What Programs Do You Use?

Currently, I use Paint.net, and Easy GIF Animator. I know my work is very amateurish, basic, and dare I say, "Shite," compared to the works I have seen by you in this Forum - and around Torn in viewing profiles and whatnot.

I am continually amazed at the talent.

So I say, what art programs do you use?

What are your backgrounds may I ask? Do you have schooling in the Graphic Arts or are you Self-Taught?

Thanks!

Most commonly used by artists here would be photoshop. Free programs include GIMP and photopea. For animations, I've seen After Effects for those. I think some use Affinity.

No, I don't have a background. I just practice a lot in my spare time. For help and suggestions, I post my work in the GFX HUB discord (link here) for feedback, and revise my work that way. So others in this community teach me, and the dozens of tutorials I've looked thru also provide info I use too.

Edit: don't call your work "shit". we all started somewhere. practice and willingness to learn is the key to success.

Just gimp im cheap

Photoshop
Second best shout is getting a cracked, older version of photoshop
Third best is photopea, like a dupe online version of photoshoo
Fourth best is GIMP, which has a harder learning curve but you can do pretty much the same stuff (but will take longer to get good)
You can go straight into animating with After effects or Vegas Pro

Anything else you'll slowly fall into "ripping cool stuff off the Internet and putting text on top" which is a bad idea and pollutes the waters with garbage

Once you get hold of one of those programs head on over to the link WhiteWolf provided, lots of resources, tutorials and mentors to help guide you. Good luck :)

Just photoshop

AI

I wouldn't recommend buying it for TORN alone, but I've been very happy with Serif's software.

Affinity Photo is a Photoshop alternative, while Affinity Designer is an Illustrator replacement. There's also Affinity Publisher, which is an InDesign competitor, but i don't think that would fit into the TORN ecosystem.

$50 a piece, frequently on sale for less, one time payment, no subscription nonsense.

95% of the Adobe feature set, 0% of the Adobe hassle.

GIMP

Selftaught and tutorial

Photoshop and premiere pro :) for animated graphics I prefer designing the backgrounds and individual layers in Photoshop before throwing them into premiere pro to make sure if the various transitions and range if motion tools (over Photoshop's more frame by frame approach to timeline animations

krita

Started with a cracked Photoshop and now work with Photoshop and After Effects (+-2/3 yrs)
Selftaught and tutorials

check out genP subreddit for trustworthy adobe cracks

I use affinity

I would recommend using a program or app that your comfortable with for your skill lvl. I tried many many different kinds. I'm currently using photo editor an pixel loop