Standout Features
* Drawing, sketching and other “dry” media composition features.
* Simple, easy to use interface and workflow.
Drawing & Painting Features:
What SketchBook Pro has, it has in spades. Brush customization? Check. Color management? Check. Annotations, layers, rulers? Check, check and check. Multi-monitor and strong tablet support? Big surprise: check. These features are worth consideration on their own, but, it is when these various elements are brought together that their merit becomes evident. Composition features like “symmetrical” drawing, which mirrors strokes on a horizontal, vertical or simultaneous horizontal-vertical axis make quick work of the early stages of conceptualization and construction, while built-in tools, such as rulers and grid features, help artists and designers refine their work to its brass tacks. Speaking of brass tacks, SketchBook Pro also features seamless, intra-program email integration, making it possible to email finished or unfinished projects and get back to business without having to go through the always-tedious process of formatting, saving and exporting said projects. A check in the “pro” column, to be certain.
Brushes:
Compared to other Digital Painting programs like Corel Painter, AutoDesk SketchBook Pro leaves something to be desired in terms of brush selection. It is still light years ahead of the paleolithic painting and drawing applications found in most image and photo editing software programs, and, besides, not every program can be Painter. Nevertheless, the brushes can, in fact, be customized and combined to create brushes to meet the needs of a given project or the tastes and stylings of its artist. And, for its limited selection, the brushes are actually fairly impressive, being precise, detail-rich and everything else one would hope to find in a proprietary digital painting software program.
Brush Quality:
As mentioned in passing in the “Brushes” section, for the brushes SketchBook Pro does have, the quality of their performance and the precision and effect of their digital rendering is very impressive. It doesn’t offer the media methodology and modeling of wet and dry media as closely as Corel Painter, which can be a deal-breaker for digital artists and designers with training in those respective fields. Instead, it is more reminiscent of the media from which it receives its namesake: sketching. This may or may not be intended; the physical shape of the tablet and stylus/pen and program response to the tablet lend it a verisimilitude to actual sketching that leaves little to the imagination, for better or worse (but mostly better). SketchBook Pro seems to be ideal for digital art projects using pen or pencil (obviously?). Other media features, such as air brush, make strong cases for themselves, but it is with the pen, pencil and other dry media tools that feel natural and, virtually, “real.”
Input/Output:
Few software-based designers and digital artists use one software program or application as their sole creative vehicle. That said, it is imperative that digital painting software programs provide comprehensive image file support and compatibility, for both the entrance and the exit. Fortunately, SketchBook Pro does pretty well for itself, supporting common image, including TIFF, JPG, PNG, BMP file formats. Finished or projects still in production can also be exported in those file formats. Of equal use and importance, SketchBook Pro can also import and export Photoshop PSD formatted files, preserving any layers in the image. One particularly useful output feature is the SketchBook Pro’s email integration: images can be emailed out from the SketchBook Pro without the need to launch a separate email application. Though it may seem like a minor detail, this can really help streamline the process of creating and distributing artwork and design in any stage of production without the additional hassle of formatting, saving and exporting.
Ease of Use:
All software programs’ “ease of use” is nearly 99% a matter of the user interface and overall program architecture. All the tools and all the features in the world would amount to little if they weren’t organized, accessible and comprehensible to its respective users. Like its other illustration and photo editing software programs, AutoDesk SketchBook Pro strikes a healthy balance between simplicity of interface and use and complexity of effect with SketchBook Pro. Though, as mentioned previously, the tools, brushes and composition features pale in comparison to Corel Painter, the composition options and potential functionality are quite impressive, made all the more so by its customizable user interface and workflow, which can be made as simple or complex as the artist needs. Really, SketchBook Pro is one of the few graphic design, illustration and, specifically, digital painting software programs that avoids the “devil in the details” without become an overly-simplistic, included PC Paint-like application. A commendable accomplishment, to be certain.
Help/Support:
Despite the copy that might be on the box, no software program, including digital painting, is perfect. That said, manufacturers should offer a healthy variety of useful resources to help users gain program knowledge and insight and troubleshoot technical issues and errors. Fortunately, AutoDesk does just that, providing a solid support for SketchBook Pro with a FAQ section, user forums, product manuals and tutorials. Additional technical support can be obtained through email. Unfortunately, no telephone number is available (or at least listed) for technical help and support.
One area of AutoDesk and, moreover, SketchBook Pro’s help and support features that is noteworthy is its community. While the community is not exclusively focused on SketchBook Pro, the amount of SketchBook Pro users that participate in the community is impressive, to say the least. This user-based community, with an occasional appearance by an AutoDesk SketchBook Pro developer, is a rich-albeit-often-overlooked resource. Users can share tips, tricks, methods and finished artworks with one another, as well as make use of several step-by-step tutorials available therein. With help and support features and resources like these, SketchBook Pro users can quickly–and adeptly–make use of the program and actualize their creative potential.
Summary:
AutoDesk software programs and related products have a reputation for being simple (yet powerful), clean (yet capable of great complexity) and well organized. SketchBook Pro doesn’t disappoint on those fronts, offering a variety of composition tools and features within a clean, responsive interface that has the odds, ends and overall brass to help digital artists, mixed-media artists and, more likely, designers and illustrators from inspiration to creation without the clean-up or preparation. SketchBook Pro is by no means on par with Corel Painter, lacking the brush selection, palette features and functionality, but it makes a good argument for itself when it comes to media closely related to its namesake: sketching. Designers and drafters will find an indispensable tool, others, a well-organized tool that is import/export friendly. Both groups will find little of what AutoDesk SketchBook Pro offers to complain about. That would likely be reserved for what it doesn’t have, which could be a deal-breaker for some and a shrug-maker for others.
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