Need a good 2D graphics program

paint.net?

GIMP: http://www.gimp.org/ : It's like a free photoshop.

Graphics Gale: http://www.humanbalance.net/gale/us/ : Great for pixel art.

Spriter: http://www.brashmonkey.com/spriter.htm : Awesome for animated sprites.

But remember software can only get you that far! Make sure you practice a lot and learn new techniques.

Goodluck :)

GIMP: http://www.gimp.org/ : It's like a free photoshop.

Graphics Gale: http://www.humanbalance.net/gale/us/ : Great for pixel art.

Spriter: http://www.brashmonkey.com/spriter.htm : Awesome for animated sprites.

But remember software can only get you that far! Make sure you practice a lot and learn new techniques.

Goodluck

Thanks!

My personal favorite is Cosmigo's ProMotion -- Its kind of a spiritual successor to Deluxe Paint which was popular pixel-art tool back in the day. ProMotion is nice because it has a lot of useful features for animation of sprites, not just drawing them one-off, like animation preview, onion-skin, and stamps.

Its a pixel-based editor similar to Graphics Gale, not a vectors+bones (flash-like) editor like Spriter. Both are for-cost, GraphicsGale is less expensive but I haven't liked it as much when I've tried it out. Both have free trials, so give both a spin if they're what you're looking for.

I also use inkscape all the time. It is the open source manifestation of Illustrator. I find it very useful for many types 2D art, especially if you are going for more of a cartoon look.

Good sample of 2D graphics program: lesson21( c++ code)

The codes and demo of above adapted to MS VS 2010/2012 in source files to:

Concentration of all The Lessons in Common Library GLSummary in MFC

An Adobe Flash substitute:

Vectorian Giiotto:

http://vectorian.com/giotto/

If you are looking for a grid based tool, PyxelEdit is pretty nice. It is still in beta, I believe, so the tools may vary in perfection, but it's pretty nice with automatic tiling and you can also create animations in it. It's a single developer developing the tool and from my experience he is really quick and helpful when asking for help in the forums. He also takes suggestions on new tools to implement or feedback on older tools.

The program costs $8 dollars minimum, totally worth it. Check the videos here and decide if this is something you need. I recommend it.

Thanks everyone, I think I've got one though.

Another thing to consider is using a tablet. There are some remarkably capable packages ( Sketchbook, iDraw, Photoshop, ArtRage etc. ) for very cheap. Pick up a 10$ stylus and its actually a very pleasant way to work.

ooh, spriter looks cool, but it seems the images have to be made in something else! Looks good for animation, though.

Another thing to consider is using a tablet. There are some remarkably capable packages ( Sketchbook, iDraw, Photoshop, ArtRage etc. ) for very cheap. Pick up a 10$ stylus and its actually a very pleasant way to work.

Yeah. I use Inkpad for the ipad. It is a vector drawing app. And guess what? They recently made it free and open source! And it is really good.

I thought you were referring to a Wacom Tablet at first. But there are some good art apps for tablets. Of course, wacom tablets are good for use on PCs.

Either Gimp or Inkscape.

vector animations http://synfig.org/

Hi,

Thanks everyone, I think I've got one though.

Good! We are all curious what that is. (????)

I use GIMP for almost all my 2D textures applied to 3D model, but I also use it for the majority of my non-3D related 2D work. Inkscape (vector graphics) for some of my art, at times converting the output in GIMP to a raster image file format. Inkscape is great for making UIs and GUIs to give that clean professional look. Spriter has been crucial at times.

I use JASC Paint Shop Pro 9. This is a decade old and difficult to find, but I swear by it and use it for vector-based art and a lot of basic raster tasks. Inkscape looks nice but I'm way too entrenched in my workflow to change now.

Negatives aside, PSP9 is pretty excellent. Not as powerful as Photoshop in terms of raster operations, though it's close, but it was a tenth the price and continues to serve my purposes.

Inkscape. Free, easy to use, and you can find good tuts online.