Pixel art programs?

RadJunk

Administrator
Staff member
What is everyone using to make their artwork? I'm new to pixel art so I'm trying to find the best avenue. I fired up Piskel on my Surface and have been using the Surface pen to try and draw things out.

Any suggestions?
 

Nesrocks

New member
NES specific:
yy-chr: my favorite
NES Screen Tool: has advantages and disavantages compared to yy-chr.

Generic: you're gonna have to be careful to stay under NES restrictions:
Mspaint
Photoshop
Pyxel
 

MistSonata

Moderator
I'm partial to aseprite myself, at least for making pixel art in general. The program has NES palette presets built in, and allows you to limit the colors of the image to that palette, but there's no easy way to make it conform to NES limitations, so yy-chr and nesst are the way to go there.
 

Godzil

New member
As said in the facebook group, my tool of choice is Cosmigo ProMotion ( https://www.cosmigo.com/ )

The free version is probably more than enough for NESmaker
 

GGGames.org

New member
I've been using Gimp to make my sprites, but I will have to check out YY-CHR, since it sounds like that tool is more focused on NES sprite creation.
 

cfavreau

New member
I use Paint.net . I use the color picker and an image that holds the color palette that I want to use so when I need a specific color I just use the color picker (the eye dropper tool) to get the color from the palette image. I also make a blank image that contains a 8x8 or whatever the dimensions for the art are as a background so I know the bounds. To view the grid just zoom in as far as it will go and the individual pixels show up.

Paint.Net: https://www.dotpdn.com/downloads/pdn.html
 

SamyO

New member
Thanks for the tips guys, any videos you'd recommend on how to use YY-CHR or is it a case of dive in and get pixel painting?
 

opt2not

New member
Pickle Editor is also a great sprite editor. It’s got a very nice interface, and is pretty cheap! ($25)
http://www.pickleeditor.com/
 

Lollie

New member
Aseprite is real easy to use, and inexpensive. I've been using it for a few years, and new features always seem to be on the way.
$15 for full version, and a trial version is available.
https://www.aseprite.org/

Pro Motion NG is more expensive, but worth considering too as it is packed with features. For example:
  • Full tile-editing features (including a tile-map editor, so you can test your tiles as you create them)
  • Pattern-drawing tool, for more complex tile patterns
  • "Color Constraints" tool (helps ensure that your pixel art adheres to hardware constraints)
The full version is available on Steam for $40 USD, and can be bought directly through their website as well.
http://store.steampowered.com/app/671190/Pro_Motion_NG/
https://www.cosmigo.com

The free version is also available on their website. A comparison between free and full version can be found here.
https://www.cosmigo.com/pixel_animation_software/downloads
 

Godzil

New member
(I do not recommend to buy ProMtion on steam unless you don’t mind to have a DRM in a tool that you can buy for the same price and don’t have the steam drm restriction :D)

As I said earlier, the free version is probably more than enough for most people using NESmaker, but yes it is worth the price, even for the previous version which was more expensive
 

Lollie

New member
Different strokes! I personally re-purchased Aseprite on Steam (I originally got it via itch) because it meant the program would always be up-to-date, without me having to do a single thing.

That said and for what it's worth, Aseprite does have a non-invasive update checker built-in. Do whatever you're comfortable doing!
 

FrankenGraphics

New member
The only tool to this date that has a GUI for making NES native meta-sprites is NESST. Sometimes i just hand edit meta-sprites in a text editor if the job is simple enough. It lacks animation tools, so i combine exports from it with photoshops' frame animator for previews most of the time.

I think yy-chr is popular among romhackers since it's essentially a graphic hex editor and therefore already has a wide user base that will recommend it, but don't let that make you miss out on the versatility of NESST.
Whichever tool you prefer will largely depend on what sort of work flow you develop. Be sure to try both thoroughly.
 
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