Over the last few weeks I have been reading and learning Blender, and looking at the way artists handle work flow for a project from inception to completion, specifically under Linux. Its quite clear that although Blender fills the 3D requirements, there is still a huge gap on Linux for manipulating the images Blender produces. The choices at the moment are The GIMP, Photoshop using WINE or a smaller application such as The Pixel Image Editor.
Photoshop using WINE defeats the purpose of using Linux and there are always going to be issues with updates breaking compatibility and if you are using Photoshop in your production pipeline you might as well use Windows or OSX. The GIMP has a host of other issues that just make it not workable (for me, and many others) as a professional image editor. The smaller applications, such as Pixel, have shown that sometimes they disappear into obscurity and can be rarely updated.
Leaving the gap still there on Linux…
I was thinking that if you strip away the 3D part of Blender and you already have a fantastic, well tested application engine with workflow, scripting and a host of other features that would be required for a modern 2D editing application. Start adding features and I imagine a new application could be born that would be a cross between Blender for its application engine and GHOST UI, Modo for its layout and Photoshop in terms of features.
Is anyone working on an project like this, or would the Blender Foundation ever think about sponsoring a new 2D project to complete the workflow on the Linux desktop (and by the nature of Blender all other OS’s) that competes with Photoshop in terms of features?
I would like to help design and work on a project like this, its just a bit much for one man
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Thanks,
kD
http://killerdr3w.deviantart.com/