KRITA - does anybody use?

[Polygonius]

I have now some hours experiences with the FREE!!!!!  KRITA - and i´m really impressed!

This is no cheap GIMP or other quite useless, extrem confusing GUI... free-creep. This is really an alternative! More: Its in some aspects much, much better than Serif. Especially in the GUI. 

 

1. Workspaces

Different jobs profits from different workspaces. Are you "texting", "repairing", "brushing", "shaping"... maybe you want a special toolbar and  special "studio-windows".... Save a setting you like as workspace and with 1-click ALL windows/tools exact on the position you like for this sub-job.

2. Brushes 

The AP-brushes order/find/replace/organize/use... procedure its really long-windowed and awful. In KRITA changing/finding/variation... a brush is 10-times faster.

- During brushing just a rightclick offers the 10-favorites from the current "folder", also a category-searcher, a color-wheeel... and other fast settings. Just do your settings and the "window" disappears.

- Smart folders" for brushes: You can list the same brush as an alias in many "folders" you want.... for inking, wetbrushing, pastelling.... If you want an AUTRAK (independend) brush, than just duplicate. 

- the possibilities for setting up/fine-tuning a brush a miles forward (blending real brushing to eg. smudging or erasing.... with eg. pressure...)

- test the brush inside the setting-window and create a "preview" for better finding

- preview of brushes are made for better find! Use eg. "color-frames" or "symbols" or whatever as fast-indicator to which category a "brush" is depending. Or use use strokes or just a neme or a stamp... whatever you want... And use the "brush-history" for fast switching between your n-last brushes...

3. Other stuff

Well, KRITA is not really a photo-editor, juts rudimentary. Layers and blending options are much possible than in AP (so amny blending options.... i´m just exploring them) but the real "photo-stuff" there is AP much much better...

 

4. Resume

Serif should have a big view of KRITA. If i just wanted drawing/brushing i would "buy" Krita instead AP /affinity Draw/sketch/brush.... The Workspaces and the handling of brushes - this is another category than the Serif-Concept of long-windowed, uncomfortablness...

If Serif is planing a serious "drawing, sketching, whatever" app - you have no chance with your old concept of your long-windowed "find" a brush... (or manipulate them / a whole category/all JUST temporally...)

For all kind of "just drawing/brushing..." i never use AP furthermore... KRITA is much better for all kind of "brush" - work. Its real stable, well performant and has the better GUI (its more ugly than AP, but much more efficient).  And yeah, i will pay for KRITA, even its free and  "not really necessary"! It is necessary for keeping the develops motivated! 

State of the Art KRITA is just for "drawing" an (BETTER) alternative! Photos/text/shapes... this is just rudimentary / bad. But the better Preset-handling/faster/smarter GUI... this is GENERALLY. And here SERIF is miles behind! 

 

 

[All Media Lab]

Hi,

Last time I worked with it there was no possibility to use vector text layers in animations everything was pixel. Is this changed?

That was a real showstopper for me!

I work with Natron and Blender now (free as well).

This is what I mean

Regards,

David

[Polygonius]

I guess KRITA is neither a vector nor an animation app. It has this functions, but rudimentary, or maybe "bad/stepfather-like".

AP is x-times better for vector/shaping... For animation i do not know, never used so far, i guess there are lot of better specialists!

 But for "drawing" and GUI/efficiency/smart-it.... in GENERAL (in "pixel-apps")... this is a decade better than all Serif-stuff! 

 

[All Media Lab]

I think you can combine the two like here I use many application together, but I understand what you like about Krita:

Affinity And Krita

[gdenby]

I really like KRITA. I've never been big on apps that try to imitate real media. But KRITA is getting close to doing a good imitation of real media and tools. The price is remarkable. Goes to show what can be done w. a program that has a single focus. 

Still, its nothing like trying to use the last dab of cadmium red on a piece of Arches, and getting it right in 1 shot.

[Medical Officer Bones]

I am a long-time Krita user. For digital painting I find it a joy to use, and arguably superior to generalist applications like Photoshop. I would not do heavy lifting compositing work in it, though: its focus is directed at digital painting and drawing, and it excels at that. Krita is superb when used in combination with a good compositing app, such as Photoshop, Affinity Photo, or PhotoLine. 

The animation tools are good for FBF (Frame By Frame) animation. Don't expect automatic in-betweening, although the developers have introduced a graph editor for inbetweening transparency effects, and are working on extending the animation capabilities further. The onion-skinning is fine, and for FBF work it's quite nice to work in Krita. But work on shorter sequences, and import those into OpenToonz for further editing and compositing. (OpenToonz is a professional level open source animation application.)

The vector tools are limited, and suffice for simple things. The text tools is... quite bad. The devs are aware of this, and will improve the usability of the text tool. The layer stack is more flexible and feature rich than Affinity, but the overall compositing and filter performance is not up to par compared. Drawing and painting are very fast though, even with giant brushes (if you have reasonable hardware). I have no issues working at 600ppi A4 and 16bits.

All in all, a great companion to Affinity for digital painting and drawing.

[SrPx]

I do actually prefer Affinity Photo over Krita, for both digital painting and drawing. And Clip Studio Paint above anything else ( for these tasks). On earth.