Purchasing Graphics for use in games istockphoto

butterbeanbutterbean Member Posts: 4,315
edited November -1 in Art, Graphics, Music and Sound
So I was browsing for places to purchase graphics when I came accross istock photo

In order to use graphics in a game for the iphone, there are standard licensing options, and extended options

Does anyone know if you can purchase just the standard option, or if it is to be used in a game, do you have to purchase the extended option?

Thank you!

Comments

  • JGary321JGary321 Member Posts: 1,246
    Actually I was looking for some places to purchase graphics. If anyone else finds anymore lets make a list.

    I do not know. I will look into it though.
  • danreldanrel Member Posts: 28
    Heck, if anyone would like me to create some graphics for you, I would do so for a nominal fee. If you'd like to see some of the work that I've done just email me at: danrel DOT gamesalad AT gmail DOT com. Also, I wouldn't ask for any royalties or the like...

    - danrel
  • butterbeanbutterbean Member Posts: 4,315
    Danrel

    I'll email you some samples of what I'm looking for k :)

    But on istock photo, can you just purchase the standard option to use the art in gaming or do you have to purchase the extended option?
  • JGary321JGary321 Member Posts: 1,246
    Butterbean - Did you find any graphics worth using on that site? I browsed it & didn't find anything to use in games. Maybe some backgrounds or still images, but nothing for animations/effects.

    As far as I can tell, you just purchase their credits & then purchase the item. They are royalty free, you don't need a subscription or anything. Once purchased you can use however you like.
  • iboneibone Member Posts: 13
    You'll have better results from animationfactory.com

    for computer games they had a different license agreement to their usual one, it would be that you had to credit jupiterimages in a credits page. I'm not sure what limitations they have now, but they have fantastic stuff, backgrounds, characters, animating pngs that could all be accessed for a reasonable annual fee.
  • quantumsheepquantumsheep Member Posts: 8,188
    I've found that you can get plenty of free stuff on the web. Google search is your friend!

    Obviously there are some things you have to give credit for, but you'd be surprised how much stuff is just given out free, with no restrictions.

    For example, I wanted an animated background for my Bugz title screen. I google searched what I wanted, and after a few pages found a service where you could input some characters and it would make an animated gif for you that you could download to your phone and use as wallpaper - for free!

    Of course it never went to my phone, just into quicktime where I extracted the images and made my own animated background for Bugz ;)

    EDIT:

    Also, another example:

    The guys that made Braid (great game btw, pick it up if you can!) released all their graphics for FREE to be used as people liked. You can find them here: http://www.davidhellman.net/blog/braid-graphics-briefcase/

    Having said all that, it's sometimes hard to find some really specific things relevant to your ideas. In that case, I make my own, but I'm not very good at it. So I guess it does pay to, er, 'pay' for stuff sometimes!

    I'd be interested in chatting to you danrel in this regard ;)

    Having said all that, it's hard to find some *specific* art assets with regard to certain ideas. I'd be interested in speaking with you danrel if possible with regard to this!

    Hope that all helps,

    QS

    Dr. Sam Beckett never returned home...
    Twitter: https://twitter.com/Quantum_Sheep
    Web: https://quantumsheep.itch.io

  • danreldanrel Member Posts: 28
    Hey QS,

    If you or any other GS users are interested in chatting about graphics work, please just shoot me an email (provided in my post above) and I'll send you a couple examples of things I'm currently working on as well as a pic or two of past works.

    Thanks,

    - danrel
  • quantumsheepquantumsheep Member Posts: 8,188
    Cheers! Sent a mail :P

    Dr. Sam Beckett never returned home...
    Twitter: https://twitter.com/Quantum_Sheep
    Web: https://quantumsheep.itch.io

  • JGary321JGary321 Member Posts: 1,246
    Danrel, I am very interested, but unfortunately I'm at work & can't SEND e-mails. Can you e-mail me some examples?

    jgary321@comcast.net
  • danreldanrel Member Posts: 28
    Hi JGary321,

    "Danrel, I am very interested, but unfortunately I'm at work & can't SEND e-mails. Can you e-mail me some examples?"

    --- Will do just as soon as I get home and settled in :)

    Thanks for your interest!

    - danrel
  • quantumsheepquantumsheep Member Posts: 8,188
    Having seen an example of Danrel's work now, I'm very excited!

    Looking forward to the stuff we've discussed to appear in my inbox, sir! I just thought of some more, but we'll take it slow for now ;)

    Cheers,

    QS

    Dr. Sam Beckett never returned home...
    Twitter: https://twitter.com/Quantum_Sheep
    Web: https://quantumsheep.itch.io

  • JGary321JGary321 Member Posts: 1,246
    Hey QS send me that sample to my e-mail =)

    I can recieve at work but can't send.

    My e-mail is in the post 2 above yours.
  • butterbeanbutterbean Member Posts: 4,315
    Danrel is a great vector artist! I've already emailed him on a project I need him on :)

    I think istock photo has some great vector images! I've looked, and they have plenty of stuff I could use in my game, of course, it all depends on what style of games you're looking to create, but I think they have some really good stuff on there

    And as long as you have a vector editing program, can you take apart the image if you say, want to use separate actors ? You can also edit the colors to your hearts content, the possibilities are limitless!

    I'm excited that braid is actually allowing people to use their images! They are some of the best in 2D gaming! Unbelievable!

    Can you really use those braid graphics for free, no stipulations?
    I didn't see any disclaimer or anything, do they want to be mentioned if you use them in a game?
  • quantumsheepquantumsheep Member Posts: 8,188
    Butterbean:

    Someone on that link asked:

    "Does that include other independent (but potentially commercial) games? Eg. can they be used for ‘cameos’?"

    And the official answer was: "you can use these however you want!"

    I'm already using some of the backgrounds and doors for one of my own games ;)

    Dr. Sam Beckett never returned home...
    Twitter: https://twitter.com/Quantum_Sheep
    Web: https://quantumsheep.itch.io

  • butterbeanbutterbean Member Posts: 4,315
    It's Christmas early this year, the team from Braid just gave us their graphics to use for free! :)

    Thanks Quantum, are those graphics vector? I only ask because my photoshop program opened up to view them once they were downloaded
  • JGary321JGary321 Member Posts: 1,246
    Can anyone explain vector images to me? Whats the difference between that & regular images, whats the benefits etc. And speak english:

    My God man I'm a programmer, not a Graphics designer!

    (This will make sense if you've seen the new Star Trek, & no I'm not a Trekie, never really liked it before this movie)
  • butterbeanbutterbean Member Posts: 4,315
    I don't know much about graphics design, but there are vector images, those that you can edit with adobe illustrator, and they have clean lines, whereas sprite images are drawn pixel by pixel in programs like pixen, and photoshop cs4, and are otherwise known as sprites.

    I'm sure someone can explain it better, but those are the 2 different types of 2-D images.

    Sprites are more of a relic nowadays, although I'm drawing sprites in one of my games b/c I'm going for the retro look. Sprites can be seen in games such as SNES, N64, and even Nintendo DS.

    Most iphone games now have vector images and are created with programs like adobe illustrator, and can be found on sites like istockphoto.

    This site sums it up pretty well:

    http://blog.dreamstime.com/2007/10/25/vector-vs-pixel_art24788
  • danreldanrel Member Posts: 28
    JGary321,

    "Can anyone explain vector images to me? Whats the difference between that & regular images, whats the benefits etc. And speak english:"

    --- Vector images differ from 'raster' or pixel-based in that they are not pixel based at all. Instead, they are created from mathematical equations so that if the initial image is say 128x128px and you need to make it 1024x1024, you can do so by simply enlarging the image in Illustrator or 'InkScape'(a free alternative). Basically no matter how large or small you make your vector image, you won't lose any image quality and vector images are VERY scalable(no pixelation or 'jaggys')...

    Raster images are pixel based so a 128x128 image cannot be scaled to 256x256 without it looking pixelated and generally just bad.

    It's kind of hard to explain.

    This Wikipedia entry should help:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vector_graphics

    "My God man I'm a programmer, not a Graphics designer!"

    --- Nice, I see what you did there ;)
  • butterbeanbutterbean Member Posts: 4,315
    Quantum

    Are the graphics from Braid ready to plug into GS, or do you have to go into Photoshop or another program and resave them so they aren't blurry

    Do you save it as 72 dpi? I've been using Pixen, so photoshop is new to me, and not sure how to save the images so they aren't blurry in GS

    Sorry if this was already mentioned, as I'm sure it was :)
  • danreldanrel Member Posts: 28
    Butterbean21,

    If the images automatically open in Photoshop, you either have your settings to open images in Photoshop by default or the images were last edited in Photoshop(this happens by default when editing in Photoshop).

    If you would like to save them for GS, you could just go to 'Image' -->'Image Size'. Once there you should chose 72dpi, click 'OK'. After that go to 'File' --> 'Save For Web And Devices'. Once there, under the 'Done' button, there should be a 'preset' drop-down. Choose 'PNG-24' from the drop-down and then save. From there you should be good to go!

    If that doesn't work let me know and I'll look into it further. That should work though...

    Hope that helps!

    - danrel
  • butterbeanbutterbean Member Posts: 4,315
    Danrel,

    Thanks a bunch! I'll take a look tomorrow, and resave the images as you said, couldn't have explained it better!
  • okeeokee Member Posts: 1
    I came across another site while looking for Playing Card sprites.
    It's http://www.openclipart.org/ everything on there seems to be public domain.

    I found this set of Playing Card Graphics http://nicubunu.ro/cards/ on there
    which are quite nice and wrote to the author who said i could do what i want
    with them as he released them as public domain.

    The Openclipart site itself is a bit kludgy to navigate but it's woth it as
    a lot of the images are of high quality and almost all public domain

    okee
  • butterbeanbutterbean Member Posts: 4,315
    Thanks Okee I'll take a look :)
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