Which Photoshop versions???

[Rohsie1488312020]

hi! I am wanting to  upgrade my Photoshop from PS7( I know, ancient, lol) . Which version of photoshop is the best...CS5 or C5 extended version? I do mainly clothes creation..I heard one of the versions let you draw directly on a 3d model....which one would ya'll recommend?? Thanks for reading my post:))

[Freecilla Kuhn]

I use PS Elements 6, it works just fine by me.

[Rohsie1488312020]

Its alot cheaper too I can imagine than CS5....I like the idea of painting directly on a 3d model though, as some clothes creation can get a little tricky with lining up patterns etc......I dont suppose elements has the 3d model feature??

[Freecilla Kuhn]

No but I don't need it. For clothing and skins I just use the templates SL provides they work great but those are only good for those not for sculpty or mesh objects.

[Ceera Murakami]

I believe you need the "Extended" version to paint directly on a 3D model. Check the product specs from the vendor to be sure.

You can do a lot without the fancy new tools. I make a lot of my architectural textures with an ancient copy of Photoshop 4.0 that I still have on a PC system that I use a lot, and I use Photoshop CS3 (not extended) for higher-end tools that are useful occasionally. But I don't make clothes much any more. If I did, I'd look seriously at the Extended versions of Photoshop.

The new tools in the "Extended" versions of PS 3 and higher are very handy for clothing makers in SL, because they can make it much easier to deal with side seame and to eliminate the issues caused by the patheticly bad UV mapping in the SL avatar mesh. Igf you can afford to upgrade to a version that allows painting on a 3D model, I would highly advise it, for any clothing maker in SL.

[Shelby Silverspar]

Ceera is correct, you need the Extended version of the software for 3D functions. Huge jump from 7 to CS5, put your seatbelt on!

[Chosen Few]

If you have the money at your disposal, Photoshop Extended is worth every penny.  There are a heck of a lot more selling points for it than just the ability to paint on a 3D model, although that feature in particular is obviously pretty huge.  It also sports video editing and motion graphics capabilities, and advanced measurement and image analysis tools.

The advanced measurement tools are particularly useful if you need to recreate a 3D object from a photograph.  For example, just the other day, I was hired to replicate some medical equipment for a virtual world event in which the manufacturer is participating.  They weren't able to provide me with much in the way of source imagery.  All I had to work with were the marketing photos on their website, which only show the products at odd angles.  There were no orthographic shots available, from which to judge the real proportions of the various items.  Without Photoshop Extended, I would have had to do a lot of math and/or quite a bit of guess work, to arrive at a suitable representation.  But because Photoshop Exteneded allows for measurement with perspective taken into account, I was able to size things up very quickly, to create accurate models without much hassle.

(If I were using CS5, it might have been even easier, since CS5 enables you to export the measurements as 3D objects, essentially providing a 3D template to work against.  But I'm still in CS4 land, so I didn't have that particular luxury.)

 

 

 

 

Since Photoshop Elements was mentioned, I'll add my comments on that as well.  My general advice on it is this.  If you've already got it because it came with your camera or something, and you don't want to get something better, then you might as well put it to use.  But if you're looking to actively select a program for texturing purposes, I'd steer clear of it.  There are much better options out there, for the same price or less*.

A lot of people tend to be under the impression that PS Elements is a lightweight version of Photoshop.  But that's not actually the case.  It's not really Photoshop at all, but rather a completely different program that just happens to bear the same brand name, and has been given a somewhat similar UI. 

PS Elements is aimed primarily at amateur photographers, which is why it tends to be bundled with cheap digital cameras.  It does a generally good job for things like easy redeye removal, simple color correction, photo library sharing, etc.  In the hands of a 'power user', it can of course do a whole lot more than that, as it does have quite a few non-obvious (hidden) features, which can be useful for texturing.  But you have to go pretty far off the intended path in order to make it do the kinds of things that texture artists take for granted every day with the real Photoshop and other commonly used programs.

For what it's worth, I've been trying to tell Adobe for years now that they really cheapen the brand by slapping the word "Photoshop" on so many products that have nothing to do with the real thing, and that the results are really confusing to customers.  But they never want to hear that, of course.  Somebody over there wants all those "spent by association" dollars, and that's that.  If that person/group ever moves further up the Adobe corporate ladder, I wouldn't be surprised if they rename the whole company "Photoshop Inc."

 

 

 

* Paintshop Pro, for example, is now just $39.99, and it beats PS Elements by miles.  GIMP is totally free, and is almost as powerful as the real Photoshop (provided you can stomach its relatively peculiar interface and associated quirks).

[Rohsie1488312020]

Thank you all for your responses, they have been indeed very helpful for me. I am still unsure whether to invest in CS5 as although its a powerful program and it would be great to have for a clothes designer in SL, I read its more suited to professionals...And I am questioning would I even use half of all the bells & whistles it has as I am only an amatuer clothes maker!?....So forking out close to $1000 for software to use only for clothes design and maybe a poster/shop sign here and there...hmm...I'm still unsure..maybe I would be wasting my money. I have downloaded GIMP....Kind of similiar to PS and I am testing the waters on that one. I have also downloaded Blender..to use for a 3d model to paint on....Wow.....its some peice of work isnt it lol.

[Freecilla Kuhn]

While painting on 3D objects would be a major benefit for saving time and having greater accuracy it depends on how much you would actually use it.

I could have used it only once in five years to paint the face on a sculpty head but that's about it. For me it's not worth buying it but that's only me. If you think you would use/need it very often then yes, otherwise mmmaybe not. By the way, the face took me about nine attempts to get it on the prim correctly, not good, it took hours but then again this was way before painting on a 3D object was available.

[Rohsie1488312020]

Thanks for your insight. Now i'm judging whether GIMP is all that stable!!? As I was working on a tutorial, it decided it had enough and wouldnt respond...grrr...Whats everyones thought of GIMP?? If its going to keep doing that for me..hmm :womanmad:

[hibit Spad]

Gimp is a program that either works for you or it doesn't.  It's more a matter in how you think and organize things mentally that determines whether or not GIMP will work for you.  I tell people that Gimp is free so you have lost nothing by trying it first.

[Nefertiti Nefarious]

I have used The GIMP for a very long time - version 0.3 or something - and it's equal to Photoshop for many things.In a side-by-side comparison of photo-editing, no one could tell which photos were corrected by The GIMP and which by Photoshop. They were just guessing.

 

MeshLab is open source, free to download software that can paint directly on meshes: http://meshlab.sourceforge.net/ 

[scyntt Boucher]

Like the OP, I stayed with PS7 for the longest time until I upgraded to CS3 shortly before CS4 came out. My quitly of life improved five fold with that upgrade. But it's nothing compared to the upgrade to CS5. From CS3 to CS5 they added over 70 new features, and on top of it the programs spent some time fixing all the little things that bugged the crap out of users.

(Side note, Adobe never branded the PS in CS5.5, as CS5.5. If you ever need to know if you are running the "CS5.5" version, it will have a version number of 12.1.)

Now to the big question of the normal version or the extended version. .. .. Well, if you plan on using PS for just SL clothes, and large print stuff in real life, go with the normal version. The 3D paint ability in PSext just isn't worth the extra cost. Even more so when other programs do it just as well or better. If you still want to paint on a 3D object you should try Blender 2.6 (lots of improvements since 2.49, including a UI overhaul), it's free and tutorials are everywhere. Another free program to try is Metasequoia. It looks like it would be a pain, but once you watch a how-to on YouTube you'll see it's really easy. The only problem with Metasequoia is you need to buy a $49 upgrade to get it to export out other file types.

Personally the only time the 3D tool-set has ever came in handy for me has been when I've had a CFH wanting tacky 3D text in a design.  ... I can't really think of any features that are in PSext that are really special... better RAW support, maybe.. hum.. come to think of it I've never used the normal version.

Anyway..

If you didn't know, you can buy Adobe products with a monthly subscription.
It's $49 for the normal version, and $75 for the extended version a month. Also you can get a discount for upgrading from PS7. If you upgrade you would need to pay in full, but you'll save $100 regardless of version.

In the end, it's up to you. Good luck, and let us know what you end up doing.

[Arwen Serpente]

I use The Gimp for clothing creation and it works well for my needs. The most recent version is 2.6. They have a lot of improvements planned if you read their blog. For a free program, it's great. I've often thought about upgrading to Photoshop once I have the funds to do it, but for now Gimp works very well. There are help groups for Gimp inworld, so if you do run into problems, try joining some of those and see if they can help answer your questions.