Cutting the Adobe Cord

For several years, I’ve looked for viable substitutes to the Adobe Creative Adobe Suite (Adobe CS) of products, particularly Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, and Dreamweaver. These graphic design applications are industry standards but were discontinued as standalone desktop applications in 2013 in favor of a monthly cloud subscription model. Like many other users, I’ve not migrated to the online Adobe application to avoid the monthly premium subscription fee; however, as a result, I also have not upgraded my iMac operating system since the discontinued Adobe CS does not work on newer operating systems (I stopped updating with MacOS Sierra.)

These Adobe applications have been essential to my comics work: Illustrator for lettering; Photoshop for coloring, zipatone graytone/dot patterns, corrections, and assembling and saving the final pages in digital form (i.e., TIF files); InDesign for print projects like flyers and the text pages of my publications; and Dreamweaver for my website.

Knowing my days with these applications were numbered, in recent years I intermittently explored potential alternatives, including open source software like Gimp (for Photoshop) and Ink (for InDesign). Initially, none seemed ready for prime time or as robust as Adobe’s products…that is, until late last year, when I finally came across programs that fit the bill and, nearly as importantly, allowed me to access older files created with Adobe.

I’ve now nearly fully migrated to the following applications:

Clip Studio Paint (CSP)

I purchased an earlier iteration of this software application years ago for my daughter, when it was known as Manga Studio 5. Over the years, it obviously has become more robust, but for some reason, probably because of its initial manga focus, I never seriously considered it an option. So while exploring other graphics programs, on a lark, I downloaded the trial version. The more I played with it and learned its features, however, I was quickly won over.

CSP is a fairly full-featured program geared towards comics professionals and artists, combining together functions for which I traditionally used Photoshop and Illustrator, such as coloring, dot shading, post-production corrections and lettering. I feared the learning curve was going to be a lot steeper, but felt fairly comfortable and proficient within a few days. It helped that I decided to jump into it feet first with a whole new issue of Rob Hanes Adventures. I also had to color some commissions in full color and used it for these jobs. 

Among its advantages, CSP has a more direct way of applying classic dot patterns and the ability to directly apply special effects (both built in and as add-ons). With Photoshop, I often had multiple files for a single project (or comics page) that was later saved into a master document, so that I could easily go back and make changes; this was on top of a separate lettering layer created in Illustrator. Now, I pretty much can do it all within a single file with Clip Studio Paint!

Affinity
During my research, I also discovered a U.K. company called Affinity that offers three applications that are clearly intended to be affordable alternatives to Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign: respectively, Photo, Designer and Publisher.

They are very reminiscent of the early editions of Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign when they were standalone programs. But they nevertheless have their own little quirks and approaches, which can be occasionally frustrating and non-intuitive. So thank goodness for YouTube (which also has been helpful in learning Clip Studio Paint).

Better yet, I discovered that Photo preserved all my layers of my old Photoshop files, which was the tipping point, and a priority for me. Strangely, this was not the case with the trial version of the application, which was an initial concern and possible deal breaker; but when I purchased and downloaded the full version, discovering this capability was an incredibly happy surprise.

A minor tick is that Clip Studio Paint for some reason does not like TIFF or EPS files created within Affinity, so the two programs don’t play well together. Fortunately, a workaround is to save the file as a PNG instead, which can then be imported into Clip Studio Paint.

I also subsequently learned that Publisher can't open older InDesign files. This is not as high a priority and something I can live with. 

That said, although Photo still comes in handy for other types of projects and for opening old files—as does Designer for more customized lettering that CSP can’t handle—CSP is now my primary comics post production tool.

Bonus Workaround Programs

BlueGriffon

My WCG Comics website was built from the ground up, using Adobe CS's Dreamweaver, a web design editor that allows for both WYSIWYG and html code editing. After downloading and playing with trial versions of other software, I found BlueGriffon to be a pretty good alternative. Though not quite as comprehensive as Dreamweaver, and also a bit quirky and clunky, it nevertheless has a similar feel and features, and it enables me to edit and tweak pages as needed. 

That said, I’m not sure the software is as conducive as Dreamweaver in building a website from scratch. But for now, I simply need a program to help maintain my current site, so I’ll cross that bridge later. (I last gave my website a major design overhaul in 2017.)

UPDATE (July 2022): Researching this application more, I subsequently learned that it has not been updated since 2019 and, worse, also likely would not work on newer iMac operating systems. I've since migrated my entire site to WordPress.

LibreOffice

Though I’ve moved most of my writing and spreadsheets to GoogleDocs, like many people, I am a longtime Microsoft Word user and occasionally still need a dedicated word processor for writing and opening old documents. (GoogleDocs also can't access the fonts on my computer, which is an occasional need of mine on some projects, and only uses only a standard family of fonts within the program.) Word also now has an online version, but it's not as full-featured as the regular program and is too dependent for my taste to Microsoft's cloud service, OneDrive.

Again, while looking into ways to free myself from the Microsoft Word environment, I came across by happenstance a terrific open source program called LibreOffice which can seamlessly open my existing Word (as well as Excel) documents (including password protected documents!) And not only can it save documents as native Word and Excel files, I was even able to open old WordPerfect documents that I hadn’t been able to open in years! Wow, score!

Remembering William Hurt

Remembering Will Eisner on his Birthday

A Visit to the New Academy Museum of Motion Pictures

To celebrate my recent birthday, I toyed with the idea of a trip to the ski slopes but better sense (and laziness) prevailed—instead, my wife and I visited the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures that opened late last year. It had been on our radar since it opened and I thought my birthday, which fell on an off-day in the middle of the week, would be a great time to visit. I was particularly impressed by how well art and artists were represented, particularly animation, character and costume design, and storyboard art.

The museum is located on L.A.’s “Museum Row” on property that’s contiguous with the Los Angeles County Museum of Art next door (which itself is undergoing major reconstruction from the ground up) and directly across the street from the Peterson Automotive Museum, which I visited and posted about in December. (The famous La Brea Tar Pits, which also has its own museum, sits on the other side of the county museum.) The Academy Museum itself occupies the former space of a prominent L.A. landmark, a May Company department store that was built in the 1930s, which was designated a historic landmark for its legacy and modern deco architectural design. Although the building has been completely overhauled, the museum kept the original distinctive street-facing facade. (The store closed in 1992 and I’m certain I visited that store at least once in the ‘80s.)

Otherwise, the building’s interior has been completely renovated, comprised of six stories of loft and exhibition spaces, as well as a 1000–seat theater and gala space, including an open air rooftop deck. And befitting a museum devoted to motion pictures, the Hollywood sign is visible from the building, as you can see in one of the pictures in the photogallery. (Fortunately, it was a beautiful clear day when we visited!)

The exhibitions were varied, encompassing classic, modern and international cinema, as well as the artistry and technology of the film industry. Reflecting the current climate, there also was an emphasis on diversity, equity and inclusion, such as the contributions of women and people of color, as well as the lack thereof throughout Hollywood's history. Spike Lee and Pedro Almodovar were among the filmmakers showcased during my visit, as were many of the artists and early technological innovators of the industry. There also was an exhibit featuring the technological precursors of film, such as magic lanterns and flip books dating to the 18th and 19th centuries, and the work of Georges Méliès, the French illusionist and filmmaker who is considered the first film director, famous for films like A Trip to the Moon. The exhibits were multimedia, with many exhibit spaces and rooms full of multiple large flat screens showcasing highlights from numerous films and filmmakers. 

(I should add that Spike Lee's exhibit showed what a true movie fan he is. The exhibit featured many movie posters from his collection that were influences, often inscribed to Lee by the actors and directors, such as Sidney Poitier and Paul Newman.)

And, of course, many familiar and classic film artifacts and costumes were also on display, such as miniatures and space suits from Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey: Judy Garland’s ruby slippers from the Wizard of Oz; life masks of actors Grace Kelly, Clark Gable, Mel Brooks, Don Cheadle, and Eddie Murphy (used for pre-production hair design and fittings); the notorious Rosebud sled from Citizen Kane; and costumes and clothes, including the dude’s robe from the Big Lebowski (worn by actor Jeff Bridges) and Brad Pitt’s iconic outfit from Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

As someone involved in comics and cartooning, I was particularly impressed by the focus on art and artists. One of the exhibitions, among the first announced more than a year before the museum opened, was devoted to influential Japanese animator, director, producer, screenwriter, author, and manga artist Hayao Miyazaki, responsible for beloved and respected animated films like Castle in the Sky (1986), My Neighbor Totoro (1988), Kiki's Delivery Service (1989), Ponyo, and many more. Concept art, storyboards, manga pages, and more were part of the exhibit (however, no photography or video was allowed at this specific exhibit whatsoever!).

In addition to an exhibit devoted to the art of matte painting, storyboard art was prominently featured throughout the museum, such as the storyboards from the shower scene from Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho.

Another exhibit was devoted to animation—the animator’s desk that belonged to Frank Thomas—one of Disney’s “Nine Old Men”—was a prominent display at the exhibit (which seemed partially curated by Pixar director Richard Docter—a fan letter he wrote to Thomas as a teen was on display as well). Diverse animated movies and shorts were represented, ranging from Wallace and Gromit to Bugs Bunny.

The history of the Academy Awards was featured—one room provided a timeline of the ceremonies by year (along with a list of the nominees and winners), with clips of memorable award acceptance speeches continuously being shown. There also was a room devoted to displaying quite a number of Oscar statuettes, both on loan and from the Academy's collection. Included in the collection was the first one ever given for best picture and Clark Gable’s Best Actor Award for It Happened One Night.

The Museum includes on site an elegant and upscale bistro/café  (named Fanny’s, after Fanny Brice) and a museum store with additional “pop up” stores inside—such as a “Spike’s Joint” store with paraphernalia from his films and a pop up for Amoeba Records, a well known California boutique music store chain, which featured vinyl pressings of movie scores, like Star Wars scores from Japan and scores from a variety of films like Singin’ in the Rain, the Hateful Eight, West Side Story, and Psycho.

By the way, an opportunity at the museum (for an extra fee) includes “The Oscar Experience,” which offers visitors the opportunity to hear their name announced and to “accept” an award at a simulated Oscars Show at the Dolby Theatre (where the award show is now held) that is recorded for you! I have no interest in such a souvenir, though I joked with my wife that we should sign up for it and show up at the museum in a tux and evening wear lol.

Anyway, this is just a taste of what I saw at the museum—as a movie fan (who happens to live in property that used to be part of the old MGM lot, which is now Sony Studios and up the road from me!), it was a treat to finally visit.

Below are additional photos from the visit...click here to see the full photogallery.