24 replies to this topic

[RohanGarm]

What sort of drawing software would people reccommend for pixel art for original or self made sprites?

[Avaro]

I'd either use Paint.net or... ZC. Paint.net can toggle a pixel grid too, but I personally just draw everything I need in ZC itself.

[ShadowTiger]

Drawing things in ZC is wonderful for when you want to see the final product, and don't have to expand beyond 16x16, or even 32x32. ZC has all the tile manipulation tools too, like rotating exactly 16x16 pixels. It's pretty precise, actually. It's why I never really venture outward.

When I have to do something larger than 32x32, I open MSPaint, restrict the grid to 64x64 or whatever, and draw a single color outline and draw in all the major details. Then I import that into ZC to finish the smaller details. The importing isn't a problem because it's just two colors.

Ctrl+S while drawing a tile in ZC will swap the colors on your mouse and on the tile, by the way. It's really handy for recoloring.

[SpacemanDan]

I'm pretty partial to Graphics Gale, personally. I find palette editing is easy with it and it's great for recolouring stuff since it only requires dragging colours around. I also love being able to set up grids and make my selections snap to the grids. Been really handy. ._. I've been using it for quite awhile now and it's been a fairly pleasant time.

 

There is a free version that should suit most people's needs. The paid version allows you to save and load gif files, though ZC can load other file types, so you should be good to go.

 

Here it is if you're interested.

[Feenicks]

I've been using GraphicsGale for so long I find it a bit iffy going into other pixel art-centric programs. I don't really understand why you'd want to use something that didn't have dedicated stuff for palettes, to be honest, which is why using Paint.NET for this stuff never really appealed to me.

I'm a cheapskate though, so I just use irfanview whenever I need to turn something into a gif.

[thepsynergist]

Photoshop has a grid just like Paint.NET.  But, I understand it's not the best program to use for pixel art.

[Eddard McHorn Van-Schnuder]

Graphics Gale hands down. Paint is useless, and when working with palettes and sprite art, you simply should not be using it. You can, but you're not doing yourself any favors. GG is awesome. Supindahood swears to Photoshop, but he's just a sillyman. GG all the way.

[RohanGarm]

Is there a way to move tiles from ZQuest to GG? 

[ShadowTiger]

You could always take a screenshot using the "Export" button, and then just open the screenshot in Graphics Gale. It's nothing complicated at all. I mean, no unforeseen issues, rather.

[)-( Marchland Malady )-(]

Gimp is a good paint program to use. Give it a try.

[RohanGarm]

Here is a rough idea of the character design for my main chracter of my quest:

Only minus the cap and some minor tweaks.

[NoeL]

Like others have mentioned, Graphics Gale is my weapon of choice for pixel art. It's not particularly user friendly at first (especially with palette management) but once you learn the program it's fantastic.

[Colin]

I too would like to echo using graphic's gale. My favorite part is that I can use the arrow keys to move the cursor pixel by pixel making it easy for me to be precise.

[TheLegend_njf]

So Photoshop is a bit of an overkill? That's what I've been using.

[NoeL]

So Photoshop is a bit of an overkill? That's what I've been using.

It is in my opinion, but Supindahood will tell you otherwise.