Inkscape: vector design
Artists looking to create vector images have more open-source tools available to them than those working in almost any other field of graphic design. But for visual effects pro, Glenn Melenhorst, there is only one real option: Inkscape ( www.inkscape.org).
“I’ve always been one of those people that enjoys digging into new software, and I’ve tried a lot of vector drawing programs over the years,” he says. “One of the attractions of
Inkscape has been its consistency. It’s always been a reliable go-to for me.”
Melenhorst, whose day job is visual effects supervisor at Iloura, the firm responsible for the digital effects on movies like Ted and Mad
Max:FuryRoad, first came to Inkscape while looking for an alternative to Adobe software.
“My wife works with Illustrator, so we owned a copy at home,” he says. “I wanted to do some vector art of my own and needed not
to monopolise her machine, so I scouted about for a free alternative.”
What attracted Melenhorst to
Inkscape – and what keeps him using it in his spare-time projects, which range from still illustrations to iOS and Android apps like interactive storybook Mr. Elephant and Mr.Mouse (http://bit.ly/mrelephant) – is its ease of use. “It’s really easy to learn. That’s why I love it,” he says. “If you know Illustrator, it should be a no-brainer.”
Although Melenhorst notes that Illustrator “wins hands down for speed” on complex images with multiple blurs and layers, he says that the experience of working in Inkscape is more appealing. “I’ve always loved Inkscape for its easy drawing tools – which is, let’s face it, the primary purpose of a drawing application,” he says. “Illustrator’s pen tools seem arcane and unfriendly in comparison.”
Other toolsets in Inkscape are similarly intuitive: illustrator and games artist Cameron Bohnstedt (featured later in this article on p48) praises the software’s gradient-editing system, and the way it previews paths before laying them down. Sylvia Ritter, (who we feature on page 47 for her work with digital painting package K rita) comments that Inkscape has “so many great features to make a design perfect”.
While Melenhorst doesn’t use Inkscape in his day job – as he points out, in visual effects, there’s “no real call for vector art, except for the occasional on-screen graphic or holographic display”. He says that a preference for open-source tools is no handicap to a career in a large commercial studio.
“At Iloura, we value creativity and artistry over [familiarity with specific commercial applications],” he says. “If an artist wants Krita or Inkscape, we’ll get it for them. I always say that I can teach someone how to use software: what I can’t teach them is how to be an artist.”
And while what originally attracted Melenhorst to Inkscape was its price tag – or lack of it – what keeps him using the software is its power. “I don’t use open-source because it’s free,” he says. “I use it because it’s often the best tool for the job in hand.”