How do authors make graphics?
 

Hi all,

This time it is more like a generic question about graphics than programming.

How do authors create their own graphics?

Like all the authors do, I also try to put same value on graphics as much as I do on programming. However, I've never learnt anything about graphics or even a Photoshop. Thus, only thing that I can do is using resources from the web or packages like this.

I'm not saying that they are bad, but I can't fully show/express my individuality and originality.

So, I would like to ask how addon authors create their graphics.

I draw my own textures in Photoshop o_O

-- edit #1

I'd say drawing artwork is kinda uncommon, many users prefer flat UIs and many devs don't want to bother w/ artwork, majority of them isn't artists, they're programmers, you know, so for them popularity of flat UIs is a win.

Exporting the WoW art files can create a great resource for graphics, the girls and guys creating art at Blizzard seem to be reasonably good ;). The two new skins for my UI (seen here) were largely done this way.

I use Xara and Gimp for creating my graphics and I'm certainly no artist.

It's pretty obvious how it's done.

Create said art in a program that supports tga. You could also download BLP2PNG and then create the files and save them as png. Then use that program to convert which turns them into blp.

The 2 main graphic programs that people use that support tga..
- Photoshop (not free unless you know where to dl)
- Gimp (free)

Most if not all graphic programs support png.

Here's some helpful information with textures: https://forums.wowace.com/showthread.php?t=15439

Paint.net also supports .tga files.

Photoshop. I'm mostly creating simple graphics and using blending options to create the magic. If you can get a hold of Photoshop (in one way or another) you can make pretty good looking graphics without any artistic drawing skill behind it. If you don't know where to start, there are plenty of good tutorials online for that endeavour.

Hm... maybe I should try using Gimp.

Last time when I used it, I found it complex for me, but since I don't own a license for Photoshop (and since I don't want to use a pirate version) maybe it's a time for me to deal with it :)

Thanks for all replies!

Uhmmm - I've got to say - I make a couple of plug-ins (for Masque and Minimap Button Frame) and I use both Photoshop and Gimp. It is not that tough (but my plug-ins use generally easy graphics).

I generally use Fireworks (formerly of Macromedia, now owned by Adobe) and more rarely Photoshop (which has a much wider selection of plug ins), though GIMP is a far cheaper alternative but "create their graphics" is kind of open to interpretation -- anywhere from making sure the .png file is sized to ^2 for .blp conversion to 'Picasso meets Bob Ross' :)