Sorry your browser is not supported!

You are using an outdated browser that does not support modern web technologies, in order to use this site please update to a new browser.

Browsers supported include Chrome, FireFox, Safari, Opera, Internet Explorer 10+ or Microsoft Edge.

2D All the way! / 2D Artists are getting rare these days

Author
Message
Matt Rock
21
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 5th Mar 2005
Location: Binghamton NY USA
Posted: 28th Feb 2006 08:27
Link
A little over a week ago I released a game, and that same day I started work on a new 2D title. I'm usually pretty good at putting effective teams together, but for 2D projects its a bit harder because all of my "irl" friends deal with 3D. So I've spent the last week hunting for a 2D artist with enough spare time to produce a bunch of backgrounds for my new game... that's when I realized the horrible truth:

All of the 2D artists have vanished.

That or they're all booked. Does anyone know of a source where I can try to recruit an artist or two? Does anyone have some freetime and feel like working on a project with me? The team currently consists of me, two caricature artists, a studio musician, and some voiceover actors, plus my girlfriend who (as always) is passenger-seat driving, telling me what she loves, likes, and hates. This isn't a fly-by-night project and it will most certainly be finished... in fact, if I can't find at least one talented 2D artist to make backgrounds for me within a few days, I'm just going to have to make them myself. Anyway, just thought I'd ask if (A) you know a good resource where I can find talent, or (B) you yourself want to work on this project and get your name in the credits of another game.

"Hell is an Irish Pub where it's St. Patrick's Day all of the time." ~ Christopher, *The Soprano's*
Back to top
Profile PM Email Website
Sven B
21
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 5th Jan 2005
Location: Belgium
Posted: 28th Feb 2006 14:37
Link
I remember David Gervais making some really good images.

http://forum.thegamecreators.com/?m=forum_view&t=68067&b=8&p=0
http://forum.thegamecreators.com/?m=forum_view&t=67876&b=1

Maybe you can ask him?

It's the programmer's life:
Have a problem, solve the problem, and have a new problem to solve.
Back to top
Profile PM Email
Pincho Paxton
23
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 8th Dec 2002
Location:
Posted: 28th Feb 2006 15:30
Link
Most artists have projects...

Most artists have unfinished projects...

Most projects are unfinished....

Most unfinished projects require artists....

Sorry....A monkey was playing with my keyboard!!!

Back to top
Profile PM Email Website
Computer Nerd
21
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 25th Jan 2005
Location: What do you care?
Posted: 28th Feb 2006 16:30
Link
Most artist work with somebody when they tell them about the project and show off what they're doing or else artists flame your ass.


Finished Projects - Dark Icon(you will never see this one!)
Current Project - ???
Back to top
Profile PM
Matt Rock
21
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 5th Mar 2005
Location: Binghamton NY USA
Posted: 28th Feb 2006 19:07
Link
Thanks Sven, I'll contact him

Pincho, beat that monkey, get him under control

Nerd, while you make a valid point (in that I didn't talk about the project), I have to say that if an artist is so immature that they flame, they're obviously not worth working with in the first place. That said, I'll talk A LITTLE about the project, but I only give serious details to people who are actually serious about working with my team. There's no sense going through a long-winded explanation with everyone in the forum.

The game a is a 2D fighter title with a political backdrop. We need artists to creating comic renditions of landscapes including the Oval Office, the Washington Monument, Mount Rushmore, and an Iraqi Village (and several others... about 10-12 total). For there work they'd recieve full credit, plus a direct link from the game to their website (if they have one). Also, there's talk that our caricature artists might make some of our team members into playable in-game characters, but for right now that's just talk. Anyway, that's as detailed as I'm willing to get. If someone's interested in this they can e-mail me and I'll explain it with more depth.

"Hell is an Irish Pub where it's St. Patrick's Day all of the time." ~ Christopher, *The Soprano's*
Back to top
Profile PM Email Website
Van B
Moderator
23
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 8th Oct 2002
Location: Sunnyvale
Posted: 1st Mar 2006 20:04
Link
Fighting games must be the worst for media - I mean who can animate in 2D like they did with SFII?, it's definately a dying art.

You can't even mangle test graphics really, because everything relies on the character media, I don't envy you!.

I think stylizing might be the best route, I like the charicature idea, maybe adopting a simpler character design would grease the wheels, like a 2D cartoon shade effect to make up for less detail. Personally I like the anime style SFII artwork more than the more detailed earlier stuff. A good sprite editor and animation system would be a nice idea, something freeware to hook an artist - there's not a lot of old fashioned sprite editors around these days.


Van-B

Put away, those fiery biscuits!
Back to top
Profile PM Email
Oraculaca
23
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 6th Jan 2003
Location: Scotland
Posted: 1st Mar 2006 21:04
Link
Quote: "there's not a lot of old fashioned sprite editors around these days."


GraphicsGale isnt too bad

GrieveArt
Back to top
Profile PM
Computer Nerd
21
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 25th Jan 2005
Location: What do you care?
Posted: 1st Mar 2006 21:05
Link
I use paint it's free and on every windows machine.


Finished Projects - Dark Icon(you will never see this one!)
Current Project - ???
Back to top
Profile PM
Pincho Paxton
23
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 8th Dec 2002
Location:
Posted: 1st Mar 2006 23:14
Link
I'd use Anim8or. Much easier with keyframing. Then load the renders into Photoshop, and just make the clothing, and hair a bit more flexible.

Back to top
Profile PM Email Website
Matt Rock
21
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 5th Mar 2005
Location: Binghamton NY USA
Posted: 2nd Mar 2006 06:20
Link
The stuff that our caricature artists are creating are simply fantastic. I made extremely simplistic, "South Park"-esque bodies in MS Paint and animated them, in the hopes that no one would pay too much attention because of the caricature heads. But the backgrounds, that's the bread and butter I think, because we're sort of relying on the backgrounds to take the player's attention away from my crappy lack of artistic ability

We're looking for backgrounds that are "cartoony." It's a funny game (I mean, Michael Moore can eat you and George Bush Senior can barf in your face), so the backgrounds need to be fun... like the Alien Hominid art? kinda sketchy and fun? Something like that. I don't have one of those nifty tablet things they used, and even if they did, I wouldn't be any good with them.

Maybe I should have made my stick figure fighting game like I'd originally intended I could have created all of the game's assets myself and had it on the street in less than a week, lol


"Hell is an Irish Pub where it's St. Paddy's day all year long" ~ Christopher, The Sopranos
Back to top
Profile PM Email Website
Krimzon DestinE
20
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 18th Sep 2005
Location:
Posted: 2nd Mar 2006 16:29 Edited at: 2nd Mar 2006 16:29
Link
there are some extremely talented 2d/pixel artists at Deviantart.com. Go there and look around. I'm sure there will be someone there who you can recruit.

St0ven is really talented... I hope he doesn't mind this...

http://www.deviantart.com/view/10046234/
http://www.deviantart.com/view/10234100/
http://www.deviantart.com/view/10486995/ <-- i really love the last one, it is the FFTA style that I am going for in my game.
Back to top
Profile PM
Van B
Moderator
23
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 8th Oct 2002
Location: Sunnyvale
Posted: 2nd Mar 2006 16:45
Link
He's got skills!

But someone tell him that true isometric is not that, iso is 30 degrees, I think 45 degree views like that are called auxiliary.


Van-B

Put away, those fiery biscuits!
Back to top
Profile PM Email
Dodic
20
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 6th Nov 2005
Location: SNM (Serbia&amp;Montenegro)
Posted: 2nd Mar 2006 20:24
Link
Quote: "But someone tell him that true isometric is not that, iso is 30 degrees, I think 45 degree views like that are called auxiliary.
"


You are right, i just checked it in a book i have about drawing, 45 degrees views are called auxiliary

Back to top
Profile PM Email
Matt Rock
21
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 5th Mar 2005
Location: Binghamton NY USA
Posted: 2nd Mar 2006 22:48
Link
I just went and signed up for a DeviantART account... thanks for the suggestion. I posted on Renderosity but I haven't gotten any replies


"Hell is an Irish Pub where it's St. Paddy's day all year long" ~ Christopher, The Sopranos
Back to top
Profile PM Email Website
DB newbie
20
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 13th Nov 2005
Location: um..... i dont remember.
Posted: 2nd Mar 2006 23:14
Link
go to www.gamemaker.nl (its a 2D gamemaker) and look in the resource section there are a lot of free sprites that are animated.

Check out my site!(unfinished)
http://www.freewebs.com/dbnewbie/
Back to top
Profile PM Email
Matt Rock
21
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 5th Mar 2005
Location: Binghamton NY USA
Posted: 2nd Mar 2006 23:59
Link
I don't need sprites though, I need a monsterous 1500x768 background image that I want to use as a sprite. Plus, it's a shareware title so I don't want to have to go through the mess of licensing and stuff... I only use original IP when the game also is original We already have two caricature artists and I did the sprite bodies myself (but poorly)... the artist we're looking for would be responsible for creating the massive backgrounds for each arena. I'm about to give up though and just do them myself in paint, lol.


"Hell is an Irish Pub where it's St. Paddy's day all year long" ~ Christopher, The Sopranos
Back to top
Profile PM Email Website
Pincho Paxton
23
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 8th Dec 2002
Location:
Posted: 3rd Mar 2006 01:30
Link
I'm sure that there are better freeware programs than paint. I just can't remember the names of them.

Back to top
Profile PM Email Website
MiR
22
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 13th Jul 2003
Location: Spain
Posted: 3rd Mar 2006 23:13
Link
Paint.net springs to mind. Though you don´t need anything more complex than paint for pixel art. In fact more complex programs are harder to use as not all the basic tools are pixel perfect. Paint shop pro´s line tool springs to mind.
That St0ven is good. So my bro has 4 years to overtake him. Then again I think some of my bor´s pixel work is comparable if not better than St0ven´s. Though I´m biased being his brother.
Quote: "there are some extremely talented 2d/pixel artists at Deviantart.com"

There are some bloody good artists full stop on deviantart.com. Have you seen some of those drawings of moviestars? They make photos look crap. ummm. I´m going off topic here. Sorry.

My signature has been erased by me because it's LARGE.
Thank you for the votez!1!
Back to top
Profile PM Email
Matt Rock
21
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 5th Mar 2005
Location: Binghamton NY USA
Posted: 4th Mar 2006 00:30
Link
I'm happy to announce that after almost two full weeks of searching, we've found our guy on Renderosity. He's an incredible 2D artist with a style similar to that of the "Paranoid Android" video by Radiohead... which works perfectly for this new title. In a few weeks (provided I'm not evicted from my apartment) I'll be posting screenshots in WIC and a special sneak preview for this thread


"Hell is an Irish Pub where it's St. Paddy's day all year long" ~ Christopher, The Sopranos
Back to top
Profile PM Email Website
Scraggle
Moderator
22
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 10th Jul 2003
Location: Yorkshire
Posted: 4th Mar 2006 10:16 Edited at: 4th Mar 2006 10:20
Link
Quote: "I'm sure that there are better freeware programs than paint. I just can't remember the names of them."


I would strongly recommend The Gimp. It is by far the best FREE 2D paint and animation program available anywhere this side of Bellatrix.

[Edit] Legal Note: There may or may not be better free paint programs beyond Bellatrix. This is unconfirmed at time of writing. [/edit]


Back to top
Profile PM Email
Matt Rock
21
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 5th Mar 2005
Location: Binghamton NY USA
Posted: 4th Mar 2006 17:57
Link
We used the Gimp for our GUI's and overlays for our 3D project before it's untimely passing... I'm not that great with it. I use Paint because it hasn't changed much since Windows 95... I'm familiar with it. Not to say I have any artistic skill whatsoever, but I'm comfortable using Paint because I know where everything is. The Gimp, as great as it is, is very confusing to me because I don't understand the "layers" thing. But hey, that wasn't my job on the 3D game, hehe.


"Hell is an Irish Pub where it's St. Paddy's day all year long" ~ Christopher, The Sopranos
Back to top
Profile PM Email Website
Megaton Cat
22
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 24th Aug 2003
Location: Toronto, Canada
Posted: 5th Mar 2006 13:34
Link
2d artists hadn't vanished, they just moved on to 3d.

Back to top
Profile PM Email Website
indi
23
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 26th Aug 2002
Location: Earth, Brisbane, Australia
Posted: 10th May 2006 18:19
Link
most commerce artists wont touch you with a pointy stick unless you show something good. most artists who make a living doing this work dont offer free help anymore.
your best bet is to find up and coming artists.

If no-one gives your an answer to a question you have asked, consider:- Is your question clear.- Did you ask nicely.- Are you showing any effort to solve the problem yourself &#63743;
Back to top
Profile PM Email
Cash Curtis II
21
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 8th Apr 2005
Location: Corpus Christi Texas
Posted: 10th May 2006 18:31
Link
2D art isn't easy. And, unlike 3D work, 2D isn't modular. If an artist spends hours and hours on something, it might only get used for one thing or not at all. You'd definitely need some completed works and some stunning design documents + stable resources to impress someone.


Come see the WIP!
Back to top
Profile PM
Indigo
23
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 9th Mar 2003
Location: United States
Posted: 27th May 2006 18:02
Link
the good thing about Pixel Art nowa days is the fact that since hardly anyone can do it anymore, it leaves the feild wide open to people like me. I currently have a job doing pixel-art for handheld videogames - and if I tried to get into the industry 20 years ago (I wouldn't have been alive, but still) the industry would have been way too competitive for me.

my portfolio:
http://s32.photobucket.com/albums/d38/Indigortfolio/

www.calypson.batcave.net (Under Construction)

Calypson - aka Indigo @ art forums
Back to top
Profile PM Email Website
Van B
Moderator
23
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 8th Oct 2002
Location: Sunnyvale
Posted: 2nd Jun 2006 10:54
Link
I can see why you got the job!

Spiderman has to be my personal fave, it's just really detailed and cool.

I'd love a pixel art package on the NDS, like in games like Animal Crossing you can draw your own textures, a little art package in that which uploads your work via wi-fi would rock, and probably breed a few new pixel artists. Imagine scrolling with the D-pad, seeing the full scale result in the top screen, and using the bottom screen for a zoom and drawing screen. I think that would actually take off with pixel artists who would appreciate the DS's stylus, wifi, and portability.
Bob Ross painting is apparantly coming out for it, eyes peeled! - I don't have to tell anyone who Bob Ross is do I?, Titanium white?, Scary afro?, You'd know him if you saw him .

Aegrescit medendo
Back to top
Profile PM Email
David Gervais
Retired Moderator
20
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 28th Sep 2005
Location: Montreal, Canada
Posted: 21st Jun 2006 16:34
Link
Van, let's not have any 'Happy little accidents" ok? lol

Cheers!
Back to top
Profile PM Email
Back to top

Login to post a reply

Server time is: 2026-07-04 11:45:45
Your offset time is: 2026-07-04 11:45:45