Paint Shop Pro Humble Bundle

[Tiana]

ewww boy, I'm tempted - Is that really Corel Painter they are selling there?

Also, I'm guessing they are an annual fee to stay current - Is it the full 429.00 every year?

I've been thinking about dropping my Adobe subscription because it's kind of ridiculous and I used Corel Painter last year on a demo for one of my maps and quite liked it.

Yes, it's kind of ridiculous.

They make their money because eventually they won't have just Corel Painter 2019, they'll have like, Corel Painter 2025 and it'll have a feature you can't live without and you'll buy a new copy to upgrade. Or you'll go to their marketplace and buy brushes and stock art. The same way programs used to make money before they started putting on the Cabal TV oops I mean Cable TV subscription models instead.

I won't pay a subscription fee for a program. One and done for that version. I respect having it available as I know some people can't muster up multiple hundreds of dollars for a program, or thousands in some cases, and just need it briefly. But then it should be a rental, not a subscription. Subscriptions by their nature exploit people like me, who are a bit forgetful and say, let a gym membership run for a year still being paid because I didn't notice and I'd changed gyms and arugh.

So that's why I won't do subscriptions. I feel like they're exploitative. I don't mind a key rental program where you get a key for a year and after that, you can choose to rent it again. That's not designed to exploit auto-withdrawals and "convenience for you" features.

I need a new video editing program on my Windows machine (I bought one for my Mac about two months before I bought a Windows PC... ARGH) so I might do the $35 CAD bundle since it comes with Painter (I don't need it but it would be fun to tinker with) and a video editor. I basically just want Pinnacle Studio... oh well, it would still be a significant cost reduction and since I'm no longer using Adobe Photoshop it's nice to have options. I got Affinity as one option (a single payment as well). And Clip Studio (single payment) and obviously all these companies are still afloat. Also Krita (free).

So ultimately I think subscriptions are just about long term scraping money out of people and this is a pretty awesome bundle. Thanks for sharing it. I might grab it. I mentioned it to another digital artist friend who might grab it as well (he's looking for good digital watercolor right now).

[Straf]

Also it's quite well timed by them, it being the beginning of the academic year. Lots of graphics designs students will be looking for software and if they go with this through their studies then they're going to request it from their employers in 4 or 5 years from now. Sort of like the Borland thing.

[Straf]

Ha! This just popped up:

[J.Edward]

I ended up grabbign that rpg pdf bundle

[OWM]

I won't pay a subscription fee for a program. One and done for that version. I respect having it available as I know some people can't muster up multiple hundreds of dollars for a program, or thousands in some cases, and just need it briefly. But then it should be a rental, not a subscription. Subscriptions by their nature exploit people like me, who are a bit forgetful and say, let a gym membership run for a year still being paid because I didn't notice and I'd changed gyms and arugh.

So that's why I won't do subscriptions. I feel like they're exploitative.

Completely sympathize with that frustration! What's really hard on developers is that nowadays if your program/project is not cloud based/subscription based/copy protected in some way, potential investors will laugh you out of their office - so you have to self fund like we did. And self funding is the hard balance between pushing forward with your project and paying the bills.

So I get why many companies go the subscription route, but I try to go with one time purchase software as much as possible.

- Alejandro

[Straf]

I ended up grabbign that rpg pdf bundle

Any good? I've very little experience with RPG other than computer games.

[Jaxilon]

I ended up grabbign that rpg pdf bundle

Yeah I'm thinking like, "What RPG Bundle"? See, there you go reading the fine print and getttin the goodies. I ain't got time for fine print!

Now I gotta go look again...grumble, grumble, grumble. I better not like it.


Btw, if you haven't heard of it and prefer the more traditional feel of things you might check out ArtRage - I've used it for painting stuff and have even paid to upgrade two years in a row.

I know it's not a map but I painted this frog using the ArtRage demo and I think it turned out pretty good.

[Straf]

It could be a map. I mean I once made a halibut into a map.

[Tiana]

I opened up the particle program and immediately was greeted with an ad for like $300 of brushes and assets so yeah I think they have figured out how to make moneys.

Same with Corel Painter, and the movie software (which is incapable of doing the #1 thing I need so boo on that). They pushin their assets hard, which is cool, I both buy and make assets, so yeah. Haven't installed Paint Shop Pro yet but I'll give it a try. Corel Painter's brushes are incredibly powerful. I'm very impressed by what I created merely by dinking around for a half hour or so. I think it may have been worth it just for Painter, because it's blowing my mind.

Completely sympathize with that frustration! What's really hard on developers is that nowadays if your program/project is not cloud based/subscription based/copy protected in some way, potential investors will laugh you out of their office - so you have to self fund like we did. And self funding is the hard balance between pushing forward with your project and paying the bills.

So I get why many companies go the subscription route, but I try to go with one time purchase software as much as possible.

- Alejandro

I respect it, which is some of the reason I bought your program and recommend it for hobby creators. Although, I'm sure there are funding options available to you. Looking at Corel here, I would say a hefty asset marketplace is one way to go. But, Roll20 claims their marketplace only makes up a small fraction of their income. I think that's because they don't push it and they don't have a huge fleshed out marketplace, but maybe it just can never compare. Maybe subscriptions are The Only Way To Make Money These Days.

But never mind money. There's other forms of abundance. Perhaps we should revive barter. And heck, let's be crazy. I remember there was an RPG module I ran into once upon a time you could purchase by proving proof of doing a good deed. I got it by cleaning obscene graffiti off of a local park bench and showing before/after photos. I bet the investors would be thrilled if you presented a program purchasable by kindness! Mwhaha.

I do like the model demonstrated by unrealEngine, 5% of your profits, the program is free to use non-commercially for students to learn but if you succeed at making a commercially viable product that makes money, you pay them.

It could be a map. I mean I once made a halibut into a map.

What kind of fishy business do you get up to in Norfolk anyway? Did you do it just for the halibut?



Anyway, yeah, that said, I will not be using the 1 year subscription to the vector program included in this package, so if someone does want that 1 year subscription to Gravit, I would be happy to donate the key.

[Larb]

Just to clear up any confusion anyway as I just bought the bundle - it gives you a lifetime perpetual licence key for Corel Painter 2019. (same for PSP: Ultimate). So yeah if you want Corel Painter 2020 it'll be a new purchase because it's a new version.

I might try making some maps exclusively in it - maybe for a monthly challenge.