ArtRage Goes Pro: ArtRage 3 Studio & Studio Pro released

Hard to believe it’s been five years since ArtRage won Microsoft’s “Think in Ink” contest for offering a fantastic digital emulation of painting a canvas on a Tablet PC. In that time, Ambient Design has continued to refine and improve their winner and has just released their most advanced version yet: ArtRage 3 available in two versions – Studio and Studio Pro. Yep, ArtRage has gone pro. What’s that mean? Find out after the break.

Okay, before we get into it, just to catch up the uninitiated, ArtRage is an application that emulates the physical experience of creating 2-D art without the mess. Brush strokes look like brush strokes. Colors blend. Canvas textures show through. The first version was quite remarkable, and it’s only improved since then.

Version 2.5 is still available for a scant $20. The new Studio and Studio Pro versions cost more, $40 and $80, respectively. But a run-through of the new features show these are not tools for the casual doodler. There is plenty of fun stuff in the Studio version, such as the gloop pen and peel-off stickers, to attract amateur and part-time artists, but Studio Pro definitely goes a step beyond with advanced blending and filtering options.

Demo versions are available if you think you’ve got the chops. I’d love to try Pro, but I’m sure I’d barely scratch the surface of what it can do. Short list of features below. Thanks to Steve S. in the forum for the tip.

ArtRage Studio: Ideal for artists who want to work with the wider range of tools Studio and Studio Pro offer but do not want the filtering and detailed editing options Studio Pro provides.
– All of the tools from ArtRage 2, many with new features.
– New tools including Watercolor, Gloop Pen, Sticker Spray, Text, and an auto-smoothing inking pen.
– Unlimited Layers and Layer Groups, including Layer Blend Modes.
– Peel-off stickers, place premade objects on your canvas.
– Improved interface that makes it easy to get right down to painting.
– Customizable keyboard shortcuts and other utilities.
– And much more (see a full comparison here).

ArtRage Studio Pro: Ideal for artists who want to be able to manipulate their images without leaving ArtRage, or work with stickers that can be edited after spraying. ArtRage Studio Pro contains all of the features of ArtRage Studio and also includes:
– Additional tool features such as wet blenders and feathered selection.
– Inbuilt Color Adjustment and Blur, with support for Photoshop Filters.
– Unfixed post-editable sticker spray, and custom sticker sheet creation.
– Real Color Blending.
– Tint/Tone color pickers and quick acess popup color pickers.
– And much more (see a full comparison here).