“Virts” - hardware/software for design?

[GreatLakesBrad]

Have come to understand that a Virt is a virtual design for a tree’s future.

Plenty of time spent struggling on my smartphone with iOS markup mode. One recent baby ficus attempt attached. Please be gentle.

What approach do you recommend? I imagine a “Paint” or Photoshop type program/app?

I have both PC and a Mac, and am debating purchase of a used iPad to pair with a stylus for designing of my trees.

I’ve seen some fantastic virts on here, eye dropper clearly used a lot to remove branches, and would love to learn how to hone this skill. Brian Van Fleet (yay for Greta, from the mitten, saw them live in detroit last dec) had a recent post for his JM that was so clean, wow. Beautiful tree too.

Hope this makes sense and thanks for any help. As always.

 

[ihaveaspaceship]

There are a lot of free alternatives to the Adobe suite.

Gimp is highly used. There should be a lot of tutorials for a basic understanding. You would mainly be working with layers and paint brush tools when it comes to virts.
https://www.gimp.org/

Krita also is popular, and I think its more focused for painting.
https://krita.org/en/

Blender for 3D - not really relevant but another very awesome free program!
https://www.blender.org/

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

I use my iPad and Photoshop Fix If I’m working on a more complicated edit. Otherwise, I just screenshot and use the iPad basic editing if I’m just virtually removing a branch or drawing pruning lines. The latest iPad editing also has good controls to adjust exposure, brightness, contrast, cropping, etc. “clone stamp” is good for moving branches from one place to another, but I’m not good at lassoing and moving things from one spot to another. I didn’t change the photo of my JM, only adjusted the exposure. Playing around on the flight home from LA I edited this photo to be a bit more pleasant using photoshop fix.


And for Greta Van Fleet! Those kids are pretty good. I’ll admit I like their first EP better than their 2nd, but I’m glad someone in the next generation is bringing that sound forward. The Robert Plant interview when they ask about GVF’s singer is pretty funny.

 

[Nybonsai12]

And for Greta Van Fleet! Those kids are pretty good. I’ll admit I like their first EP better than their 2nd, but I’m glad someone in the next generation is bringing that sound forward. The Robert Plant interview when they ask about GVF’s singer is pretty funny.

I’m not a frequent concert goer but I really like GVF. Seen em twice. Both excellent live performances. Pretty cool how appealing they are to so many different generations as there were guys in there 60s next to me on one side and kids in there late teens on the other.

 

[GreatLakesBrad]

Zeppelin is my all time fave, but being born in the mid eighties means I never had a chance to see em. I feel like GVF is the kind of show they would put on with the epic instrumental solos. I took my Dad for his birthday and spot on re: the multi generational crowd.

Thank you all for the software/virt approach suggestions! Sounds like I may be in the market for a used/last years iPad as I do enjoy the drawing ability versus a mouse.