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I am really a new guy to blender.My question is how much complete I am with Blender software alone (of course after getting necessary skills).I understand it depends upon what art I want to produce. However, on an average, if completeness is measured 100 %,what would be the contribution of blender in it? (based on your expeience) Also, I look forward for any suggestion to have must have companion with Blender if there are any (like Photoshop, illustrator etc.)

Purpose: Academic illustration (not movie/animation).

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    $\begingroup$ Blender is a perpetually evolving program so the completeness is a bit irrelevant. There is always room for improvement, implementing new features, making it more robust and so on. There are a lot of plugins as well to solve many tasks that people face. Try to get something like blender for free. Are you looking for 3D academic illustration or just 2D? $\endgroup$
    – Sprad001
    Feb 9, 2019 at 8:02
  • $\begingroup$ Thank you for your comments.I am looking for 3D such as illustrating biological and chemical molecules.My concern is not about the capacity of the blender. Blender is great.I am trying to figure if I need to illustrate those, whether blender would be sufficient enough or not. $\endgroup$
    – Science123
    Feb 9, 2019 at 8:20
  • $\begingroup$ Also if anyone know some appropriate tags for this question please suggest me. I couldn't find more appropriate one's than those which I have used. $\endgroup$
    – Science123
    Feb 9, 2019 at 8:23
  • $\begingroup$ It can depend on your capability that how faster you grab learning new things, also software like photoshop, lightroom and illustrator are not easy but are not that difficult if you really wish to built career in any field. Blender is something like a cake, you just have to eat it and you will love it! $\endgroup$
    – Yash
    Feb 9, 2019 at 8:30
  • $\begingroup$ @Yash Thanks for your answer. First sentence of your comment has already stated in my explaination. Preferably I would like to use Blender alone if possible. This question intend in that way. $\endgroup$
    – Science123
    Feb 9, 2019 at 8:33

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Blender is comprehensive enough to me. On my PC, I have over 25 FREE open alternatives and AFFORDABLES, none of your overpriced.

Avoid Adobe, if you wish to avoid auto-renewal subscription trap.

If you want softwares to use alongside Blender, see the list below.

MyPaintfree lightweight painting software. Great realistic pencils & gritty charcoals there. You will love MyPaint. Great for planning artworks.

Krita — for digital painting. Has vector and raster formats. Free alternative to Photoshop.

GIMPfree alternative to Photoshop.

Note: you can use universal format ORA for working back and forth in all three softwares above. ORA keeps all your layers intact.

Inkscape — wonderful free alternative to Adobe Illustrator.

Affinity Designer — affordable alternative to Adobe Illustrator. Has AI format, very useful for opening Illrustrator files or for converting SVG to AI and vice reverse.

Artrage — affordable software for digital painting. This has highly realistic oil brushes with textured bristle marks on paint. Makes realistic dirt, smudges, smears, etc.

Rebelle — affordable and unrivalled Software for highly reaslistic watercolour paints that bleed and drip.

Storyboarder — free open source software for storyboarding.

Moreover, you can actually upload Photoshop brushes into Krita, Gimp, and Artrage. You can obstain your PS brushes at DeviantArt and Brusheezy.

Add - I recently created this directory containing thumbnails of scrapbooks, some on open source softwares, if they are of any interest to you. https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1TyUpu4zylhDkEAKpepI9P6HkvtmonJG7zEBLsHgWCjI/

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  • $\begingroup$ For what purpose you meant 'comprehensive enough'?I meant to say what you usually use Blender for? $\endgroup$
    – Science123
    Feb 9, 2019 at 13:15
  • $\begingroup$ I use Blender mostly for modelling, sculpting, video editing, motion graphics, etc. If I want to do 2D digital painting, it is definitely not Blender. For 2D painting, it is definitely always MyPaint and Krita. With ORA format, I go back and back between two softwares for favourite brushes and filters. Gimp and Inkscape have great filters for FXs as too Krita. $\endgroup$ Feb 9, 2019 at 14:50
  • $\begingroup$ I keep scrapbooks on 2D & 3D softwares. I use them like a notebooks & directories. Whenever I want to remember great tricks inside softwares, I take screenshots of videos and webpages and store them inside scrapbooks. I have many scraps on cheat sheets, FXs, textures, etc. docs.google.com/presentation/d/… $\endgroup$ Feb 9, 2019 at 14:57
  • $\begingroup$ @Science123, docs.google.com/presentation/d/… $\endgroup$ Jul 30, 2019 at 15:36

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