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How to make Computer Graphics?
- Thread starter Inchtall
- Start date
ShinySandshrew
†God Follower†
There are numerous programs out there that you can use to make computer graphics. It's not very sophisticated, but Windows comes with MS Paint pre-installed.
Although it's expensive, lot's of professionals use Adobe Photoshop. If I remember correctly, the current version of Photoshop is about $699 US dollars. It's a hefty cost, but Photoshop is one of the most popular graphic design programs out there. (BTW, if you're a student, you may be able to get a deep discount on Adobe products.)
A free alternative to Photoshop is GIMP. It has similar features to Photoshop, but isn't quite as sophisticated as Photoshop, from what I hear.
And, if you want to browse, here's a few lists of graphic design software that Wikipedia made (All of the programs I mentioned fall under the category of raster graphics software, btw):
List of Raster Graphics Software
List of Vector Graphics Software
List of 3-D Graphics Software
Hope this helps!
Avenger Angel
Warrior of Heaven
Like ShinySandshrew mentioned, it depends on the kinds of graphics you want to create. Making something in 3D is very different from making something in Photoshop. If you want to make sprites, it can be done easily in MS Paint, you don't need Photoshop for that. However, if you want to make intense banners, buttons, and headers, MS Paint is extremely limited it what it can do.
I use Photoshop, I've been using it for over a decade now and it's been a fantastic graphic art program. I can't even begin to say how many things I've done with it, but I'm sure its in the thousands by now. However, like any computer program, you need to train with it, practice with it, experiment with it, take some tutorials, search for additional resources online, and get advice from other people. The more you use it, the better you'll get. The Filters are fun to play around with at first, but eventually you need to go beyond those. If possible, take some classes that use Photoshop. You'll learn it faster if you have a guide who knows the program pretty well, but you can still gain a lot by practicing and experimenting with it by yourself. In time, you'll develop your own unique style and way of making graphics. Trust me, I would have wowed myself if I was shown the stuff I can make today to me eight years ago.
In terms of drawn art, you might want to consider investing in a tablet as well. I use a Wacom Bamboo Fun and it's been great and pretty reliable (though it has a dumb name
). Drawing with a tablet is something I'm still trying to get better at, but it vastly beats the stuffing out of drawing with a mouse.It may sound like a lot, but if you keep practicing, you'll get better. Photoshop is, without a doubt, a fantastic investment if you're serious about making graphic artwork, and getting a student discount on it will shave off quite a bit from the price.
ShinySandshrew
†God Follower†
For banners, GIMP should work pretty well. You can find plugins for GIMP that enhance its capability at this location. As far as animations, I am not experienced in that area, so I couldn't tell you what is best. I know that GIMP can makes animations, but I can't say I know how it compares to other programs.
(BTW, if you're a US student, you may be able to get a new full copy of Photoshop for $199.)
GetOutOfBox
Original Series Fan
Neither Photoshop nor GIMP are designed for use in animation production, though such capability can be added to them with plugins. Animations such as the sprites used in the Pokemon games are usually produced by drawing several different frames and then combining them into some kind of animated image format, such as GIF, or more recently, APNG. You can usually find seperate programs that do that job well.
As for designing and making computer graphics, there's a lot of varying fields in that area. There's 3D graphics design, which differs from "drawing" in the fact that it is more similar to sculpting. Drawing images such as people, game sprites, etc is usually not done with a mouse, but rather with a special addon that allows you to draw using a device like an iPod Touch combined with an Etch-a-Sketch. A mouse is not really suited for drawing images from scratch, which is why such a device is usually used.
Combining images, adding effects, editing/repairing images, etc, is usually done using Photoshop or GIMP. It's much simpler, usually involving a few tools and filters (scripts that automatically change an image in some way, such as add background shadowing, borders, color effects, etc) in said programs. Creating something like Neo Pikachu's signature (look 3 posts above mine) requires you to be very familiar with your program of choice, since it involves quite a bit of manual work. You can't produce a custom job like that with just a few mouse clicks, you're looking at a few hours of manually selecting areas of the image, applying effects, altering contrast, adding transparency, etc, etc.
GIMP is best suited for you if you're looking for a free program. It can do most things Photoshop can, though it lacks the versatile database of 3rd party plugins that Photoshop has. However, most things Photoshop can do with default plugins can be done in GIMP. It's completely free, no ads, trial, etc.
You'll come across two words quite frequently in the graphic design field, Raster and Vector. Raster images are the images you're probably very familiar with. They are images that are made of pixels, each with a color value. Cameras produce raster images, most images you see are raster images. Vector images on the other hand are actually just a file with a list of statements defining lines and color regions. Rather than simply having a list of pixels and their colors, vector images are based upon the concept of a vector, a line with a few properties such as direction, magnitude (length) curvature, etc. The advantage of this system is that since the image is represented in mathematical variables, it can be scaled up or down without any kind of distortion. You could scale it to the size of a building and not have any distortion. Vector images are also typically very, very small in file size. The disadvantage is that they can't have as much details as raster images. The most noticeable result of this is that shading is typically very basic. Vector images cannot be used to store photorealistic or other detailed images, they're more suited for basic drawings (such as manga) or logos.
You're going to need a good amount of dedication if you plan on getting into the field of graphics design, as it is much more difficult than it looks. However, with practice, you can master it.
As for designing and making computer graphics, there's a lot of varying fields in that area. There's 3D graphics design, which differs from "drawing" in the fact that it is more similar to sculpting. Drawing images such as people, game sprites, etc is usually not done with a mouse, but rather with a special addon that allows you to draw using a device like an iPod Touch combined with an Etch-a-Sketch. A mouse is not really suited for drawing images from scratch, which is why such a device is usually used.
Combining images, adding effects, editing/repairing images, etc, is usually done using Photoshop or GIMP. It's much simpler, usually involving a few tools and filters (scripts that automatically change an image in some way, such as add background shadowing, borders, color effects, etc) in said programs. Creating something like Neo Pikachu's signature (look 3 posts above mine) requires you to be very familiar with your program of choice, since it involves quite a bit of manual work. You can't produce a custom job like that with just a few mouse clicks, you're looking at a few hours of manually selecting areas of the image, applying effects, altering contrast, adding transparency, etc, etc.
GIMP is best suited for you if you're looking for a free program. It can do most things Photoshop can, though it lacks the versatile database of 3rd party plugins that Photoshop has. However, most things Photoshop can do with default plugins can be done in GIMP. It's completely free, no ads, trial, etc.
You'll come across two words quite frequently in the graphic design field, Raster and Vector. Raster images are the images you're probably very familiar with. They are images that are made of pixels, each with a color value. Cameras produce raster images, most images you see are raster images. Vector images on the other hand are actually just a file with a list of statements defining lines and color regions. Rather than simply having a list of pixels and their colors, vector images are based upon the concept of a vector, a line with a few properties such as direction, magnitude (length) curvature, etc. The advantage of this system is that since the image is represented in mathematical variables, it can be scaled up or down without any kind of distortion. You could scale it to the size of a building and not have any distortion. Vector images are also typically very, very small in file size. The disadvantage is that they can't have as much details as raster images. The most noticeable result of this is that shading is typically very basic. Vector images cannot be used to store photorealistic or other detailed images, they're more suited for basic drawings (such as manga) or logos.
You're going to need a good amount of dedication if you plan on getting into the field of graphics design, as it is much more difficult than it looks. However, with practice, you can master it
.
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