Creating graphics -editor recommendations

[jjoensuu]

Hi all...

I am new to this game development stuff, and have a couple of questions about creating the bitmaps for a game.

The first is about what editor to use to create the bitmaps (since Game Editor does not come with a bitmap editor). What software are you more experienced ones using?

The second one is about if the specifics of a bitmap containing animation. For example, let's take the charRight.bmp bitmap that comes with the Game Editor. This single file contains the character in 7 different positions on top of each other. How does Game Editor know where one position image stops and the next one starts; is there a size requirement for each one?

Thanks in advance,

JJ

P.S. Game Editor seems to be a cool program but a search function on the help file would help a user to get started faster...

[Game A Gogo]

firts of all,

It depends on your capacity, your method and what you want up to be the final result, for Pixel perfect program, i recommend to use IconLover found at http://www.aha-soft.com

Second of all,

For making an animation, GE ask you how much frame there is (instead of asking you whats the size, could be irritating), also, you can make separate file animation, just by naming the files like this:

File001.png
File002.png
file003.png
etc..

And whit that method, you can make frames from different sizes, but keep in mind that its going to be centered (Or at least, i think)

And as a Pixel artist, i recommend you to save your files to png instead of bmp.
BitMaps can be really big in size, and that is not good when you come to export a game, it increases the file size, which you usually try to avoid!
Also, PortableNetworkGraphics supports 32-Bits, which can be handy for some reason, like for fog etc...

If you need more help about graphics and stuff, don't hesitate to ask!

[Kodo]

I (and many others) use Paintshop Pro, it provides many of the features of Photoshop without the same high price tag. If you want a free package that packs a punch try GIMP (http://www.gimp.org/).

[Fuzzy]

I use GIMP, but there is also paint.net. Try google to find it. Its free.

[willg101]

BitMaps can be really big in size, and that is not good when you come to export a game, it increases the file size, which you usually try to avoid!

I think Makslane said that all images are converted to an internal format anyway, so a 24-bit BMP will end up the same size as a 24-bit PNG. But I could be easily wrong!

Also, I use ParticleIllusion. It is very slick program. It's expensive, but if you going to really get into your graphics, especially explosions, and you want to use the alpha channel -which GE is compatible with!- I would look it up!

http://www.wondertouch.com

Edit: I exported 2 different games, 1 with a 1024x768 BMP and 1 with a 1024x768 PNG. Both ended up the exact same size, 2.59 MB.