Pixel art?

Game Play & Game Design
#1

For my ongoing project I need a program to create pixel art. Does someone have any experience making pixel art?
Wich program did you use? :slight_smile:

I hope you can help me.

#2

I don’t think much more than MS Paint is required for pixel art. It’s the application I tend to use.

#3

Oke ;D thanks! I will try that then.

#4

Yeah but paint dot net is much easier to work with: http://www.getpaint.net/

#5

Wow :smiley: easy to work with! Thanks!

#6

Please, for the sake of all things sacred, don’t use MS Paint. Use something like GraphicsGale, or maybe PyxelEdit.

#7

I use Aseprite. It’s a nifty tool made specifically for pixel art. It even allows creating animated GIFs. I’ve tried many different pixel art tools and Aseprite was the best out of all of them.

#8

I haven’t tried those other editors but personally I use GIMP (http://www.gimp.org/).

#9

If you need precision and simple use (which is what pixel art is about), I recommend Paint.NET. It allows you to have full control over the alpha channel too. In general, it’s much better for basic pixel art than GIMP.

GIMP is not very easy to use for pixel art, as much of the tools are for more advanced editing and doesn’t work well for pixel-precision.

There are lots of other sprite editors you can use, it’s just that Paint.NET is the only one that gives so much control over the alpha channel.

#10

Paint from Windows 7 it’s pretty awesome.

Simple, fast and delivers.

There are people who create awesome graphics with Paint.

#11

If file size isn’t an issue… I’d suggest using photoshop:

  1. Paint a large picture.
  2. Shrink the large picture down.
  3. Save as png24.
  4. Use slick to incorporate the image.

I know it’s not true pixel art, but it works pretty well for me :slight_smile:

-Pickle

#12

I would recommend using Gimp to draw a small image, scaling it using linear, then using one of their filters (i can’t remember the exact one) that adds jpg-like noise.

#13

Believe it or not, I use Game Maker 8 to do my graphics. It has a lot of tools, it makes everything easy, and you can easily export stuff to strips, transparency, etc. There are only rare occasions when I get mad at it D:

#14

I’ve also had good results using GIMP’s filters. Design simple in paint using fill tool and lines, then use GIMP to change lightness (just 1 line on an edge say), reduce saturation, then cartoonify, bumpmap, or ‘add bevel’ are my 3 chosen effects. Ofc as novasharp said noise is great too, just keep the ‘holdness’ high. (This would be my advise to anyone incompetant and struggling with gfx for their game like myself)

#15

Yeah, I used to do that, but then I started using C# and then Java for games and now I don’t have game maker installed. Game Maker was really awesome, but the free version was too limited. It was awesome for learning, though!

#16

The free version of game maker is pretty much enough for me to do pixel art. I don’t think it goes into the crazy stuff like photoshop and stuff

#17

Yeah, I agree. I was just talking about its capabilities for making games. The scripting is limited in free (you can’t rotate sprites, etc…). But the sprite editor was good. I esp. liked its ability to easily make animations & sprite sheets as you said.

#18

I thought I was the only one who did that! Although I don’t code in GM anymore, I still love its sprite editor. Also, the animation strips make life so easy.

#19

I have done a bit of pixel art (you will see more of that later :smiley: ) and I use a website called makepixelart.com. I then edit out the grey with pixlr.

#20

At one time I used Cosmigo Pro Motion which I seem to recall was rather like Deluxe Paint on the Amiga.

It was at this point I realised there was only so much I could realistically achieve with a tragic lack of talent :smiley: So now I work with a proper artist. He doesn’t do pixel art though.

Cas :slight_smile: