Corel has announced the latest version of their art studio software, Corel Painter 12, which features a re-designed and customizable user interface, greatly increased brush speeds, powerful new brushes, all-new art tools and fine control over flowing, blending and evaporating digital paints. The new Kaleidoscope and Mirror painting tools in particular make symmetrical drawings and images much faster and easier to create.
Corel, which positions Painter as a complement to Photoshop with an emphasis on real drawing and painting technique, says the new version offers brushes that perform three to five times faster than in the previous version. The brush menu has been re-worked to make selecting brushes easier, marking favorite brushes for later use and keeping the most recent brushes used always within reach.
Several new brushes have been added in v12, including Real Watercolor and Real Wet Oil, each with panels for precisely controlling the liquidity, viscosity, flow and thickness. Paints can be set to have a certain “evaporation” level, as well as blending level — even adding the effects of water or solvent or a texture to achieve new levels of realism.
A new Navigator panel allows artists to move around very large images seamlessly, with the option to blend or smooth blown-up portion of a painting to make it less “jaggy” even at high zoom levels. A mode specifically designed for moving documents between Painter and Photoshop replicates the layout and behavior of many familiar Photoshop tools to increase comfort and efficiency. Color integrity is carefully preserved when switching between the two programs.
The new Mirror Painting can be used to quickly create symmetrical effects, or the mirror axis can be rotated or moved for off-center symmetry. Likewise, the Kaleidoscope painting mode makes it easy to create multiple planes of symmetry (up to 12). A video demonstrating the Kaleidoscope mode is below.
Corel Painter 12 is available now, with identical pricing for both the US and Canada at $429 for the full version, with upgrades priced at $229 (for owners of Corel Painter X or v11 only). A fully-functional trial version is also available for free download, and commercial and educational volume licenses are also available. Corel Painter 12 requires an Intel Core Duo or better Mac running 10.5.8 or higher, and a minimum 1280×800 resolution screen. The program supports both mice and drawing tablets for painting creation.
