuals. The speed of the device is important when it comes to downloading, uploading and loading data/media. Speed is controlled by the Processor; the faster the Processor, the quicker the software and data will load, download and upload.

Processor= How fast hardware processes data/media

(input & output)

RAM= Storage space on the device so

the device can hold data and

recall data quickly

The storage on the device, or the RAM, allows for the device to hold numerous amounts of data and media and be able to recall that data quickly. This is partially why programs seem to run faster when a device has more RAM. A decent Processor will run about 2.7GHz (gig-hertz) and sufficient RAM would hold about 16GB (gigabytes) even though 8GB (gigabytes) is standard.

Ex. Gaming Computers have powerful Processors

and a lot of RAM to run the gaming programs

smoothly without lag

Graphics Card= Controls the output (visual data)

to a display screen

Let's look at visuals because creators rely on visuals and graphics, how things look on screen. The Graphics Card controls how visuals appear on a display screen. For creators, designers and artists, we want a powerful device with a strong Processor, lots of RAM and a massive Graphics Card to work within multiple programs quickly.

Apple? Android? Gaming?

Many creators use an iMac, Macbook Pro, iPhone or iPad tablet and customize the hardware to have a powerful device. These devices are very aesthetically pleasing and can be optimized to specification requirements for designers and content creators. Other creators prefer devices optimized for gaming that are already setup with strong Processors and Graphics Cards. Regardless of the brand, there are many devices out there to customize for any creators needs.

SOFTWARE

There are a few options for software based on personal preference and budget. The mainstream forms of software is provided by Adobe and the Adobe Creative Cloud service. Other forms of software are called open source, which is available for free to download like Gimp and Scribus.

What's the Difference?

1. Price

2. Ease of Access

The price is the main difference to the majority of consumers. Depending on the available budget, there's a few options: A monthly recurring charge for the Adobe Creative Cloud service, purchasing the full Adobe programs at $300 each or the free open source programs like Gimp and Scribus (plus others).

Gimp=Photoshop

Scribus=Illustrator

The programs look very different and the layout of the workspace is different between name brand and open source. Adobe has more ease of access and connectivity across all programs. Gimp and Scribus are simple to use but the programs are segregated. Either way, no matter the budget, there is great software and hardware out there to create designs and content.

See You Soon Creatives!