Just bought a 3ds and noticed art academy is for sale on the e shop , Is it the same as buying the cart version or are there any extras on either version .

Also will the screen stretch to match the 3ds screen size or will it have black borders ?

Thanks, Stetash.

I have both Semester 1 and 2 on DSiWare but I do not own the cartridge so I may be wrong but it has always been my understanding that the cart has all the content in both DSiWare releases plus a little more. It however lacks an export function to save your art in the DSi/3DS photo album which sucks. As far as resolution goes, DSiWare works just the same as DS cartridges on 3DS. By default it will make the game as big as possible with black bars on the sides or it can be booted in its native DS resolution by holding "Start" while booting it up. This tends to be very small though since the 3DS has a much higher resolution than that of the DS.

Thanks for the detailed reply , so does the game look ok stretched on the 3ds screen ?

In my opinion it looks just fine. Maybe just ever so slightly blurrier than on a normal DS but for a game like this that isn't really a big deal and possibly even a plus. DS games tend to look MUCH better on 3DS ever since the eShop update so its not much of an issue anymore. I would recommend either Semester 1 or 2 off the shop over the cart version. Get Semester 1 if you are blantantly awful at art and don't know anything about it. If you are mildly well versed in art and drawing, I would suggest jumping right to Semester 2. Its nice have the application right on your system at all times plus the lack of an export feature makes the cart utterly useless in my eyes. Definitely go for something thouhg because it really is a fantastic product and an amazing drawing/painting simulator.

Thanks very much for the replies , I'm sold and think I'll get 1 and 2.

I can't recommend Art Accademy enough. I would definitely get the download version over the cartridge version because you can transfer you artwork to the SD card and then onto a computer. However, when playing on the 3DS it doesn't seem like you can draw from pictures taken with the 3DS camera, which is really disappointing. Unless anyone has figured out a way to do this? I'm sticking to drawing on my DSi XL for now.

I have the cartridge version (bought it cheap long before the first official 3DS announcement) and while it lacks the ability to export images to SD card, the camera functions actually work on my 3DS. However - the game does not have access to photos already taken (or I didn't see a way to access them - will try that later when I have a little bit of spare time), it has 79 slots in onboard cartridge flash memory and allows you to take photos and save them there. It's quite odd that they implemented camera functions into this version (remember - DS and DS Lite didn't have one), but somehow skipped the export capabilities. I'll never understand that...

No, not Art Academy!!!

You can use the pictures in the 3DS album (download version, don't know about the cartdrige) but you first have to copy the picture from the SD card to the DS memory (do this in the album channel).

However the pictures are slightly stretched since art academy has a different screen ratio.

I can recommend ONE semester.
At 8 bucks each, and what you get with the second, it's not really worth getting both.

Small correction, I just checked that the picture from the camera is not stretched after all. What happens is that the 3d viewer in the album crops the jpeg picture. So you get extra stuff on the top and the bottom of your photo when you import it into art academy.

OMG! Thank you, thank you, thank you for pointing out that you can view 3DS photos that are saved on the 3DS system rather than the SD card. I didn't realise that and was very disappointed when I thought I could draw from my personal photos. Thank you so much!

I actually recommend getting both version of Art Academy. I liked the lessons of both versions, but it's also nice to be able to have 2 works-in-progress in case you're working on one picture and want to start another.
I actually have 4 copies of Art Academy because I copied them from my DSi to my 3DS, but then bought a DSi XL and downloaded there as well. I love the program that much that I actually bought the XL just to use with Art Academy. There's a link to my pictures in my signature if you'd like to see them.

I just checked out your work. I am quite impressed not only by your beautiful works, but that Art Academy is able to produce such good looks pieces! What interests me the most is that you originally believed that you didn't have much talent in art. How much experience did you have prior to purchasing Art Academy? I classify myself as a hopeless artist (unfortunately I didn't inherit any talents from my grandmother. She's a watercolor portrait artist in the NWS and AWS and a bunch of other WSes that I can't remember =P) and would love software that might be able to change that self perception hahaha

Make it Nintendo. Now.

Thanks!! I really thought I had no talent at drawing before learning with Art Academy. I buy art supplies, and pencil sets, but never really did anything with them other than dream of sitting at the seaside with an easel and some watercolour paints wishing I knew where to begin. I was too afraid of messing up.

What makes drawing so easy on AA is that you can put a grid over the original photo, and your drawing area that helps me get my starting sketch in the right proportions. Once I get the basic lines down, I find it a lot easier to fill in details and start painting. Being able to erase without fear of tearing holes in the paper, or to paint over something again and again if I make a mistake helps a lot ... something you can't always do in real life. So AA gives me the ability to concentrate on working on a drawing until I'm happy with it, rather than crumpling up the paper in frustration had I been drawing in real life.

The lessons also taught me a lot about looking at colour, and impressionism, which I now have a real passion for. I never would have thought to draw a swan with purples, blues and yellows. I would have just grabbed white and maybe grey for shading. But now I look at the colours in nature and how they are blended. I look for light and shadows and see how the colours change. It's really changed how I interpret what I see. I'm still a bit intimated by my real art supplies, but I do see now that I CAN draw and can produce something good enough to hang on the wall. Here's a photo of some of the artwork I printed off, and had framed.

I got Art Academy with my Club Nintendo points and wondered why photos from the 3DS wouldn't show up in Free Paint, but now I know the solution. Thanks a bunch.

AA really is a great program that makes learning art enjoyable. Well worth the 150 points, for sure.

I too was wondering why I couldn't use my pictures on the 3DS! (and with other games, too!)
Thanks a lot for the tip.

Btw, Victoria, that's really cool! Now I want to print some of my works too!

@NintendoBrad - Glad to hear you're enjoying it! Post some of your work when you get a chance.

@Morpheel - Have you been drawing anything lately? It's always so fun watching your Letterbox notes come to life. But I haven't seen any Art Academy work by you in a while.

Unfortunately, I haven't been able to draw anything with Art Academy lately, but I plan to!

@Victoria

Great work; I particularly like your robin, and that's a good idea to print them out for a combined frame as you show above.

I just recently picked up Art Academy on the 3DS, and I am also amazed by how quickly these little lessons can teach all kinds of little things that I'd have never picked up on my own. Out of curiosity, have you tried yet to take your new skills over to real paint and materials? I love working digitally and not having to worry about all the complications of real supplies, but I'm curious how much different it feels to make that leap to a set of real brushes and mixing paint physically.