Kandar - hold on just a sec ...
What did you mean by "rhino and PSP being by far not the best
programs out there" ? Well obviously that they are, but I''m gonna
have to take you up on that. Of course PSP5 is just low budget
low line - low program, and psp6 put in a few features but it''s
basicly still the same shit, but Rhino is a totaly different
story. Rhino3d is one of the best MODELERS out there, sure it
doesn''t do half the stuff 3dMax or TS4 do, but the stuff it does
do, it does far better than both 3dmax or TS - Modeling,
since that''s what the program is for, and it does it with
professional quality. It''s not a 3d package, so it''s not a good
idea to refer newbies to it, it''s a Modeler to be used with
other programs such as lightwave or 3dMax

If you''re looking for 2d - Photoshop or Painter are your
best choices (especialy Photoshop). if you''re looking for a 3d
Package/Program you should probably look into TS4 because that''s
the easiest to get into, or blender because it''s free (I however
can''t stand the interface)

Also as you did say - it is quite easy to use, once you get
past learning how to use the nurbs efectively. It has literaly
hundreds of tools, and by FAR the best interface compared to any
other program I used, so if you''re interested in using it good
for you but get a program like 3dMax or Lightwave(If you can
dish out that much) if you''re interested in making quality 3d graphics.

anyways- I should shut up now (ANd I think I will)

~Weird_OWE~

it''s undeniably true that photoshop is a great art tool but as i said, not for game development. you can go right ahead and use photoshop for sprites and textures. you can go ahead and find out the hard way what a frickin'' nightmare it''s gonna be with all the palette information. good luck.

I''ll just come and say just like a2k so you guys understand, Photoshop is bad Bad BAAAAAAAD, when it comes to messing around with palettes, and paint shop pro, fireworks and the others are no better. I''ll say it again, they are not very helpful when you are in the final step of modifying your nice little graphics to port them to your game, respecting all the specs your coder gives you... I did sprites 98% with photshop, then had to edit them with GFX so the f%cking palettes would be ordered, and the way I want, and the rotating colors were they should be.

Get it ?

I would recommend DeluxePaint (ye olde paint program ), or even GFX 2 (Sunset Design) which is much cooler.
But both are DOS based, which is uncool for copy/pasting and other nifty stuff Windows can offer. For the rest, old skool rulez

youpla :-P

I use both PSP and Photoshop and both have their place. I''m suprised no one mentioned Wally. It''s very limited in what it can do, but it''s great for textures and tiles. No fancy plug-ins, just pixel by pixel 2d and it handles palettes very well.
Reminds me of good old Deluxe Paint.

You want a program that can do painting as well as photoshop for under 100 dollars ?
go to PIXEL32
and get the licensed program for $50 untill Aug31st
the program does look promising

~Weird_OWE~

To everyone that doesn''t like PhotoShop because of the pallet options: What the heck are you doing making 256 color sprites?? Don''t you think that people nowadays have more colors? I hate 2D games that still live in the 256 color world.

E:cb woof!

actually, you''re right. i had nightmares in photoshop during my TOWGPG directdraw 8bit days. i got hella pissed at it, got PSP, got the palettes to work right, and i was happy. photoshop does have better tools, and psp has a better interface, but psp can interface with animation shop, which makes my animated gifs for my web page pretty cool. =)

a2k

PhotoShop 5.5 comes with tools to do animation.

E:cb woof!