: Is there a software able to automatically produce professional-looking images? I saw a similar question asked, but mine is more precise in what I am looking for. Is there any (free) software

@LarsenBagley460

I created the Dancer Image Celestial Being a few years ago. It has since been published in Advanced Photoshop and Photoshop Creative. It has been one of my favorite pieces since it was done when I was defining the basis of my own visual style, which has evolved over the years.

I was quite surprised to see that it has sparked such intense debate and good discussion and the image to this day is still so well received and praised.

To address the question, software can't create what a human being can instantly or magically. When I created this image there were decisions that I made based on emotional and aesthetic considerations rather than purely logical ones.

Even the vector work was not "precise" it was something I did in Adobe Illustrator and purposely didn't measure the spacing so that it would be somewhat more organic and not feel calculated.

The tonal contrast was done completely by eye over and over until it "felt" right. This is not like intricate knot work that a machine can analyze and duplicate. And since I combined Photoshop and Illustrator and a number of techniques and layers to produce this, it is something that can't be emulated quite as easily without guidance from a visual artist who has worked in this way.

While there are quick one button pushes in Photoshop to do somethings, most digital artist and graphic designers don't use these because they don't achieve the purpose we specifically want.

While you can record actions and processes in Photoshop for anything you do in order replicate it, again it won't work to create this sort of piece.

I think the reason that many people are drawn to this image and this style is due to the organic approach to it, and the flaws in things like the manual light casting I did with the brushes and other details that would be difficult to outrightly copy.
@boblet , your breakdown and analysis of the methods I used was very good and very accurate. You and this thread have actually inspired me to do more artwork in my signature style and take it to its latest evolution, as lately I've been doing less personal work to focus on tutorials and commercial work. Thank you for that.

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@Kaufman565

No, there is no such a thing as a software that can create something like that automatically. Skilled artists do that. I can list a dozen tools that those artists might use to create something like that on, but that is not the point. It is all about skills and technique.

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@Harper654

Edit: Here you can follow the artists process



You are asking for a button: "create something I like".

As mentioned in a comment; the dancer is created by Roberto Blake, a guy who has been doing art since he was a child. You could give him a call and ask for tips on what software to get to replace him: robertoblake.com/
I think you have a very fundamental problem: you seem to lack the ability to see what an image cosists of. To you it is a pretty image, to some of us, we can almost count the amount of layers used, and in what software. It is a fair guess to say that there are more than one piece of software used. And some of us stand in awe of the work.

Leonardo da Vinci said that to love something deeply you must know it deeply; that is probably why some people here gets a little upset at your question. And I would say with good reason. Graphic design is a craft, as in skilled aritsan work. On rare occasions it can be unadulterated fine art.

The dancer consists of at least two photographs, those two are duplicated in a few layers, the wings might be vector graphics, the stars some custom made brushes, the swirly bits and their shinyness probably repeated also, there are a good few gradients, and another few brushes. All this is well and good. I can do a reasonable guess on how he made it. I might even be able to re-create it, if I had all the bits. But this does not mean that I could have made it in the first place. It is simply not the sort of visual language my brain creates on its own. And your brain needs to create on its own for stuff like this.

Software are tools, not an end in themselves. Photoshop, Maya, Blender, SketchUp, Gimp, Inkscape, Illustrator are the screwdrivers, chisels, hammers and spirit-levels of the designer.



You can give anyone a complete toolbox, but who can create a beautiful, ornate, baroque table? I have all the tools needed in my shed. They are even of splendid quality. But I know better than to even think about starting to create an art nouveau vanity.

We can make robots make baroque tables. But we cannot yet make robots that will create baroque tables, do the dishes, repair the car, walk the dog, build a house, paint the barn, lay a railroad, clean the chimney, take care of the children and reproduce Rembrandt.

So the "create something I like"-button; we will need to be symbiotic with machines, cyborgs for that to even be a vague possibility. We have come a long way in tech and software development. But not that far, that we can replace the brain, experience, years of training and intuition of Roberto Blake.

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@Cofer715

GIMP is a good option and it can be done more than 90% of Photoshop's functionality but is a bit slower.

If I understand you correctly, you want to make some design or process for different images, GIMP has a new plugin can help to record some activities and run it for other images quickly (Like action in Photoshop). you can find more information about that here: registry.gimp.org/node/25305

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@Jennifer810

Blender and Gimp are both professional-grade design programs that are free.
www.blender.org www.gimp.org

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@Kaufman565

There's an expression about people who are very good at something: "He/she makes it look easy".



There's a related misconception about design or 3D software. You watch someone working. They do 5 things, and it looks okay. They do 6 other things, and it looks a bit better. They do 3 things, and you're scratching your head because now it looks worse. Then they hit a button and BAM suddenly it looks amazing! What's that magic button?

The answer is, that magic button would have done nothing at all without the 14 steps before it, and would make things look terrible if the designer hadn't chosen those 14 steps knowing they were going to use that particular tool to pull it all together to an idea they had in their head from the start.



You could learn to use...


GIMP, a free/open source Photoshop alternative (but arguably less intuitive than Photoshop)
Blender for free 3D rendering (which is free! And so good some professional CGI studios use it! But so hard to master it has a whole SE site of its own...)
Browse other low cost Photoshop alternatives, many of which are more intuitive and beginner-friendly than Photoshop,
Browse graphic design software made for beginners, suitable for designing websites


...but no software can replace having that idea at the start.

You can learn to do any of these things - and maybe master them with time - but they all need patience and hard work.




...I do disagree with your assumption that software cannot replace talent. Check out Maxwell Render as mentioned in Mark's post. It looked pretty nifty


Check out the end credits in that first Maxwell video in Mark's answer:


three people credited "Models and textures"
three people credited "Rendering"
two credited "Concept and design"


Even ignoring animation, voice and compositing, you're not looking at something some magic software made when someone hit a button, it's the work of a team of eight skilled professionals, with three different specialist skill sets between them - who happen to be using Maxwell.

If they had used Blender, or Cinema4D or Autodesk Maya (like Blender but more mature with 4-figure price tags and slicker interfaces - I've heard Cinema4D is the most beginner-friendly but it's debatable), or cardboard, scissors, light stands and cameras, or even traditional ink and paper animation, it'd look similar (and might look more naturally lit...).

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@Jamie315

Well, Photoshop is only to manipulate existing photos. If you want to recreate real-looking photos from scratch, I'd recommend LightWave 3D with the Maxwell renderer.

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