I'd like to use Photoshop CS3 Extended, but i want to make Yahtzee-style pixelated sprites. So i ask whats the best software?
The CL not the place to ask which software is best; this forum is for posting examples of your work and getting feedback. Please read the forum rules before posting.
Moving this to general discussion.
Quote from: ProgZmax on Wed 11/06/2008 12:13:43
The CL not the place to ask which software is best; this forum is for posting examples of your work and getting feedback. Please read the forum rules before posting.
Moving this to general discussion.
Sorry. All of my first posts are misplaced.
although I admire your ambition, I don't think you should start off with trying to become the next yahtzee.
I think his work can mostly be done with paint. But if you really care to use PS use the pencil tool.
I got a Wacom Tablet...
personally i think software counts very little towards the quality of your sprites, a good sprite artist can create good characters with pretty much any software.
it's like the old saying: only a bad workman blames his tools.
Yes, no woman complains about a crooked pen...
I think I'll be going back to ArtGem myself. I'd suggest it, but they don't make it anymore, and I've got the installer on a data cd for some reason. Yayness.
I think i'll use PS for it's tools. Because Yahtzee got pretty pixelated using PS.
Well, I too use bible because Jesus walked on the water. Oh, and Photoshop would be a choise, but me stolen version and and the crack had a virus in it.
Mine was fine...
Software counts for next to nothing with pure pixel art. Of course, if you're looking for automatic dithering, color corrections, layers, etc. then there are several to choose from. Photoshop is ideal for pretty much anything, too, if you know how to use it. It's also a good thing to start learning PS early on, because it's most likely to help you later if you plan on developing your graphics stint.
PS is good for anything if you know how to use it...just like anything in this life.
Serious pixel art work does benefit from a specifically designed editor, and I'd recomment Cosmigo Pro Motion. It's easily the best I've used after learning to operate it properly. For simple pixel art stuff like Yahtzee's style, where you aren't worrying about palettes, Photoshop is quite usable. It's mainly animation where Photoshop gets laborious, and where dedicated pixelling programs shine. PS is pretty good for backgrounds, even in low res.
I don't agree with people that don't think tools are particularly important. You'll make much better progress with efficient tools in art and in most other areas, and a little effort learning a tricky program can be well worth it. That said, as long as you're not using MS Paint you're not shooting yourself in the foot too badly.
I can pretty much do all of my sprite work in MS Paint; BUT that doesn't mean it's the easiest or most efficient tool to use. Especially when it comes to animated sprites (see ***).
I prefer to use Pro Motion. (btw 'Yahtzee' uses Photoshop)
http://www.thegamecreators.com/?f=promotion
or here
http://www.cosmigo.com/promotion/
Key Features
- All tools are optimized for image and animation editing at a pixel level for graphics with up to 256 colours per frame.
- Realtime brush display while drawing (a brush can be a graphic part or a shape)
- Lots of realtime drawing tools including line, curve, rectangle, circle, oval and polygons all in either filled or unfilled modes
- Dithering methods for area filling
- Magic wand for automated brush selection from images
- Flexible colour palette management including colour gradients
- *** AnimPainting to flip frames WHILE drawing
- *** Auto Tile Completion copies modifications of a singe tile to all other occurences (useful as level map designer)
- *** Light table to display different animation key frames at once (aka Onion Skinning)
- Place your brushes into a brush container for parallel use. The brush container can be saved to a file.
- *** Support for color cycling
Game Specific Features
- RGB channel depth can be selected from 222 to 888
- Optimize tile based graphics for hand held systems that have a limited number of colors per tile like Gameboy Advance etc.
- Support for tile painting (ideal for creating endless textures)
Paint.NET (http://www.getpaint.net/) isn't bad. It's not particularly optimized for pixel art, but it handles it quite well. And it's free.
I think, that every artist, if I can say so, should choose the tool, he/she is most comfortable with, I mean, something, he/she knows very well and doesn't get lost in unnecessary functions. I've seen some works on MS Paint, that were better than their photoshop counterparts.
If you get lost in unnecessary functions, learn what they do, and you'll find a lot of them aren't so unnecessary. Being comfortable is not the way to get better at things. MS Paint is simply inefficient, and when you want to get a game finished that matters.
Scotch, rereading the thread I realize I posted the same reply. Sorry about that, I try to read all posts before posting; obvioulsy I missed yours (and go figure it's right before mine ).
But I agree with your statements, especially with regard to animating & Pro Motion.
I've had PS for a long time when I lived at my parents house. It all started when my brother's friend "obtained" it from one of his classes at school. ;)*
Currently I do not have PS and I'm certainly feeling the effects of having been a long-time user of PS looking for a new and free program to do everything in the same way as I expect it to! Realistically I probably won't find one, so the cheapest* solution would probably be to purchase* an adapter for my SATA HDD so I can start using my copy* of Photoshop again.
This is somewhat off-topic but I did want to say that if you do "obtain"* a copy* of Photoshop, you should use caution to avoid most of the tools when doing pixel-work. Things like motion blur, the burn tool, the smudge too, anti-aliasing, etc. are all your enemies in the pixel world though they can have uses in higher resolution images.
*monkey_05_06 in no way endorses, supports, or (ahem) participates in software piracy or other illegal activities which are illegal and therefore against the law. If you choose to participate in such activities you do so at your own risk. I'd advise against it except offering legal advice is illegal unless you're a lawyer which I'm not. And clearly I don't do illegal things because that would be illegal.
Yep, Promotion is easily the best Pixelart software.
IMO, the most useful feature is complete control over the palette, allowing the artist to adjust each slot's RGB/HSL values in "real-time".
Since I've championed Pro Motion's use as a pixel art toolkit from day one (and actively beta test it) I will add my vote for it being pretty much the PC IDEAL for mouse-based art. If you use a tablet and prefer a more loose drawing style then photoshop is for you, though I will argue that it is crippled in the pixel art area because that is not what it was designed for. Also, if you ever want any kind of full-featured studio for sprite production then photoshop is certainly the wrong choice, as is Paint.Net, regular paint and anything else that does not provide precision palettes, animation tools and support for tile-based grid work (traditional console rpg art).
I prefer to use a program called Idraw3, also known as Chara maker, it was originaly made for Rpg maker i think but its pretty good for pixel art. I think you can download it for free if you can find it
Ill try Pro Motion. I see it's pretty popular.