Graphics and Art

Ready to put some graphics and art into your game! Most excellent! We have so many graphics and art resources listed here, just for you!

Create Your Own Graphics

Here are two lists of paid and free software for you to use. Check them out and then decided which is best for you!

Pay for Graphic Software

Sometimes, it’s just better to get the paid for software, if you can afford it. Paid for graphic software typically has a more responsive support team, more tutorials available, and if you ever need to do work for someone, the paid for software is universal across many companies. Check out the list.

adobe-2

Adobe

Adobe has several pieces of graphic software, from sketching to photo edits and websites to video editing Adobe has just about everything you need. Adobe offers several software packages as a subscription. Check them out to see what would be the best package for you. Below is a list with a short description of all of Adobe’s different pieces of software.

- Photoshop – Image editing and compositing. Great for concept sketching with a Wacom tablet, as well.

- Lightroom – Digital photo processing and editing

- Illustrator – Vector graphics and illustrations. Great for logos, or images that will need to be resized for print.

- InDesign – Page design and layout for print and digital publishing. Great for creating printed newsletters, marketing and interactive PDFs and eBooks.

- Experience Design (Beta) – Design and protoEngine user experience for web and mobile.

- Adobe Premiere Pro – Great for cutting video footage together and lining up audio for the video.

- After Effects – Cinematic visual effects and motion graphics. Great for adding effects to animations and cinema footage for cut scenes.

- Project Felix – Easy 2D and 3D compositing for photo-realistic images

- Dreamweaver – Design and develop modern, responsive websites

- Muse – Design and publish websites without writing code

- Acrobat Pro – Create, edit and sign PDF documents and forms. Great for contracts.

- Animate (previously Flash) – Interactive animations for multiple platforms

- Audition – Audio recording, mixing, and restoration. Great for compiling audio clips for in-game music.

- Bridge – Centralize your creative assets.

- Character Animator (Beta) – Animate your 2D characters in real time. Great for creating your animation sprites.

- Media Encoder – Quickly output video files for virtually any screen. Great for re-rendering videos for YouTube or other formats.

- Fuse (Beta) – Create custom 3D characters for Photoshop projects. You can also use these 3D characters for your games.

- Flash Builder – IDE for coding Flash apps and mobile device packaging

- InCopy – Collaborate with copywriters and editors.

- Prelude – Metadata ingest, logging and rough cuts

- Spark – Easily create and share impactful visual stories – in minutes

- Scout – Profile Flash games on web and devices

- SpeedGrade – Film finishing and color grading

- Story Plus – Collaborative screenwriting, reporting and scheduling tools

- Gaming SDK – Create ActionScript games

- Extension Manager – Easily install and manage extensions

- ExtendScript Toolkit – Add script to your creative apps

Autodesk Sketchbook – Sketching and Concepts

The SketchBook® drawing app is made for creative professionals, aspiring artists, and anyone who draws every day. The app is available for almost every platform and device.

painter

Painter – Sketching and Concepts

Advance your digital art style with painted textures, subtle glazing brushwork, interactive gradients and realistic Natural-Media® in Painter® 2017. Easily transition from traditional to digital art with thick oils, dripping watercolors and many other texture-filled strokes. Explore workflow layouts like illustration, fine art, concept, manga and photo art with specialized tools for each style. Welcome to the world’s most expressive digital art software that’s changing what’s possible in art.

ArtRage

ArtRage – Sketching and Concepts

Natural painting tools and powerful utilities for everyone from Pros to Beginners.

spriter

Spriter – 2D Animation

Spriter enables the “modular” method of creating silky-smooth animations where key-frames are constructed from small, re-useable images (such as body parts). This method of animating offers many benefits for several aspects of a game’s development and for the finished product.

Free Graphic Software

Free software is great for when you are starting out and have no money to spend on software. Check out the list below for some free graphics software.

gimp

Gimp

GIMP is a cross-platform image editor available for GNU/Linux, OS X, Windows and more operating systems. It is free software, you can change its source code and distribute your changes.

pixlr

PIXLR

Make every moment beautiful with our family of photo editing apps.

krita

Krita

Krita is a professional FREE and open source painting program. It is made by artists that want to see affordable art tools for everyone.

Graphic Software Tutorials

\nThis is a list of places where you can get some tutorials on various graphics software. Don’t forget to also check out #YGDs tutorials. Or, if you can’t find a tutorial you need, contact #YGD and we’ll get a tutorial made for you on the topic you need.

envanto tuts+

Tuts Plus

Tuts Plus, or Envanto Tuts offers over 1000 online video tutorials from coding to graphic design and even photography. They offer some videos for free but also have paid services to allows access to the videos without commercials or to be downloadable.

#YGD Tutorials

#YGD, or Youngstown Game Developers, has a library of tutorials that have a focus on game development. From marketing your game to creating your game and everything in between, #YGD has a tutorial for you. #YGD also takes requests for the tutorial you need. Right now, all tutorials are free with commercials. #YGD is working on a paid program for you, coming soon, which will offer commercial-free videos, downloadable videos, and downloadable source files for you to learn from.

Lynda.com

Lynda.com is a paid service which offers tutorials about everything. From iOS games to some software you’ve never heard of, Lynda.com has a tutorial for you.