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Adobe alternatives

Started by Beagle 2, February 18, 2021, 11:47:49 AM

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Beagle 2

I have had been lucky enough to have access to Adobe Creative Cloud for the last seven years or so through work, which has enabled me to work on personal projects as well as work stuff. However, I'm moving jobs soon and that's going to end. This is bad, I can't afford to pay for a license for what I need it for. Does anyone have any recommendations for cheaper or free alternatives?

I mostly use Premiere Pro, After Effects and Photoshop. Photoshop and Premiere I guess will be easy enough to find alternatives to (but please do post your recommendations) but I don't know in terms of After Effects. I'm self-taught and it is such an easy to use application I think, if you're looking to do what I want to do (basic animations, caption-heavy videos). And of course, they all work very nicely with each other when you're looking to put together videos with a mix of maniplated images, animation and video.

Any ideas?

samadriel

What kind of stuff do you do in Photoshop?  I'd like to recommend Clip Studio Paint, which is a terrific program, and not too expensive (at least it's not subscription-based), but it's more for lineart and illustration than photographic stuff.  I hear Krita's a good Photoshop replacement too, and it's free, but I haven't used it myself.  I never liked GIMP, but it's another free option.  Can't help you with the video stuff, sorry.

AsparagusTrevor

Quote from: samadriel on February 19, 2021, 04:33:50 AM
What kind of stuff do you do in Photoshop?  I'd like to recommend Clip Studio Paint, which is a terrific program, and not too expensive (at least it's not subscription-based), but it's more for lineart and illustration than photographic stuff.  I hear Krita's a good Photoshop replacement too, and it's free, but I haven't used it myself.  I never liked GIMP, but it's another free option.  Can't help you with the video stuff, sorry.

I've used Krita a bit, it's quite similar in function to Photoshop, pretty decent for a free alternative although I found it a little bit sluggish.

It's been years since I tried Gimp, but back then it seemed like it was designed by someone who's never used software before. Is it still the same?

PlanktonSideburns

i like gimp

it handles like a knockoff photoshop mainly

Beagle 2

Quote from: samadriel on February 19, 2021, 04:33:50 AM
What kind of stuff do you do in Photoshop?

Design bits, collages, cutting out, sorting out crappy photos, creating bits and pieces to pop up in videos. Nothing flashy.

Thanks for those recommendations, I have used GIMP and found it pretty annoying, but just because I'm so used to Photoshop I guess, I think all of these things will do what I need them to given a bit of patience. 

Is there a way to get an older version of After Effects I don't have to lock myself into a subscription for or anything? Anyone using a hooky copy, and is that possible/wise?

Sebastian Cobb

For sorting out photos, darktable is an OK lightroom clone.
There's a modded version of gimp called gimpshop that aims to make the ui more like photoshop as well.

Edit:looks like gimpshop uses old gimp code and gimphoto is a newer thing that's similar.

I've heard good things about pixlr.

Neomod

Quote from: Beagle 2 on February 19, 2021, 09:35:44 AM
Is there a way to get an older version of After Effects I don't have to lock myself into a subscription for or anything? Anyone using a hooky copy, and is that possible/wise?

There's cracked versions of most Adobe creative products but this may be helpful for free alternatives to the CC.

Best Free Alternatives to Adobe Creative Cloud
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0Bvr070N-k

Apparently Natron is a good alternative to After Effects

Bently Sheds

There's Photopea that's a free, online Photoshop alternative. I don't know how many PS-like features are in there, but it's designed to look and act like Photoshop.

the

For compositing software there are a few suggestions here.

I don't know what complexity of imagery you use After Effects for, but I've found Photoshop itself to be very adept at doing certain things for video. It's speedy for some things and a bit clunky at others, but there are things you can do to set it up better. This was a very helpful video for me to get my head around it.

(Obviously this will still involve you 'getting hold of' PS)

Quote from: Neomod on February 19, 2021, 12:16:53 PM
Apparently Natron is a good alternative to After Effects

Ooooh, Natron, take them away!

by using smart fill on Barbara Windsor's tits.

Beagle 2

Quote from: the on February 19, 2021, 04:30:29 PM
For compositing software there are a few suggestions here.

I don't know what complexity of imagery you use After Effects for, but I've found Photoshop itself to be very adept at doing certain things for video. It's speedy for some things and a bit clunky at others, but there are things you can do to set it up better. This was a very helpful video for me to get my head around it.

(Obviously this will still involve you 'getting hold of' PS)

That's great, cheers. I really like the look of Nuke if I can get my head around it. Thanks all for your other suggestions.

Dex Sawash


Noodle Lizard

Quote from: Beagle 2 on February 18, 2021, 11:47:49 AM
I have had been lucky enough to have access to Adobe Creative Cloud for the last seven years or so through work, which has enabled me to work on personal projects as well as work stuff. However, I'm moving jobs soon and that's going to end. This is bad, I can't afford to pay for a license for what I need it for. Does anyone have any recommendations for cheaper or free alternatives?

I mostly use Premiere Pro, After Effects and Photoshop. Photoshop and Premiere I guess will be easy enough to find alternatives to (but please do post your recommendations) but I don't know in terms of After Effects. I'm self-taught and it is such an easy to use application I think, if you're looking to do what I want to do (basic animations, caption-heavy videos). And of course, they all work very nicely with each other when you're looking to put together videos with a mix of maniplated images, animation and video.

Any ideas?

If you're using Windows, I remember Sony Vegas being a perfectly competent and underappreciated video editing software, though I haven't used it for over a decade. DaVinci Resolve has a pretty good editor that I think is free. The most recent version of Avid is quite similar to Premiere Pro, but it's a bit clunky and quite expensive. The older "industry standard" versions of Avid will seem ridiculously counterintuitive if you're coming from Premiere, I find them really unpleasant to use when I have to.

If you're on Mac, Final Cut Pro X is great and actually better for some things than Premiere. $300 for a perpetual license makes it probably the best-valued piece of software.

As much as I hate Adobe's subscription model, though, I really can't replace it. The efficiency and integration between their programs is unmatched, and I need to stay current for the projects I work on. You could probably "find" some of the CS6 versions of Photoshop and Premiere that'll still work fine enough, but might not be as snappy as you're used to.