I use Corel Painter though it is not free and can be pricey for the pro version, what I would do in your situation is try out Gimp. It's free and works on all major platforms.
I use GIMP but only for color corrections, levels, brightness, maps and other basic stuff. Haven't really thought about using it to paint into my renders which is what I was thinking about. I have seen some really cool stuff where people have made, say, a robot in blender and then used some cool effects and added some buildings or whatever around it by painting.
Ok well that's actually interesting. I have never been able to communicate my ideas to paper in real life, but for some reason in blender I find it so much easier. So maybe I could use Blender as a way to get me started with an idea...
I use Corel Painter though it is not free and can be pricey for the pro version, what I would do in your situation is try out Gimp. It's free and works on all major platforms.
I use GIMP but only for color corrections, levels, brightness, maps and other basic stuff. Haven't really thought about using it to paint into my renders which is what I was thinking about. I have seen some really cool stuff where people have made, say, a robot in blender and then used some cool effects and added some buildings or whatever around it by painting.
Sorry I don't know of any special effects tips. Whenever I use a 3d model I paint over it like how a traditional painter paints over a sketch.
Ok well that's actually interesting. I have never been able to communicate my ideas to paper in real life, but for some reason in blender I find it so much easier. So maybe I could use Blender as a way to get me started with an idea...
Well I'm glad I was able to offer something! A lot of times I use 3d models to figure out the lighting or shapes in complex poses.
/t/blender, if you're interested in that sort of thing.