Is Photoshop Elements too limitted as the main painting app?

Unity Engine
1

I have a copy of that on the PC, version 5.
I’ve heard Elements is one of the best values out there, and all its power/features aren’t apparent at first glance.

Does Elements cut it, or is there a dealbreaker missing?

Edit: it occurs to me I have a copy of Photoshop CS for PPC, the upgrade is only $200 which is much more palateable than the $650 I was thinking Photoshop CS3 would cost me. I’d still consider a cheaper Elements if it were good enough.

2

Photoshop Elements is great! The first version wasn’t fantastic, but Elements 3 and onwards are all great pieces of software. There’s really very little missing from the software at all compared to ‘real’ photoshop, and it’s mostly filters and CMYK print controls that are missing.

I would always recommend photoshop elements as the best choice in ‘budget’ art packages.

That said, isn’t Photoshop CS good enough for you? I work at a professional developer and many of the people here still use CS or older.

3

What about the alpha channel and blend modes? I think there was no alpha channel with elements or did that change?

4

I’ve got Elements 3 and the main disasvantages I observe are the lack of accesible features in terms of blending options, and the fact you cannot view a files channels, therefore you cannot add or remove an alpha channel. theres also no access to the curves, and as I’ve learned a really excellent feature using LAB Colour, its annoying elements doesnt allow access to LAB mode.

Personally I’d prefer CS, because of these reasons. But as a basic starting point, elements is ok. I can’t get gimp to run, else I’d be giving that a crack. Jon put me onto

Which is free, and gives acess to alpha channel.
/2c
AC

5

GIMP works great here (Intel iMac and MBP) and is perfectly suitable for most game graphics work IMHO.