I kind of want to get back into game-making, looking at the power MMF2 and Construct now have, but I am only capable of sub-standard pixel art (and I don't think many people are impressed by pixel-art games anymore.) So, anyway... What's the easiest program to use to make graphics like the ones in Faerie Solitaire and Luor?
Thanks in advance.
Discarded pizza boxes are an indispensable source of cheese.
Photoshop, heh. But its not as simple as just using Photoshop to magically everything will look clean. It takes a lot of practice and work and you need a constant visual design to work with.
Vector graphics look "clean" by thier nature, unfortuntaley the only program i know of that lets you make them is Flash, which is a bit expensive. There's probably some free vector drawing program around though. They have thier own awkward ways of being drawn though.
You can resize vectors to any size without them blurring, though, so you can draw them big and then shrink them to teh size you want. MMF2 etc don't support vectors themselves, though, so once you have your graphics made you have to screen capture them (printscreen button!) and then paste them into paint or something, and "cut out" just the sprites you want with a single colour around them (i tend to use cyan or bright purple). Then set that colour as your transparent one when you import the images to MMF.
There are plenty of free vector editing programs on the web. InkScape comes to mind, but I'm not sure it's what you'd need. You'd be surprised what you can make in GIMP with little to no art skills just by using the fancy selection tools and gradients.
Faerie Solitaire had some art skills put into it, not just fancy programs.
Well, I'm currently painting with a stick at the moment. I'll try out the GIMP, again, probably Inkscape, can't afford Photoshop, hmm... Maybe Luor was a bad example, because I want them textured and stuff, with more than one or two colours. Thanks to everyone that's replied.
Discarded pizza boxes are an indispensable source of cheese.
It doesn't sound to me like it's vector art software that you are really looking for.
Try "natural media" software instead - that's basically software which tries to emulate "real" painting.
There are loads of decent free ones to choose from, and most "general purpose" graphics software will be fine (just not stuff specifically designed for photo editing).
Paintshop Pro has been my favourite for years, and I can definitely recommend it - just not one of the new versions, as Corel have been doing their best to ruin it since taking over from Jasc - plus you have to pay money for them.
I'd suggest you go to oldversion.com and get PSP6 - it's really fast (unlike the later releases), but it still has all the important features such as layers, (limited) support for vectors, and the "animation shop" for making animated gifs etc. Also, it's free, and won't stop working after 60 days despite what the splash screen says.
The GIMP sucks IMO - the user interface is just truly dreadful. I guess if you haven't tried anything else then maybe you could live with it?
Originally Posted by Sketchy The GIMP sucks IMO - the user interface is just truly dreadful. I guess if you haven't tried anything else then maybe you could live with it?
Yes, I would have agreed a few months ago. I hated its guts. But now it's grown on me and I'm used to it, use it for all kinds of stuff. You just have to work your way around the quirks.
Oh also I would advise against those "natural media" thingies. Or at least the ones that really do act like paint brushes. I have ArtRage 2, and while it's super awesome and cool, it's not what you need for general game art. Perhaps the occasional project with a very painty feel, but not general use.
Paintshop Pro has been my favourite for years, and I can definitely recommend it - just not one of the new versions, as Corel have been doing their best to ruin it since taking over from Jasc - plus you have to pay money for them.
I'd suggest you go to oldversion.com and get PSP6 - it's really fast (unlike the later releases), but it still has all the important features such as layers, (limited) support for vectors, and the "animation shop" for making animated gifs etc. Also, it's free, and won't stop working after 60 days despite what the splash screen says.
Paintshop Pro looks promising. Thanks for the suggestion. I just hope it doesn't run out.
Discarded pizza boxes are an indispensable source of cheese.
I kind of want to get back into game-making, looking at the power MMF2 and Construct now have, but I am only capable of sub-standard pixel art (and I don't think many people are impressed by pixel-art games anymore.) So, anyway... What's the easiest program to use to make graphics like the ones in Faerie Solitaire and Luor?
Thanks in advance.
Frankly, those graphics in games like those may look "Professional" but the animation tweening is unbearable in my opinion and they are downright boring graphics.
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I'll try out the GIMP, again, probably Inkscape, can't afford Photoshop, hmm... Maybe Luor was a bad example, because I want them textured and stuff, with more than one or two colours. Thanks to everyone that's replied.
Edited by OMC
