One Painter Essentials feature that should make use of M1 processors is the AI-trained auto-painting system, which can co-opt the chips’ Apple Neural Engine co-processor via Apple’s Core ML. The release also introduces support for macOS 11.0 Big Sur, plus the option to use an iPad as a secondary display on Mac systems, with support for tilt and pressure when using an Apple Pencil stylus.Ĭorel told CG Channel that it was now working on M1 support in Painter itself, but didn’t commit to a specific release date for an M1-native version of the software. Performance of more processor-intensive brushes is “up to 4x faster” on Apple Silicon machines than the old Intel Macs, although thanks to other development work, Windows users get the same speed boost. Under the hood, the key change in Painter Essentials 8 is support for Apple’s new M1 processors, rolled out late last year in the new MacBooks and Mac mini systems. New in Painter Essentials 8: native support for Apple’s new M1 processors

You also get a standard basic range of image-manipulation tools, plus mirror and radial symmetry painting modes, and the software can import or export layered PSDs in order to exchange files with Photoshop. That includes both conventional natural media brushes, including oil, acrylic, watercolour, chalk, pastels and markers and newer procedural tools including particle brushes and ‘pattern pens’. The release also adds 10 new AI-trained auto-painting filters, 23 new natural media brushes, and a new colour harmony system when picking colours.Ī capable natural media painting package for under $50Īlthough Corel pitches Painter Essentials primarily as a tool for beginners, it’s actually a fairly fully featured application for creating illustrations or concept art.Īs well as more hobbyist-friendly tools for stylising or tracing photographs, it comes with a good range of brush types from Corel Painter itself. Corel has released Painter Essentials 8, the latest update to the entry-level edition of its natural media painting software, adding native support for Apple’s new M1 processors.

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