The guys beta testing will be well informed of the new features, c'mon guys spill the beans, what is worth checking out when I download the trial?
And has there been much effort to clear out the legacy bugs?
T I A
One of the most lack lustre software releases ever. It should be quite evident from the lack of a stream of posts that usually follows a new release. Slap on a new number, juggle features between other software they already have and call it a great new release. Dunno what they broke this time around tho, but it will come up soon! :)
The new hybrid vector/bitmap brushes are worth the upgrade to me. I have been using Corel Painter for natural media artwork, and using draw to create vector art to make hybrid art. The new brushes are a godsend in my case.
Painter is a great software and the brushes make a lot of sense in there then in CorelDRAW. The color mixing, blending, layers all work together in creating an art work. Been on it like almost a life time ago when it was called Fractal Design or something like that.
Without all the blend and canvas rotation and other essential features that make Painter what it is, it doesn't make sense to me on CorelDRAW. Hell, even just the responsiveness of the Wacom pen in Painter is light years ahead of what we have in CorelDRAW. So my artwork stays on Painter, ArtRage and a few others.
If you have used the brushes in Painter and the ton of brush controls on there, this one feels like a kid's toy! I'm glad you have found practical use of the brushes in CorelDRAW tho!
Lay down a few thousand strokes in CorelDRAW and see how sluggish it gets!
Yeah, I'm a long time painter user too, since Painter 6 I think, or whatever version was out around the year 2002. You just deflated my balloon! I was so excited about getting decent brushes that I forgot that the canvas in CorelDraw can't be rotated, only objects or bitmaps! And, after further tinkering, you are correct, there is very little customization of the brushes in Draw. Damn. At least the brushes are fairly responsive on my system, but I haven't tried to paint any large works yet.
Sigh. Maybe a future version. For now, I'll stick with Painter and Rebelle. But I'm a little worried about the future of Painter--no 2024 version yet, and they no longer sell subscriptions in the Corel store. I just started with Rebelle recently, and it is impressive, but I'm not sure yet if it will suit my style.
My advise, NEVER EVER get stuck with one single program! Working with multiple other similar programs keeps your skills way sharper and you learn of things you can and cannot do with a particular software.
I still use CorelDRAW only coz its so much easier to automate using macros. The editor is built in and you can get most of what you need done quite fast with VBA. VSTA and C# is far more powerful but their implementation in CorelDRAW is pathetic, especially given that CorelDRAW itself is partially written in C#!
Other than that most of the charm and anticipation i used to have every time there was a new release coming up is long lost. And consistently they have never failed to disappoint! lol. Anyways, I do know a lot of users are experimenting with other programs. No longer is it like 'This is the industry standard and must be used' . Anything that gets the required results is good to go.
If I hadn't branched out from just CorelDRAW to a variety of other programs a few years, I would be totally frustrated by their lack of innovation and maybe even desire to compete in this quickly evolving software world! Users are definitely going to wake up and migrate towards other software, which give them the tools to get their jobs done, faster. I used to be a steadfast CorelDRAW loyalist back then. Not any more. I had a personal copy of CorelDRAW until a few years ago, but when they introduced the subscription model and just changed my license to that without notice, I was irate. Cancelled out my subscription as I have access to it on my office systems anyways. I never regretted it. This new release only confirmed to me that was a wise decision! One day Corel is going to wake up and see their user base is literally non-existent! Would be too damn late for them by then! Not that I care.
Keep experimenting my friend. There is a ton of things to learn, if you are inclined to.
Good luck! :)
Good advice!
To date, I only use CorelDraw to draw vector objects for paintings done in other software, and Photo-Paint for intermediate photo editing after processing the raw files in DxO Photolab, then final processing for print or web using Topaz Photo AI. I also use PaintShop Pro for certain edits that it seems to do better than other software.
I also have a perpetual version of Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop Elements that I might as well uninstall, because I hate Illustrator and PS Elements just sucks, even though I have a plugin that opens up the hobbled features in Elements.
So I do have quite a variety of software that I use, but for natural media type painting, Corel Painter is my go-to app. This might be because I've used it so long that I understand it thoroughly. I've been experimenting with Rebelle 7, and it is quite impressive, but is very different than what I'm used to.
The other issue is that Painter fully understands my Wacom Cintiq display and Intuos tablet. It knows that one pen is an airbrush, and that another is a soft oil brush, and that another pen is a pencil, and it remembers this between sessions. Rebelle does not use this Wacom API that distinguishes brushes by their serial numbers. That pen feature is very important to me, and may be why I've so far not fully explored painting in Rebelle. Then there is my Wacom Art Pen that supports rotating the brush. This is a valuable feature when using a flat brush or scraper. This feature also is not supported in other software than Painter, except for, oddly, PaintShop Pro. Photoshop also supports none of these features anymore, since CS6.
Could I make do without the features and just use one pen, changing the brush only in the software? Sure, but I really don't want to change my workflow to that degree. I feel what I need to do is only work on natural media painting in Rebelle for a month or so, to see if I can develop a satisfactory workflow in it.
As for macros and programming, I don't use any of that. I did get into that a while back, but I just want to draw and paint. I felt like writing or searching for a macro to do this or that just got in my way. I'm a retired engineer, 70 years old, and still don't mind change for the better, but I do hate change for the sake of change.
I really hope that Painter will continue to be supported.