Does anyone from Ambient Design still read these?

[Perendale]

I feel the same. Several of the most consistent contributors have left the forums and forums as a whole seem to have little artistic life anymore. I regret this particularly as I posted a lot around 2013-2016 (under the username ‘hypotaxis’) and got enormous encouragement from quite a number of artists here. It really helped me become a much better artist. It’s sad to see it gone.

[Enug]

I agree it's sad to see the forum dying but how do we resurrect it? I too post here rarely these days as there is little response. We need to encourage those members who join just to get a solution to a problem to return and post their paintings. Then it is up to us (all) to applaud their efforts and offer encouragement. If we want members to connect with us and acknowledge our posts we should make an effort and return the favour. Just saying!

[Perendale]

I agree with all of that. I am cautious about advising other artists because I have no training myself and haven’t been painting very long, so it feels a bit arrogant. Maybe I just need to get over myself, eh? But if the forums are going to revive it will take people like us to do it.

[Enug]

I'm sorry if it looked like I was suggesting we give artistic advice (unless asked for) but surely we can find words to praise the effort taken to show us new works. Even if it is to acknowledge that we have viewed the post and appreciate the effort the artist has put into it could be enough to encourage further participation in the forum.

[Somerset]

I can only judge this topic from my point of view. And in my opinion, if I watch the inventions of ArtRage during the last years, it falls back behind its competitors (like Rebelle 5, Adobe Fresco, and even Krita is gaining more and more) and looses attractivity. I want to use Artrage as a serious productive app, not as a toy. So it would have been more important for me that the old annoying bugs would have been fixed than to be able to paint together with others or so. That is nothing that's worth to pay for. At least for me. E.g. Rebelle 5 introduced Micropixels. Haven't tested it yet, but it sounds like a really interesting technical breakthrough. Expensive but probably worth its money. But where are the relevant and valuable inventions in ArtRage?

This is also the main reason why I almost turned my back to this forum.

[DarkOwnt]

Somerset

The writing on the wall **seems** to be that this thing is no longer a passion for the owners.

That's natural, real people have real lives and real interests/goals/aspirations in life... its very possible this is at the "been there done that" stage and perhaps mixed in with "I'm not ready to let it go".


The final stage of software in such a state is usually complete sale and unfortunately the buyers tend to be completely hands off (coming in and understanding the program and making meaningful changes is very difficult and costly for a new team) and just package it with other software without any sort of integration... or just keep selling with cosmetic and minor changes, leaving all the core functionality as it is.

Also, it is close to impossible to "merge" software packages which generally have completely different internals and mechanics...


This is all just speculation but it is clear that things feel different... like it is sailing into the sunset.

[nekomata]

I can only judge this topic from my point of view. And in my opinion, if I watch the inventions of ArtRage during the last years, it falls back behind its competitors (like Rebelle 5, Adobe Fresco, and even Krita is gaining more and more) and looses attractivity. I want to use Artrage as a serious productive app, not as a toy. So it would have been more important for me that the old annoying bugs would have been fixed than to be able to paint together with others or so. That is nothing that's worth to pay for. At least for me. E.g. Rebelle 5 introduced Micropixels. Haven't tested it yet, but it sounds like a really interesting technical breakthrough. Expensive but probably worth its money. But where are the relevant and valuable inventions in ArtRage?

This is also the main reason why I almost turned my back to this forum.

haven't noticed artrage falling back behind fresco at all, maybe I haven't looked hard enough?

rebelle has certain things done really well about it, but it comes with € 10—€189,99 paper bundle purchases, adding quite a bit on top of the price tag, and performance-wise, artrage is a preferred choice for many, particularly with desktop systems going up in price over the recent years.

krita is free, and it is more or less understood that with artrage you get a natural media simulation package; for higher end CG art, you'll pick up a second or third application, and there's no shortage of options at the moment.

they don't compete, they co-exist with artrage.

[Somerset]

I just wanted to share my opinion, concerning the topic why this forums become more and more deserted, in a democratic way. In my opinion it might have to do with that there is too less relevant progress in the development of ArtRage. Respectively the progress I see doesn't point into a direction that is attractive and worth to pay for - for me. But if you have a different opinion, it is of course absolutely okay. If ArtRage shall become a sort of fancy toy in the future, rather than a serious professional painting app, I will not need it and of course not buy it. Why should I?

And as I already said, the other point is, that, while the developers developed this - for me - useless features, they neglected bugs that were well known for years (the last update for AR6 was in Oct 2019, as far as I remember). E.g. the crashing Docking Mode and the Outlines that can't be exported. Both reported years ago. That means, that users paid for faulty software and the manufacturers didn't do anything to fix it. To the contrary, they bequested it to the following version. That's not really inspiring confidence, I think. However, I'm not lucky with that, so I'm still working with ArtRage 6 until I find something better.

And at the moment it seems that Rebelle 5 might be my next choice. Those expensive canvas bundles are of course an argument. But I think it will be possible to create own canvases, as I also create the most of my additional stuff for all of the graphic apps I work with on my own. And "competition or coexistence"... - it doesn't matter, because you can also paint very nice paintings with Krita, Fresco, Affinity Photo... or even a simple app like MyPaint. I know a female artist who creates marvelous Fantasy-Art with GIMP - much better than many artists do with ArtRage.

The long and short of it: I really loved ArtRage right from the moment I first saw it. But as it seems, it is now going into a direction I can't use it. Possibly this is also the reason why other people turn their backs to it. I don't really know.