Hi all,

I looked through the pinned threads in Visual Arts but couldnt find the answer i was looking for..

I'm looking for a tool that lets me draw vector graphics and create vector graphics animations. I would also like the tool to be able to export the animations to a series of raster images (textures), in order to be used for a game. Which is the current "professional solution" to do this? What tool(s) do you recommend? Do you recommend using a pen + tablet for the drawing part, or is it better to go with a mouse?

I've been drawing on paper for a while and would like to try my skills out on a computer. I have not attempted animation yet, but it's something I'm looking to learn. The final goal would be to produce some kind of simpler game. I'm looking to draw simpler and not extremely detailed stuff, and to animate it. I've got money to spend on pen + tablet and software to get a "professional tool" that is easy to work with, good maintained (active community) and produces a good result.

Thanks!

To just create vector graphics, you should use Adobe Illustrator if you can afford it and/or get a student discount. Otherwise, the open source equivalent is InkScape.

In terms of what to use, a wacom tablet is never a bad thing to have for doing basically any kind of 2D art -- although they're geared more towards producing raster art rather than vector, you can use tablet input and something like Illustator's pencil tool but it takes getting used to. You can also convert raster line drawings to vector and then clean them up in Illustrator -- don't actually need a tablet for that in that you can scan pen-and-ink drawings.

For doing animations ... I've never done it but Illustrator + Flash is obviously common ... not sure what you can do with Flash files besides play them in a a flash player or as part of a Flash game however.