Hi, what’s your favourite (free or cheap) 2D art software for drawing things like GUIs, HUDs, Instruction diagrams, menus etc? Like in this game for example:
For example if you were designing a HUD with vector elements but perhaps they also glow or had drop shadows?
I have been using GIMP, Windows Paint(!) and Inkscape, but they all aren’t necessarily that good at doing all these things together.
I know some people design 2D art in Flash or in Photoshop but these are expensive!
Gimp or what I prefer. Paint.NET.
Your problem is not your software. It’s your skill. It take a talented artist to make good UI art. An especially talented artist can make good-looking art with any tool.
Now. To answer your question. You are correct that most professional artists use Flash, Photoshop, and occasionally Illustrator. They’re all Adobe products and all rather expensive. If this is a problem for you, you are not a professional artist, you are a hobbyist. Maybe you shouldn’t be holding yourself to the standards of games that cost millions of dollars to create?
Well, you can either render 3D models that represent your GUI controls or elements in your HUD or you use simple image graphics. I don’t know a tool that is explicitely designed for GUI or HUD design and I can’t imagine what such a tool could do that would make it easier to create such images. Basically GUI/HUD elements are usually simple image files that are being loaded and displayed and for those image files any graphics tool is suitable.
Windows Paint is quite simple and lacks a lot of features. Paint.net is a lot better as well as Gimp and Inkscape - as you already mentioned. It all depends on how much effort is being put into designing those graphics.
Having effects like glow or shadows can be done within the image editor (like paint.net, gimp and so on). Just take care of the opacity (alpha-channel)
If you have time, just familiarise with inkscape and make all the tutorials from this blog http://2dgameartforprogrammers.blogspot.it/
I think all the programs you listed are good at these things.
Just because Flash and Photoshop are the standard doesn’t mean they make it anywhere easy to create good graphics. That takes time and practice.
OK. Thanks for that. I resent the insinuation that I’m a bad artist. Even if I’m the best artist in the world I can hardly create a glow in a vector program that doesn’t support glows. You kind of contradicting yourself anyway by saying an artist can use any tool but if you don’t use photoshop you’re not a good artist. Besides the game above, the GUI is not exactly Leonardo Da Vinci standard. It’s a few circles a picture of a flame and a few glows and drop shadows!
Also, many hobbyist are better artists than people who are paid graphic designers. Just saying. Van Gogh was a brilliant artist (according to some) but never made a nickel.
Has any one tried http://krita.org/?
They recently released a new version and I think it supports Windows and Linux. Looks like it has lots of support for painting tools and effects
but I haven’t tried it myself.
Thanks. I don’t find Inkscape very intuitive to use. So perhaps I’m not getting the best out of it unlike more expensive programs I’ve used like Flash and Photoshop. So maybe if Inkscape can do everything I need I just need to learn it better!
I think even Blender can do 2D art and has a good compositing framework but that’s even less intuitive!
The best tools I find are ones where it is as natural as using a pen and paper. Flash is great for this but as an indie now I don’t want to spend thousand of pounds on software I don’t really really need. Plus I have a dislike for Adobe and its underhand methods.
For 2D HUD art I’d definitely recommend a vector drawing program like Inkscape(free) or Illustrator (not free) etc. It’s of course very possible to make the art in other programs depending on what you need for your HUD–but I think, especially for people not experienced with art, vector art is the way to go for clean looking HUD elements.
One big advantage it has is that it’s easy to very edit and manipulate as you flesh out how your HUD looks. If you hand draw your HUD elements with a tablet and a raster program like Photoshop or Gimp that’s great, but if you need to adjust a corner, or add more spacing, or make room for another stat etc. in a lot of cases it will be a major PITA that may involve a lot of redrawing.
I concur. Inkscape + Paint.net are the best free tools for HUDs.
Gigi
Thanks, I’ve used Paint. net before. I forgot about it. I’ll give it another go!
On another note. Of all the apps out there I’m surprised there’s nothing really good for this sort of thing as an app! I suppose most apps aren’t designed for using a mouse or a stylus.
Edit: I’m trying out Inkscape again. It is really quite good once you get past it’s weird interface. I’ll have to watch some more tutorials on YouTube.