next »

[Raku]

I used GM's sprite editor for those few containers, but for the armored character earlier I used MS Paint actually

[swordofkings128]

Oh yeah MS paint rocks! Not the version that comes with windows beyond XP though, the old pixel perfect one. I'm not an expert pixel artist but it has all the things you need to do pixel art, at least small stuff. When you start doing big sprites its a bit annoying to use with that.

A dessert mouse cursor theme for Frog Days, made in paint:

[chriswearly]

youre just making it worse 

I hope you're kidding. It's not the tool, it's what you can do with it.

I use MSPaint too. And I even have Pyxel Edit. I've just been using MSP for so much longer I know how to get what I want out of it (aside from transparency work obvs) fairly quickly.

Yeah, I make pixel fonts, so MSP is fine, you don't need Photoshop for that. But everything else too, I do in MSP.

[chriswearly]

im totally kidding, i mean just look at what raku makes, hes proof that its not about the tool

that being said, the tool def can get a job done faster at the same quality

Yeah he's alright I guess

That's true! If I need to change a whole scene's dark color to something else, Pyxel Edit has the masking tool that gets the job in 10 seconds rather than 4 minutes (x25 time). But I don't have time crunches so I usually just keep pushing through MSP.

[Shipright]

I use MSPaint for simple line work, but PyxelEdit for everything else. I keep Aesprite around for frame rates, because unless I am missing something you can't alter the rate between frames in PyxelEdit.

[6down]

I agree with what people have said about software, though I would say GraphicsGale is plenty usable once you've gotten past the initial learning curve.  The medium in general doesn't allow for the sort of complex visual effects and filters available to high-end software like Photoshop, so the curve isn't too steep, and MSPaint is certainly enough for many pixel pushers.  If you do a lot of animation, having hotkeys set to rapidly swap tools and switch frames can really speed up the process.  Most of the editors mentioned have this capability, and it's the reason I go with GraphicsGale (albeit emulated on Linux through Wine).
Here's some of my work if anyone's interested.

[aamatniekss]

Right, you sure can do the same job in MSpaint or GM sprite editor. But do you really have so much time to torture yourself with them? You can do the same thing 5x faster and sometimes even better(tilesets) if you use a tool that was made specifically for it. I dont understand why anyone would do it to themselves to use such featureless and crappy softs like Paint and GM sprite editor. Is it out of spite? Is it just because you're used to the other software? Well, it doesnt really matter, if youre smart about it, better change to something good. The learning curve isnt really that bad, its not like it's photoshop or something.
Graphics Gale free edition has pretty much all the features, except some not as useful stuff like exporting a gif, or ico file, that you can totally live without. And it's usable as hell, key shortcuts, fast workflow, tools to speed up process, everything. Interface is customizable too.
Pyxel Edit which is amazing for tilesets, is just 9$. Now dont tell me you cant afford 9$ for your hobby/passion.
Aseprite is just as amazing as the previous ones for everything and its also super cheap.

[Forstride]

Who cares what people use?  If they're happy and can work efficiently with the software they use, and don't want to change, so what?  The end product is all that matters with anything.

[aamatniekss]

Who cares what people use?  If they're happy and can work efficiently with the software they use, and don't want to change, so what?  The end product is all that matters with anything.

Yep, that's true. But it's also true, that that person would probably be much more efficient with a better software. But it's all good, it all depends on everyones preferences.

[RujiK]

Just gonna put in another vote for GM's built in sprite editor. I also use mspaint for quick stuff.

[sonder]

Who cares what people use?  If they're happy and can work efficiently with the software they use, and don't want to change, so what?  The end product is all that matters with anything.

Yeah

Guys, I'm really sorry for starting this.  All of the tools are fine.  I was just ribbing raku.

[absolute8]

Yeah

Guys, I'm really sorry for starting this.  All of the tools are fine.  I was just ribbing raku.

Don't be sorry. Start a separate topic post and go hard on the subject.People clearly find it interesting to discuss.

I want to hear all that passion about GM sprite editor uncensored! Let it all hang out, guy!

[JobLeonard]

If this will be split, I hope people will make and submit screencasts of their favourite tools

[6down]

...Sorry for starting this.  All of the tools are fine...

Don't be sorry...People clearly find it interesting to discuss.,,

Yeah, I'm quite glad to have happened upon this thread when I did.  I'd actually be interested in seeing the results of a community poll, software preference against skill level/experience, with a "primarily animator?" question attached.

Besides, we can post pixels while discussing.

Here's a little something I made in the last Ludum Dare (theme was "Shapeshift").  
Sloppy and rushed with some stray pixels, frequent side effect of soloing the jam, but the WIPishness will help me make a point about my tool preference:

The colors are bland, I'd planned on animating the palette, so that as the fireplace breathed and flickered, the stretching shadows would blacken and the moonlight would become bluer (the moon brighter and the sky deeper/darker), ebbing the contrast and making the wolf pop a bit more.  I'll explain why I think GIMP's a good choice for speeding up this type of work:

The wall in the back was originally just one color (the tan behind the letters "ER IS TH"). I added the moonlit section by selecting the tan by color[Shift+O], copy-pasting it into a new layer[Ctrl+C,Ctrl+V,Ctrl+Shift+N,click], then cutting out the section I wanted to keep tan [F,draw polygon,Ctrl+X].
A few seconds of hotkeys and mouse clicks, then I'm free to tweak the moonlight through a myriad of colour functions (see fig.B at bottom).

While you don't need more than 2 frames in a game to animate smooth color shifts (a simple alpha tween will do), software like GIMP lets you shift sliders and use blend modes to visualize what you want the animation to look like.
For a coder that knows his hex values, it may be faster to replace vars and re-compile, but for someone who's primarily an artist and wants do palette experimentation or blending effects, I vote GIMP.  

Here's a bit more WIP art from the game that never got the full palette treatment; wolf form gets a "hunger" value that makes the reds more vivid.


"Peter is the Wolf" was shelved, but you can see these GIMPified blending effects animated in my entry to the 2nd Public Domain Jam (skip to 1:06 for the match lighting).

If this will be split, I hope people will make and submit screencasts of their favourite tools...

You got it, man.
Fig A.   Fig B.

Hope this helps someone, and wasn't too off-topic or ranty for this thread.  I don't want to spark a contested convention...or do I?

[michael_88]

A dessert mouse cursor theme for Frog Days, made in paint:

I want a banana split mouse cursor for literally all the time 

[swordofkings128]

You sure can, if you choose! The banana split replaces the typical left/right arrow for looking around, where as that chocolate coated ice cream bar on a stick is the usual mouse pointer. But I'm considering having a player-customized theme where you can mix mouse cursors from all the themes to your liking so you could indeed have a banana split as all the pointers if you wished! But that's a maybe.

[Arafuin]

I'm not sure if this is the right place to ask for advice, but here I go anyway.
I'm trying to get into pixel art and animation, but I'm having a hard time creating a simple frontal walking animation, which is probably the easiest thing to start with.
Any advice? Should I maybe start with a simpeler character?



edit:
I've been trying to create a base model, I still feel like there's a lot of room for improvement...

[Shawny]

fanart of space patrol luluco and captain america

[vitorlanna]

I'm not sure if this is the right place to ask for advice, but here I go anyway.
I'm trying to get into pixel art and animation, but I'm having a hard time creating a simple frontal walking animation, which is probably the easiest thing to start with.
Any advice? Should I maybe start with a simpeler character?



edit:
I've been trying to create a base model, I still feel like there's a lot of room for improvement...

Actually I think the frontal walking animation looks pretty good! Only thing I've noticed is that the knees don't seem to bend much, but I think that's fine for walking (they should bend more in a running animation).


Here's a platformer mockup I made while procrastinating...
I want to expand on it and change some things later!

[Raku]

fanart of space patrol luluco and captain america

Ahh wow these are fantastic!