Graphic effects library for Core Graphics?

Question

I've reached a point were I can't keep procrastinating the writing of the graphics part of an iPhone app.

What has kept me from digging into it so far has being that it feels hard to figure out how to realize my idea of having "glowing", "sparkling" effects on some lamps. I used to be good at such things back in the days of the Amiga scene. But today I'm clueless. Now I can see that there are so many iPhone apps with completely stunning graphic effects. So. I'm wondering if someone knows about available libraries for creating those? Open source preferably, but I'm willing to pay some for it if it comes to that.

Answer 1

Maybe SDL could be helpful.

EDIT: just for motivation

• iPhone SDL Test
• iPhone SDL Test 2
• iPhone SDL Test 3

Answer 2

The easiest approach may be to render all your effects as PNGs with transparency in a drawing/painting program and just position/build/animate them on the iPhone itself. This will work for glows, particles and similar effects.

CGImage is the fastest rendering source for image data and you can either layer them manually in a single view (by positioning and drawing yourself) or draw to separate UILayers and use the layer to animate.