Suggest software for backgrounds and character creation-animation

Hi fritoz. Thanks for the update.

I tried to follow the instructions in the link: http://www.gamefromscratch.com/post/2012/02/13/Creating-a-sp...
and i could'nt manage to complete it. The timeline feature in DAZ is very difficult and cumbersome.

So I checked the video and yeah these tools make animation in DAZ much easier. The cost is not too much i think. I might purchase them but right now i'm struggling to find some time and write the storyline of my project. Let me know if you use these tools and how's it going.

Mischief seems very nice but i think that the job can be done also with inkscape which is free. I'll try the demo and get back. In the meantime i suggest you buy a wacom tablet (the cheapest it doesn't matter). It's very handy. It might take you some time to get used to it but after that you'll be able to draw in the computer by hand saving tons of time.

Update: I ended up using blender for character modeling & animation. Most probably i will use it for backgounds as well. It's not that easy but very powerful and handy once you learn it and get used to it. A good example of using blender is the new Nelly Cootalot adventure game from the following link:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/315061806/nelly-cootalo...

Blender's freestyle renderer is ideal for adventure game art. It's very flexible because it provides many changeable parameters to define your style.Of course the biggest advantage of blender is the fact that it's totally free, it has a huge community, loads of tutorials everywhere. It's probably the most successful open source softwrae ever made.

For those who have patience and want an all in one solution i think blender is one of the best options.

I like to use inkscape for my png stuff. A freeware vector program. I use paint tool sai or open canvas for anything else (2d). I have a graphics tablet and directly draw ..if i do used to scan before but the tablet made it unneccesary

Hi. I also use inkscape + tablet for the conceptual design. Then i import this design in blender and use it as my reference to create the 3d models.
When i finish th 3d modeling and animations i export them in png sequences and finally import them in VS.
Works very well...

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Hello.I use spriter for my 2D Animations.It is not the best program for it but the program is cheap.For me it works.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ndldi1kjzc63575/walking1.mp4
(the character or the animation are not the final version.They are old versions only to show you how you can animate sprites with boxes/Bones.)

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what about for front & animations? I've found that spriter/spine/anime studio pro etc are only really geared towards side scrolling animations. I'm not sure it would be very easy to make decent front/back animations without a load of hassle?

I, myself have been contemplating using 3D for creating base models/animations that can be exported in various angles & then redrawn over in photoshop/illustrator or something. Makes more sense to me than having to create unique animations for each direction (2D) when you only need create once (3D) & rotate/move camera for a new perspective.

The idea of using 3d as skeleton for 2d drawing sounds sweet. But 3d programs are my nightmare. Had zsphere..cinema 4d. Id rather stick to ms paint..knowing that i make perfectly no sense. Is there a recommended software with the onion effect?

Well 3d is hard but as AFRLme says the best thing is that once you have your model and animate it everything else is automatic. I suggest you try blender.

In 2d you'll need to draw your character at all angles and animate him in all those angles (front, back, left right, diagonal etc). To animate you'll need to either follow the frame by frame technique (very hard but the best IMO) or the tweening method.

All modern 2d animation software give you access to use any of the above methods and they all have onion skinning tools. If you really like to animate in 2d i suggest using toonboom studio (which has very nice drawing tools also), anime studio (poor drawing tools but awesome bone system), crazytalk animator (no drawing tools but you can import 3d animations from iclone and apply them on 2d characters!) or synfig which is free but the drawing tools are not so good and also very hard to use.
Of course you can always use inkscape to create the art and then import your art to one of the above softwares to animate.

For 2D any program can do, but, you have to know that making 2D art is not something you just can do right away by picking a software. Everything you see in the games you mentioned was created by skilled artists, skill that takes years to develop.

Same goes with character animation, it's not something you can just pick up in a moment, it's something you have to study and practice for a long time. There is a free 2D animation tool called PAP (Plastic Animation Paper) if you want to try your hand at 2D hand drawn animation and you save the money it'll cost you toon boom.

There is also Spriter and Spine 2D that uses bones and deformations (would be interesting to see these work with visionaire though )

The method I use to work has varied over the years, I used to draw on paper, then scanned the sketches and painted it in either photoshop or painter with an old graphyre 2 tablet. Now I work directly on either my Bosto or cintiq screen and use mostly SAI.

OMG! fritoz..... thank you.... thank you very much for madewithmischief.... I never would have found without you and this is such a great piece of software! Need to spread the word somehow!

I use Poser Pro 2014 for most of my rendering of character animations and background scenes. I find it more intuitive and easier to achieve a high quality look than DAZ. I will do texturing, touch ups, filters and multi-render pass combinations in Photoshop.

Yeah PAP is also a very good free 2d animation software. It used to be commercial and cost around 1000 $ i think.