I'm trying to teach myself how to make half decent 2d graphics for my video game projects and right now I'm deciding whether I want to focus on raster or vector graphics. I want to hear peoples input but I'm also going to give vector graphics a try because I've never made vector art before and I want to get a feel for it.

so first off what vector graphics program would you recommend? Is there any standard software that is used for vector game art(flash maybe?) or does anyone want to recommend one that is good for making 2d graphics/animations? Right now I'm planning on using flash because I want learn actionscript and whatnot eventually anyway so I might as well get familiar with the software, unless anyone thinks flash isn't suitable for my needs for some reason.

Like I said I also want to get some peoples input on using vector graphics instead of raster for my android games. I'm not actually planning on rendering vectors in my game but just creating the graphics and animations with a vector program and saving them as .png. The reasons I'm considering vectors are because it looks somewhat easier for a non-artist like myself and because it would make animations much easier and less time consuming. I want to have half decent graphics in my game and I plan on investing a lot of time into improving my 2d art skills but I don't want to be spending weeks/months creating graphics for each game I make. I may be wrong but from the few tutorials I skimmed over on vector graphics it looked like it was pretty quick/easy.

alright thanks for reading my post if you have any advice to offer me please reply

so first off what vector graphics program would you recommend? Is there any standard software that is used for vector game art(flash maybe?) or does anyone want to recommend one that is good for making 2d graphics/animations? Right now I'm planning on using flash because I want learn actionscript and whatnot eventually anyway so I might as well get familiar with the software, unless anyone thinks flash isn't suitable for my needs for some reason.

Illustrator is the industry standard and it has some very powerful options for you. If you are just picking up vector based art you will find it has some really nice tools that can aid in the process from rasterized art to vector based concepts.

Like I said I also want to get some peoples input on using vector graphics instead of raster for my android games. I'm not actually planning on rendering vectors in my game but just creating the graphics and animations with a vector program and saving them as .png. The reasons I'm considering vectors are because it looks somewhat easier for a non-artist like myself and because it would make animations much easier and less time consuming. I want to have half decent graphics in my game and I plan on investing a lot of time into improving my 2d art skills but I don't want to be spending weeks/months creating graphics for each game I make. I may be wrong but from the few tutorials I skimmed over on vector graphics it looked like it was pretty quick/easy.

Vector art is a style just like raster is a style. They both come with negatives and posatives. The big thing about vector art is that it is all based off of mathematics so that you can easily resize and reshape with minimal issues. To make your art effective you need to understand the difference between highlighted areas and shadowed ones as normally you will see 3 - 8 tones in a vector based drawing. Most vector based art has a very cartoon style of look and in some cases ( with enough skill ) you can really make it look good. This does not mean that all art with vectors is cartoon based as I have seen some people take it to the extreme and do some rather sexy paintings with it. The limitation is really in what your understanding level of art is and how you can use these different looks/feelings to convey the picture/art you want.

I would argue vector based art is harder but that is because it takes an advanced understanding of where shadows and highlights should be placed. ( unless you are just good at that naturally ) I will say that you can do vector art pretty fast if you only want a basic shape, but to really make it shine you will need to take some time to get the details right. A good artist can make anything look simple be it with vectors or be it with raster layers. Anyway, good luck.