LeechFever

Ok. I'm really hooked. It's a better alternative to Photoshop and Corel for those who just want to jump in draw. Need time to get used to but does not require steep learning curve. The line tool is superb allowing ease of lining (of course Photoshop has better curve precision but it's a hassle and at times confusion when you place too many anchors). Color blending is good and choices of brush are decent. To alter the size of an image or rotate it, you simply just need to enter Crtl+T (took me a while to figure this one out, lol). To rotate the whole canvas, just press alt+space+drag. However, unlike photoshop, it does not have features like layer adjustment tool, wrap, leveling etc. Furthermore, it does not handle ram too well once your artwork gets a little too complex. For example, trying to flip it horizontally, an error will pop out indicating you do not have sufficient memory.

All in all, it's a good software to use and I would recommend it for anyone who just want a simple small sized application with the layering ability and paint straight without the need of a manual book. Just don't expect much if you wish to do special effect as (IMO) the software is purely meant for painting purpose. The result of the SAI experiment can be seen here: Trinity Wing .

Ok. I gotta say, SAI got me hooked. Though not so much on the coloring aspect as I have some few issue with it. But what turn me on is the lining part. It is so much easier than photoshop! Click on curve tool and start lining (preferably with mouse}. There's even an option to adjust the lining pressure to get sharp edge. If you are not satisfy with the curve, fraid not, just click on the edit button and re-adjust it to your liking. Unlike photoshop whereby to line an art, you have to click on pen tool, line it then right click to select "stroke" just to find that you forgot to set the brush size and hardness. And after stroking, it's a hassle to erase and redo the line work as pen tool doesn't give you live preview!

Now the downside. SAI has the ability to import in psd file, which is a good thing, but it does not recognize certain functions like adjustment layer. What that means is if you have bunch of adjustment layers used in Photoshop, those function will be excluded out in SAI. And you can't have the function back when you convert it back to psd. Nevertheless, this is a minor problem as I can easily copy and paste the line-work to my original saved psd format. As for the painting part....I can't say that I like it but I'm still not used to it yet to conclude anything. Feels like you have to press harder on wacom pen to get darker tone in SAI but perhaps I just need to adjust the pressure setting. In the end, I have to constantly switch between photoshop and SAI. MENDOTSAIIII!..

Too early to conclude anything but I can say I "50%" like it so far. Planning to redo some of my earlier works especially the lining part.

Ok. I have been hearing a lot about this SAI software mostly for anime/manga. So I'm thinking of trying one and currently in progress of making a piece just to see the hype. So far so good, the file size is small (really small), the blending is good and best of all the brush follows the stroke! Something I haven't been able to get photoshop to do (Bad Dog!). Granted, why not use corelpaint...well, it freaking lags on my pc when I make the brush bigger (time for me to upgrade?) and it's hellalot bigger than SAI. The only problem I'm facing is having to relearn and re-config few shortcut keys especially the zoom in/out scroll since I'm already so used to alt+scroll using photoshop. However that is a minor problem but seriously I wish they make an option to config our own way of interfacing with the software. I hate having to "adjust" myself if I ever go back to photoshop. As for the overall verdict, that will be in the next chapter.