question about Digital Drawing programs

[Chef Mama]

Our 13 year old daughter has loved drawing for years. She's recently discovered Windows Movie maker. I went in the other day & realized she'd made all these little movies, redrawing each image to make them appear to move (like the old animated movies), using Paint! I told dh, "We have to get her a better program!" He installed Illustrator, but so far she isn't crazy about it. What programs do you use & enjoy? I have photoshop, but I don't know much about it. I guess I should let her try it b/c she'd probably find more ways to use it than i do!

Thanks!

[Tiffany7]

I would recommend Photoshop!! I know it is overwhelming, but if she starts learning it now, she can always make work for herself!! I started the same way - always drawing. I discovered Photoshop when Version 2 was out and I've been using it every since. Still learning new things about it every day!! Now b/c I've loved it so much and enjoy it I have made a career out of using photoshop - working for myself!! (im a web designer and photographer) and NOW with the help of Photoshop I'm turning my drawings into digi stamps!!!
Start small and don't be over whelmed - there are thousands of step by step tutorials out there that she can follow and learn!! (just google it!) If she starts now at 13, she could really go far with it and at a young age!!
Your welcome to email me for more advice if you want!!

[BirdsCards]

I agree with everything Tiffany has just said, it would be a really good thing for her to start to learn photoshop now, I wish I had started earlier for sure.

[traceydawnn]

Yep!
Photoshop is the way to go.

[Chef Mama]

Thanks so much ladies! I'm showing her some basic stuff I know & I'll let her play with it.

[fredness]

If you daughter wants to do animation, there is Toon Boom which has a simple easier version called Flip Boom Classic which is priced cheap and they also have it bundled with a graphics tablet. If you don't already have one, I would recommend a graphics tablet... Wacom makes excellent ones; for beginners Wacom Bamboo has everything you need and is under $100 and Wacom Intuos, for when she gets more serious... most of these tablets come bundled with graphics software. I recommend Corel Painter for drawing and illustrating.. there is an under $100 called Painter Essentials 4 which has all I need to draw, ink, and digitally watercolour my cartoons/illustrations, I would use that over Photoshop in a heartbeat. A freeware version similar to Painter is Artweaver. Another good and easy to use art software is Alias (now Autodesk) Sketchbook.

My 12 year old son uses Painter Essentials 4 for his comics and sometimes Sketchbook.

[Chef Mama]

Quote:

Originally Posted by fredness

If you daughter wants to do animation, there is Toon Boom which has a simple easier version called Flip Boom Classic which is priced cheap and they also have it bundled with a graphics tablet. If you don't already have one, I would recommend a graphics tablet... Wacom makes excellent ones; for beginners Wacom Bamboo has everything you need and is under $100 and Wacom Intuos, for when she gets more serious... most of these tablets come bundled with graphics software. I recommend Corel Painter for drawing and illustrating.. there is an under $100 called Painter Essentials 4 which has all I need to draw, ink, and digitally watercolour my cartoons/illustrations, I would use that over Photoshop in a heartbeat. A freeware version similar to Painter is Artweaver. Another good and easy to use art software is Alias (now Autodesk) Sketchbook.

My 12 year old son uses Painter Essentials 4 for his comics and sometimes Sketchbook.

Thanks so much! I'll have dh check these out (he's a computer geek but not informed about this kind of stuff; he keeps telling her to keep trying Illustrator). A graphics tablet sounds really cool! Thanks again!