How do game devs make draw the art?

[vikun]

I've  been coding some basic games in JS for the last 3 months and so far I achieved my goals been able to make them without needing to draw things myself (used free to use sprites) and also most of the games didn't even need images. I did almost everything with rect and arc.

 

But now I want to move on to some more "elaborate" stuff, in the sense that there will now be images and characters that I myself would like to make.

 

Problem is, I'm not from an art background, just programming. My game now is simple, graphics like sword and sworcery (that pixelated type of style).

 

How can I make images like those in sword and sworcery? Is it feasible or will I have to hire an artist? If possible I would like to do everything myself.

[AzraelTycka]

Hello there,

 

I probably don't understand your question. What exactly are you asking? You say you want to do everything yourself, then logic says that you have to draw it (logically there is no other solution here). Are you asking people how to draw? Well pick a pencil and start drawing? Open photoshop like program and start drawing? This is probably the only advice you can get if you want to it yourself, there is no shortcut.

 

Just a brief note about the artist part.

Hiring an artist is one way to go, but you can also seek cooperation with an artist for free, there are people same as you who want to make a game but can't program it while they can draw. Therefore you can cooperate with an artist on a game for free as well as hiring an artist for money. There is part on this forum where you can look for one (not only image artist, but sound/music as well) check it here. Although if I were looking for an artist to colaborate with I would visit forum where artists gather and ask there because there would be naturally higher chance of meeting an artist ;-).

 

 

In case you are asking if there are people who program and do the drawings as well, then obviously the answer is yes.

[Blue-EyesWhiteDragon]

Hello there,

 

I probably don't understand your question. What exactly are you asking? You say you want to do everything yourself, then logic says that you have to draw it (logically there is no other solution here). Are you asking people how to draw? Well pick a pencil and start drawing? Open photoshop like program and start drawing? This is probably the only advice you can get if you want to it yourself, there is no shortcut.

 

Just a brief note about the artist part.

Hiring an artist is one way to go, but you can also seek cooperation with an artist for free, there are people same as you who want to make a game but can't program it while they can draw. Therefore you can cooperate with an artist on a game for free as well as hiring an artist for money. There is part on this forum where you can look for one (not only image artist, but sound/music as well) check it here. Although if I were looking for an artist to colaborate with I would visit forum where artists gather and ask there because there would be naturally higher chance of meeting an artist ;-).

 

 

In case yo uare asking if there are people how program and do the drawings as well, then obviously the answer is yes.

 

Newgrounds is good for this, in the "collabinate" section.

[vikun]

Hello there,

 

I probably don't understand your question. What exactly are you asking? You say you want to do everything yourself, then logic says that you have to draw it (logically there is no other solution here). Are you asking people how to draw? Well pick a pencil and start drawing? Open photoshop like program and start drawing? This is probably the only advice you can get if you want to it yourself, there is no shortcut.

 

Just a brief note about the artist part.

Hiring an artist is one way to go, but you can also seek cooperation with an artist for free, there are people same as you who want to make a game but can't program it while they can draw. Therefore you can cooperate with an artist on a game for free as well as hiring an artist for money. There is part on this forum where you can look for one (not only image artist, but sound/music as well) check it here. Although if I were looking for an artist to colaborate with I would visit forum where artists gather and ask there because there would be naturally higher chance of meeting an artist ;-).

 

 

In case yo uare asking if there are people how program and do the drawings as well, then obviously the answer is yes.

 

What programs, tools and techniques do I need to draw graphics like sword and sworcery?

I hope this is clearer than the question before!

[AzraelTycka]

Well you can draw it with canvas itself if you spend enough time on tweaking your picture.

 

Otherwise there are people who use Photoshop, Gimp, etc.. Just google for graphic related software and you will find somethign that suits you.

All these programs have basically same palette of tools, so just pick one or two and stick to them if you like them.

When it comes to techniques, well there is nothing special to be taught, just select appropriate tool in your program and start drawing. Usually you need a tool called "Pencil" or something like that ;-). You can create your graphics in MS Paint as well althouth it has limited amount of tools and doesn't support layers as Photoshop does. If you have no expericence with Photoshop like programs then download some program and google for tutorials which will help you learn the stuff you need to know about the program and it's tools. There is no better advice here, after all some people use regular pencil and paper draw their "sprites" on paper and then just scan it and adjust in some program. ;-)

 

PS: If you can't draw, then pick a pencil and a paper and start drawing something, or get some drawing lessons, anyone can learn to draw pretty good it's not like singing you don't need to have that special talent to make nice pictures it just takes a bit more time without talent and experience in drawing ;-)

 

PPS: When you have your pictures done, to actually put them together into one file (spritesheet, spritealbum) just google or search this forum you will find programs which help you put together finished pictures into sprites so you don't need to position them manually (althought there are people who do it in Photoshop manually xD).

[alex_h]

There are loads of drawing tools specifically for making pixel art, as well as multitudes of tutorials to be found about how to go about drawing in the style.

Do a google search for 'pixel art tool' to get started.

[mattstyles]

I normally end up back with an old version of photoshop I got, but that is tres expensive, I also use pyxeledit which is excellent are a decent price.

 

However, just as buying a Fender wont make you Eric Clapton, getting a copy of Photoshop or other top-line products wont turn you into a decent pixel artist. Its hard man! 

 

The key thing almost every pixel art tutorial has in common is 'practise, practise, practise', something I also agree with. Doodle, break the picture, doodle again, do it better etc etc etc

[Traceur93]

The basics in a videogame are 2: graphics and programming.

I have developed some drawing game graphics.

But now I have an artist who's hand-drawes the graphics and it's a whole other story.

 

 

Federico

 

http://jesterapp.blogspot.it/