Pixel art vs. Vector art?

[Moosader]

I'm honestly getting really sick of doing pixel sprites and tiles for my games. This is a big reason I haven't really done anything lately, is because I can't get myself to make the resources for my games, and I hate having colored boxes as placeholders. ;P

I was thinking about doing the whole 3D-model-prerendered-2D-sprite thing (ie Diablo), but I have like no skillz in 3D modeling. Something that might make it easier to make animated sprites is to use Flash, but then I'd have to put time into getting rid of the antialiasing around the images so I don't get a crappy white border.

Anyway, here's a couple of quick comparisons:


Yay clean scaling!
Obviously, it wouldn't be a Vector in the game, but I could save different scales if I need to have different sizes of a sprite.



Does this sort of reduce the quality? I know pixel art is great and nostalgic when done right, but agh, I hate pixels.

(all these graphics were drawn with a mouse... x_x)

[Bakkon]

Is there a way to render your artwork in Flash to have alpha transparency in the anti-aliasing? That would remove any white edges and extra time spent doing alterations by pixel. I really love the art style in Castle Crashers and I'm pretty sure they did a lot of their work in Flash, possibly Illustrator.

[Moosader]

I'm not sure, I haven't been able to find anything. Plus, I'm using Flash 4, which is pretty old, and hard to find info for.

I can set it to 'fast render' and then it comes out like this:


It might be passable at a smaller size, if I fix the eyes and other small details.

[dandymcgee]

I think Vector art would be easiest to scale then export.

Another really awesome tool I've found uses an algorithm to scale images either 2x or 4x using anti-aliasing rather than MSPaint-style multiplying each pixel by 4.
http://scale2x.sourceforge.net/

It's good for using smaller tiles (like SoM's 16x16's) in your 32x32 tile game without losing the entire illusion of pixel art.
Just thought I'd put it out there as something for power-of-2 resizes.

[RyanPridgeon]

You could always use PNGs to store and load your sprites.

Flash can export to PNG with an alpha channel, which would solve your problems, and is also what I do

I dont know what API you're using, but I posted a function that loads a PNG into openGL over in the Code Snippets forum.

[Pickzell]

If only vectors weren't used to rape cartoons, they'd be a lot less gay, but still pretty gay.

[pritam]

Vectors are great for cartoons because they don't require an extensive use of colors/detail, but you can make greatly detailed drawings with vectors with some limitations unless you mix it with bitmaps.

[Moosader]

You could always use PNGs to store and load your sprites.

Flash can export to PNG with an alpha channel, which would solve your problems, and is also what I do

Not Flash 4, apparently. @_@ What version are you using? Maybe after I pay off my credit card... and save for like a billion years... I can afford a newer version. D:

Fear the vector drawings
http://moosader.deviantart.com/art/CoH- ... s-78440241
http://moosader.deviantart.com/art/CYAN ... u-82212204

[Pickzell]

I'll "send you" a copy of MX if you want too...
And if someone wants to lecture me on why piracy is bad, go fucking insane. I always love those mini-rants.

[Moosader]

I'm trying to stay away from piracy, as it can really hurt one's career. >_>

[Bakkon]

Does your university have any deals on software? Or maybe a computer lab on campus that has a newer version installed?

[RyanPridgeon]

I know that Flash MX can do PNG transparency, and maybe Flash 5, so unluckily for you it looks like you were one version short

Im sure you can find MX on ebay for like $30 ?

[Pickzell]

Im sure you can find MX on ebay for like $30 ?

No, I checked back in November expecting that too(I didn't want to pirate it), and when I finally found one copy it was $450. That's why I pirated it :p

I actually did have a legit copy of Flash 8 but I deleted thinking I was going to stop doing animations. Go me.
However if you can get a job involving Flash, you'll get it for free.

[AngryPie]

Have you tried Inkscape? It looks like a good vector graphics editor if you don't need animation features.

[Moosader]

I do very much need the animation feature, otherwise I'd just do pixel art.
Or something for animating pixel art that doesn't suck as bad as Graphics Gale.