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Art Tips For Programmers?
An anonymous reader writes "Recently I've found myself in a bit of a bind with artwork. My programming contracts have been rather small, barely enough to pay myself let alone an artist. The art needs aren't intensive, mostly icons or sprites depending on the project. Despite owning a few key apps (Photoshop, LightWave, Maya) my art production output is rather poor. Are there any other developers who have learned to be self-sufficient? Are there any resources available to educate me on the finer points of making graphics that look professional?" One resource for the less-artistic among us is the collection of free SVG clip art at freedesktop.org, though it won't give advice for creating new art. What are some others?
On place to look for art and helpfull artists is Deviantart
-- If you actually say LOL instead of laughing, maybe it's time to go outside! --
I highly reccommend inkscape, which is pretty good for creating svg art, even for those who are not very artistic. It make drawing really easy.
Also, try openclipart.org, where there is a lot of public domain licened content you can use.
Buy one of the icon collections at StockIcons.com for only $350usd. They can be used royalty-free for any personal or commercial projects.
A great untapped resource: college students. If you know folks in college, or there is a local college with a decent art program, contact their career advisor (or anyone at the art school) and let them know that you've got work that needs to be done.
Generally, you'll find one or two students who have the budding (or more developed) skills and know-how, and who will be more than grateful for the opportunity to earn a little extra cash or, more importantly, who will work for free in exchange for being able to use a "real world" project or two in their portfolio.
Not only are you "giving back" to the community, but you get what you need for cheap/free.
Two words of caution though. First, don't be a condescending ass. A lot of non-artistic, business-types tend to think of art students as starving-scum-of-the-earth, and they end up coming across as assholes who don't get the best they could. Second, realize that college students aren't always 100% reliable (were you?), and budget for that time-wise).
Ack!
All the Wacom models work reasonably happily with Linux+X and the relevant drivers at http://linuxwacom.sf.net/ - wacom is not at all linux-hostile.
Using a tablet means you can draw like an adult on your computer (directly on the screen if you spring for a Wacom Cintiq...).
I used to think a mouse was okay for GIMP and Blender use. It's not. It _utterly sucks_ . I got myself a tablet on a whim and now I can draw as well on my computer as on paper (okay I'm not brilliant at drawing on paper, but like most people I've ever seen, I'm far better on paper or a tablet than drawing with a mouse!)
For the love of god, please don't use photoshop lens flare effects! Unless of course you're going for a retro look.
Yeah, Art Students are a great way to get what you need on the cheap. I should know. Several of my friends - myself included- got fucked over right out of the gate because we believed what the contractor told us- that it would be "a good portfolio-building experience."
So's sitting in my bedroom jacking off into the GIMP, thank you.
"Portfolio Building Experience" means it pays a pittance if you're lucky, and you can totally forget about having any rights to your work. Oh, and PBEs are typically long hours with shit pay and no benefits. My first field experience was one of these- a contract job to do some multimedia work. After the dust settled, my hourly for the project was somewhere around eighty cents.
You get what you pay for- if you get into the habit of taking advantage of art students, don't be surprised if the talent pool suddenly dries up on you.
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1. Stock photos. A good picture is worth a 1000 design elements. Start scavenging for stock photos NOW. A good place to start is here: http://sxc.hu/.
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2. Avoid excessive effects and filters when not needed. Nothing ruins a good design like trying to emboss everything or making it 3D.
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3. Keep it clean and simple. Think Apple.
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4. Learn from the experts. Visit places like http://www.deviantart.com/ You can even post designs and get peer reviews. Also, http://http//www.alistapart.com will help.
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5. Use and abuse CSS. The separation of design elements from everything else will help immensely. You will be amazed by this site: http://www.csszengarden.com/ Change the themes and be amazed by the power of CSS!!!
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6. Buy graphic design books, preferably those with collections of commercial art made by different designers. Get inspired
;-)
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7. Get a digital camera and take lots and lots of pictures of the world around you. Current examples of designs and logos and ads will help.
I hope that helps!Cheers,
Adolfo
This is a wonderful style guide to building icons meant for Windows XP, and the techniques are good for icons of all sorts. You can figure out how to build good looking icons out of simple design elements.
The Iconfactory offers royalty-free icons and design services. You may want to look into them. They have some nice-looking stuff.
Photoshop 8 CS : $275 USD
Lightwave 8 3D: $249 USD
Maya Personal Learning Edition : $ZERO (free as in beer)
Note that these are all essentially student discounts: "normal" people will have to pay quite a bit more. I got Photoshop (4.0) plus MSVC (5.0) and a couple of others as a student (5+ years ago), and paid something like 20% of "normal" cost for them. I still use both of these in their original versions, I haven't even felt the need to upgrade yet.
Also, as mentioned elsewhere, you can pick them up from someone on Ebay for considerably less, although the legitimacy of those copies could be questionable.