A photoshop junkie / flash user's 2 cents (edit as of 02/04)

[overfocused]

I haven't read all the other posts but from the 20 minutes dabbling around in the program here are my reactions to some missing features (and I notice 1 bug) The program is awesome but is lacking:

What I think is essential:

Truly custom canvas sizes (I would only offer this in Pro); don't want to need to use a second application to size to fit

Keyboard shortcuts and mapping; Photoshop and flash junkies alike use keyboard shortcuts for MUCH faster work flow (I.E. changing brushes, tools, toggling menus, toggling view field full screen/windowed etc)

What would really be a nice touch for flash vector and necessary for high res art junkies:

Zooming in and out on the canvas; For people like me who make high resolution art prints, the ability to view the high resolution lines that appear in printing that monitors can't reproduce zoomed out would be fantastic.

I think all these features would validate a much higher price tag since it would be more smooth and appropriate for web and art designers alike

One bug:

When in windowed mode and using a larger preset canvas than default, the rendering and drawing is not represented correctly. Working in full screen corrects this, but I thought I should mention it.

As I use this program more (probably for my website, woohoo) I'll add anything I may notice, but for now this is it!

Also, compliments on balancing free use and pro features, most free usage programs that have versions that cost something aren't even worth trying because of so many restrictions, but this free version still has something to offer and makes it fun to use. Keep up the good work, I see tons of potential in this and it makes me excited (I generally don't get excited about a program, lol)

EDIT (as of later the night of the post):

Messing with it some more, one more feature that would be nice is to be able to import more than 1 style at a time, or even have a style plugin folder which you can just dump all of your styles and it will add them to the list with a refresh button or something.

[livebrush]

Wow - thanks for your great feedback.

Some of your requests are in the works. Some I'm just not able to do on my own - but would surely be in a major 2.0 release. As it stands, I still consider Livebrush as a sort of stand-alone plugin. It's features are specific yet powerful.

I hadn't planned to make Livebrush a full-featured graphics app. And that still seems unlikely. Ideally the concept of motion-based drawing can be incorporated into other tools. But after seeing the response, my plans are evolving. I look forward to sharing every update and seeing where it takes me.

I will look into the bug you mentioned.

Thanks again,
David

[overfocused]

Yeah, I'm not implying it be a full featured stand alone app, but I think its powerful enough to be and should stay standalone for what it does, while targeting multiple demographics. It's great for importing, enhancing, and exporting web graphics and other designs for art into larger programs such as PS or illustrator. Like having a wonderful assistant that can do most vector better and quicker, and takes your own ideas and makes them come to life but in a much more complex (and better looking) way. It's good that it's not restricted to a plugin for only one program, considering what it does, it should be it's own entity. My suggestions are just to make it as top notch as possible for what it does, also while widening the audience that can use it, plus less holes means harder to compete with Minor tweaks for a big effect. I have a thing with myself and photographs, I can't finalize one unless I've done my best with it. Makes a lot of difference finishing off the seemingly small stuff.

[bilattalent]

Hi All!

I have two cents worth to add too!

Firstly, This is a Great App and a lot of serious fun.

I will be using this professionally but find some irksome limitations similar to those covered > canvas size and zooming.

My #1 desire would be for flattened layers to remain as vectors for exporting.
Because they flatten to bitmaps I have to retrace my designs so I can have unlimited resolution in vector editors. That is counter productive -- bigtime.

#2 -- I don't have a clue about coding etc but this app really groans on my iMac ( OSX 10.5.8 Dual 2.8hz 4gb RAM)
I see LB is Flash based and some styles can be very complex so I guess that soaks up processor time. I use other similar apps using Java or C+ etc and they run a lot quicker.

OR have I missed something? Please let me know.

Anyway thanks for Livebrush... it's a steal at the price so why am I complaining?!

Please keep it as a "creative tool" not a full blown app like Inkscape Illustrator etc

regards

bila

[witsend]

Fantastic app! I'm really enjoying getting to know it.
Something that would be helpful would be a feature where the name of a tool appears when you hover the mouse over it. I think that would make it quicker to learn my way around.
Thanks for all the brilliant work that's gone into this.

[NedNed]

Once we have custom canvas size & resolution, the ability to export the whole file as a layered .psd would be terrific!