Good morning to the Zazzle world & welcome to all the new Zazzlers! I've taken the liberty to share these links to graphic,3D & photography software programs. Keep in mind some can be used with Zazzle and some cannot. Some are for personal use to doodle around with, I do think that most people on here LOVE ART so most of these are extremely fun. I've a passion for all types of artwork! Also I'm not new, just combined accounts under new name(wrong name), been with Zazzle since 12/23/07 then was in a severe car accident and put out of commision for quite sometime. But I'm better now and I'm back so I wanted to share this with everyone!
For new Zazzlers, Gimp is great and extremely user friendly & FREE, it can do just about anything once you learn it. If you love graphics and like working with brushes this is perfect for you. Also keep in mind that you can use SOME photo shop brushes with Gimp(ABR & GBR & some VBR), so that makes it #1 on my list! not everyone has $1,000 bucks to get photo shop, so thats why I recommend GIMP!
FYI For new Zazzle store creators, Very important!!!!---> Before downloading brushes make sure that they're FREE FOR COMMERCIAL USE!!! Keep the read me file that indicates exactly that! You may get asked by Zazzle for that proof of usage. Well I sure hope this helps everyone!
I really hope everyone enjoys these links, I wish you'll good fortune! Happy selling at Zazzle, Good luck & HAPPY CREATING!
William @ Create A Scene
1.Gimp – Very powerful image manipulation program, great for photo retouching and image creation. There are other downloads, GTK and runtime environment for this program to work properly.
This program currently runs on Linux, Windows (XP and Vista), Mac OSX, and some Unix based systems.
http://www.gimp.org/2.Ultimate Paint – Image creation and manipulation program for Windows systems. This is a pretty compact and fast running graphics program with plenty of features.
http://www.ultimatepaint.com/3.Skencil – An interactive vector drawing program for Unix and Linux operating systems built on the Python language.
This program has tons of features like gradient fills, bezier curves and you can bend text along paths to name a few.
http://www.skencil.org/4.Pixia – Originally a Japanese only edition, Pixia is a very nice paint tool with full layers support and many other features.
The English version website does lack information and support so you will likely need to search the web for information on learning to use this tool.
This is currently a Windows only program and does support some drawing tablets.
http://park18.wakwak.com/~pixia/
5.InkScape – If you have been looking the free answer to Adobe Illustrator or CorelDraw, IncScape is a great alternative. T
his is a full featured vector graphics editor. The website has a tons of information,
tutorials and galleries of work created with the program, to give you a good idea of what you are getting involved with.
http://inkscape.org/6.Paint.net – A free image and photo editing software for Windows based PC’s.
This program was voted #19 out of the top 100 programs of 2007 by PC World.
It has full support for layers and special effects, the tools are top notch and highly recommended by many users.
There is a strong online community for support and frequent updates to the software.
Comparable to Adobe Photoshop.
http://www.getpaint.net/index.html7.SmoothDraw NX – A freehand drawing tool designed for use with tablets.
Several choices of brushes and pencil strokes for creating realistic drawings.
Also auto smoothes lines if you are using a mouse to draw with.
http://www.smoothdraw.com/product/freeware.htm8.ImageForge – An image editing and creation program for Windows systems.
Although this program is a little rougher than some of the others it still has some
nice features like easily creating 3D text, red-eye removal and you can easily create your own Windows screen savers.
http://www.cursorarts.com/ca_imffw.html9.Project Dogwaffle – A painting and drawing program developed for the PC. Has a nice set of tools
and very functional, although does lack features of some large programs.
http://www.thebest3d.com/dogwaffle/free/10.Sodipodi – This is a vector based drawing program that operates on most Unix and Windows systems.
It has a ton of features like out of center gradients, patterned lines, dynamic
xml editor and you can easily create vertical text.
http://www.sodipodi.com/index.3?section=home11.Karbon14 – Another nice, full featured vector based drawing program released
under the GNU license. This program comes as part of the Koffice project which
includes a whole suite of tools in KDE.
http://www.koffice.org/karbon/12.ArtWeaver – A freeware paint and drawing program for Windows designed to simulate
natural brush tools and effects for artists used to working on canvas. It supports most
common file formats, has the standard editing tools like found in many popular graphics
programs and offers a few effects filters.
http://www.artweaver.de/index.?en_version13.GimpShopdotnet – This is a modified version of Gimp, designed to work and feel
more like Adobe Photoshop, allowing Photoshop users a comfortable free alternative.
http://gimpshopdotnet.blogspot.com/14. ImageMagick – A nice command line program for editing and creating images.
There are a whole bunch of useful features like shearing and transforming images, f
lip, mirror and rotate images and a whole lot more.
http://www.imagemagick.org/script/index.15.Terragen – Create amazing scenery and photorealistic images with this program.
This program comes with a lot of features including, terrain sculpting tools,
water and cloud generators, realistic sunlight creation and so much more.
Works with Windows and Mac OS systems.
http://www.planetside.co.uk/terragen/productmain.shtml16.Google SketchUp – A powerful 3D software that allows quickly build 3D models.
The program is pretty easy to use and you can design and build everything from your
dream house to a favorite skyscraper. Works on Windows and Mac systems.
http://sketchup.google.com/17.Art of Illusion – An open-source 3D modeling and rendering studio written in Java and usable on most
Java Virtual Machines. On the website you can find some comprehensive tutorials on creating a human figure,
working with triangle meshes and more to give you a little better understanding of
how to use this nice program.
http://www.artofillusion.org/18.Blender – A top of the line 3D graphics program available for most operating systems.
This is a very powerful tool but does have a strong learning curve if you are not familiar
with these types of programs. On the website you can find a bunch of great tutorials,
galleries of previous work created with this application and a busy community to
answer any questions you may have.
http://www.blender.org/19.3D Canvas – A real-time 3D modeling and animation tool.
Easily create 3D scenes with drag-and-drop controls.
Customizable toolbars and interface and frame by frame animations
are only the start of this programs features.
http://www.amabilis.com/products.htm20.Graphix – An open source graphics editor built to edit and create both
raster and vector images. Works one WINE and WinXP operating systems.
http://sourceforge.net/projects/ff-grafix/21.3D Plus – This program definitely lacks some of the features of other full scale
3D programs, but it is very ease to use and works well for small quick jobs.
You can also purchase the extended version for $9.99.
http://www.serif.com/free-graphic-design-software/22.Daz 3D – Calls itself a figure posing and animation tool,
basically you can use pre-created people, animals, vehicles, scenes and more,
to edit and manipulate them to create your own 3D and animated scenes.
The program itself is free, however most of the additional add-ons will cost you money.
With that said this is a very nice program to use for people of all skill levels
and highly recommended by many.
http://www.daz3d.com/23.Anim8or – A 3D modeling and animation program, that is available for download,
but kind of a still in progress program. It does have its bugs but is a very nice
program created by one person to handle what they wanted out of 3D software.
Some of its features include, a built in 3D object browser, true-type font support,
3D modeler, jointed character editor and a bunch others.
http://www.anim8or.com/main/index.html24.BRL-CAD – A cross platform 3D modeling program that includes ray-tracing for rendering,
interactive geometry editor and more. This program is not recommended for non-tech users.
http://sourceforge.net/projects/brlcad/25.MindsEye – A nice freeware 3D modeling and rendering suite for Linux users.
eatures include a multi-scene/user concept that allows multiple people to work on the same
scenes or visa-versa, object oriented modeling, network support in the
MindsEye kernal and more.
http://mindseye.sourceforge.net/26.Maya Personal Learning Edition – Maya is an excellent, although expensive
3D graphics program. This is the free edition developed to give you the opportunity
to learn and use the program before purchasing. This edition has most every feature
available as in the standard version but it is for non-commercial use and your images
will be watermarked among other things.
http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/download/item?id=16324856&siteID=12311227.Picassa – A free image editing program available in the Google Pack download.
This is a very light program but does support red-eye removal, photo correction
and most of the standard editing tools.
http://pack.google.com/intl/en/pack_installer.html?hl=en&gl=us&ai=Bz-IQBmsiR5HJCKDcmASU9MmtAuzuhSGElpbIAsWNtwEAEAEgyqKABTgBUIfas8sEYMmOxo30pNAZoAGWl5z
9A7IBFHd3dy5zbmFwMm9iamVjdHMuY29tyAEB2gFIaHR0cDovL3d3dy5zbmFwMm9iamVjdHMuY29tLzIwMDcv
MDcvMjAvNDUtYmVzdC1mcmVld2FyZS1kZXNpZ24tcHJvZ3JhbXMvgAIBqAMD&gclid=CK7G5a3RrY8CFQacggodoSWXPw
28.IcoFX – A freeware Windows program for creating icons with more
than 40 different effects and custom filters.
http://icofx.ro/29.Pixel Toolbox 1.1 – A nice suite of tools for creating desktop graphics on Windows systems.
With the program you can create wallpaper tiles, icons and cursors to name a few.
Easy to use interface and of course free to download.
http://www.axiomx.com/PixelToolbox/index.htm30.ColorPic – A magnified color picker, designed to create color
palettes of up to 16 colors at once. You can easily pick any color from the screen,
colors shown in hex and decimal, adjust hue saturation and it works in Firefox,
Internet Explorer, Photoshop and many other applications.
http://iconico.com/colorpic/31.Favicon Generator – This is a very nice web-based favicon generator.
You can easily and quickly convert your images to favicons for your website.
http://www.favicon.co.uk/32.FastStone Image Viewer – A full featured image browser, converter and editor.
There are many features including, red-eye removal, cropping, emailing photos,
color adjustments and more. Program supports all major file formats and is compatible with Windows systems.
http://www.faststone.org/FSViewerDetail.htm33.Icon Studio 1.2 – A free, simple to use icon editor and creator.
You can create icons in multiple sizes and color depths, flip, rotate, import from EXE and more.
http://www.softplatz.com/Soft/Graphics/Icon-Tools/CoffeeCup-Free-Icon-Studio.html