1785 replies to this topic

[Naru]

Does someone of you know a good (free) program to edit tiles? Not something really complicated, just something for moving the tiles around (the glove in the tile editor, it is so much work if you move bigger objects for a few pixels) or for seeing the surrounding tiles if editing a part of a bigger object.

[Theryan]

Does someone of you know a good (free) program to edit tiles? Not something really complicated, just something for moving the tiles around (the glove in the tile editor, it is so much work if you move bigger objects for a few pixels) or for seeing the surrounding tiles if editing a part of a bigger object.

GraphicsGale always got the job done for me. Also, you can move groups of tiles in ZQuest as if they are 1 tile if you select them all, hold ALT and use the arrow keys to move them.

[Koh]

MS Paint is what I use myself.  It's about as simple as an art program gets, but its good enough for messing with sprites and tiles.  The only thing it doesn't have that you might find useful is a layer feature, in which case, something like Paint.NET could be useful as well.

[NoeL]

I wouldn't recommend MSPaint myself since it gives you no control over the palette info and often does weird and undesirable things to it. Paint.NET is better for high res/colour image manipulation and completely overkill for pixel art (though you CAN configure your workspace to be more pixel art friendly, it's probably more hassle than it's worth). It has a lot of unnecessary features that will only get in the way and confuse you if you only want something to help with Zelda Classic.

 

As Theryan already mentioned, GraphicsGale is your best option since it was built specifically for pixel art. It's very lightweight, and there's a free version you can download (lacks things like animated GIF support but it will suffice for your needs). Just open up your tile page in ZQuest, hit "Export", save the file, then open it in GraphicsGale. The palette info on the right will show all the csets from 0-11 plus some extra ZC colours (you can ignore the last four rows of the palette), so if you're drawing new tiles make sure to only use the colours in the correct cset (e.g. if you're drawing Link sprites only use the colours in the seventh row of the palette). In the top toolbar there are grid tools - just set the grid to 16x16 to easily see the tile cells, and you can turn on "snapping" (just to the right of the grid button) to easily move tiles around the page without them becoming unaligned from the grid. If you want to move a bunch of tiles over a couple of pixels, just select all the tiles you want to move and use the arrow keys to shift them pixel by pixel. Once you're done, save the file, go back to ZQuest and hit "Grab", then select the file you were editing. If you didn't mess around with any of the colours you'll easily be able to import everything over the top of the old page without any hassle.

 

EDIT: Also, in the Preferences menu you can set up a bunch of hotkeys to make editing easier. Just like in ZQuest I've got H and V mapped to horizontal/vertical flipping, and R for a 90 degree rotation. One quirk - if you want to bind mouse wheel up/down to anything (I've got it set to zoom in/out, for example) you have to set the hotkeys as Alt+F11/F12. Don't ask me why, but that's how you do it. And also also, left click uses the selected tool and right click acts as a dropper (there's no dedicated dropper tool in GG - just use right click). I've set E as a hotkey to set the tool colour to the layer's transparent colour, so pressing E turns my pencil/bucket into an eraser.

Edited by NoeL, 30 May 2016 - 11:26 PM.

[MoscowModder]

While playing Ignition, I realized that I very rarely found myself using the Polar Blades. They seem kind of underpowered, and their high speed and looping combo doesn't compensate for their very short reach.

 

TIME TO FIX THAT!

 

These two new steps to the Polar Blades combo are special: they shoot ice and fire waves! MAGIC!

Similarly to the previous game, the ice wave will freeze enemies for up to 1 second (less effective than before, but Ignition is more fast-paced than ZC quests). The fire wave, naturally, just does a lot of damage.

 

 

Whaddaya think?

[MoscowModder]

I needed to pick out a studio name to make myself and my indie game seem more legitimate. I thought for a long time about what my studio name would be. I thought long and hard. Then, suddenly, SLASHES.

 

 

 

Because my games are all about dem slashes.

 

Think it looks like a real game studio logo, and not something some guy just tossed together?

[Cukeman]

I like the idea and look, but legibility could be improved, it's pretty compact.

[Eddard McHorn Van-Schnuder]

I have something to share for once. Nothing big, I'm just a little rusty when it comes to pixel art and felt I needed practice:

 

 

Holy crap, you have really improved your animation work! I'm really impressed, this is so, so much better than the ones I've seen from you previously. You should be proud!

[MoscowModder]

I think the light blue outline around most of the mountains looks a bit odd, but besides that minor detail, that scene looks amazing.

[Eddard McHorn Van-Schnuder]

I think the light blue outline around most of the mountains looks a bit odd, but besides that minor detail, that scene looks amazing.

Thanks! I think you're onto something. My idea with the outline was to give the impression that there's a slight mist that the mountain is cutting through, but it probably goes a little too high. I'll toy around with it, thanks for pointing that out.

 

Edit: I made some other changes as well, most of them minor. There's also a fort. There's still somewhat of an outline but it doesn't go all the way up, debating on maybe taking it a few pixels further down.

Edited by Robin, 15 November 2016 - 11:18 PM.

[grayswandir]

Those mountains are amazing. If you want to do mist creeping over I'd suggest maybe trying a bright mountain outline instead? I dunno, maybe there's not enough detail there to pull it off.

 

 

 

So, I'm using Instrumentality currently (oracle style enemies), and I wanted deku scrub enemies, which it doesn't have. At Moosh's suggestion, I imported them from PTUX, but they used way too many colors, so I had to mess around with them to get them to look right.

 

In order, they are the imported graphics from PTUX, recolored down to 4 colors, and then some edits I did to make them less busy.

[MoscowModder]

I'm finally reaching the end of Ignition. You know what that means? Boss rematch! Tuhrahkkkii is back, and tougher than ever! He's gotten a couple of graphical improvements (some of his old animations are fairly bland and/or sloppy), some new AI behaviors (combo attacks anyone?), and a pair of brand new moves! Among these is his deadly spin-jump. Unlike his normal jump, this one covers a lot of ground, and you can't dash through it.

 

 

If nothing else, this animation proves that his spine can, in fact, bend.

[Eddard McHorn Van-Schnuder]

I was going to hold off on sharing this until it was actually done, complete with the cape and possibly an under shirt and gloves, but I wanted some input in regards to what I've got so far before I begin working on that. The cape is probably going to be the hardest, so I'd like to get the rest in good shape before I start, heh.
 
To do list: cape, hair, equpment and possibly more clothing.
EDIT: And I went ahead and did that stuff. No more clothing yet, and the hair is still untouched:

 

First off I have to say, you've probably played with Bionicles at some point. Right? Right?!
 
It looks good! I'm sure it's gonna look even better when you see it in action, though if I had to point one thing out it'd be the swords/whips(?). I would try to work on their sprites at least in some of those frames. I think I see what you were going for, but the way they 'morph' back into their original shape right at the end looks a little odd to me. I would begin the transition a little sooner, and also make it faster so that you don't really notice the swords bending. If those are whips, then I would actually add more motion to them instead.

Edited by Robin, 08 December 2016 - 12:15 PM.

[MoscowModder]

I can't find anything wrong with those sprites. They're just amazing.

 

 

First off I have to say, you've probably played with Bionicles at some point. Right? Right?!

Yep :}

 

As for your comments, perhaps it would help if you saw what it looked like in-game (large animated GIF).

When you see how it starts and stops, do you think it still needs a smoother transition from non-blurred to blurred swords?

[Eddard McHorn Van-Schnuder]

I can't find anything wrong with those sprites. They're just amazing.

 

 

 

 

Yep :}

 

As for your comments, perhaps it would help if you saw what it looked like in-game (large animated GIF).

When you see how it starts and stops, do you think it still needs a smoother transition from non-blurred to blurred swords?

Thanks! And yeah you're right, I was assuming it was starting on another frame. My mistake!