22 replies to this topic

[RedRhino]

I was wondering how people make art for their games. I make games but I always use free art. I have always wanted to make art for my games but I don't know how to do it. I have Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, 3DS Max, & Maya. I use C# and Java the most to make games. But since I'm more of a programmer than an artist, I want to stop depending on free art and make my own. Anyone know where I can start or offer some advice?

P.S If you also have some more software that I can get for stuff like pixel art, 2d, 3d, etc please let me know.

[freeworld]

Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, 3DS Max, & Maya

You seriously dropped that much cash and dont make your own art?

On a serious note... it's called drawing, modeling, painting... it's called making art. Just google drawing tutorials or 3d modeling tutorials.

[Serapth]

Myself, I use mostly a mix of Wings3D for modelling and Blender/BMesh for modelling/animating/rendering. I did however just post this tutorial on creating a sprite sheet using Daz Studio 3D and it amazed me how easy the process was. Now I just need to determine how hard it is to bring custom meshes into Daz Studio, which is hard to determine given how crap their documentation is.

If you have little artistic ability, Daz Studio is definitely worth checking out.

[jwezorek]

Photoshop, Illustrator, and Blender for 3d, which I don't do a lot of.
Really I'd say though, the most important thing, for 2D anyway, is a Wacom tablet.

[roadysix]

I've always been particularly interested in visuals (primarily game art) and even though I pass myself off as a programmer, creating art assets hasn't really been a big problem for me (I'm just incredibly lazy when it comes to creating asset after asset). Some years ago now I started making games and quickly realised like you, that I would need art for my games. I wasn't satisfied with using other peoples art so I opened up paint and began teaching myself how to create pixel art, worked well for me and over the years I did get somewhat decent at it (at least past the "programmer art" category) so I suggest you start there, if your pixel pushing gets a little more serious and paint is no longer sufficient, id recommend GraphicsGale (free version is good enough).
I also do some 3D work in my spare time while I day dream about one day creating that game I've always wanted to make but unfortunately don't have the skills/experience to create yet (however, I shall persevere). Blender3D seems to be the go to free solution for that, I however have a student license for 3Ds Max and Maya.

EDIT: Oh and yeah, I wouldn't recommend Photoshop for Pixel art, its overkill and can be somewhat difficult on a per pixel level (it wasnt designed for it).. Though if its texturing your doing, go for it! PaintToolSAI is what I use in that department which is pretty cool too though lacking in some areas outside of painting/drawing.

[jbadams]

There are some good tips in the article "Better Programmer Art".

[yckx]

I've gotten to where I like GIMP for pixel art and image manipulation and Blender for modeling. I had no idea how much could be done in Blender until I began searching for online tutorials.

Also, don't forget the Help Wanted forum here at GD.net. You describe yourself as a programmer, so perhaps you might consider remaining focused on the code and advertise for an artist.

[jbadams]

Also, don't forget the Help Wanted forum here at GD.net.

Just a quick note -- the Help Wanted forum is now closed to new posts in favour of the newly launched "Classifieds" system, which we will be continuing to improve.

[Black-Rook]

I would work more on gaining the proper skills to make the art assets you're looking for, and less time on finding a perfect program. Pixel art for example, can be done much easier in Photoshop because of layers, 100% preview while zoomed in with another window, custom brushes, ect... However any talented artist could produce great art in MS Paint.

Considering you have: Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, 3DS Max, & Maya, work on learning how to draw, and model as you have top of the line software.

[FLeBlanc]

Any time I see this kind of post, where someone starts listing all the quite expensive high-end software they have that they have no idea how to use, a little voice inside my head calls shenanigans...

[jwezorek]

Any time I see this kind of post, where someone starts listing all the quite expensive high-end software they have that they have no idea how to use, a little voice inside my head calls shenanigans...

Well, of course ... however, don't forget student discounts. (Although that list in OP would be, what, $1000+ even with student discounts?)

[Cornstalks]

Any time I see this kind of post, where someone starts listing all the quite expensive high-end software they have that they have no idea how to use, a little voice inside my head calls shenanigans...

Well, of course ... however, don't forget student discounts. (Although that list in OP would be, what, $1000+ even with student discounts?)

I seriously was going to call BS to him legally owning all those, seeing as I never could get student discounts in junior high (and even several times in high school), but I guess it's not that far fetched.

Anyway, I'm gonna echo what jwezorek said and suggest getting a Wacom tablet if you want to do anything 2D. I keep intending to get one for myself, but then I remember how poor I am and how little time I have to put it to good use. I'd like to do 2D art, but I have absolutely no desire to do it with a mouse. I've tried, and it's painful for me.

[jwezorek]

Anyway, I'm gonna echo what jwezorek said and suggest getting a Wacom tablet if you want to do anything 2D. I keep intending to get one for myself, but then I remember how poor I am and how little time I have to put it to good use. I'd like to do 2D art, but I have absolutely no desire to do it with a mouse. I've tried, and it's painful for me.

The trouble is big Wacom tablets are expensive. You can buy used serial Wacom tablets cheap but be aware that in my experience you will need to use a legacy version of Windows to use it, in my experience anyway. I have a large ancient tablet but have never gotten it to work with Windows 7 64 bit. It's serial so i had to get a serial-to-usb thing to even try -- supposedly it can be done, at least according to reports on the internet, but I've come to the conclusion that all of those people are talking about 32-bit windows and gave up on it ... still have an old XP box that I use for a couple of things, this being one of them.

[Cornstalks]

The trouble is big Wacom tablets are expensive. You can buy used serial Wacom tablets cheap but be aware that in my experience you will need to use a legacy version of Windows to use it, in my experience anyway. I have a large ancient tablet but have never gotten it to work with Windows 7 64 bit. It's serial so i had to get a serial-to-usb thing to even try -- supposedly it can be done, at least according to reports on the internet, but I've come to the conclusion that all of those people are talking about 32-bit windows and gave up on it ... still have an old XP box that I use for a couple of things, this being one of them.

I'd love a big one, but I'd probably go with something like the Bamboo Capture until I could properly use it and appreciate a bigger one. That one's new enough it shouldn't have problems, right?

[jwezorek]

I'd love a big one, but I'd probably go with something like the Bamboo Capture until I could properly use it and appreciate a bigger one. That one's new enough it shouldn't have problems, right?

No problem there ... Bamboo's are pretty new. I might pick one up myself. I'm talking about Wacoms that are so old they use a serial port connection instead of USB. They don't make them anymore but you can buy a gigantic one used for basically nothing.

[Dynamo_Maestro]

Aww no one ever gives fireworks any love XD For web related work and general purpose art work I use Fireworks, for vector graphics illustrator is nice though I have never actually used it for anything professional and fireworks seems to be useful for vector graphics too, for anything else photoshop is still great, especially when you want to give yourself an unconvincing nosejob. As for modelling, I use blender, I tried Maya and it was too laggy

[RedRhino]

Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, 3DS Max, & Maya

You seriously dropped that much cash and dont make your own art?

On a serious note... it's called drawing, modeling, painting... it's called making art. Just google drawing tutorials or 3d modeling tutorials.

I have a student license for 3DS Max and Maya

[RedRhino]

I know how to use Photoshop but in the terms of photo manipulation and photo effects not creating art. i'm working on getting the hang of Illustrator and the rest.

[BeerNutts]

I use Circles with an arrow pointing the way they're facing. Exciting I know, but I'm not going to watse my time creating crappy art for a game I'm making mainly for the benefit of just making fun games.

here's a pic:

[JonnyScatman]

I mostly use GIMP, since I can run it in both Windows and Linux. I try mainly to stay with sprites. I do have a tablet, but I ain't all that great in consistent drawing; I can't hand-draw animate to save my life.