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[stevesan]

Hi folks,
I'm starting to get more serious about pixel art, and I was wondering if Photoshop Elements is pretty good for spriting? Has anyone used it and ran into major drawbacks? I'm gonna try the demo, but just wanted to see if any one had prior experience.

Cheers,
--Steve

[Player 3]

Anything Photoshop is basically paying for the name. If you need that kind of power, fall back on The GIMP 2.6. MS Paint's good for basic pixelling, but you could take advantage of layers and miscellaneous functions.

[Quarry]

Paint.NET is pretty much the best option for pixelart

Lightweight, easy, fast

[stevesan]

Hmm what do you do for animation? I'd like to quickly flip between frames, reorder frames, play it all back, etc.

[Theophilus]

For pixel art, I use GIMP, because I like to take advantage of the layers and palettes. GraphicsGale is also nice, as it has better animation support.


Unrelated: I think it's high time we make one megathread for these kinds of questions: "What program should I use for...?"

[Quarry]

PdN has layers, transparency, palette saving/loading

It also has pretty neat plugins for stuff like outlines and such

Afaik only thing it lacks is animation

[emacs]

Eww GIMP.

Paint.NET is pretty good if you don't need animation (I think there might be plugins for it though, but I'm not sure).  If you're a student, you could get Photoshop for a lot less with a Student ID or .edu email.

Try out the 30 day trials for Ps or PsE and see what you think - if you like 'em, and you've got the dosh, buy it.  If not, Paint.NET is great, and so is GraphicsGale.

[ink.inc]

If you need that kind of power, fall back on The GIMP 2.6.

hahahahahhahaahhahahahah NO

gimp 2.6/2.8 are glitchy pieces of shit that have a ton of design/ui flaws

i have lost at least 15 hours of work from multiple crashes; it's taught me to save compulsively

photoshop would be a good decision if you decide to foray into other artforms, otherwise try paint.net

[Quarry]

Free: PdN
Paid: Photoshop

There's nothing PdN can't do that PS can do in terms of pixelarting though

[emacs]

Except for animation and custom brushes (right out of the box at least).

[Quarry]

Custom brush plugins exist

Also, why would you use custom brushes for pixelart..?

[stevesan]

OK I just bit the bullet and bought Photoshop with a student discount. Under $200..

It's overkill for pixel art, but I will be working with other artists as well (I'm also a programmer), and most artists seem to use photoshop.

[emacs]

Also, why would you use custom brushes for pixelart..?

Dither brushes, noise brushes, etc.  Not for the paint tool, but for the pencil tool.

Anyway good luck with Photoshop, can't wait to see what you make!

[rivon]

OK I just bit the bullet and bought Photoshop with a student discount. Under $200..

It's overkill for pixel art, but I will be working with other artists as well (I'm also a programmer), and most artists seem to use photoshop.

Beware though, as far as I know, with the student version, you cannot make commercial works.

[i wanna be the guy]

i didnt read the thread but anyone who didn't say graphicsgale or even fucking ms paint is an idiot well bye

[stevesan]

Well this is actually just the full product, but with a student discount.

GraphicsGale is awesome, for animation and everythign, but I wanna use it on my mac as well.

[Shackhal]

I prefer GIMP for now. If you deal with his UI first, then you have it easy. Useful to art in general (includes pixel art).

Photoshop is too expensive to me and I don't want to install a pirate one.

I tried to use Paint.NET but I didn't find some tools that I use continuously when editing an image.

And GraphicsGale is a good choice to pixel art, but I want an all-in-one graphics editor, not to deal with lot of them.

[Geti]

I've heard good things about pixen for mac pixelling, but I can't say anything from experience as I'm not that kind of guy

Promotion and Gale are nice, especially when it comes to animation. Both are cheaper to pick up than PS, but you've already taken the plunge
I use photoshop a lot of the time just because of how comfortable I am with the UI now.

GIMP occasionally, but I wouldn't recommend it for pixel work.

[stevesan]

Yeah, I also needed photoshop just for working with other artists too, like integrating their art into games.

And...Edge Touch is pretty awesome for the iPhone. I spent some time last night pixeling in bed with it The animation interface could use some work though.

[Bones]

I just use msPaint.
So I can't really contribute much to this topic.

Though I'd suggest Promotion 6 or Graphics Gale.
Don't use a mac so I have no suggestions for that.