art is hard

[vivid terrace]

as a new solo developer, art is hard, and im ass at it. can anyone provide any useful tips/resources?

[heavy nimbus]

Lucky for us poor, unartistic solo devs we're living in the age of AI.
It's able to produce decent 2D art ( Dalle 3 ) for free. Of course, if you're working on a serious project you still need an artist but for small indie projects you may just get by with a free ai account and image editor.

There are some ethical considerations you'll have to sort out for yourself. And some publishing platforms have special rules when it comes to AI generated art

And there are also a lot of sites that offer free assets, but obviously this means no customizability

[violet stream]

i wouldn't reccomend using Ai for game art though. Apart from the fact that you won't learn anything about art if you use it, it's hard to find a resource where you can generate it with transpacency, make animations with it, etc. For placeholders sure, but for a final project i wouldn't reccomend that. It's up for debate though. What do others think?

[fickle sundial]

Everything in game design is hard. The thing that makes it easier aside from just practice is finding a style and workflow that works well with you personally. It's easy to look at art and think "wow, I could never make someting like that", but that artist probably thinks the same about some other piece of art, which you might even find less impressive. It's just something different, and we envy what we don't have. So start small. Try to create something that looks good, not impressive, and improve from there. Find the style and workflow you enjoy creating, not the one you wish you were good at.
That was all about art in generall, but keep in mind that Art in the context Games also serves a purpose other than Aesthetics. It's a way to communicate information to the Player. That's why things like Shape Language, Color Palettes and Contrast are much more important here. And those principles apply just as much to a blocked out prototype you might create in the editor using polygons as well as the high fidelity Assets of a next-gen AAA-Game that bankrupts its Studio. But the limit in scope allows you to fully focus on those important aspects and learn what works in your game. That of course also applies to something like UI, where layout, sizing and general color is much more important than the actual textures you use in the end.

[vale scaffold]

I'll agree with not recommending AI art. It's effectively only useful for still images, and it's usually very obviously. I know that when a lot of people see AI generated art in a game, they'll not take the entire game seriously. Better by far to have art that doesn't look amazing, but also doesn't look fake.

[fickle sundial]

plus you can't really put all the context the art would need for it to be consistent inside a prompt.

[open jay]

This might sounds crazy
But if you find 2d art hard to make, try 3d modelling
3d modelling is a different skill, a shape shaping skill like when we play with play dough.

Sometimes people who can't draw can do 3d modelling just fine

[vale scaffold]

Is the idea there that if you need 2D art, you could use an image of a 3D model or something? (not worked with models much, but the idea seems useful)

Actually, isn't that what they do with Factorio?

[open jay]

I sometimes use ai to generate reference images that I will then make 3d model of
No need to make same thing, just the general look is OK as long as you end up with acceptable model

[ember rampart]

It's pretty simple to render out image of 3d models in something like blender and then use those in a 2d game. Always a solid option.

Honestly OP your best bet is to just get better at art. It takes time but its so worth it in the end. Optionally buy art if you need to. Lots of places you can do that and it'll save you time.

[vale scaffold]

Even if your art isn't 'good', the point is to convey meaning. Focus on that and you'll learn a bit along the way. Try working with artists if you want good art too, that's an option I've done a lot.

[fickle sundial]

yeah that's also the case with me. The procedual nature of 3d moddeling just resonates with me better than having to draw strokes and not being easily able to edit them later.

i can also suggest Vector Art as a middle ground between 3d and 2d. having the procedual nature of 3d modelling, but specifically for 2d graphics.

and with modern features like mesh gradients there isn't really anything you couldn't create in them.