Tools & Software

No matter where you are on your art journey, it's important to be aware of your options (and alternatives) for creative software. There are dozens and dozens of options out there, all with their own strengths and weaknesses. If there is software, references, websites, or something else missing from this list, get in touch with DOOMVEGA.

Not everything listed here is solely for visual artists. Musicians, video editors, and writers are artists, too.

To Post Your Work

To post your work to multiple sites at once, use PostyBirb. PostyBirb is designed to help artists post their art across many different sites, such as Mastodon, BlueSky, Discord, FurAffinity, and more. If you're a web developer, you might be able to configure PostyBirb to post to your own blog or website if you have one (see Nora Reed's Website Manifesto for why you should have a website. TL;DR-- you should have a website).

To Protect Your Work

In order to protect your work from artifical intelligence, Glaze and Nightshade are incredibly powerful tools (that require an equally powerful PC. Be prepared to upgrade if you would like to protect your work).

To quote from "What is Nightshade?", by the Nightshade Team at the University of Chicago, "...Glaze is a defensive tool that individual artists can use to protect themselves against style mimicry attacks, while Nightshade is an offensive tool that artists can use as a group to disrupt models that scrape their images without consent (thus protecting all artists against these models). Glaze should be used on every piece of artwork... while Nightshade is an entirely optional feature that can be used to deter unscrupulous model trainers."

• Glaze is the first step every artist should take in protecting their work against unfair use in artifical intelligence datasets. Glaze directly interferes with how the affected (Glazed) art is interpreted by artifical intelligence, specifically targeting style mimickry.
• Nightshade is the second step to protecting an artist's work. Affected (Shaded) images poison datasets so that artificial intelligence does not correctly identify what is in the image.

Free and Open Source (FOSS) Software

Free and Open Source (FOSS) software means that users are allowed to modify, distribute, and and most importantly, use that software for free. Many of these softwares have extensions or addons that improve quality of life, add interesting features, or add features that aren't part of the main software... yet.

• Krita is an incredible piece of software. It can be used for all sorts of digital art forms, such as pixel art, digital painting, photo editing, texture work, animation, and so much more.
• Inkscape is primarily a vector graphics editor. It comes packed with premade shapes, effects, textures, and almost anything else you could want in a vector editor.
• Blender is one of the top 3D modelling applications out there. It's popular for good reason. The learning curve is steep, but it pays off immensely.
• Open Broadcaster Software Studio (OBS) is a popular piece of software that allows users to capture their screens, record audio, and livestream to multiple sites.
• Kdenlive goes hand-in-hand with OBS, as it is a video editor. It's fairly straightforward to use, though some research into video codecs will help.
• GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP) is a popular alternative to Krita (of course, it could be the other way around). It's just as powerful as Krita, and a great option for artists who are looking for something different.
• Scribus is perhaps one of the more niche things on this list, but useful nonetheless. It is an application that allows artists to make page layouts for printing.
• LibreOffice may not cater to the visual artist, but for any writers in the crowd, this is a wonderful alternative to Google. LibreOffice can also be used to make .PDFs, like Scribus.
• Godot is a free game engine. It has support for 2D and 3D games, and there is an active and supportive community for it.
• FamiStudio is a digital audio workstation (DAW) aimed at creating chiptune music.

Free Software (Not FOSS)

• Medibang is aimed at manga artists, and while it is free, it has a subscription service for more features such as more brushes, cloud storage, visual filters, and more.

Paid Software

• Corel (Painter) is software aimed at digital painting. It is $429 USD.
• Clip Studio Paint (CSP) is an all-purpose digital art application. There are two versions; PRO, at $54 USD, and EX, at $237 USD.
• Aseprite is for pixel art, animation, and spritework for video games. It is paid at $19 USD, but if you would like to download it for free from their GitHub page, and compile it yourself, you are allowed to do so.