Paint Programs???

[stephenj22000]

I was wondering if any game programmers out there would care to help me pick a decent program for creating bitmaps. I do a bit of graphics using VB.Net and would like to create better pictures (I'm not much of an artist).

 

I would like to know the following...

 

-if another "paint program" could add an isometric look to a picture

 

-if there were ways to rotate parts of an image (in a 3-d kind a way, not just by angles of x and y, but z also)

 

-if there were easier ways to creating animation frames in a single file

 

-if there were image masking parts that could create a mask with the program (I do have functions in my programs to convert the picture and create a mask, but having it with a draw program would be easier on me.)

 

-if the program could convert other picture files to the *.bmp file type (this is a must for me, I have no experience but with bitmaps)

 

-if the said program would be around $100 (or less!)

 

If anyone out there has any experience with programs like this, any input would be appreciated.

 

Also, I do not use Direct X (it still scares me). I don't know if that matters.

 

Thank you.

[Iceplug]

If you really want to make 2D representations of 3D objects, then you could try a 3D modeller program. Milkshape lets you take pictures of 3D scenes and saves them to a bitmap(s).

Paint can convert other pictures to the .bmp type, and you can easily create a masking program in VB.NET by using Bitmap.GetPixel and Bitmap.SetPixel :).

(You may be able to do it in Paint with monochrome bitmap mode and an inversion.)