[viperice]

Originally Posted by fryke

Hm. I'd say they're totally different. Do you intend to work with bitmap graphics more or with vector art? Do you intend to create webgraphics as JPEG, GIF, PNG or do you want to get into Flash-programming?

Now that Adobe has bought Macromedia, I'd say it's a bit "safer" to start with Adobe CS 2, if what you want to do is to just start somewhere... And you can't really beat Photoshop. Illustrator vs. FreeHand is like vi vs. emacs: An age-old war, and it all depends on what people are _used_ to, so if you're not used to creating vector art _yet_, you're free to choose. I've always used Illustrator and never could really work with FreeHand, so I'm biased.

To be honest I have never used vector art, I dont even know what is is :| so I would say bitmap graphics to start with! Im not a noob with computers I have quite a vast *NIX experiance and I am currently a windows computer technication I have just never even really bothered with graphics, but I have now reached a stage where I am very interested to learn . Also I have never tried flash, apart from just a play around so I think im going to stay away from that for now too.

they come from drastically different backgrounds. The mx studio has grown up from motion graphics and webdesign, wheras the adobe suite has grown up from print based media.

i would say that the adobe suite is better for producing graphics, visuals, wheras the mx suite is superior for applying those visuals to a motion/web/screen project.

you could produce a world-class website on both, but i think your problem here is inexperience. i would say before you spalsh out on these expensive suites, get some adequate training in both, and then you can decide for yourself. i really don't think this something we can answer, as it's mainly personal preference. it's taken me 10 years to get the level i am on photoshop, it took me 6 months of intensive training to be able to animate effectively (ie not crap) on flash. these programs are amazinlgy complex, and they don't suffer fools easily. the learning curve for any of the apps within each suite is immense.

i would get training on the different disciplines, using an institutions copies of these programs before even thinking in investing in your own.

I think you are very correct, from what I can tell alot is personal preferance and experiance and quite possibly to sampler style testing courses in each would do the trick

mdnky: Your post was a bit long to quote so I will just reply from what i can tell maybe a mixture between different apps is the best bet, again going on personal preferance for different jobs. I do not have the money to pay for the web bundle

For Web graphics it's a split. I've always preferred Fireworks over Photoshop, as it's specific purpose is more geared towards web apps, but I've kept a copy of both (I like Photoshop better for print work).

What do you mean for print work? Like static images and fireworks better for things like moving web images? If this is the case then I think photoshop would be better for me for now as I am very inexperianced with graphics and I can still make a nice looking website using static gfx and once I learn that then I can get to grips with moving images.

Thanks for your input guys, much apricated

Regards,
Ben.