Using magazine scans to create my game

To help teach myself sign language, I was thinking about making a C2 game out of it. I have this cool book with all these basic illustrations of how to sign.

The idea of the game is a bunch of mini-games based on memorization, and creating sentence structures with the images by dragging and dropping.

But a part of me wonders, what if the game is GOOD?! Like, app good? I'll probably change all the art if I do that.

But am I even allowed to upload the game in any capacity since it's not my artwork?

DO NOT use magazine or book art scans except for personal use.

Can I make a suggestion? Go to daz3d.com and download all of their free software NOW before it isn't free any more. (They'll start charging again on May 1.) Then you'll have a character with poseable hands and you can create your own renders of signs.

I'm very familiar with Daz studio, so I'll help you a litte if you like.

Once you have your own art you are free to do what you want with it. It also means you can do things like look at the signs from different angles, etc.

In fact, you can create animations and show the sentence structure that way instead of just single pictures.

Let me know if you are interested in this. I find it interesting.

EDIT: Found a technical article that is more detailed than you need, but it shows the kind of posing I'm talking about. What you'd be doing is MUCH simpler than this. I think you may be able to buy ASL poses ready made. I'll look for them.

DAZ Pose Control Tutorial

EDIT 2: Yep, here is the ASL alphabet.

Aiko4 and V4 Hand It Over

EDIT 3: Here is a free pack with letters and basic signs (animated.)

American Sign Language Vol 1

I believe they can, but you should contact the author to make sure the poses can be used for commercial purposes.

Does this require me to learn how to animate? Because I'm hoping to just use flat 2D images. Definitely downloading these programs now and check them out.

No, you don't have to learn how to animate. The last link is to a set of already completed animations. You just have to apply the poses and then scrub through the animation to find the frames you want to render. Here is a quick render of a frame of one of the animations.

<img src="http://dl.dropbox.com/u/57899112/ASL.png" border="0" />

It does take time to learn to use the software, though. If you only want the arms and hands, you can hide the rest of the character.

Like I said, I'll give you some help if you'd like.

I take it that one means pull my finger?

Sweet! Definitely appreciate it! Let me build a demo C2 game first with some placeholder art. Once I get a few images in, I'll see if DAZ3D has what I need, and I'll start steamrolling you with questions. :)

I take it that one means pull my finger?

OMG, Newt! How did you guess?

Cpryd001: do you want just to learn the letters, or phrases ?

If you just want letters, static 2D Sprites are fine, but if you want to learn a phrase, you need the animation. So you are going to load animations inside the <video> tag.

Or render a few frames for a sprite animation.

A lot of the phrases can be translated to a 2D drawing. That's how they teach you with a textbook. :)

<img src="http://i.imgur.com/AiK8u.png" border="0" />

And the reason I want to use flat art instead of animation is that the game I'm thinking about is more of a card game, which uses sign language. So it's simple clicking and memorization.

I still think making your own art is the best way to go, but did you check for public domain art, such as government produced art free for citizens to use?

You might also contact the magazine and see if you could get permission to use their art. It's a long shot, but it might work. Who knows. The might even want to buy the game from you for their website!

I'm still working on just figuring out the 'game part' and putting into C2. :)