Sorry for the major delay, I got struck with a fairly nasty stomach virus, one I don't wish on anyone and it seems to be wrecking havoc at the winter olympics security section. Jijkes !

Let's have a chat about digital art and the misconception that digital art is an expensive trade to step into. Because it really doesn't have to be.

Let's say you want to start with digital painting.

If you go look at paintings by top tier artists people notice 2 things

• everyone has a fancy Wacom, some of these even have Qintic worth 2k Euro
• everyone is using Photoshop

And from here the wrong conclusions emerge, neither of these will make your work turn out profesional. Neither of these brands are essential to making digital paintings.

Drawing tablets

Forget Wacom, yes for 80 bucks you can get the microscopic rebranded Bamboo (aka Intuos) with some software. But really, that thing is small, you aren't doing yourself any favors because 'Wacom'.

Hop on Amazon and look for Huion, X-pen or Ugee, for a decent price you get the best size for digital art (medium or large) and you'll have near the same experience than a Wacom.

That thing about Photoshop

PS is the industry standard for a few reasons, one of them is that its old, iirc PS is 25 years old meaning a lot of veterans use it. It has also weezeld its way into education systems carrying on its trail. The movie and game industry requires artist to work faster than the wind, this is something they achieve by using photos in their paintings, these techniques are called kitbashing and mattepainting, for that PS is pretty good. But PS is a at its core a photo manipulation app, despite attempts to improve the brush engine and tools are severely lacking compared to newer apps that are focused on drawing and painting.

Do not get the monthly sub if you only want PS for manual drawing and painting, seriously don't.

Even if you want to work in the industry you will be off much cheaper by learning how to make good art in one of the alternative apps and picking up PS later, because it will be a few years before your work gets to professional level while an app can be learned within a week. That's quite some bucks saved.

If you are however looking for a alternative because you really need Photoshop specific abilities but you don't want to pay a sub, check out Affinity as they made an app that's nearly a copy of PS and it can use the brushes and plugins as well :
https://affinity.serif.com/en-gb/photo/

for drawing and painting, check these out

Clip studio Paint - 50 euro

• goes on sale quite often, so you can get it for even less !

Especially made for drawing, painting and has tools to make comic creation a breeze. The brush engine is extremely good and flexible and the layout/UI comes quite close to PS. So if you ever need to switch it won't be painful. Don't get fooled about the promo material, this isn't an 'manga only' app, its capable of whatever style you please.
Clip has 2 version but unless you are a working comic book profesional that prints their comic books, you have no need for the 200+ bucks version. Stick with the cheapest.
https://www.clipstudio.net/en

Krita - free !

Krita is certainly worth checking out and might absolutely be your thing. Its free, its very powerful and has a mirage of drawing and painting tools available and is very very capable.
It's not my thing tho, so I can't really boast about it but it's definitely a great app !
https://krita.org/en/

Open Canvas - 50 euro

OC used to be my 'go to' drawing app back in the old days, it has a lot in common with Clip and even has a record option! I haven't been able to checkout the latest version as I personally hated the spacebar UI option. But in general the app is another fantastic option.
http://store.steampowered.com/app/398810/openCanvas_7/

All of these are cheaper than 2 months of an Adobe Sub and you own them for a lifetime, I'm not great at math but I reckon it's a much better deal.

Now if you don't know where to start practising art, then I'd suggest checking out this video by Sycra

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3D, oh my !

(pardon the shitty render)
The biggest factor is whether or not your PC can handle it, and what you want to do with it. If your system is a potato you might want to stick with low poly, or perhaps rent a renderfarm.
Because when it comes to apps you have the option to not spend a dime. And you don't need a tablet unless you are going to sculpt, or handpaint your textures.

There is no reason for us individuals to pay the near 300 euro for Max 3D, at all.
There is little reason to get Maya LT even tho its 'affordable' to ... a degree.
Modo used to be in the 'affordable' range but has completely jumped the gun to crazy, so nevermind.

All of these are paid but they have nothing more to offer than their free competitor: Blender.

In fact I found most of these to offer less, especially Max 3D.

Go for Blender, its free, its powerful and deep, has a ton of tutorials on youtube and has a big user base where you can ask questions and help others. Blender isn't the clumsy app it once was and its winning major grounds in various 3D industries for good reason.

Get blender here
https://www.blender.org/
Get started here
https://www.blenderguru.com/

Other free 3D apps

Rocket 3F

is partially free but is a very new app, it has a lot of potential so might be worth looking into but currently it's primarily a modeling app and has little else to offer.
https://rocket3f.com/

Magicavoxel

As the name implies, Magica is a voxel editor and lets you make cute 3D pixel works. Its extremely powerful and sports a very decent render engine. I've only recently started using it and I'm totally in love with it !
https://ephtracy.github.io/

VoxelShop

Same a Magica only has a more traditional interface, I don't believe this one has a render engine, might be best for people who know how to render their works in other apps. But it's actually nearly the same as Magica.
https://blackflux.com/node/11

I think I'll leave it at that for now, hope this helps out someone, feel free to ask questions I'll try to answer them to the best of my abilities.