Apps Creating 2d graphics for games

[Subprime]

Hi, before i get to my question let me just give a quick background so that you know where I'm coming from. I am a new developer, although I do know java fairly well. Anyways, my project this summer is to create a game for android. So far I have a basic game but there are no graphics (everything is circles and rectangles). So I tried to add a graphic(a png sequence animation) but it looked terrible and I assume it's because of the scaling to a very small image. So my question is what is the best way to create animated graphics that look good? Thanks for your help.

 

[Scottmc]

Hi, before i get to my question let me just give a quick background so that you know where I'm coming from. I am a new developer, although I do know java fairly well. Anyways, my project this summer is to create a game for android. So far I have a basic game but there are no graphics (everything is circles and rectangles). So I tried to add a graphic(a png sequence animation) but it looked terrible and I assume it's because of the scaling to a very small image. So my question is what is the best way to create animated graphics that look good? Thanks for your help.

The best way to make good graphics? Hire an artist. Seriously. Unless you are an artist and a master at contrast (which is the key to small graphics) then I suggest you just bite the bullet and dish out the money to hire an artist. Especially if you plan on creating a commercial game. Another alternative is to find some CCL (Creative Commons) or other open source art.

 

[Subprime]

Thanks for the response. Believe me I would hire somebody if I was doing this as a job. I'm doing this more as a hobby though. My question was more on how to make the graphics look less pixelated, because when I compare what i have so far to other games, the images i use look extremely pixelated. I'll attach some images so that you know what i'm talking about. The screenshot image is what it looks like in the emulator (the image is about 60 x 120 in the emulator), and the other image is what it should look like. Thanks again.

 

[Subprime]

And here is a screenshot of the emulator viewing my last post. As you can see, when i view the normal image through the emulator at the same size as the image is in my game, it is a lot easier to look at.

 

[Scottmc]

You could try anti-aliasing. That will get rid of some of your jaggies. Another option is to scale the sprite using a decent scaling software. I had the same exact problem when porting BREW games/applications. Because of device fragmentation sometimes the graphics just looked horrible and usually the original developers don't supply images at various resolutions so it's scale, anti-alias, test, rinse and repeat until you get something that looks good. Okay, one device down, now 20 more to go .