I''m currently (finally) working on the official FAQ for the "Visual Arts" forum. I''m starting this thread so that all of those who visit this forum can suggest sections and information to be contained in the FAQ. As of now, these are the sections I plan on for the intial version of the FAQ (which will be updated with new information occasionally, as the information comes in): - Forum Guidelines General rules, actions which will result in probation/banning, etc. - Piracy Policy Will describe this forum''s zero-tolerance policy relating to software piracy as well as the reasoning behind it (since I''ve received questions about it from users in the past) - Links Links to other resources, tutorials, texture collections, etc. I''ll also include links to various companies that develop/sell Design-related programs, like Adobe, Caligari, Discreet, etc. If you have links you think would be appropriate for this section, please include them in a message in this thread, along with a brief description of the site''s contents and how they relate to art/design. These links don''t necessary have to be game art/design-related, they can be, for example, links to tutorials for traditional art, because this information is also relevant to the creation of art for games, as (I believe) all game artists should have a solid foundation in traditional art & design before moving on to the complicated world of 2D animation & 3D modeling/animation for games, either computer or console. If you have any questions, comments or suggestions, please ONLY post them in THIS thread. Thanks in advance, and I look forward to the input I''ll get from this forum''s many users. -Nick "digisoap" Robalik Web & Print Design, 2D & 3D Illustration and Animation, Game Design http://www.digital-soapbox.com nick@digital-soabox.com

One FAQ: Where can I get free image editing software?
And of course the answer would be the Gimp.

Links I''d like to see:
www.gimp.org (No personal agenda here.)
www.deviantart.com (Has some good tutorials for art programs, as well as showcasing many kinds of art, including pixel art.)
pixeltutorial.cjb.net (Tutorials for pixel art, including some nice stuff about old school 2d games.)

ALL good links, Si - and you can be sure I''ll be including a link to the GIMP image-editing software, as well as to Corel''s "DRAW!" Suite, which has a groovy Photoshop-like raster graphics package (and to be honest, I actually like the interface for Corel''s package more than Photoshop''s seemingly old-school interface and slapped-on image browser, which is much slower than Corel''s for who knows what reasons), and to the "other" graphics package, JASC''s Paint Shop Pro, which, for indie developers and artists, is definitely the graphics package of choice (other than GIMP, which I find to still be a little "fuggy," with random crashes due to either the program itself or various 3rd-party plugins; plus, it doesn''t have very good TWAIN/TWAIN32 support, which means it doesn''t work as it should, and as both PSP and PS do, w/ most Windows-compatible scanners, digital cameras, etc.), due to its impressive feature set (almost as many tools as Photoshop 7) and Photoshop plugin support (don''t think it supports the newest API, though, but I haven''t checked on it in awhile).

And of course there''s also the various free, shareware, and commercial 3D packages, like MilkShape, Wings3D, Anim8or, trueSpace (and now the VERY cool gameSpace), and the higher-end packages that are out of the pricerange of most indie developers (assuming, of course, they actually PAY for them - and if they don''t and announce it on here, they''re BANNED!) like 3D Studio MAX, LightWave, SoftImage & Maya. Sites like Polycount are good for 3D modeling/texturing/animation tutorials and general program information.

So, yes, they''ll all be there. Come on people, more submissions!

-Nick "digisoap" Robalik
Web & Print Design, 2D & 3D Illustration and Animation, Game Design
http://www.digital-soapbox.com
nick@digital-soabox.com

Ask users to redirect any help wanted posts to help wanted.

I''ve got some links:

Forums (don''t know if you want these ):
conceptart.org
Sijun Message Boards
eatpoo.com

About art:
GFXartist.com - tutorials, articles, interviews

Art studios:
Massive Black - a brand new company made up of experienced artist, working to help game companies

Training products:
The Gnomon Workshop - sells videos that teach how to use computer art programs

character drawing/animating faqs..

Heya Digi,

I hope this is the begining of a new Artist friendly forum . Not saying that it''s not friendly, just that there''s vast resources for programmers.

So yeah, having a thread/section for artist, and resources (links, free textures, scripts, tutorials, ect...) would be peachy-keen.

More organization of threads, so maybe break it down like this:

WIP
Finished Gallery
General (Just general questions and such about a program)
Tutorials/Links/Recources


I don''t know about bandwidth, but a gallery would be great. Interviews and such would inspire many. Even links to interviews. I am sure you know artist who''d love to give interviews, and if you want I''ll ask around.

--

This could pose some problems:

"and the higher-end packages that are out of the pricerange of most indie developers (assuming, of course, they actually PAY for them - and if they don''t and announce it on here, they''re BANNED!) like 3D Studio MAX, LightWave, SoftImage & Maya."

I have no problem proving I own the software I use, but as you said "Indie Developers"... so how do you want to go about this? If they say:

"Help with Maya" not "Help with Maya PLE" they are gone?

If you want to go zero tolerance, be my guest, I will still be here, but the number of Indie Artist here will dwindle to nothing, and an artist section will be for nothing.

There is another way: Don''t ask for warez, don''t say you have it, don''t even hint that you have it illegally. Cinima 4D, LW and Maya are within the price-range of many artist. I grow skeptic when someone has XSI ($6000/$14000) and 3DS Max ($3500 **$4800 w/Character Studio). I laugh when someone says "Help with XSI".. because it comes with insane live support, that comes with the licence.. yearly...

The trick here is to help by having direct links to the learning versions of each software with a checklist of what is limited.

--

I think the Game Dictionary is broken...

Lamont G.
CG Artist
Chula Vista CA
http://www.digitalweapon.net

Cool thing that you give it some time Digisoap. A FAQ has definitely been one of the big missing things here

For 3D artists, Polycount is probably the mother of all game models website.
With it, I would recommend the Wadfather website for its vast amounts of textures for a number of games.

I see that Sijun''s forums and conceptart.org have been mentioned, so there we go, I want to add my vote for those excellent forums.

I am sure I''ll think of some more, but for a start, maybe you could have a nice Links section with 2D/3D/Fonts/Flash/etc ?

Anyway, good luck for doing this !

Sancte Isidore ora pro nobis !

quote: Original post by digisoap
And of course there''s also the various free, shareware, and commercial 3D packages, like MilkShape, Wings3D, Anim8or, trueSpace (and now the VERY cool gameSpace), and the higher-end packages that are out of the pricerange of most indie developers (assuming, of course, they actually PAY for them - and if they don''t and announce it on here, they''re BANNED!) like 3D Studio MAX, LightWave, SoftImage & Maya.

I can''t *believe* you left out Blender.

Richard "Superpig" Fine
- saving pigs from untimely fates, and when he''s not doing that, runs The Binary Refinery.
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"Don''t document your code; code your documentation." -me

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