We were impressed with Mischief when we reviewed it in 2013. This indie painting app presented a new way to create digital images, with an infinite canvas and scalable brushes.
We weren't the only ones who were dazzled: visual effects software company The Foundry has recently purchased Mischief.
The first thing it's done with it is to release Mischief 2.0. But it isn't the grand revision you'd expect from that numeric subtitle.
The most apparent change is a panel-based user interface, which distributes elements around the screen. Mischief doesn't include a huge amount of tools, so this fragmented approach gives you a larger canvas.
Other minor improvements include trackpad support for Macs, multi-touch support, two additional custom swatch colour palettes, and more docks for custom brushes.
Our chief complaint about the previous version was that there weren't enough interesting brushes – something The Foundry hasn't addressed here, although this might be because Mischief would need to be reprogrammed to make it work.
Thankfully, the principle ideas are still as compelling as before. The canvas stretches as far and as wide as you want it to, and you can zoom in as much as you'd like to.
You can create mind-blowing works and rethink working in terms of thirds, or rectangular frames, or conventional ideas of scale and detail. While other programs slavishly adhere to the ancient rules of what art should be, Mischief rips it up and starts again.
The Foundry has implemented a new free version, which includes most of the features of the paid-for versions, apart from a few useful bits and bobs.
If you like it, you can buy it for just £16 – a big discount on the original's £42 price tag. So while this isn't a huge update, there's enough to keep Mischief veterans happy (it's a free upgrade if you've already bought the software) while welcoming newcomers with open, infinitely long arms.
This article originally appeared in ImagineFX magazine issue 118.
