I was looking at Vue Easel 6 by e-on software, and then I saw that they discontinued it in favor of their new versions including the relatively-inexpensive Pioneer 7. These are both designed for people like me who are beginners and don't have a lot of artistic talent, per se. I was considering a purchase of Pioneer when it comes out of beta; at $50, it's not an unreasonably large amount of money for a hobbyist. However, I noticed as I was playing with the beta that you have to buy an extra plug-in, called RenderUp, which is $70, to produce images that aren't watermarked.

Obviously, it's their software and they can do what they want, but that just seems ridiculous. You may as well just charge $120 for the basic program.

Anyway, does anyone know of any free or cheap alternatives?