Does anybody have useful tips for making good-looking handmade explosions? I´m doing a 2d-shooter project at the time and was wondering if anyone had some ideas. (640x480, explosions not longer than 8 frames) PS: THe explosions have alpha blending, so if you know your way around that as well ...?

The path most traveled on this topic would be to go out and buy VCE''s Pyromania series ($99 for both CDs if you''re a student). These are high-quality explosions used in about a million games, from WipeOut to Command and Conquer. You could generate alpha channels from these explosions pretty easily using one of the other color channels. I''d recommend using the green channel so you don''t lose any of the red color fidelity.

-Nick Robalik
http://www.digital-soapbox.com

You can use these for reference when drawing the explosions:

Artbeats'' Explosions



- WitchLord

Thanks all,

how about copyright issues? with the Pyromania box. Can I use them in a product intended as shareware?

Yikes. Artbeat''s are good! I would advise against using unauthorized logos in a piece of shareware...but that program for $99 sounds like a good deal...