Hey I am new here as you can see and I'm a 17 year old starting fresh in the game development department. I have a few game design books which I had for a few years and they come with CD programs snd I've learn quite a bit. My interest is in the 2D and 3D art, as I am used to drawing on printing paper. I want to take the next step into doing art on the computer and to soon be able to learn how to make 3D models. As much drawings as I make, I want to be able to do something with them. Video games has always been my interest and i have wrote story's to go with my games, but I need some direction on how to get started and some advice in development.

I've already pretty much covered this in a blog post. Click here for a list of 3D applications which includes links to all the various demo versions available. Plus there is a paragraph on each with my opinion, which you can ignore completely if you want.





Next up, it all comes down to how legally you want to do things. If you don't want to spend money, Blender/Wings is a very powerful *FREE* combination. Another freeby to play around with isSculptris which is a free mini version of the very extremely cool zBrush.



Now, if you don't give a damn about legality and want to use the tool most used in the industry, it's 3D Studio Max followed by Maya, in regards to popularity.In the link above, there is a download option for almost all of the most popular programs.


When it comes to 2D art, the standards simply put is Photoshop when it comes to professionals. Adobe have a 30 ( or 45? ) day download available. As for natural media ( aka, digital painting ), there is Corel Painter X ( and they also make Corel Draw and Paintshop Pro ). On the free front, there are GIMP, Paint.Net and Inkscape ( Vector graphics ).