Freeware Feature - FireAlpaca

3 min read

Deviation Actions

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I saw this program advertised on Tumblr earlier today and decided to give it a try - I was so impressed with it I figured to link it here as well! Artists, meet FireAlpaca!

What is it, asides from a silly name? It's a drawing program made specifically for digital art. It functions like a mix between Photoshop and Paint Tool SAI, taking the most important features of both in a compact, simpler interface than either. It's got layers, blending modes, a navigator, full color picker, Magic Wands, gradients, Aliasing and Anti-Aliasing - pretty much everything you need to make yourself some art. And, as the title implies - it's completely free! Plus it works on both PC and Mac computers, which is a huge plus.

Now admittedly I've only spent probably about an hour total fussing around with it, but here's some things I've noticed:

Pros:
-Automatically responded to my tablet
-Very slick brush tool with high responsiveness to pen pressure
-Interface was nice and simple compared to PS or SAI - much less intimidating to open up
-Program ran with very minimal lag
-Working in it is quite slick - it's complex enough that you can do a lot of different things with it, but simple enough that you don't have to press ten buttons to find the one you were looking for, or sort through a dozen different windows. It took me about 10 minutes to figure out where everything was and what it did, and after that I was able to jump right in to drawing.
-If you do have Photoshop, it can also save files as .PSDs for easy cross-program compatibility.

Cons:
-Brush lines were a bit shaky - I'm not sure if there's a stabilizer option or if it was just my hand There is a stabilizer option, though I think I prefer using the brushes without it
-No lasso tool, and I found their approximation, the Select Pen tool, a bit awkward to use
-No filters
-Brushes are rather limited. From what I can see, no way to add textured brushes or custom shapes.
-Probably not something you can make terribly complex art with.

Overall: VERY nice little program. This is a great alternative if you want to get your feet fet in digital art but don't have the cash to drop on Photoshop or SAI. If you know the basics of layers, you are pretty much ready to go once you open it up. (And if not, there's about a million tutorials if you search DA).

So do check it out! I get a lot of people asking me how to use Photoshop, or where to buy it, or where to download it for free. This program is a real nice alternative - you probably won't paint any Mona Lisas with it, but it's a nice fit for the beginner digital artist. Definitely a big step up from Muro or GIMP or Paint, for sure.

Here's a generic doggy I drew to experiment with the program, took about 20 minutes: img43.imageshack.us/img43/619/… .
© 2012 - 2024 Kaylink
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AbyssalRadiance's avatar
I recently got a version of SAI and used it JUST last night to do a drawing of my friend's character..now all of a sudden it refuses to respond to tablet movements at all, even when the window is minimized...so even if I'm on here, the tablet doesn't move the mouse...once Sai is closed, my tablet works normally.

It makes NO sense how it went to shit in one night...it's the 3rd program I've gone through, as I'm too poor to afford Ps...So, I'm thinking of giving this a try....pathetic that I get happy about a program, just for it to stop working randomly.