Photoshop or Illustrator? Which do you use?

[Jeff_hritz]

A friend of mine says that the industry standard is Illustrator, but I've only ever seen anybody use Photoshop, as well as I've only ever seen any school teach Photoshop. He also explains that Illustration is "MUCH more powerful". Anybody have input as to what they use to create their artwork?

[Arshes Nei]

Illustrator is good for vector art, Photoshop is good for raster.

[MiniGoth]

I think 'much more powerful' are the words of the clueless. They're completely different programs, for completely different purposes.

[HunterKiller_]

Totally different purposes.

Photoshop can actually do most of the things done in Illustrator, but it doesn't use true vector and it's pretend vector tools aren't as complex.

[Jeff_hritz]

I think 'much more powerful' are the words of the clueless. They're completely different programs, for completely different purposes.

Which is what I thought. I've always assumed Illustrator was used for vector-like artwork, or graphic design. And that Photoshop was used for conceptual art, and the like. But he seems to think Illustrator is superior for doing concept art, and he says that I need to "do some research because Illustrator is the industry standard". Odd, I say.

[HunterKiller_]

But he seems to think Illustrator is superior for doing concept art, and he says that I need to "do some research because Illustrator is the industry standard". Odd, I say.

Ask him to do some paintings for you in Illustrator.

[RyerOrdStar]

What industry?

Concept art, [editorial/children's book/etc] illustration, graphic design, multi media, film, web design? These are all industries where both Illustrator and Photoshop are used. Maybe he meant to say Adobe

[Gerulaitis]

Maybe he was speaking of vectors at the time he said that. In that context illustrator does have better tools since it's actually ment for dealing with vectors.

Try to make a painting in illustrator though...

You can't directly compare the two without a context. One is Vector, other - raster.
They're apples and oranges.

Illustrator is industry's standard in advertising, design, some styles of illustration, etc.
Illustrator as industry's standard for concept art?.. That would make no sense. Vast majority of concept art is raster, plenty of them being paintings, then there's scanned traditional media - you don't trace an oil painting... atleast... usually you don't...

[J Wilson]

That's like saying throw away your nail gun, because everyone uses chainsaws.

[Smarty]

We are taught to be very cautious of illustrator on my Illustration degree. The tutors there hate the idea of the program being called what it is.

Havin said that, it does has it's occasional uses, majority of Illustrators i know use natural media or photoshop

[FactorZero]

You probably see more Photoshop courses because it's a really popular program that even non-artists know about, but most illustration/design schools have courses for Illustrator, Indesign ect..

[KarylGilbertson]

I have seen people do "painting" and illustration using Illustrator. (check out limkis.deviantart.com) That said, usually it's a style and experimentation thing, and I would venture that in most cases it takes longer to do "painterly" things in Illustrator than it does in Photoshop, therefore making it far less useful from a "production" stand point (at least in the entertainment industries).

I have never seen anyone use Illustrator for concept art (at least for more finished pieces). Might be useful for thumbs/ideation though. After all, Android uses Zbrush for thumbs and that's totally not its "intended" purpose.

[Elwell]

Does your friend actually work in "the industry" (whatever that is)? If not, whether or not he happens to be right this time, he's probably talking out his ass.

[artlmf]

Both. But it really depends on how you use it. Ironically, Illustrator seems to be used a lot more by Graphic Designers (at least the ones I know) while Photoshop seems to be used more by digital artists. I use both because I like to do both design and illustration. Does this help, yes, no, maybe, what's wrong with you?

[Ilaekae]

"The tutors there hate the idea of the program being called what it is."

Smarty, your tutors are idiots.



Illustrator--roughly 85% of the time, including final pieces, preliminary work for PS, and cartoons for painting traditionally...

PhotoShop--15% of the time, mainly for ref and pic manipulation, digital painting and finishing on Illustrator-based art...

[witcrack]

They're totally different applications (vector vs raster, as you already know) with different approaches. If you go from traditional art, you will find Photoshop is more intuitive. Painting is not impossible to Illustrator though, but the approaches is different, and less intuitive (imagine tracing with bezier tool and laying tones with thousands of shapes).

[kelly x]

I use both photoshop and illustrator, If we're talking about the game industry you may even want to learn a 3-D program I use Maya... it depends on the type of artistic look your client wants to achieve, so far I really need all three of these programs on a consistent basis and use all three together, meaning I take the vector work into photoshop and mess it the clean lines so it does not look so perfect vector. The game we just made is very simple and clean 90% illustrator then 10% pass in photoshop. 90% of the original concept art was painted in photoshop and about 10% Vector in illustrator.
The next game will be almost all Maya and photoshop// no vector. Large game companies are able to hire experts in each field, we are very small company and as the artist I've had to learn all three programs including textures.
I hope this helps??!??? Just a personal story.

[fish_cakes]

My graphic design teacher Mr.Lassiter told me that Illustrator and Painter was the best program to use for digital artists. I don't know though I'm just hating Illustrator right now. All these angles, numbers, objects, selecting it's making my brain hurt. Photoshop however is much more easier for me and more managable. Every thing makes alot of sense in that program. Like for example the brush tool in Ps works like a brush would and so on. Of course like everyone has said before me Is is for vectors and Ps is for raster images.

[StreetBehemoth]

I use both since they have completely different uses in my book. If want a vector logo I can blow up to 10' by 10' then I use illustrator. If I want to paint something i use photoshop. There is no way to classify which one is "MUCH more powerful" in my opinion. Although if there were I would guess that it would be photoshop, all that illustrator has going is vector. Photoshop has a great layer system with masking, adjustment layers smart objects/filter masking, blend modes, not to mention making your own brushes with a wide variety of brush attributes. But in my opinion they're completely different. Sounds like your friend just doesn't know how to use photoshop

I have a friend that worked at Laika, and people there use photoshop. From what I hear that's pretty much industry standard, just due to how non-destructive you can get. but never trust what you read on the internet!