GD Tutorial: Episode 2 (Graphic Editing Software)
Hey guys. I’m back for more. Thanks for all your support on last GD Tutorial. Really appreciate it. FYI, I’ve got lots of email feedback from last post. I am really glad if you post it on the comment section below instead of send it straight to my email so that other people can see your brilliant question and comment. Sharing is caring.
One of the question posted to me is relating to the last post is:
“Is can I change the picture I snapped from my camera into vector image format?”
-DONT-WANT-TO-BE-KNOWN
The answer is NO. It is because the sensor in your camera capture the light from the lens in pixel quantity. Vector image is not based on pixel quantity. That is why it doesn’t get pixelated. BUT if you are designing a logo (or something like that), you still can change it to vector by using Adobe Illustrator. This case happened to me when a client ask me to design a big size banner but they didn’t give me the high resolution/vector image of their company logo. I did asked the logo from them but the didn’t have the soft copy of their own logo. Clearly, the deisgner who design the logo for them is bad by not providing the soft copy of the logo after designing it. What? I’m just saying….
Anyway, to solve this problem, I used the tool in Adobe Illustrator called Live Trace. It basically convert the logo into vector format. Not going to show you a demo here. But I will in future tutorial.
Again, thanks to DONT-WANT-TO-BE-KNOWN who asked me this question. I hope It’s ok to you I share this with everybody.
Okey, Let’s move on to our GD Tutorial Series this week. We will be talking about SOFTWARE. As most of you probably know already by now, there are thousand of software for graphic design and photo editing. Some are freeware, some are payware and some are shareware.
PHOTOSHOP
One of the most popular graphic editing software in the market right now is of course Adobe Photoshop and the latest update of the Photoshop is Adobe Photoshop CS5. But everyone agreed that Photoshop is way too expensive for a home user (you can get pirate copy of it but lets just not do that).
GIMP
So for the home user who feels bad using pirated copy of photoshop, there are alternatives to that. And the software is called GIMP. I have no boubt that GIMP is absolutely the most powerful alternative you can get. It is almost an exact copy of photoshop with different inferface. Infact, if you do already know the basic term in Graphic Design, it will be a smooth transition for you. But still, expect a little lerning curve when using GIMP. C’mon, in new environment you will need to learn something new.
Eventhough it is open source (free), some people just underestimate the power of GIMP way before they use it. It happened to me though. Back when I was designing for my client, there was a meeting between me and the client, and I just forgot to bring my LAPTOP with me. Its terrible. But luckily, I do have the soft copy of the design in my thumb drive. The only option for me was to use the client’s laptop which is running Ubuntu OS (GIMP support many mian os in the world). I was shocked though. I’m lucky enough that day that the Ubuntu does come with GIMP installed. So, I just plug my thumb drive in and BOOM. There you go. The design is there and the client is happy. There were some text blending option that need to be corrected but I’m lucky enough the client is very happy with the design.
If you are interested to explore GIMP, get it here. http://www.gimp.org/downloads/
Paint.NET
Relax. It’s not the typical Paint Application that installed in your Windows OS. This one is a bit more advance in terms of functionality. It stay simple and easy to use. Just add up more functionality to the program. Click lthe link if you want to try it out. http://www.getpaint.net/download.html The thing that I’m impressed by this software is that the size of the application it self. Just 3.5mb download and you are ready to go. Amazing isn’t it?
EXPERIENCE & THOUGHTS: I started to get my self involve in graphic design since i was in 10 years old. When I grew older and my talent start to shine, many people come to me and asked me to teach them the basic of graphic design. But most of them over looked about the software aspect in learning curve phase. They always wanted to have the latest version of photoshop. It is pretty pointless to them to have the latest software available which consume more resource from their computer and in indirect way, will slow your computer down. What do I mean by pointless is that they don’t even know the latest feature that the latest software offers to them. They always have this “bottleneck” stuck in their head. My point here is latest software won’t guarentee you the best product if you don’t know how to use it the correct way. For you begineers out there, remember, GENERATING CREATIVE IDEA IS MUCH MORE IMPORTANT THAN USING THE BEST SOFTWARE OUT THERE. I’ve seen many graphic designers that use Paint.NET and GIMP and they produce much better product than the top software on the market right now. Another point I want to highlight here is IT IS YOU WHO MAKE THE DIFFERENCE, NOT THE SOFTWARE THAT YOU ARE USING. Even Chase Jarvis (Photographer) also said that but in different context.
As picture shown below, my friend, Farhan just use basic editing program and can still achieve result like this. With a little bit of tweaking, this picture will looks more realistic.
So that’s all folks. Just reading form 1 source isn’t going to make you any better in graphic design. Do some homework on Google.
Be sure you keep coming to this site because I’m going to make sure more information will keep flowing into your mind on net tutorial. Thanks. See you next week.
Malu laaa…. >.<