Pixel art programs?

Andy

New member
I am no pro at pixel art, but am having a blast using piskel. It's an online pixel art editor. There may be some adjusting needed once I get the NESMaker software but I'm ok with that. I am just using it as a tool to experiment with pixel art creation.
 

JakeSpencer

New member
Oh wow, this is a great question I never even thought to ask. Can't wait to check out some of these software suggestions, thanks so much everyone. Until now I had been using Inkscape with the grid turned on, which helped me retrofit some old NES sprites into vector artwork for some other things I'm working on. It's not perfect, but it's super easy to use. Here is an example of my retrofit and remake of the dragon from Little Samson.

dragon5.png
dragon4.png
dragon3.png
dragon2.png
dragon1.png
 

Kasumi

New member
Aseprite for anything animated. Aseprite for initial work on tilesets. I love Aseprite. Layers and animation as seperate concepts, proper indexed image support, feature packed, but easy to use.
Pyxel Edit somewhat begrudgingly for getting tile counts under 256.
qigHvaN.gif

8x8 tiles+not being able to copy multiple tiles at a time makes one of the primary reasons I use Pyxel Edit a bit of a hassle. (Checking tile transitions while editing one tile that links to many others.) Pyxel Edit has a select tool, but it's only useful if the place you're moving the selection to is "unmapped". And if it's unmapped, you can't edit a tile and see the change someplace else...

Pro Motion can do the tileset thing, but I find it more frustrating. D-Pixel can also do it, but without the real time update on all tiles as you draw.

Since, I didn't see it mentioned in this thread, Graphics Gale: https://graphicsgale.com/us/

I prefer Aseprite to it, but Graphics Gale is totally free now. Also supports layers and animation. No real time tile edit (like Pro Motion and Pyxel Edit), but really solid beyond that.

Another one I don't use but is worth a try is Nigo-CHR: https://retrodaddy.itch.io/nigo-chr
It's a bit less user friendly than NES Screen Tool, but totally does the real time tile edit stuff. It just doesn't work on my primary work computer :(

I've been working on my own art program and toolset as well, but I don't know if I'll release most of it. (I'd rather not focus on user friendliness and support.)
 

Dirk

Member
I use Paint, but I'm a bit disappointed, because the "improved" newer versions actually are worse for me. I used to be able to activate a grid and I could invert colours. I'm thinking about getting an old version, but I don't know how. I have a Windows 95 cd lying around somewhere, but I'm not sure if I can install an old paint version with it.
YouTube suggested videos about pixel art and I saw a tutorial about Aseprite. It looks pretty good and I'm contemplating buying it. Paint is getting a bit tedious :)
 

chronosv2

New member
I use Aseprite and Pro Motion NG.

Pro Motion NG is actually slowly but surely replacing Aseprite for me as I figure out how to do some of the same things. It's definitely more complicated, but that complication seems to come with power and flexibility.
 

chronosv2

New member
I'm using the paid version. I decided that I wanted the expanded feature set. $40 might seem a little pricey, but I've made great use of the program's features in making mock-ups and tile making.
Aseprite is much less costly, but I've found that NG's ability to pick up parts of an image as a brush has come in really handy for repeating patterns and, as said, making screen mock-ups. The download page on the author's website actually shows a feature comparison if you want to see what the difference between the versions are.
https://www.cosmigo.com/pixel_animation_software/downloads
 

DanielT1985

Member
Use Aseprite. Sure, it's 14 dollars, but there is a LOT of amazing features to it that'll get you into Sprite art in no-time. They even have the NES pallet built into it, too. So you can just select it and get right into making your NES Sprites.
 

darkhog

New member
Dirk said:
But you can use parts of images as a brush in Aseprite too, can't you? At least I saw it in this video.
Thank you for the comparison link.

Two words about why PM NG is better than Aseprite: Multi Shade.
Another two words about why PM NG is better than Aseprite: Formula Mode.


Seriously, these two should be more prominent in PM NG's marketing as they're very powerful features that other software like Aseprite don't have. On top of that, PM NG has auto dithering option and since dithering is so important in NES games, as it only have 3 colors per sprite (and 4 per tile if we're talking backgrounds), it's really good.

I really would want to use it for making art for my games, but I really don't know how to fit it into NM puzzle. You can help me here.
 

darkhog

New member
Dirk said:
I use Paint, but I'm a bit disappointed, because the "improved" newer versions actually are worse for me. I used to be able to activate a grid and I could invert colours. I'm thinking about getting an old version, but I don't know how. I have a Windows 95 cd lying around somewhere, but I'm not sure if I can install an old paint version with it.
YouTube suggested videos about pixel art and I saw a tutorial about Aseprite. It looks pretty good and I'm contemplating buying it. Paint is getting a bit tedious :)

http://www.mspaintxp.com/
 

Dirk

Member
darkhog said:
Two words about why PM NG is better than Aseprite: Multi Shade.
Another two words about why PM NG is better than Aseprite: Formula Mode.

I'm not quite sure what those two functions do. Could you elaborate?`

darkhog said:
http://www.mspaintxp.com/

Ha, awesome! Thank you!
 

darkhog

New member
For multishade: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fuewvPlF0kg

As of formula mode, it's quite complex. Suffice to say, when properly used it's pure magic as it allows to really bend the pixels as long as you can express what you want to do in math. Very powerful.
 

Dirk

Member
I just saw how you can get aseprite for free! Yes, you heard right! For FREE!
You can get its source code here https://github.com/aseprite/aseprite and compile it yourself.
Honestly, that's too much of a hustle for me personally. I will try the test version and I'm pretty sure I'll buy it afterwards. I think it's totally worth 15$.
 

Da Slippery Minx

New member
I'm using Photoshop, i've found a way to make perfect pixels that don't bleed into neighboring pixels. Plus, it's got a built in animation tester called Timeline, so I can animate my frames/test them out before they're finalized.

(semi repost from my recent thread:) http://nesmakers.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=5107
The solution is VERY simple, and requires NO additional plugins (though they do exist,):

Go to the tool bar on the left, Left-click-hold on the Brush Tool icon till the sub-drop down menu rolls down, and choose the Pencil. Change the pencil/brush size to 1pixel (or whatever size you want, but 1 pixel is what your after for 8bit pixel art.)

Next, go to the Eraser Tool and click on it (not hold,) and the go to the Eraser Tool settings just above the Project/Ruler tabs (but just below the functions: File, Edit,Image,Layer, etc.) and set the Eraser Tool to Pencil; then set the size of the this Eraser/Pencil/Brush.

And you're done!!!
 
I've been using Pixel Studio. It's available on Steam and as an App. I have been drawing on a tablet, and it's very useful for the ways it allows you to have layers for each frame, and you can generate frames to animate, directly from the app. You have to build your palette with NES colors though, you can load and export palettes.
 
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