You heard #Adobe. Deep down you knew this was coming. Now all your art are belong to them. Time to move on to better things…
Kreative Suite
* Krita is your new design/painting app
* Kdenlive will give you video-editing powers
* glaxnimate adds 2D vector animations to you videos
* digiKam organises your collection images
https://kde.org/for/creators/
Also:
* Inkscape - create sophisticated vector-graphic designs
* Scribus - layout like a pro
* GIMP - need we say more
* Blender - ditto
@[email protected] @[email protected]
I support people trying new things! I hate Adobe!
However, all of the tools here, save for Blender and maybe Kdenlive, are lacking somewhat in either features or UX. Inkscape is not comparable to Illustrator in my recent experience, and even Krita, while decent, has some weird decisions that don’t make much sense from a workflow perspective.
I commonly hear criticism met with either “Add the feature yourself, it’s open source” (I am a visual artist with experience using digital art tools, not a C++ programmer) or “It’s not supposed to replace <comparable software>” (then your software might as well not bother competing if it’s not going to work much better than the other options). I have a necessity to switch, but I can’t use these tools yet if they don’t behave how I need them to, often how swaths of other competing software behaves. I’m willing to curb my expectations, I don’t expect things to be *perfect*, but the amount of configuration I need to do to get similar workflows like comparable software is rough. I think once that gets addressed, more people will be interested in switching.
I’m so convinced it isn’t even a feature issue, more of a look and feel with sane defaults sort of issue.
Don’t take this the wrong way. While I appreciate the tact with which you have expressed your criticisms, but you may find that your objections all boil down to “I am used to a certain set of tools and now I have to change. The new tools do things differently and I am confused and it is messing with my productivity”, that is, the problem is not entirely with the new software, but with you, your workflow and your muscle memory.
@Bro666 i appreciate your reply! I’ll link you to my response to a different post here outlining a bit more of my experience. tl;dr, I’ve used multiple programs in personal and academic settings. Some FOSS options are great and comparable! Some miss the mark, even if they get close. It’s not for lack of trying, it’s that out of the multiple programs I’ve learned over the years, the FOSS options tend to be the odd ones out.
https://woof.tech/@crocodisle/112579981685976482
Even blender is guity of this with its default control scheme being the odd one out among Maya, Unity, and Substance, but it can be modified enough to make up for this and has other attractive aspects to make it a worthy contender. Digital tools tend to be used in an ecosystem that they are integrated with. Learning new workflows if fine, but there’s value in being able to do what’s already being done well in a similar way without much fuss.
Even if you lack knowledge regarding development, advice from professional designers and artists is always appreciated. I think it would be helpful if you picked a project with receptive developers and offered them your insight.
@Bro666 thanks for the encouragement! I joined a forum when researching some Krita features, but only because I felt the need to stand up for someone who suggested a good feature and ended up getting told it was a stupid idea, even though other painting programs had already implemented something similar… FOSS is tough, and all respect to the developers and communities that make it happen. I trust many of these things are already being worked on/implemented, or the groups have bigger fish to fry.
There are abrasive people everywhere and everyone has an opinion. In a community without a top-down hierarchical structure, every Tom, Dick and Henrietta thinks they know what’s best for the project and will tell you so. Don’t take it personally, remember everybody wants what is best, and, if you believe in your proposal, persevere. There is someone who agrees with you.
@crocodisle
Would the option to select default control scheme work?
@Bro666
@minecraftchest1 @Bro666 options for default control schemes are a good start! Blender’s welcome popup thingy asks on first run whether or not the user wants blender or “industry standard” controls which is definitely useful. I know Krita has the option to use keybinds from other popular programs, but my pain points with it have less to do with keybinds and more to do with other small behaviors that add up to making it frustrating to use. I outlined some of them here if you’re curious:
https://woof.tech/@crocodisle/112580205821945499
I’ve had a few suggestions at this point to submit bug reports so I’ll consider it.
hi! this is a way of reacting to criticism that I feel very often, but this is misleading to me because it does not consider the most important structural factor, that is the environment in which it “grows”, also digitally. you are inhabited since young people to use the pc in a certain way, to use programs in a certain way. for me the FOSS software is a political issue, if it is important that people approach you should mediate through interfaces and beautiful workflows to see (and imo current ones are not beautiful) and easy to adopt for those coming from the most mainstream programs.
if it is believed that the software foss is official remains in the niche in which it is locate (so that people outside the FOSS or should not approach or can do it hard to get used to a new way of using IT means, thus invisible the structural action of society and responsibilities and culpritizing the individual people without doing a collective and broad analysis, typical discussion brought by non-politicized or liberal people) while the rest of society is devoured by multinationals I understand it but I do not agree: I consider it part of a political struggle also anti-capitalist
The issue comes when trying to convince many people used to the old tools to adopt the new one. Having to un- and relearn your skills is a massive UX hurdle. That’s not an issue of the users, but of the application not catering to that use case (encouraging people to switch and easing them into the new environment). Every difficulty, every extra step you have to take, every workflow habit you have to adapt is a detriment.
The tools can be great in a vacuum, but when we’re talking about people switching, they’re no longer in a vacuum.
I agree. That said, users coming from proprietary tools may be gracious enough to meet the volunteers building free software at least half way.
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If you want open source adoption to continue to be low, please, keep making comments like this.
If you want people to switch, the apps need to be appealing not a chore. And relearning a workflow you’ve fine tuned over decades is a serious chore and may even be detrimental to your job.
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@manos_de_papel I’ve done a bit of that, but it’s difficult once you find a way that’s objectively faster/less keystrokes to get something done. Not all proprietary software’s got it figured out either, I just wish I had option to configure things how I want with the open source tools.
Not to mention, people looking for alternatives may not be as patient as I am. I think the value of UX cannot be understated when it comes to creative tools
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Have you sent any tickets to tell them to fix what you think needs fixing? Just like you are a visual artist and not a programmer, they are programmers and not visual artist (at least not all of them) so any feedback is welcomed.
@bufalo1973 I’ve gotten some mixed feedback by the community in the past that was discouraging enough to dissuade getting involved, but I’m reconsidering it now. Thanks for the input!
What do you miss in Krita?