List of pixel art and spriting tools

abstauber · Wed 27/04/2011 14:30:01

This is a list of all recent and stable spriting tools I've been able to find. Of course there are countless raster based image editors, but only a few focus on spriting and/or pixelation.
So here it is:

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ASEPRITE
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General
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Last Release: 11/2010
URL: http://www.aseprite.org/
Price: free (open source)
OS: Windows, Mac

Advanced Features
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8-bit palette: yes
Layers: yes
Animation: yes
Tiles: yes
Iso-Grid: no

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Edge2
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General
---------
Last Release: 11/2010
URL: http://takabosoft.com/edge2
Price: 4000 yen (Edge1 is freeware)
OS: Windows
Language: japanese only

Advanced Features
---------
8-bit palette: yes
Layers: yes
Animation: yes
Tiles support: yes
Iso-Grid: yes

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Grafx2
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General
---------
Last Release: 04/2011
URL: http://code.google.com/p/grafx2/
Price: free (open source)
OS: multi platform

Advanced Features
---------
8-bit palette: yes
Layers: yes
Animation: no (only palette rotation)
Tiles: yes
Iso-Grid: yes

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GraphicsGale
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General
---------
Last Release: 01/2011
URL: http://www.humanbalance.net/gale/us/
Price: 1,995 yen (freeware without .avi and .gif support)
OS: Windows

Advanced Features
---------
8-bit palette: yes
Layers: yes
Animation: yes
Tiles: no
Iso-Grid: no

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MTPaint
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General
---------
Last Release: 04/2009
URL: http://mtpaint.sourceforge.net/
Price: free (open source)
OS: Windows, Linux

Advanced Features
---------
8-bit palette: yes
Layers: yes
Animation: basic (via Gifsicle)
Tiles: no
Iso-Grid: yes

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ProMotion
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General
---------
Last Release: 2008
URL: http://cosmigo.com/promotion/index.php
Price: 78 USD
OS: Windows

Advanced Features
---------
8-bit palette: yes
Layers: yes
Animation: yes
Tiles: yes
Iso-Grid: yes

@InC: sorry, no Art Gem

Calin Leafshade · Wed 27/04/2011 20:27:11

Allow me to throw my hat into the ring on behalf of ASEPRITE.

The workflow in that program is great and the simplicity makes it wonderful.

Recommended by Leafshade.

Monsieur OUXX · Thu 28/04/2011 13:37:42

Quote from: Calin Leafshade on Wed 27/04/2011 20:27:11
ASEPRITE.

~~Could you produce a list of features, the same way abstauber did? Plz?~~

Someone tell this guy to just shut up.

Calin Leafshade · Thu 28/04/2011 13:39:25

Abby Stauber-Face already mentioned it.

The first one in his list.

cat · Thu 28/04/2011 13:43:42

What I like best about ASEPRITE is the easy switching between animation frames and layers.

Calin Leafshade · Thu 28/04/2011 13:47:20

yes! exactly.

also being able to switch between zoom modes with the number keys is nice.
and playing animations just by pressing the space bar.

It's just very nice to use.

I also recommend that you compile the latest version from source because it has some very nice new features that i consider mandatory. (improved palette editor and the ability to resize the window on the fly as well as a lot of palette bugfixes)

Anian · Thu 28/04/2011 13:56:49

GraphicsGale seems like a fine software as far as I can tell, apart from 2 things - the transparency (like one color being transparent) and getting it is really messed up (it seems easy at first), you have to turn on different things and changing it to another color is fussy, and also stuff like perspective skewing (don't what else to call it but say you have a rectangle and want to make it look like it's in perspective) I still can't find.

Cosmigo Pro motion seems to be worth the price, and seems to have everything you might desire, but then again ASE does almost the same but it's free and I'm not nearly as good at pixelart to make money from it so I think I'll switch from GG to ASE pretty soon.

cat · Thu 28/04/2011 13:59:13

Is the latest Windows ASE version stable now? I used the Linux version because I had some problems in Windows.

Calin Leafshade · Thu 28/04/2011 14:05:54

Quote from: cat on Thu 28/04/2011 13:59:13
Is the latest Windows ASE version stable now? I used the Linux version because I had some problems in Windows.

Yea, i also had problems with it in windows (specifically the screen going black for some reason) and so i used the linux version too but i havent had any problems with the windows build i did from source for a long time. It seems perfectly stable.

abstauber · Thu 28/04/2011 15:18:31

The only thing that keeps me away from ASE is its GUI and the fact that I already bought ProMotion

Calin Leafshade · Thu 28/04/2011 15:20:10

D: I like the GUI!

It has actually been improved significantly since the last official build (specifically the palette).

cat · Thu 28/04/2011 15:32:52

I have to admit that the GUI (at least the versions I did use) looks like it was directly taken from the early 1990s. But usability is great.

abstauber · Thu 28/04/2011 15:38:14

yeah, and all this for the sake of portability. The Grafx2 GUI feels even more outdated and even shares all the drawbacks from DPaint 2 (like the floodfill being blocked by the GUI, so you can't easily fill the whole screen at once).

Do you know if ASE already has grid with 45Â° angles? Or even better - if you have a recent Windows build, I'd be happy to check it myself

Calin Leafshade · Thu 28/04/2011 16:13:14

No ASE doesnt have that. At least I dont think it does.

I'll upload the latest build i have when i get home from work

abstauber · Thu 28/04/2011 16:22:12

QuoteI'll upload the latest build i have when i get home from work

Cool, thanks!

Calin Leafshade · Fri 29/04/2011 16:12:20

Heres the version I use:

http://www.thethoughtradar.com/ase0.9dev.zip

cat · Fri 29/04/2011 19:23:03

Quote from: Calin Leafshade on Fri 29/04/2011 16:12:20
http://www.thethoughtradar.com/ase0.9dev.zip

It doesn't work for me, it says the MSVCP100.dll is missing. Did I miss something?

Calin Leafshade · Fri 29/04/2011 19:30:16

Get the 2010 c++ redist from microsoft:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=a7b7a05e-6de6-4d3a-a423-37bf0912db84

I compiled in VS 2010

abstauber · Sat 30/04/2011 11:15:32

Very nice - everything I'd need for spriting is in there and the ramp feature in the palette editor is a great addition.
For backgrounds I'd still miss gradient fills and the ability to draw straight lines by holding the shift key. But hey, it's Allegro Sprite Editor, so I'm fine with it.

Although it doesn't convince me to switch from PM, this still looks like the best free animator out there.

Anian · Fri 13/05/2011 16:53:57

Just to get here before topic becomes too old, but although ASE says it has "onion skining support", I really can't find it in the menus or know what the hell that means (not what onion skining means, but the "support" part).
Is there any way of doing onion skining in ASE?