graphics applications?

I would like to try making my own clothing and hair, but do not have a graphics program. I can tell that most of you are using Photoshop. But at 650.00, the price is a bit steep for me. I want to make sure I like doing it before I spend that much. What other graphics applications can I use that will work well? I tried the GIMP program, but can't seem to get it loaded correctly on my pc. Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Jen

You can download a free trial of Photoshop CS3 from
http://www.adobe.com/go/tryphotoshop

Of course, at the end of the road, it's still a $650 piece of software.

You can get a version or two older for probably half the price if you look around.

Using pricegrabber.com, I've found

Photoshop CS2 = $360
Photoshop 6.0 = $129.99

Personally, I'd spend a little time fixing GIMP. Whatever the loading problem is, its gotta be cheaper than $130. Seems like there's a GIMP support manual at:
http://docs.gimp.org/en/gimp-concepts-setup.html

Jenna, yes, GIMP can be a bitch to install. Even if you're using one of the pre-compiled versions, you need to install the runtime environment first, then the program itself. Make sure to do that, and you should be okay.

That having been said, I really hate GIMP's interface. It's designed by programmers, for programmers, not by and for artists the way Photoshop and most other commercial graphics programs are. Of course GIMP users will swear up and down that the interface is wonderful. I think it just takes a certain kind of person to gel with GIMP. Those who get it will never get those who don't get it.

GIMP is very powerful though, so if you end up in the "get it" crowd, you can get a lot out of it. Just don't expect to learn it overnight.

If you're looking for another good Freebie, I've heard good things about Paint.net. I've never tried it myself, but from what I've seen of it, it looks promising.

If you want to spend less money than you would on Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro is a good alternative. It's quite powerful for $100.

Photoshop's expensive, as you've discovered, but it's worth every penny if you're sure you're going to use it a lot. I wouldn't recommend buying it before you're sure this is going to be a serious thing for you though. As has been mentioned already, you can try it free for 30 days. If you use it every day, that should be plenty of time to learn the basics and make some good stuff with it. After that, if you think you'll want to continue at that pace, then by all means buy it. If it's just going to be a very part time hobby, then maybe go with one of the cheaper alternatives. Either way, that Photoshop experience will be valuable to you.

Whatever program you end up going with, I'll give you the same general advice. Spend time learning the program itself by doing 2D work for a good while before you venture into texturing for 3D. Learning digital imaging and learning 3D texturing are two different things. The latter depends heavily on the former. Trying to learn both of them at once is almost always a formula for frustration and disaster.

No one ever likes hearing that, but it is the truth. Learn this stuff in the right order, and within a few weeks, you'll be doing great work. However, should you try to put the cart before the horse, and dive straight into making that new T-shirt or that new hair you're dying to create, you'll probably do OK at it pretty quickly, but it won't be long before you find yourself stumbling pretty hard when you try to take the next steps. It's very important to have a firm grasp of the fundamentals before you attempt anything advanced. Resist the temptation to skip ahead. Trust me; you'll be glad you did.

Good luck. I hope that was helpful.

Boy you got that last part right. GIMP sat on my computer for almost 4 months before I got up the nerves (or determination) to either learn a little of it or delete the thing and use my disk space more wisely. I would say for anyone wanting to learn GIMP just start doing stuff.....experimenting. I didn't save much during that trial and error period but I did finally get a feel for what did what. And then went back to the manual and reread it.....and whoopie, it made a little more sense. GIMP will do it but the biggest problem I have now it trying to translate what the Photoshop users are saying and applying to the GIMP way.

It's all fun though.