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General Pixel Art Discussion Thread

Logiedan

Logiedan

    • 2,982
    Posts
    15
    Years

    Introduction

    So I decided the spriter's showcase thread was basically a forum for criticism on scratch sprites. This thread is to discuss about pixel art in general, styles, tools, references, etc. There are some rules you'll need to follow however.

    Rules

    All Pokécommunity rules apply.

    Showcasing
    Please don't showcase sprites here, this is a discussion thread. If you would like to showcase your sprite(s), post it in the Spriter's Showcase thread or create your own showcase thread if you have four scratch sprites to showcase.

    Topic
    Stay on topic, if you would like to bring up another topic then do so but include a response to the previous topic.

    Help
    If you need help regarding tools, terminology or have a question including those topics, feel free to post. Asking for constructive criticism for your sprites in this thread is prohibited. Such posts will be deleted.

    Advertising
    Like the general Pokécommunity rules, don't advertise websites including other forums. You are not allowed to advertise your shop or sprites as well.

    Spamming
    Just don't spam. It's that simple. Such posts will be deleted. ):

    That's pretty much it, if you have any concerns, questions or suggestions please contact Logiedan.

    Starting Topic: What program do you spriters use for your pixel art?
     
    pixels r cool

    Also I alternate between Paint.NET and Photoshop depending on whether I need to specify a set palette or need animation functionality.
     
    I used to use MS Paint but the recent upgrade of it from Windows 7 drawn me away. Now I just use Photoshop for my pixel art and animations, though I do want more tools or features that support pixel art. ):
     
    Generally I like to use good ol' MS Paint to do a lot of my initial work and then use Photoshop for fine tuning, playing with colors, and for animation and transparency.

    I hate the latest version of paint.
     
    I used to hate the Windows 7 Paint. But now I'm so used to it, that I don't even use the old Paint anymore.
     
    I guess it is easy to get use to, but I dislike the cropping and the rectangular marquee tool now. It makes it more complicated for fusing. :/
     
    Yeah, I thought the same thing. But like I said, it just takes some time getting used to.
     
    I use MS Paint... The good 'ol XP version. Which as far as I know is essentially unchanged from the good 'ol Win98 version. For my "Paint can't do that" needs I use Paint Shop Pro, and for animation, Animation Shop. Everything related to the spriting itself I do in Paint though. :D
     
    Too bad MS Paint doesn't support transparency. If they supported transparency then I think MS Paint will be the best tool for the basics of Pixel Art.
     
    Well, transparency is a purely aesthetic thing for displaying your sprites... Almost any program a sprite would actually be used in would use one of the colors present in the image as the transparent one. I can't deny that I like to post my sprites to forums as transparent though, especially when they have a non-white background color.
     
    I guess, but I also think it's alright to post sprites with a white background. The white background lets you see the pixels better rather than for example someone using a dark theme, the black outline clashes with the dark theme colours.
     
    I use Windows XP's MS Paint with Vista's graphics, barring the default palette which is seemingly unchangeable. Whenever I try with things like PS, GIMP, GG etc. I just don't feel as comfortable. :/ I do, however, use GIMP for transperent-ing my sprites, after going around the outline in white on Paint.
     
    Actually, something that hasn't been mentioned yet is layers. While I prefer Paint, and find its environment easiest to work with, layered images probably simplify a lot of things in the spriting process.
     
    that's the main reason i can't use paint.

    e: that and the lack of quick colour replacement, better resizing and oh **** it
     
    I don't really use any of that... Not for spriting, at least. I like to do everything manually, pixel-by-pixel for most of it.

    ...Unrelated to the topic at hand, but does it seem to anyone else that Pokemonatoms has decided that I'm the only one on his side, despite the fact that I'm saying the same thing as everyone else?

    Back on topic again, I've heard a lot of people mention Paint.net lately. Is that an in-browser image editor or something?
     
    To be honest, I think Pokemonatoms is ignoring all of your criticism. He hasn't even tried the popular suggestion to work with official sprites and play around with them seeing as he went off and did a Ghost fakemon.

    Anyways..Paint.NET is actually a program similar to GIMP. I never used it before for graphics or pixel art, so I'm not very experienced or familiar with the program.
    (You manually recolour a sprite, pixel by pixel? o__o)
     
    It has the odd quirk I would prefer to behave more like Photoshop (Colour Picker tool only works on the active layer, anything moved outside of the canvas gets chopped off and there doesn't appear to be an easy way to flip or rotate a selection of pixels by 90/180 degrees) but it's useful for when I want a smaller and quicker program instead of loading up PS.

    It's also got less design flaws than Graphics Gale (bad layer behavior pretty much cripples the animation functionality once you start adding lots of frames.)
     
    Logiedan said:
    (You manually recolour a sprite, pixel by pixel? o__o)
    Click to expand...

    Well, I said "for most of it". For recoloring I pick out a few palettes I think might work, then use the Erase tool to replace the shades on the sprite one-by-one. If a palette works well, I'll set the recolored sprite aside; if it doesn't, I just delete the sprite. Once I've tried all of the palettes I picked out, I'll put the recolored sprites side-by-side to pick the best one.

    ...Then I'll usually need to pick a palette for a different part of the sprite.
     
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