The Adobe suit is ideal if you can afford it. Even an older second hand version would more than suffice. It's also worth learning above alternatives as its the professional choice for so many industries, so even if one day you don't stay in game design you'll know how to use software that can be used else where. i.e. Corporate animation, Visual Effects, Video Editing, graphic design, game design, Matte Painting, Birthday card design, web design, PR and Marketing...
Cool, good choice, I only know the basics in it, but make do quite well with the pen tool, path finder and the colour palette.
I'm far more confident in Photoshop and After Effects but the vector graphics created in a tool like Illustrator are ideal for constantly tweaking graphic looks and sizes.You could then put them into photoshop if you want to add some grunge or texture to them. I also like Photoshop for exporting my PNG's for Gamesalad using the 'Save for web' function so you can get file sizes down by limiting the pallette and transparency.
Comments
Create graphics with:
Adobe Photoshop
Adobe lllustrator
Adobe Flash
Create Animation:
Adobe After Effects
Adobe Flash
Inkscape is A FREE option similar to Illustrator which is very popular:
http://inkscape.org/index.php?lang=en
There were some great easy to follow tutorials for it being posted by someone on this very forum...
I'm far more confident in Photoshop and After Effects but the vector graphics created in a tool like Illustrator are ideal for constantly tweaking graphic looks and sizes.You could then put them into photoshop if you want to add some grunge or texture to them. I also like Photoshop for exporting my PNG's for Gamesalad using the 'Save for web' function so you can get file sizes down by limiting the pallette and transparency.
Good luck (oh and welcome to the forum)..