I'm using Pixelmator Pro as my primary illustration software and love the workflow it now allows me to enjoy, despite not being able to achieve a few artistic styles.
At the moment (version 3.3.6) I have to step outside of Pixelmator Pro to create certain brush elements and styles... namely when things get wet and realistic.
The art/brush engines in Krita, Photoshop, Affinity Photo, Clip Studio Paint are able to do the following to a level that is truly "Pro":
- Watercolour
- General wet and thick paint, be it oil, acrylic etc.
- Blending and mixing of paint/colour with brushes
- Smudge brush
- Flow function (in addition to opacity)
My belief is that with an improved art/brush engine Pixelmator Pro can be a complete "Pro" art creation tool.
I would love to be able to complete all my art in one application.
Is an improved art engine and creation experience on the development roadmap?
Pro-level art/brush engine
2023-06-10 04:01:26
2023-06-11 02:47:37
Pixelmator is long overdue for brush updates. I’ve been wishing for the longest time I could use one app for colouring, compositing, and illustration. I also hope for Pixelmator Pro to make it to iPad sooner than later instead of using the unreliable laggy Sidecar.
To top your list, there is one app I feel sets the benchmark for its brush engine: Artstudio Pro. It’s wet brush engine and built-in brushes are the most fluid pixel perfect ink, watercolour, and oil brushes I’ve ever used in an art app (Note: Rebelle is a different beast). Their use of MixBox pigment blending is phenomenal and I wish every graphics app implemented it: https://scrtwpns.com/mixbox/
To top your list, there is one app I feel sets the benchmark for its brush engine: Artstudio Pro. It’s wet brush engine and built-in brushes are the most fluid pixel perfect ink, watercolour, and oil brushes I’ve ever used in an art app (Note: Rebelle is a different beast). Their use of MixBox pigment blending is phenomenal and I wish every graphics app implemented it: https://scrtwpns.com/mixbox/
2023-06-11 07:53:35
Hey Mika, thanks for mentioning Artstudio Pro. I haven't checked that out yet. I've just tried Affinity Photo 2.1 and it's so buggy/laggy. I don't know how anyone uses it! Pity as it looks so promising.
I agree with you about Sidecar. Unusable in my opinion. I use EasyCanvas and it's just flawless. Really great. It only mirrors the Mac screen (as opposed to extending the display) and the iPad must be plugged into the Mac, but I've found the setup great and keeps my iPad charged for my long days of creation. Just be sure to resize the EasyCanvas display size on the iPad so it fills the iPad screen (most reviews don't show this crucial step), then adjust the Pixelmator/app window on the Mac to match. Easy. Oh, and theres no subscription payment either!
Fingers crossed Pixelmator Pro gets a brush engine update. It really is a great tool and the user interface is just SO good!
[Edit: fixed Affinity lag by turning off 'hardware acceleration' and 'use only integrated GPU' and turned on 'OPEN GL']
I agree with you about Sidecar. Unusable in my opinion. I use EasyCanvas and it's just flawless. Really great. It only mirrors the Mac screen (as opposed to extending the display) and the iPad must be plugged into the Mac, but I've found the setup great and keeps my iPad charged for my long days of creation. Just be sure to resize the EasyCanvas display size on the iPad so it fills the iPad screen (most reviews don't show this crucial step), then adjust the Pixelmator/app window on the Mac to match. Easy. Oh, and theres no subscription payment either!
Fingers crossed Pixelmator Pro gets a brush engine update. It really is a great tool and the user interface is just SO good!
[Edit: fixed Affinity lag by turning off 'hardware acceleration' and 'use only integrated GPU' and turned on 'OPEN GL']
2023-06-11 08:00:02
I just checked out the Mixbox link you posted. That's awesome!
That's what we need right there.
It's pretty hard to believe that's taken developers soooo long to address. It's such basic colour handling. I wonder if Mixbox is the mixing software Clip Studio Paint recently introduced in v2.0? I think they call it 'Perceptual' mixing on their website.
That's what we need right there.
It's pretty hard to believe that's taken developers soooo long to address. It's such basic colour handling. I wonder if Mixbox is the mixing software Clip Studio Paint recently introduced in v2.0? I think they call it 'Perceptual' mixing on their website.
2023-06-11 12:50:16
There's plenty of math behind the magic of Mixbox and I imagine it's no coincidence that several apps have recently implemented color mixing engines since the impressive Mixbox paper came out.
Another app on iPad that you may be interested in if you like natural medium brushes is Art Set 4. Its oil brushes are very convincing.
In practise, I'd love to see Pixelmator offer way more control over the grain/texture, shape/stamp, dynamics/jitter/curves, wet blending, pigment blending, and so on. In Art Set 4 or Rebelle, you even get impasto control, which adds depth to the brush grain, but also allows you to control how much grain paints over both the background layer (if you have a paper texture for example) and over the layer your painting in. It's cool stuff!
Of all things in Pixelmator Pro, it's the brush engine that feels the most out of date. Otherwise, it's certainly the most inspiring app to use for my professional work. One day I dream to forgo Adobe completely, – I'm so glad Photomator exists for a DAM, – but Pixelmator Pro is still lacking vector dynamics and animation for me to make the complete jump.
Another app on iPad that you may be interested in if you like natural medium brushes is Art Set 4. Its oil brushes are very convincing.
In practise, I'd love to see Pixelmator offer way more control over the grain/texture, shape/stamp, dynamics/jitter/curves, wet blending, pigment blending, and so on. In Art Set 4 or Rebelle, you even get impasto control, which adds depth to the brush grain, but also allows you to control how much grain paints over both the background layer (if you have a paper texture for example) and over the layer your painting in. It's cool stuff!
Of all things in Pixelmator Pro, it's the brush engine that feels the most out of date. Otherwise, it's certainly the most inspiring app to use for my professional work. One day I dream to forgo Adobe completely, – I'm so glad Photomator exists for a DAM, – but Pixelmator Pro is still lacking vector dynamics and animation for me to make the complete jump.
2023-06-14 07:47:11
Cool. Thanks for the tip!
Yeah, I agree, more control on brushes. I love the way Pixelmator does the brush UI and so I do believe they can add more control and still keep the intuitive UI - AND improve the look of the brush renders. In another thread in this forum I noted that Photoshop brushes don't import well and that must be down to the lack of feature compatibility (and a few other reasons the Pixelmator team identified). A lot of people moving over from PS will be wanting to bring brushes. It has taken me quite some time to import and fix the ones I use all the time... and they're still not quite right; they are workable but don't render the same way.
Yeah, I agree, more control on brushes. I love the way Pixelmator does the brush UI and so I do believe they can add more control and still keep the intuitive UI - AND improve the look of the brush renders. In another thread in this forum I noted that Photoshop brushes don't import well and that must be down to the lack of feature compatibility (and a few other reasons the Pixelmator team identified). A lot of people moving over from PS will be wanting to bring brushes. It has taken me quite some time to import and fix the ones I use all the time... and they're still not quite right; they are workable but don't render the same way.
2023-06-15 11:30:59
That's another point for Artstudio Pro on iPad, where photoshop brushes import perfectly, whereas compared to software like Affinity, brushes rarely import correctly. If Pixelmator can nail this, I'll be ecstatic.
2023-06-16 23:19:35
I'd imagine the MacOS version of Artstudio imports them equally as well?
Unfortunately my iPad isn't able to allow me to work on the size files I create with the amount of layers I use (posters for print at A1 300dpi). So my work is always using the iPad as a graphics tablet. It's a great way to work.
Yeah, Affinity doesn't import ABR brushes well at all. Seems most programmes that claim Photoshop brush import really only import the stamp and grain and maybe a couple of settings... so the look of the brush is never right.
That said I've been playing more in Affinity Photo 2 the past few days. Their brush engine and UI is just terrific. I managed to fix the system lag (turned off "use only integrated GPU" and turned on "hardware acceleration") and have been fiddling with brush import and creation. I reckon Pixelmator Pro could get a few ideas from Affinity and put their unique Pixelmator spin on it.
Unfortunately my iPad isn't able to allow me to work on the size files I create with the amount of layers I use (posters for print at A1 300dpi). So my work is always using the iPad as a graphics tablet. It's a great way to work.
Yeah, Affinity doesn't import ABR brushes well at all. Seems most programmes that claim Photoshop brush import really only import the stamp and grain and maybe a couple of settings... so the look of the brush is never right.
That said I've been playing more in Affinity Photo 2 the past few days. Their brush engine and UI is just terrific. I managed to fix the system lag (turned off "use only integrated GPU" and turned on "hardware acceleration") and have been fiddling with brush import and creation. I reckon Pixelmator Pro could get a few ideas from Affinity and put their unique Pixelmator spin on it.