Chasys Draw IES Artist
 

Chasys Draw IES Artist is the main image editor and paint program in the IES suite. It is also the parent application from which the rest of the suite evolved. One of the first things people notice about Chasys Draw IES is how different it is from other editors, in terms of both looks and functionality. Chasys Draw IES Artist was designed from the ground up to be unique. As a field of study, image editing has come a long way, with new ideas coming up and even rendering irrelevant traditional methods that are considered industry standards. In designing Chasys Draw IES Artist, my main intention was to address this need; to provide you with an image editor with all the new ideas and none of the old. As the application evolved, photo-editing features were added, as were animation and stacking. Chasys Draw IES Artist has over time grown into a powerful image editor that takes a radically different approach to image editing, resulting in distinctive character, speed and output quality.

By default, all images in Chasys Draw IES have a full alpha channel, and transparency is supported in all operations, by all plug-ins and in all image modes (including animation). This is a deviation from common practice; most image editors don’t include an alpha channel unless you specifically ask for one. Additionally, Chasys Draw IES doesn’t ask the user for a color format (palletized 8-bpp, 16-bpp, 24-bpp, etc.). This is because Chasys Draw IES uses a standard format internally (RGB plus Transparency, not Opacity, in the order ARGB). All necesary conversions are handled internally and automatically; thus, the user doesn’t need to worry about this.

One of the main differences between Chasys Draw IES and other image editors is that the concept of select-then-work-within-selection technically doesn’t exist; however, the Snip tool is designed to simulate the same user experience using the alpha-protection feature and boundary highlighting via a “walking ants” effect. Work-flows in Chasys Draw IES are centered around transparency and free-style layers, which are very different from the layers you have in other image editors – specifically; a free-style layer can be any size and can be positioned and rendered anywhere within or outside the “canvas”.

Speaking of canvases: Chasys Draw IES implements the concept of canvases, but they’re a bit more complicated than what you find in other images. First, in addition to the global canvas, Chasys Draw IES has the concept of a per-layer canvas it basically works like the global canvas, but specific to a single layer. Secondly, the global canvas can be variable in some image modes, specifically in multi-resolution (mipmap) images – in such images, the canvas size changes to match the size of the active frame. Although these differences exist, they don’t affect user experience in any way when you’re working on composite images.

As you already know, layers can be thought of as transparent sheets of transparent plastic with images drawn on them, that can be stacked on top of each other, so that you can see the lower sheets through the transparent parts of the upper sheets. Layers allow an artist to produce his work in pieces that he can move and edit independently.

Chasys Draw IES Artist supports free-style layering, which allows you to separate your image into portions that you can edit independently, much like you would when working with a page layout program. Not only does this make it easier for you to make corrections later, but it also allows you to do very complex editing easily and quickly. The free-style layers can be moved about all over the virtual desktop of the workspace, much like you can place photos anywhere on your table. Unlike traditional layers, a free-style layer can truly be positioned anywhere, including totally removing it from the “canvas” and keeping it aside; in which case it remains visible and fully accessible. Chasys Draw IES Artist provides free-style layering to make it possible for you to work with images the same way they would if the images were photos placed on your desk - you may stack what you need together, while placing pieces that you are not currently using outside the stack but within reach.

With free-style layers, you work the way you want. You can even clutter your workspace and make it as untidy as you want by throwing stuff all over the place, if that is the way you like working. No restrictions. Personally, I like keeping stuff separate but within reach on my workspace as in the image to the left. My desk (as in my actual desk, the one with my computer on it) doesn’t look any different right now – my mouse and my plate of cookies are equidistant from my keyboard .

The free-style layering concept also makes both frame-based and object-based animation very intuitive, making it very easy to do animated cursors and GIF animations.

If its painting or graphics design, anything, really. You can paint life-like images, work with transparency, use custom brushes, add textures, apply all manner of channel manipulation and use external plug-ins. You can even edit and create icons and cursors!

The tools have been chosen in such a way that you can combine them to create almost any effect you can possibly think of – from painting the sky, clouds and smoke to shadows, lighting, perspective and lighting gradient. For simple painting, you have the pencil, straight line, brush, calligraphic pen, filling paint and spray gun. For more complex painting, you can use the custom and effects brushes, solvents, cloning and roughen tool. For gradient effects, you have the gradient fills and tints, and for those who want a little geometry, there are rectangles, ellipses and many other shapes. There is a color picker for selecting colors and of course, selector tools for picking up irregular and rectangular portions of the image for moving, editing and saving. And, of course, there’s TextArt.

Chasys Draw IES Artist is not just a painting tool; it has extensive photo correction capability. With Chasys Draw IES Artist, you can edit your digital photos, allowing you to remove (or “heal”) the blemishes characteristic of imagery captured using digital cameras and scanners (and even natural ones like pimples) without losing the harmony and flow of the original. You can add visual effects and image enhancement to your pictures, view and edit a wide variety of images files, add plug-in support for file types that aren’t natively supported, and do a whole lot of other things with images.You can also copy and transfer parts of images.

For those who do a lot of level adjustment, Chasys Draw IES Artist has AQuE (Anti-Quantization Engine), a revolutionary technology that removes the artifacts created by extensive adjustment. With AQuE, every photo you edit will come out looking clean and sharp.

Chasys Draw IES Artist can do animations and short videos. Animation is provided as an extension to the free-style layering concept through the image-mode property, and is extended to all the other suite applications. Several methods of animation are supported, including frame-based and object-based methods. It is noteworthy, however, that only short animations (a few tens to a few hundred frames) are supported when using frame-based animation. Object-based animations are frame-less and can be up to 24 hours long.

Animations don’t have to be GIF files, Chasys Draw IES Artist can create animated cursors, icons and brushes just fine. Short AVIs can also be done, and movies (or parts of them) can be imported for editing.

Chasys Draw IES Artist features a powerful text engine known as TextArt. TextArt allows you to do both plain and decorative text in a variety of styles. And the best part of it is that the text remains editable – even after you save the file and open it elsewhere! TextArt makes working with text within Chasys Draw feel like using a Word Processor.

For the professional photographer, Chasys Draw IES Artist has extensive support for image-stacking, allowing you to average images for noise reduction, perform high dynamic range imaging, eliminate moving objects blocking your view, increase depth of field/focus and perform multi-frame super-resolution. Heuristics-based super-resolution is also included to assist with those tiny line-drawings, cartoons and charts.

The famous and trusty Pen Tool is implemented in the form of Pen and Path, giving you unparalleled power to select and define. The use of layer attachments and mark-up metadata give you unparalleled power to control your images and editing environment.

The bundled Camera RAW plug-in provides extensive support for RAW files through out the suite with detailed options high-speed processing. The shell extension provides thumbnails for RAW images in Windows Explorer for easier management.

Chasys Draw IES Artist adheres to the principle of a fully anti-aliased workflow; all tools, selections, text and other operations are applied with super-sampling and anti-aliasing enabled so that the final image is a high quality, fully anti-aliased graphic.

With unlimited undo and a very reliable autosave sub-system, Chasys Draw IES gives you the peace of mind that comes with knowing you can recover from any mistake you make, giving you the freedom to explore and experiment.

I strongly recommend that you read the user interface section first. Afterwards, you can proceed to the concepts section; it provides some basic information that might prove vital to working with a layered image editor like Chasys Draw IES Artist. Later on, you can proceed to the tutorials section, starting with the basic drawing tutorial, then the basic photo-editing tutorial, and finally the advanced layering tutorial.

Thank you for taking interest in Chasys Draw IES Artist.