Hey there,...

[Taron]

Now that's a beautiful "hey there!". Thanks, Johndo, you clearly seem to be an artist after my own heart!
One thing that's really exciting about Verve in connection with 3d work is actually the output of material and color components, which is fantastic for opacity based textures, such as leafs or branches. You automatically get perfect bump behind the color along with the opacity itself, of course. Dial down the "opacity" of a layer and you even get a look at the transparency gradient you'd be getting, too. It's quite powerful for such productions already and that wasn't even the intention, hehe.

But, yeah, I'm really thrilled to read your impressions and comparisons up there, because I do feel just the same. ...very cool, and I'm looking forward to all your explorations!

I'll be brewing some ideas and suggestions that you could play around with. In terms of experiences with software, each plays with different strengths but they fall back on that "dryness."

Painter is kind of a neat premise of trying to tune the brushes to mimic traditional medium. But really, it's just a mental gimmick where they are still digital brushes. Blending is definitely better in Painter but it's hard to predict and handle blending of colors. The reaction to the canvas texture is a nice touch but it's still a simulation and it doesn't always behave. They have a wealth of brushes but in the end, I prefer a few unique ones and than tune them the way I want it.

Photoshop is probably what everyone has experienced. I just have always had problems in getting a good visual style. Partially of myself but also fighting the software. For one, I don't use the blending. It doesn't work out of the box. Actually, most of the brushes there doesn't work until you tweak it the way you want. The other is the digital medium itself. A flat look requires workarounds. Again, just working against it's weaknesses. A lot of pluses but only if you can get to that. I really get worn down.

ArtRage and Sketchbook pro. These are pretty good small programs. They have some neat features that help alleviate some problems like sketchbook focusing on conceptualizing tools. Which is why I think Verve's perspective tool is so awesome. Having that in 3D, can be turned off or on and adjusted on the fly is a must. I really haven't messed around with these two that much. I keep coming back to Photoshop because it's full featured.

Mischief is one I recently bought because it's vector based. So it has an infinite canvas, draws just like photoshop. It has limited tools but it's possible they can add more features that can be enticing. But, I'm still limited with the digital flatness.

I really don't draw much so it's hard to pin it down but I think it's the problem of blending that I had. I think I spent most of my time with Photoshop getting brushes pretty much as up to par as what your #9 brush is (size response, texture, and utlitiy). And actually, it was after doing my 2nd dog drawing that I found out about Opacity. I relied on the blending. While with Photoshop, I have to go back and paint with opacity pen pressure, and with no size change to get the right amount of color I need in an area. Blending gets iffy on the softness or hardness you decide. Unless I'm a master at what I do, I usually spend a good chunk of time evening out values and colors. With all the smooth gradients of Photoshop, I have to be careful of color values getting muddy. With Verve, it blends well and what I expect it to be.

Hey!! Hi, its very nice to speak in here!!

Im Rubén Germán Taron, I'm from Argentina. Im 24 and I am a student of philosophy at the university.
Listen, I was in google, wondering about my surame; I just know that my family came from Germany at the early 1900', and they were before in Russia, in San Petersburgo.. I was wondering if here I can have some refference about "Taron", where is this name came from? How many of us still being in Europe? can you be some help? I really want to met you Taron, this site is great!!

I really enjoy look at the images..

email me if you want in: german_taron@live.com
Have a great day!!

[Taron]

Hi Ruben, I'm so sorry to disappoint you, but Taron is my artist pseudo, which came to me as a sound, purely through my imagination some 28 years ago in a moment of total bliss. I knew then that I would want to be called by that name as soon as I was in the life of my choosing. By the time I went to the US, Taron was firmly established as who I had become and I sure am still living it, too.
If anything, there may be some spiritual connection to that name. The universe is full of mysterious links and only rarely we open ourselves up to and accept the most subtle impulses. I can tell you this much, though, Taron was not just a subtle impulse. It filled me with a kind of joy, excitement and pride. To me it's like a title of independence and eager pursuit, to know that honest, productive desire must have a reason, even if your immediate environment doesn't understand to reflect its relevance.
Please, keep in touch and let me know what else you find out about "our" name!

Hey There,
My name is Dennis. I been doing visual art since kindergarten (1970s). Most of art throughout the years was in the painting on canvas and walls medium.
I started playing around with 3D in 1999 but got really serious with it on a professional level in 2011.

I found out about Verve while reading a post in the Blender forums and an article about Mischief where it was mentioned. Being a painter, I find this program to be awesome. It cannot replace the actual canvases and tubes but as I get used to playing with the controls, it's a very nice thing to use my tablet with. I can paint in my good clothes Thanks for this and I look forward to sharing some works along with all the very talented users here.

-Dennis

[Taron]

WELCOME, Dennis! Glad to have you on board! I can't wait to see what you got!!!
It sounds like you're the perfect candidate to give Verve a whirl and I'm really excited about your feedback, too!

Hello Everyone,
Loved the software. I registered in this forum to see if there's any way I could help =)
Maybe I could start translating the manual to PT-BR?

[Taron]

Hey TC, and welcome to the forum!
THANK YOU for offering help, that's super sweet! As I'm preparing the new interface, I realize that it could be cool to support some more languages there, too. Maybe I'll take you up on that beyond the manual, haha!
By the way, I really dig the sound of Portuguese!

Hey TC, and welcome to the forum!
THANK YOU for offering help, that's super sweet! As I'm preparing the new interface, I realize that it could be cool to support some more languages there, too. Maybe I'll take you up on that beyond the manual, haha!
By the way, I really dig the sound of Portuguese!

I'll post later today here the translation for the manual =)
I'm happy to help in any way possible

Hello Taron,

My name is James, I'm currently a college student in the U.S. I have 0 background in programming or art (actually quite bad at drawing) but I've watched Bob Ross videos because of how relaxing they are for 4 years now. This led to an interest in trying to paint but alas I am a broke college student so I never tried.

I've done a bit of experimenting with Verve and its peaked my creative side a bit. I've found it a bit difficult to get used to the controls and am still a bit confused on what certain buttons do. Hopefully with time I will figure all of it out. Also, making trees has been hard for me because I only have a mouse and can't take advantage of pen pressure or being able to angle the brush Any tips?

Regardless, thank you for creating Verve! It's been a blast so far and I can't wait to learn the rest of the controls and really master this program.

- Taxi500