I've used many paint and image programs in my quest for the best artistic outlet I could find and on many computers including Commodore Vic-20, C 64, Tandy, PC and Commodore Amiga.

Paint programs each have their own idiosyncrasies and differences. So how do you find the right one for game creation?

Let's look at a few:

Ultimate Paint v1.9 by Megalux

This program is free and has a good supply of image processing FX, real-time rotation and you can select a part of the image as a brush with transparent background (similar to MMF's built-in sprite editor)!

UP is not the best paint program ever but the little things it does for the user, like the way it shows the brush you're using while painting so you don't have to guess where you'll be painting next!

This one is the most like Deluxe Paint 3 and 4 on the Amiga computer and is a rare thing on the PC.


Paint Shop Pro v3.11 by JASC

PSP v3.11 is an early incarnation of JASC's Photo Shop rival and is by no means archaic.

Its notable features include: paste from clipboard (press PrtScrn to grab a screen snapshot and open PSP and paste!), a good selection of FX and a great airbrush!

Color modes include 2, 16, 256, 32K, 64K, and 16 million colors.

With PSP when you select a part of the image you do not get a real-time movable brush with transparent background, but it's simply a copy/paste situation.

Despite that I find I use PSP the most because the airbrush is so realistic and if you buy a stylus (pressure sensitive drawing pad) it's just like the real thing!

Size, flow and opacity can all be adjusted.


Art Dabbler by MetaCreations

From the folks that brought you Kai's Photo Soap, this one has THE most artistic feel to it and I just rediscovered it recently.

It has texture libraries that determine what kind of media (or paper) you are painting on. Rice paper, leaves, rocks and real-world patterns of all sorts will add depth to your images.

The Dabbler airbrush is also superb and realistic but without the fine adjustments PSP provides.

Tools include water brush (this smears the color in the image to make good watercolor effects), chalk, pencil, pen, ink and more.

Art Dabbler also features animation via a flipbook complete with onionskin option and tutorials from the Walter Foster animation book I had when I was a kid.


Photo Shop by Adobe

What can I say, this is considered THE BEST paint program on Earth and yes it's good, but I feel the complexity somehow gets in the way for me to use it for my character drawing.

Tons of FX can be downloaded from the internet and applied to images, PS also has a great airbrush tool and the ability to use layers. And renders some mean lens flares!

Blur, linear gradient, pen, pencil, mask mode and rubber stamp are among the tools.

Unless you are creating a game that will be commercially marketed, I don't think it's worth the high price of PS to paint your sprites with.

If you aren't going commercial you may be able to get a deal on a student version of PS, ask a college student to pick up a copy for you today!


One last note before I leave the PC paint programs: Paint Shop Pro 7 includes animation shop, which I have not had time to look into which allows the creation of AVI and GIF animations.

I personally enjoy using Deluxe Paint 4 on the Commodore Amiga. Currently I have WinUAE, an Amiga emulator installed on my PC just for that purpose. (and for making MODs, and, and... )

DP4 allows for animations to be made very easily, you can select a part of the image and use it as a brush (trans. bg), real-time rotation, onion skin mode and the brush is shown while painting (like UP) so you know where you are.


http://www.ultimatepaint.com/up.zip Ultimate Paint FREEWARE

Search www.shareware.com for PAINT SHOP PRO 3.11

Soon I hope to have videos on my webpage showing how using Ultimate Paint and Paint Shop Pro v3.11 will allow even airbrushing beginners to look professional!

http://mnemo.servegame.com