Creating game art

Newbie & Debugging Questions
#1

I’ve got a simple 2D game ready to go, but I want to create my own art work for it. Anyone got any tips on what software to use to allow easy importing of the images into java that supports transparent edges for the images, preferably in png format.

Thanks
Mick

#2

Check the pixel art resource thread:
http://192.18.37.44/forums/index.php?topic=8246.0

For 2D games there are 2 other options more… vector art and pre rendered 3d models.

PNG with transparency can be saved with any better drawing programm (photoshop, paint shop pro, gimp… whatever).

In most cases bitmap transparency is enough (1/2/4/8bit indexed png/gif), which only allows two degrees of transparency - completly opaque and completly transparent. That kind of images can be drawn very fast with java2d without requiring any special runtime flags.

#3

Thanks I wasn’t sure where to ask, but thanks for the reference.

#4

If your on WIndows then a gerat relatively inexpensive 2D art package is PaintShop Pro from JASC software. Basically does everything Photoshop does at a fraction of the price.

#5

Depending on where he’s living he might also get photoshop 6.0 from ebay for about 30€. (Photoshop’s eula clause, which forbits reselling of the software, isn’t valid [and thus totally void] in germany).

#6

Thanks for all the help, but got GIMP and it has solved my problem. Think it might have had something to do with the way Microsoft Paint saves PNG images, leaving background pixels white but not transparent, but Paint works fine for GIFs suprisingly. Either way got GIMP and it’s working great, exactly what I was after and easy to use.

Thanks again
Mick.