Concepts for Windows 10

One of the coolest apps I have ever seen on the iPad has finally arrived to Windows 10!
I have yet to try it, but I totally love the thought and design they put in this little gem.

 

Nice. Here's the store link for those who want to try it out:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/concepts/9ngqm8fph9wq

 

I hope they get rid of the finger drawing while using the stylus, it's just too easy to leave unwanted stray marks around the canvas.

 

Errata corrige: the option to exclude finger painting has always been there just under my nose. -.-

 

So I'm not an artist or anything, but I'm curious, what does this do better than other sketchbook apps? It feels very similar to the dozen or so others I've played with, except for maybe the way the color palette works. (And even those colors feel fairly limited to me, though I guess there's a certain color theory behind it?)

 

@jhoff80
It's the way it's thought and made that makes the difference.
Consider though that it's a work in progress, the Win 10 version still lacks a lot of features compared to the original version.

Being an iOS app it is one of the few that's completely built around touch gestures.
In this video you can see some of them explained:


Aside from being vector based while the others are raster, you can see the interface isn't the standard interface you see in so many apps from the Windows Store: Sketchable and Leonardo both have the same old look of tens of apps sprouted from the Windows 8 era. Lazy and boring design. And chaotic.
Interface design in Concepts is different trying to be as out of the way as possible and completely customizable.
I've only seen this kind of attention to UI design in Concepts and Procreate. Partially in Affinity Photo for iPad maybe.

 

I am so excited about Concepts on Windows! It is brilliant on the iPad. I am still trying to figure out where it will fit into my toolbox of art apps, but I believe what makes it different from other drawing apps, besides its excellent and intuitive touch interface, is the sketchbook model where you can browse through pages. (This feature is not available on Windows yet). I really like having projects set up like that, with multiple pages in a notebook so you can see your iterations. Other apps similar to it are Sketchable and Paper 53.

The tilt and natural media sketching in Concepts is really nice, and better implemented than other vector natural media brushes (such as Affinity Design). It even supports tilt, so you can really get some nice effects using chalk and pastels. Also, the eraser is unusual. Unlike most vector apps, this eraser creates a mask on top of the art. This has the benefit of leaving underlying objects intact. And the eraser has transparency and texture to it so it looks far more natural. And the eraser stroke can be modified like any other vector object on the page.

The full tool is neat too. You can draw out a shape and it will fill it in as you go. Makes it fast and easy.

I am really looking forward to all the iPad features making their way to Windows. I am hoping the SVG export will come soon because this is the most intuitive touch friendly app for drawing vectors. I would use this over Illustrator for sketching, for sure.

Also, can’t wait for rulers, symbols, etc to show up on the windows version.


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Yeaaaaah. No.

They're pulling that Apple thing where it won't run without your being on the latest version of the OS. Looks like hamster wheel cheese to me.

I can already do everything I need to do, (almost certainly better) on grown up software, thanks.

But I can see this being okay for the corporate board room. And hamsters.

If somebody wants me to buy their software, the way to do it is to impress me and then sell it NOT through some OS-integrated subscription channel.

I'm apparently not part of the wave of the future. Oh well. I'll just have to continue to thrive and survive in a non-Microsoft approved ecosystem.

 

So you don’t use any apps that are purchased through the App Store? I don’t see that as a hindrance.


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Although I mentioned the app (despite having like the first post here when it was initially posted) I haven't been able to try it out, since I've rolled back to 1703 twice now --- which I'm somewhat disappointed about.

On the one hand, while I appreciate new OS revisions affording new programming widgets and procedure calls, this on-going fragmentation of the Windows OS base is not good for anyone.