Finding 2D Artwork


Pleng

Pleng

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Dec 28, 2006
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I have just started creating a new-generation Dizzy-style game which will eventually be available on PC, Mac and hopefully Pandora (subject to Clanlib being successfully ported). The biggest problem I am coming across is finding a good range of 2D artwork to use in the project. 90%+ of the artwork I have found is drawn in an isometric perspective, for use with RPGs.

Does anybody know where I can find a good variety of artwork? I have a a semi-decent set of background textures. I am particularly looking for buildings and objects.
 
Learn Blender and make it yourself, 3D computer graphics, especially animation is both much easier and much faster than the hand drawn equivalent, and 3D renderings also lack ugly aliasing :), unlike pixel art .
 
Hessiess said:
Learn Blender and make it yourself, 3D computer graphics, especially animation is both much easier and much faster than the hand drawn equivalent, and 3D renderings also lack ugly aliasing :), unlike pixel art .
Click to expand...
[Hillybilly accent]Them's fightin' words.[/Hillbilly accent]
Seriously though, pixel art has it's place, just like 3D art. Some games just shouldn't use 3D art for 3D art's sake. I'm willing to be that if Donkey Kong Country was done in normal pixel art it would've looked much better.
 
mindlord said:
Hessiess said:
Learn Blender and make it yourself, 3D computer graphics, especially animation is both much easier and much faster than the hand drawn equivalent, and 3D renderings also lack ugly aliasing :), unlike pixel art .
Click to expand...
[Hillybilly accent]Them's fightin' words.[/Hillbilly accent]
Seriously though, pixel art has it's place, just like 3D art. Some games just shouldn't use 3D art for 3D art's sake. I'm willing to be that if Donkey Kong Country was done in normal pixel art it would've looked much better.
Click to expand...
Doubt it. I really liked Donkey Kong Country's style. :p It was pretty impressive running on a SNES. I also liked Super Mario RPG's style.

I admit that 3D is overdone, and older 3D games look like crap - but some of them have the same lasting appeal that 2D games like Chrono Trigger have. It really comes down to the art team's skill.

There's a lot of older 2D and 3D games that I'd never play again, but also lots that I would. ^_^
 
I never liked DKC's art style, I knew that it was a gimmick from the beginning, so it didn't impress me. I've always thought that it would look better hand-drawn, but I guess we will never know what that might have been like.
 
Finding free sprites that are genuinely free, and not ripped from some commercial game, isn't as easy as I might have expected. But they are out there.

This guy has 700 fantasy PRG sprites under a CC licence which might do the job for you, at least as placeholders.

It sounds like you're doing a side-scrolling platformer? These may be less suitable, but Danc at lostgarden.com has a bunch of free graphics as well.
 
I usually do placeholder graphics with inkscape, then add better graphics and animation if the project seems to take off. Which happens very rarely :D
 
Thanks guys for all your suggestions, but none of the resources listed are particularly useful for what I'm doing.

I guess I'll go the placeholder route and hopefully, once I've got something to show, there'll be people wanting to join in with the project. :D
 
Thank you very much, Guy.

I will contact the person in question and hopefully we can get something worked out :)
 
I could do it, I need a good art project to work on over the summer anyway.
 
Darkborn, thanks for your help, however:

All the ClickTeam resources are proprietary formats which can only be used in Multimedia Fusion and the Game Creator.
All the external links provide ether isometric (rpg-style) graphics, which are no good for side-scroller, or are not free.

also I don't really see how the sources for AMOS and STOS will be of any use...


lemdora
Thanks for your offer. I will pm you over the weekend. I'm just finishing off the POC which I will provide you with a copy of.

cheers!
 
All the ClickTeam resources are proprietary formats which can only be used in Multimedia Fusion and the Game Creator.
Click to expand...
but you forgot one thing:
These libraries will also work with the demo versions of the products.
Click to expand...
This means: you are free to install demo version, look for your self what you need, and REMADE IT to suit your needs. Or you really completely depends of "foreign" artwork?
However, you are right about external links. As I remember, SpriteWorks gave their work free of charge... but now it is just not the case.
Most of other links are useless or isometric. I forgot that you're trapped at 2D :)
As a first, look at those:
SpriteLib GPL (under GPL license, of course). http://www.flyingyogi.com/fun/spritelib.html
"SpriteLib GPL a collection of static and animated graphic objects (also commonly known as sprites). It was created to provide hobbyist game developers with an assortment of images to use in their creations. Because of SpriteLib GPL, developers don't have to waste precious time or money creating graphics from scratch."

It also "Contains the artwork for Fish Dish as featured in my book": Designing Arcade Computer Game Graphics (print version is out of stock) by same author, Ari Feldman. You can download full e-book free of charge too.
http://www.molotov.nu/?page=graphics Now, say that you can't find what you need here, then it is not related to hundreds of choice at those site.

About AMOS & STOS: those are just trivia, interesting mainly because of historical reasons. I mention this just for fun. :twisted:
 
Hessiess said:
Learn Blender and make it yourself, 3D computer graphics, especially animation is both much easier and much faster than the hand drawn equivalent, and 3D renderings also lack ugly aliasing :), unlike pixel art .
Click to expand...
I agree that 3D has its place, but so does 2D. 2D graphics are not inherently ugly; not even close! Brilliant stuff can be made in 2D.

Can you honestly say that these can be easily and quickly replaced by prettier 3D rendered counterparts?

ffta2.jpg

metal-slug-3-a.jpg


That aside, I'm really curious to see the game graphics you've made in Blender. I'm not looking to trash them or anything, I'm just baffled at why someone would dismiss 2D graphics so nonchalantly. Perhaps I'm underestimating 3D sprites.
 
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