I have a classroom full of kids ages 10-14.
We are going to be doing mattes for a Flash game real soon... basically 1024x768 backdrops for a zombie shooter game.
Can anyone recommend a good paint program they can use for this?
I'd suggest Inkscape and The Gimp. They are the two key free art rendering programs.
Kryyst speaks the truth.
Depends on what you want to do, really. The GIMP isn't really intuitive for working from scratch. Inkscape takes up the slack there. Lay down a primitive in Inkscape, then hammer out all the pretty details in GIMP.
Plus, they are both open source.
Of course, they could just use Paint.
Quote from: Engine;269476Of course, they could just use Paint.
I wouldn't recommend that for the task the original post mentioned.
Kids 10-14 making a matte background? It's exactly what I'd recommend. It's clean, simple, and easy, and allows everything from basic painting to per-pixel modification. No, it's not vector like Inkscape, or able to do complex multilayer tasks like GIMP. But it uses the standard Windows interface, is simple to use and understand, and is capable of astonishing levels of detail for the really attention-fixated. If the kids were older, or the task more complex, it'd be far underpowered, but I've seen people do some unbelievable things with nothing but Paint.
That said, I'd never use it. For basic matte painting when you're not an image-processing expert, the best tool I've found is Photoshop 5. But it's a little hard to find. :) I keep my own copy backed-up just because I know it'll someday be impossible to locate, and for beginners, it's a hell of a lot better than CS3.
Quote from: Engine;269484Kids 10-14 making a matte background? It's exactly what I'd recommend. It's clean, simple, and easy, and allows everything from basic painting to per-pixel modification. No, it's not vector like Inkscape, or able to do complex multilayer tasks like GIMP. But it uses the standard Windows interface, is simple to use and understand, and is capable of astonishing levels of detail for the really attention-fixated. If the kids were older, or the task more complex, it'd be far underpowered, but I've seen people do some unbelievable things with nothing but Paint.
Interesting. Were they able to do blurs? Some kind of fog or lighting effects? Presumably the class is a foundation for further game or graphics design development. I can't think of a single reason to use Paint in this situation.
QuoteThat said, I'd never use it.
But, you recommend it for others.
QuoteFor basic matte painting when you're not an image-processing expert, the best tool I've found is Photoshop 5. But it's a little hard to find. :) I keep my own copy backed-up just because I know it'll someday be impossible to locate, and for beginners, it's a hell of a lot better than CS3.
It's also a hell of a lot less free than GIMP and Inkscape. Being almost ten years old, it's not the best tool for introducing kids to current graphics design theories or practices.
I mean, they could use crayons and scan the pictures directly in, too. I doubt that has anything to do with what the objectives of the course, however.
Paint is occasionally nice to start a picture out in but unless you are a per pixel painting genius it's not a friendly tool to use.
Also if this is an introductory course into any type of graphic work then why not give them a full set of tools to work with, like Inkscape and the Gimp. They certainly aren't industry standard (adobe) however they do have a similar frame of tools to adobe products.
The reality is if you are doing digital work and you can't buy software, Inkscape and The Gimp are pretty much your only real standard and free choices. The other advantage to using free software is that the kids can take it and install it at home.
I'm sure you're correct, StormBringer. Paint would be a terrible choice, and the Inkscape/The GIMP combo will suit the needs of this situation quite handily.
I just discovered another rather decent little drawing program called Paint.net. It's kind of a half way program between Paint and The Gimp. This could be a very nice intro program that gives a decent set of tools without being overwhelming.
http://www.getpaint.net/index.html
I just dled gimp the other day.
Somebody tell me something about inkscape. Can i use it to draw comics?
If you are serious about drawing comics I'd suggest a watcom tablet as your medium. But Inkscape can handle the post production colouring and line work. Then again so can The Gimp. The trick for comics is getting the drawing done first and a Watcom tablet is so much easier to do that with. That or pen paper and a good scanner.
You could definitely use Inkscape to draw comics, and there would be some advantages to doing so, since it's vector-based, and thus more easily editable after-the-fact. I'd personally use Illustrator and Photoshop with a Wacom tablet, but I'm an Adobe whore of long standing. Many people I know simply draw directly in Photoshop, and have great success at it, but I can't speak to that; my experience with digital imaging does not extend to talent with drawing or painting.
I'm a big fan of the GIMP, personally, although I do find myself using Photoshop more often than not.
Use Paint.net. It's far easier and more intuitive than either Gimp or Inkscape. I don't know why it never gets recommended in these threads.
It's like Paint, but good, basically. What Paint should have been. And free too.