Help a non-art guy out! :)
by Nathan Huffman · in Torque Game Builder · 08/16/2006 (2:55 pm) · 6 replies
I'm interested in making some 'maps' for a game that are top-down view (not that iso stuff). No angle of any sort. Need a wide varity of place and objects with some maps having outdoor and indoor areas.
I know I could make great use of the tilemap editor and what not for moving characters around and such but what is a good program to actually make the ground, crates, trees, decor of all types to lay around my map?
(not to mention adding static shadows, some effects, etc)
thx :P
edit: If anyone here is indeed a 'very good'+ art person who thinks they can make what I'm looking for (based off what I've said...), I'd be willing to contract and discuss prices (I do pay good, too). Post an e-mail if your interested.
I know I could make great use of the tilemap editor and what not for moving characters around and such but what is a good program to actually make the ground, crates, trees, decor of all types to lay around my map?
(not to mention adding static shadows, some effects, etc)
thx :P
edit: If anyone here is indeed a 'very good'+ art person who thinks they can make what I'm looking for (based off what I've said...), I'd be willing to contract and discuss prices (I do pay good, too). Post an e-mail if your interested.
#2
i would use bryce for landscape. Its not free but you can make with it all you need for your map
08/19/2006 (12:43 am)
Hi,i would use bryce for landscape. Its not free but you can make with it all you need for your map
#3
08/21/2006 (1:24 pm)
I'll second the recommendation of adobe photoshop. It's worth the extra price over other paint programs for the quality it provides.
#4
08/21/2006 (3:17 pm)
But if you're a self-confessed non-art guy, you end up paying for a load of features that you won't use. For freebies, try Gimp for bitmap editing and Inkscape for vector based. I haven't actually used either, but others seem to rave about them.
#5
The one exception is that you need to know enough about art to get over the technical hurdles involved in your project early on. For example, if you are going to be using 3D sprites the implementation will be a little differant than using 2d sprites, etc. Essentially, you don't want to wait until the end of development then have to re-write a bunch of script.
-Unk
08/22/2006 (9:50 am)
One thing to keep in mind during development is that you don't need to have 'final art' from the start. You can build out your feature set with placeholder art (that you build yourself) then contract out an artist later for the final assets. Depending on the size of your budget this is much more cost effective and allows you to solidify your featureset before you pay for art that may otherwise be tossed out.The one exception is that you need to know enough about art to get over the technical hurdles involved in your project early on. For example, if you are going to be using 3D sprites the implementation will be a little differant than using 2d sprites, etc. Essentially, you don't want to wait until the end of development then have to re-write a bunch of script.
-Unk
Torque Owner Unk
A great little-known program in is Xara Xtreme. It is inexpensive and has a pretty powerful featureset for creating shape based (vs. hand drawn) objects. Even if you don't use this application for final art it is a invaluable prototyping tool.
www.xara.com/products/xtreme/
Photoshop is more or less the 2d drawing/editing standard. The problem is that it is priced for larger studios:
www.adobe.com/products/photoshop/
Corel Paintshop Pro X is a more reasonable alternative to Photoshop for the aspiring indie:
www.corel.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=Corel3/Products/Display&pfid=1047024307...
For the more Drawn/Painted look nothing tops Corel Painter:
apps.corel.com/painterix/home/index.html
Since you can import 3D meshes now (or render out 3D sprites) you also need to consider whether you want to go the 3D route for asset creation... this gets into a whole different set of applications (Max, Maya, XSI, Lightwave, Blender, Modo, Sketchup, etc.) which range from $500-$3500 per seat (except for Blender which is free).
-Unk