iOS NOOB: Which development tools should I use?

[BlitzPackage]

Greetings all,

I have decided to develop for the iPad (games and non-game apps). I have a few quick questions.

*Which development tools should I use to do graphics, animations and layouts for games and non-game apps. I have seen gorgeous graphics for games, and great layout and designs for non-game apps; I wonder what tools they use to develop such.

*What is the best toolset/approach to use to do animations for sports games? Football and basketball games, which I plan to make, require humans interacting with each other and with physical objects (e.g. balls, rims, etc...). I wonder what tools I should use to do such. Right now I am learning blender.

*Any idea what the iPad is capable of graphically with games? E.g. is it more powerful than the PSP or PS2?

*Finally, I am coming over from C#. Any thoughts on Mono?

I am so excited, any thoughts or direction to information would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance,
Blitz

 

[HarryWorksInc]

For developing you'll find everything you need to know here: developer.apple.com and for graphics the best programs to create the HD 2D Graphics are created in Adobe Illustrator, and the 3D graphics well... if your new to this then you won't be doing 3D for a while but the one of the best programs to create 3D files (or in my opinion) is 3D Max all together all of these programs will ring up to about $4,500

 

[BlitzPackage]

Thanks for your reply.

So, once I have the 2D, 3D and design assets, what tool do I use to implement them in the app? Does the apple developer center explain this information?

Thanks again,
Blitz

 

[bweberapps]

You can go the free route and use GIMP for 2D and Blender for 3D. Then if you want to make a game there is the free framework cocos2d for 2D games. I'm not too sure what is out there for free 3D, but Unity is a paid platform for 3D game development.

 

[HarryWorksInc]

You have to use Xcode its in the link I gave you. That website explains how to become an apple developer and there are links to the sign up pages. That is the official apple site.

Xcode is a free program which you can get there you have to pay 100 USD a year to submit apps to the app store.