[escape] will be on hiatus starting from 13th June until further notice. For first time visitors, feel free to look around and comment if you’d like to. For regular visitors, sorry for the inconvenience and thank you for your patience.

Take care everyone and see you soon.

Small update; Two new images at Junks section.

And just for the sake of making a longer post, here are some interesting parodies I came across from a friend’s journal.
Oh God 8D; I’m no NEWS fan but these parodies are just brilliant especially the Gintama and Gundam00 ones. So friggin’ cool.

Gintama Shinsengumi version

Yorozuya Gin san & Zura JOY version

Basara Version

Devil May Cry version

Gundam00 Version XD

This is probably my favorite one X3 Good God those Japanese peeps. Gotta appreciate their diligence and creativity <33333

So yesterday, I was checking my blog stats and noticed that half of the visitors that are dropping by here through search engines are looking for “Paint Tool SAI”. I’ve used this awesome piece of software for about six months now so I think it’d be nice if I shared my thoughts about it for any potential future users. I’m not good with words but I hope this’ll be useful.

Paint Tool SAI is a very simple, small (6.17MB! That’s even smaller than openCANVAS!) and yet extremely effective Japanese painting software with enough customizable tools to make digital doodling and painting a fun experience. Strangely enough, it doesn’t seem to have gained as much popularity as it should have. The software is very lightweight, takes only few seconds to launch which is amazing and is extremely system friendly. I noticed that even when I’m working on A4 sized files, it never lags my computer and my brush strokes are always very consistent even with a file this huge. Before using SAI, painting in A4 size was impossible for me regardless of what software I use but now, I can do it without having to worry about my computer slowing down. Amazing, no ?

The user interface in SAI is very stylish, simple, spacious and neatly organized. All your favorite tools are within reach without facing gazillion choices of brushes under Menu>submenu option>sub option and all that hassle. When opening multiple files, every one of them is easily accessed unlike every other painting software I’ve used.

Layers in SAI don’t have that many types but when using this software, I doubt you’ll need more than your basic layer types i.e. the normal and multiply modes. What I love the most about Layer options in SAI is the ability to apply layer textures or layer fringe allowing you to add a more traditional like feel to your works. What’s even cooler is that you can create your own layer textures! Doing so requires a little understanding of the software files but once you do, it’s an easy task.

Coming to the most special part about SAI, THE BRUSHES! I’m sure no matter how much I write I won’t be doing any justice in my description of how awesome the brushes are. The brushes have a very VERY high response to pen pressure. My tablet, a Wacom Graphire4, has 512 levels of pen pressure and yet I can see a very huge response. Now imagine the kind of lines you’d get if your tablet had a higher pen pressure level, say 1024, THIS is something you really don’t want to miss. Excellent stuff. There is also the ability to add texture to your brush stroke *__* openCANVAS has this feature but It wasn’t all the impressive to me but in SAI, those textures can actually simulate the feel of real traditional brushes. Of course, you’ll have to get used to them, figure out the settings which are pretty easy to understand and know how to customize your brush tips to create the perfect strokes for your own style of drawing.

The official SAI has been released in Feb. 2008 and just recently, Systemax have launched an English version of their site so if you are interested, make sure you drop by there and visit the English SAI community to check out their translation. I’m using the unofficial translation because I find it better than the official one. And before you ask, NO!. There is no crack or serial key for this software (at least none that I know of) so don’t bother to ask me about it but feel free to google it. It was possible to reset the trial date with the beta versions but now that the official version has been released, resetting the trial is no longer possible. The only other option you have is trying the trial version and then purchase a license if you liked it. SAI is amazingly cheap compared to it’s numerous outstanding features so if you decide to buy it, trust me, it’s going to be money well spent.

SAI Related Links
» Paint Tool SAI Official Homepage - English side.
» Paint Tool SAI English community and Unofficial translation.
» Download 31 days trial version.
» Lisence purchase page.
» SAI tutorial and application guide.
» Paint Tool SAI video tutorial - Part 1 by Gimei @ deviantART.
» Paint Tool SAI video tutorial - Part 2 by Gimei @ deviantART.

You can get a cracked version from here thanks to anonymous san who kindly uploaded this for those who don’t want to support Systemax for their great efforts in making such an extraordinary painting tool.
If you download the above cracked version, I hoe you consider purchasing a license if you truly enjoyed SAI and loved it the way I do. Being poor is not an excuse since I’m one. Start saving for it and trust me you won’t regret the money spent. Where on earth do you get such an awesome painting tool for only 54 USD and with 30 new licenses per month ?

I really adore SAI and ever since discovering it, I’ve sort of abandoned every other painting software I used to paint with. SAI is my ultimate digital painting software of choice. If my time allowed, I’ll try to write some tips or mini tutorials for it sometime soon. Until then, I hope someone out there is convinced to start using this program 8D

Edit 19-08-2008:
Just so you know, because many people have been leaving me\e-mailing me tips on how to reset the trial, thank you for the tips but I won’t be needing it. I bought SAI almost 5 months ago so I’ve got no troubles with it 8D