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2 ‐ Rationale
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Dictionary Definitions from Oxford Languages · Learn more rationale /ˌraʃəˈnɑːl/ noun a set of reasons or a logical basis for a course of action or belief. "he explained the rationale behind the change"
People will question every inch of this because some have purposely alienated the discussions around it. But programmers.. you generally will know why it matters. Coders usually understand the frustration of being told they are wrong by drop-kick producers and art managers. I can assure you, you were right all along baby. MOSTLY. - Opensource means opening the lock of problems previous solved by programming, which is the common and obvious understanding for why to embrace it.
My focus is primarily the unconvinced artist. Thought it's nice to know your team has what it needs to make your life better.
Because even when you're making the programmer happy by giving them all the same shiny art tools - it's the artist who benefits. Because your programmers can build you tools to solve issue that thousands of dollars had to solve before... in seconds. Not to mention, your server guy can easily grab those art tools and run your renders and other expensive processes on their farm.
MOST of the focus will be more on how this effects the end user artist, because some artists don't programmers or the skills to code.
So this entire page is dedicated to addressing all of what my workflows offer to an artist over other solutions.
Stay with me. Your first inclination is going to be to question why Foss is such a big aspect of this.
It should not surprise any sane, rational minds who understands the nature of capitalism, to understand that there are people invested in undermining that which does not cash out up the top of the social chain. Now if you suspended your belief for a moment... and you take on this CRAZY idea of FOSS being good enough.... That's not good news for holly-wood championed VFX companies. They see this smaller company being propped up by their rivals making salary of donation alone to deliver hundreds of times more updates every month. It's a threat. They are not growing nearly as fast; close source means less people can access; less people offering code and being paid to review means less updates. They would seem to have and I believe they will continue to have vested interested in efforts to undermine and gaslight FOSS users. So with that at the back your mind and understood... that's why most people cringe when they think of Foss.
Because FOSS = Bad for being the scapegoat victim in capitalism's way. Just saying. Not against capitalism, but it's not perfect always.
Some artists are sucked into the notion that only the proprietary best is worth using. This is an illogical extreme. They tend to blow their budget on a workflow headache with too many shortcuts and UI differences before they can even practice their craft. Some artists go the opposite way and seem cult-like in their love of all things free and open source. The two fight each other like mindless orcs in the comment section... Can you blame them? they are upset that their way isn't working out... maybe so upset they cannot team up properly.
Is it then the SANE and LOGICAL thing to exist strategically between those extremes? I believe so. I believe in having free opensource software as a financial and productivity back-up, and bolstering the lesser attempts at industry standard practice; with paid software and extensions. There's a big list of things to tick that Foss cannot always handle.
Say that you struggle with the complexity of things and you're always losing track of your thought process. I give you an example: despite how I learned to sculpt anything in Blender; I tried and failed to find myself interested let alone motivated to learn all of Zbrush and Mudbox, I was actually motivated more to learn these things in Modo at the time since Modo was the closest proprietary thing I had to Blender at the time. But with Blender it was a joy and I didn't hit a lot of ceilings like I did with Modo's tools. Without the creative flow you might think you're too hopeless to get your mind around all these proprietary software, but I'm telling you there's a smarter way for less to thread the entire creative pipeline.
MOST of the software is opensource and free. Regardless, some money will need to be spent to ensure some equal footing with industry standard products.
My workflows will get you ready for an endless war against the AI tech bros by giving you true control behind the power that they weild.
The document for the following goals in the following order: Industry standard productivity, Cost efficiency, Data privacy, hardware performance optimisation, more freedom in software licensing. I make not claims that this is THE way to achieve all of that, but I can tell you I successfully rely on the workflow. I've been a pro since 2012, working in studios, freelancing and even as a high earning slot machine artist when I started introducing opensource software into my pipeline.
This new workflow is a strategically shifting guide that reflects that experience.
Centers greatly around the way big companies abusing us artist with unfair treatment. From over charging and under delivery and everything in between. This erodes our trust in their capabilities.
F*** Adobe. More than any other company.
I recall so much trauma alone from this one company. It has caused me the majority of pain in my professional career.
So people don't want this toxic company as part of our lives.
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F*** Photoshop. We have Krita with Photopea and Affinity Photo.
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F*** Illustrator. We have Inkscape with Vectorpea and Affinity Designer.
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F*** InDesign. We have Scibus, libre office and Affinity Publisher.
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F*** AfterEffects. We have Blender, KDEN Live and Davinci Resolve.
F*** their obnoxious tendency to buy people out, forcing users to embrace them. If Adobe owns it, we boycott it.
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F*** Substance Painter, We have Material maker, Armory painter and designer and some will sware by 3D coat & Marmoset tool bag as decently priced, paid alternatives.
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F*** every one of their apps I'm between.
F*** Adobe.
Adobe is like a virus that spreads with the apparent goal of monopolizing and therefore removing competition. They dominate and impoverish artists. They seem to want to seize all means of art production by being all of that. Greedy for me more, they envelope great solutions such as substance painter and designer.
The people guiding it have no ethical concerns with anything they do for artists or for that matter with your work without your consent. They seem to think it's fine to steal everyone's Intellectual property and use it in their AI.
So Adobe despite having good apps, wreak so strongly of evil before you can even run an install, that people already can't stand to deal with it.
Yes much of what you heard of news was true, Adobe is owned by Satan himself.
Adobe was sued over it's predatory licensing tactics recently. That's my experience with Adobe in a nut shell as an artist threatened when I attempted to end a contract early.
It was all fine and cool while they offered users the dignity and control of owning their software outright. But by forcing the subscription model, they reduced our options and our ability to hold Adobe accountable for poor quality software upgrades. You don't have that problem with Krita or Affinity Photo.
Then once you have it going, Adobe is going to slow down your windows or your Mac with a kind of spyware that monitors and broadcasts back to Adobe, everything you do inside and even to some extent outside the applications. And it seems to REALLY choke your memory, your hardrive space AND for some reason your internet.
Several of these apps are specifically designed to watch your use of their license.
Now if you try to remove that process it's just going to come right back, so don't bother with task manager.
- I have the right to modify my OS to suit my specific studio needs.
- I prefer to spend money on the the best hardware and Linux is less picky about the hardware specs. Hardware bargains are more common.
- Why give CoPilot-like AI free reign of my intellectual property and data.
- My professional VFX work demands smarter, more cost effective use of my system resources. Scan software, and the vast amount of other background processes eat up way too much CPU and RAM. This is why Linux is preferred for about 90% of servers in VFX studios.
- Resetting critical privacy settings to protect myself against data harvesting wastes my time.
- So does Managing third party virus detection software.
- And Dealing with the general chaos that comes from automatic updates.
- I need to be present online which means I need my web services running well, and it so happens I'm not a meta user.
- Why should I pay the MS and Mac empire for something that countless more developers are working on?
- Because I OS tech like a lot of tech is used to abuse the masses when used by the few while the masses seek to improve lives.
If I could summarise: It's about freedom, data privacy, dignity and a professional level of autonomy.
https://nobaraproject.org/download-nobara/
Every Linux distribution is different, but many are similar... Why Nobara over other Linux 'distros'?
- Ready to game, and thus to game develop. Steam, Lutris, Wine and Proton pre-installed with enhanced performance out of the box.
- Works well with free stuff like Blender and paid stuff like Davinci Resolve.
- Nvidia integration: Nvidia sound cards work, hybrid graphic setups work out of the box. Proprietary drivers used to best effect. This part is way easier than most Linux distros that I've tried. The best of JACK and pipewire settings also ensure a good audio editing experience.
- In general, very simple to operate. Wacom tablets, PC games - without relying heavily on Linux wisdom. FFMPEG dependencies are also sorted, which means you won't be too limited by what video codecs you need to edit with.
- Comes with KDE which officially which for people like myself coming from windows provides customisation and operating flexibility. KDE has in my opinion the very best third party essential tools like the Dolphin file manager and Kate code and text editor.
- Has a gnome version for fans of Mac OS aesthetic and simplicity which I will not be covering officially.
- Optimised for high performance and low latency to provide more overhead and productivity to create.
I'm a game artist, and VFX creator, someone with an NVIDIA who needs it to just plug and play. And yet I require a secure link with corporate friendly ecosystems which requires a red-hat like fedora setup which Nobara is based on.
So Nobara it is a nice choice for people like me who work independently.
I use this instead of using Photoshop.
Click here to reveal why
Fair enough, Photoshop is actually still kind of better than Krita.
Photoshop as of writing is better overall than Krita. I hate saying that, but it's true.
But nobody takes you seriously if you cannot prove you've been there and done that when it comes to the standard model.
The SVG text a curve tools are so good that you don't really need illustrator to work with SVG paths unless you're doing ultra heavy work. Where as Krita's will make you realize you need Inkscape very very quickly.
Adobe has been around for ages so yes there are more addons for Photoshop... Currently. There's a big 'BUT-' to that fact further on.
They want you to buy all their shit after all. This is a money game. I would hardly call it a feature for becoming codependent to a lack of autonomy, and this is clearly how they envision dominating competition. Because why make it work with other apps if other apps aren't made by Adobe or one of it's co abusers, such as Autodesk.
Painting in Photoshop is just ok. Adobe has always been slow on the mark to adopt advanced digital painting features here.
I will say that it is very smooth. Optimisation is all it has in this area.
Most people don't know about this, but you can label your images with file links and then every time you save it will out output all your layers as separate PNGs. While something like this MAY exist in Krita, I have found this essential for dealing with image fonts when using Photoshop.
Despite being trained on your hard work without your consent, it also happens to be a VERY ineffective tool when compared to ACLY's AI generation Krita addon.
Means nobody can fix the bugs or lack of fundamental features that Adobe ignores in favor of generally adding more bloat to this software. Not a problem with Krita. And particularly this is made a threat to proprietary companies because of the rising available to AI which knows apps like Krita and Blender and makes it easier for the user to build their own tools instead of hopelessly waiting or paying through the nose for it by staying with Adobe.
The java script API for Photoshop keep breaking more and more existing addons, often way faster than people can update them.
They keep arbitrarily changing the structure of PSD code, some would say on purpose to force Photoshop on top. This is a slap in the face to all devs and users who then require figuring out what those new changes are without documentation.
Your reward for caving to Adobe's ecosystem is to become a slave to it's burdan of confusion. This is why PSD compatibility seems to often go to either the smartest or the highest bidder, but is not the least bit friendly to have to keep re porting again and again. Only one developer has EVER reproduced PSD and PSB functionality correct. Photopea. .ORA format is fast becoming an acceptable replacement and for Krita users, .KRA format has the file linking we need.
Adobe rarely does anything new with Photoshop. Meanwhile Krita is actively and quickly replacing all the most fundamental features known about Photoshop.
(Alongside Photopea if I need PSD comping)
I use it for:
-Image editing and photo restoration. -Texturing. -Basic vector work. -Pre-comp, pre-vis -Drawing, Concepting, painting -Basic text effects. -Exporting documents for CMYK print. -AI generation and editing.
"Krita" comes from the Swedish word krita, which means "crayon" or "chalk", and the Swedish word rita, which means "to draw". It also incorporates the Sanskrit word kṛta, which means "made" or "done".
Convoluted... But better than 'Gimp'.
Click here if you really must know.
It does not suffice as a Professional VFX artist's tool.
Who invited the 'GIMP'...?
Bruce Willis Aka Krita kicks the door down on the idea that GIMP is THE FOSS image editor.
It's not going to be... delicate.
Let me clarify—I respect the devs and the solid foundation of code they’ve contributed to FOSS. They deserve a huge grant for that alone.
But that potential is held back by a name that makes you look like a villain from Pulp Fiction.
But for people who assume I should use GIMP, let me explain why I don't bother with GIMP.
I'm joking about Bruce Willis coming in. This is not an attack—just an honest (and brutal) review. It just so happens I have a lot of ground to cover in a short space of guide.
Nobody wants to know about the project by name.
GIMP’s biggest flaw isn’t even its outdated UI or missing features. It’s the name.
It destroys marketing potential. It makes people uncomfortable to mention it. It’s actively avoided by schools and universities.
I’m not a kink-shamer, but I do know when to expect kink. And that list ends at pornos and bedrooms. Naming an art program after a fetish? What the actual f*** were they thinking?
For reference, GIMP stands for: Graphical Image Manipulation Program.
Like anyone is sticking around long enough to learn that sad little fact.
And that’s why I won’t recommend it—until they change the name. It’s symbolic of GIMP’s broader issues: stubbornness over dumb decisions.
If they can’t see how much this hurts them, why should I trust them to fix anything else?
The UI: An Uncurrated Mess
Okay, let’s say you get past the god-awful name.
You open GIMP and—yeah, it’s still a disaster.
- UI Overload – Instead of a slim left panel, you get UI garbage clogging both sides.
- Default brushes? Garbage. – Not extensive, and full of weird, barely usable choices.
- Panels everywhere – Consolidate everything to the right, like literally every other art app.
- Outdated document handling – GIMP forces separate windows for each image unless you dig through settings. Krita? Tabs. Like a normal program.
- Multi-monitor nightmare – On KDE, cursor misalignment makes some UI elements un-clickable. I've literally had to CRASH GIMP to escape un-closable dialogue boxes.
And the worst part? All of this is easy to fix.
But instead of streamlining the UI, they’re stuck in a “but Jimmy in our core team likes it this way” mindset.
You know what? Tell Jimmy to write a layout manager.
Give artists customized UI presets for different workflows.
Give us a clean, streamlined default.
Because GIMP’s default layout is so bad, I want to close it immediately.
Artists Don’t Want GIMP—Because GIMP Doesn’t Want Artists
Concept Artists Don’t Want GIMP
- Wacom, Huion, and XP-Pen work better in Krita.
- Krita has multi-brush painting, symmetry, mirroring, and multi-axis brushes.
Technical Artists Don’t Want GIMP
- Lacks adjustment layers, requiring destructive editing.
- No live layer cloning, meaning manual layer management hell.
- Weak Python automation support, making Krita the clear choice.
Vector Artists Don’t Want GIMP
- Krita and Photoshop have vector support—GIMP doesn’t.
- GIMP only has pixel-based vector tools, while Krita has a full SVG editor.
Animation Artists Don’t Want GIMP
- Every major art tool (Photoshop, Procreate, Krita) supports animation.
- Krita has a timeline, onion skinning, and playback options.
- You can import video to sketch/rotoscope in Krita. GIMP? Nope.
Texture and Compositing Artists Don’t Want GIMP
- Krita has real-time tiling mode for seamless textures. GIMP? Manual.
- Krita has full 32-bit HDR painting and OpenEXR support. GIMP only recently added high-bit depth and lacks key tools to make it useful for VFX workflows.
People Reject GIMP—Because GIMP Rejects Their Needs
I hate saying this about an open-source project, but they aren’t listening.
If they actually considered what the community needs, they’d stop doubling down on bad choices and start fixing the core problems.
Instead? Features keep getting ported to Krita.
(Like GMIC—oh yeah, that was GIMP’s first.)
It's been my experience that Krita devs are far more in touch with the needs of the art community than GIMP is.
The effect? A massive exodus away from not just Adobe, but any company—even charitable ones—that don’t engage their community.
Krita has historically “stayed in its lane” as a painting program, but that lane has massively expanded due to overwhelming community support—to the point that it’s swallowing GIMP’s usefulness entirely.
To the GIMP team (if you're reading this):
I love you. Really.
This critique has been held in for decades.
I want nothing more than to see GIMP become a widely useful art tool. Even if that means focusing on core functionality instead of competing with Inkscape for vector tools.
Right now? GIMP isn’t even contemporary with Inkscape.
And that’s despite how crash-prone Inkscape is.
Maybe the idea was to mimic Adobe’s division between Photoshop (GIMP), Illustrator (Inkscape), and InDesign (Scribus).
But the real trick? An all-in-one solution.
Just look at Blender.
That’s how you make a FOSS art tool thrive.
Now you see why I wrapped it in a spoiler. 😉
Want to back up to the top so you can close this tome of info?
It’s called ‘ComfyUI’ and there are times when we have more repetitive tasks where we need more manual control of the process. Particularly when upscaling large quantities of files or doing a temporal denoise on a number of renders that are lacking denoising data. Unfortunately it does not have a straight forward app, we actually run it using chromium as an applet. And it generates a local server, which we basically just need to make unique from the one that ACLY’s addon uses to prevent conflicts. That's what you'll find in the install script.
What the ComfyUI Install Script Does Sets up folders
It creates the necessary directories to store ComfyUI and its files. Downloads and installs necessary files
It fetches ComfyUI and installs ComfyUI-Manager, which helps manage additional features. Prepares a virtual workspace
ComfyUI runs in an isolated environment to prevent conflicts with other programs. Ensures all required files are in place
It makes sure ComfyUI can find the necessary tools, such as model files. Creates a shortcut
It adds a desktop and applications menu shortcut for easy access. Launches ComfyUI when you click the shortcut
The shortcut starts the ComfyUI server and opens it in a web app window.
ACLY’s stable diffusion addon uses this as it’s backend already, which is included in my Krita install. I believe it's important to have this for exploring concepts directly in a GOOD painting app. PLUS: we may leverage this further without additional downloads.
That being said, you WILL need to ensure that you have used my Krita install script first.
I am an artist who has been impacted by the negative effects of AI being released into society. So I'm neither a Luddite or a tech bro. If you want to survive these days, you too may have to take a neutral stance. I'm still pro artist... I believe artists should arm themselves with every kind of AI poison they can get to make them feel safe enough to post online. I feel no remorse if someone poisons a massive data base from stealing work I have sweat and bled over to complete. I believe we need to support and donate our art to community driven databases instead of letting big tech get a hold of it.
However: giving up on new technology is giving up on a career in digital art. I came to face the fact in my work that this technology IS going to exist where we fight it or not. Not all AI is evil or made up of stolen IP and it's not always evil to make use of AI.
Because without our helping hands, we as artists are handicapped out of the role we love so much by proverbial technology and IP vampires.
Not all tech bros are bad... but some are totally proverbial vampires. I say, fight fire with fire.
Take my advice. Take the AI. Use it to defeat the AI tech bros and take back your role as an artist. If they are going to take everyone's work, take the power back and use it to ensure artists are always required for this kind of work.
You won't properly own the IP of what you generate with AI, but you can use it to speed through pre-production and faster turn arounds on concept art and design ideas. The exception is with SOME AI like Krita's recent sketch enhancing techniques use 'Good' AI, or in other words, AI which has not been made up of stolen art, but instead: donated works.
It's the Linux user's OS test app. Opensource alternative to VirtualBox. KVM stands for 'Kernel Virtual Machine'.
When ever I am writing install and build scripts, I test it in this secure visualised copy of my OS in order not to do irreparable damage to my main work machine.