Program For Profiles

[PanzerWulff]

I wanted to try some profiles of my own but all i have is the "Paint" program that came with windows any reccomendations on a program to try???
"Panzer"

[RLBH]

You can do an awful lot with Paint. I use it (which doesn't say a lot, to be fair, as I post a drawing about once every three months), and I understand a few of the more prolific artists do as well. It isn't too powerful, but with patience, you can go places.

The other program I've worked with is GIMP, which is almost impossible to use at first, so I gave up and went back to Paint.

[BlackOps]

Any program that will allow you to work in multiple layers should work but Adobe Photshop, Corel Photo Paint, Adobe Illustrator, Corel Draw, would be obvious choices but come with hefty price tags.

I've heard Corel Paint Shop Pro is decent and runs right around $70.00.
There must be lots of choices out there that will work in the reasonable price range but I'd have to do some searching.  

[Planeman]

I use MS paint mostly, but do the gradiant shades in a program that came with a Scanner a few years back.

Basic steps I typically use:

1. Draw the pic quite big in MS Paint saved as Bitmap (.BMP) format using block coloureds. (this is saved in hi-res JPG format for internet upload but is .bmp on my PC):


2. Next I render it in ArcSoft Photostudio 5. I only use a tiny portion of the program's functionality cos I'm a creature of habit. Again this would be in .bmp format:


3. Lastly I render the background and use Photostudio 5 to reduce the image size (to reduce pixeliation) and save it as a Jpeg file for the internet:



Of course there are other ways and variety is the spice of life, but MS Paint is viable IMO.

[Planeman]

This profile was done entirely in MS Paint, note that it lacks gradient fills. I got the 45 degree angle effect (MS Paint only has 90, 180 & 270) by putting the picture into MS Powerpoint and rotating it there, then taking a screen shot (Ctrl PrtScr) and pasting it back into MS Paint.

I love MS Paint's ability to set a whole colour as transparent, very useful.

[Maverick]

I use E-paint, which is sorta like a glorified mspaint.  I'm not that hi tech with shades and transparencies (my profiles are testament to that fact) but I like the prog cause it's easy to mash things around with and it's cheap.

[kitflubber]

I'm spoiled, I work in graphic design. I use Adobe Illustrator CS2 for line work, Adobe Photoshop CS2 for retouching and illustration, and Strata 3D CX5 for 3D models.