[Terry]

I was just idlely wondering recently as to what program everybody uses to draw the graphics for their games. I personally use Paint Shop Pro 8, but I find it's far from ideal for most of my purposes. It's features are designed for photograph manipulation, not pixel art, so you kind of have to 'force' it to behave as you'd like. I don't like, for example, that when you resize with anti-alaising, that it merges the electric pink into the image. I don't like that there's no simple way to isolate and work on one tile without declaring it as a new image. I don't like having to cut and paste copys of my tiles into another image to get a picture of how they look placed beside one another.

What I'd like, is a pixel art program designed from the ground up for game graphics. Long story short, I think I'm going to make such a tool. I haven't done any actual coding on it yet, but I've had a few ideas:

I think it would be nice to be allowed to temporarly 'isolate' one section (tile) from the main image, work on it, and then just click next or something to automatically move onto the next one. Also, some graphical features specific to tiles would be nice. I'm thinking of spliting the screen down the middle in two, one side being the current tile you're working on, the other side a sample map built up from your tiles. Or if you're working on character animations, the other side of the screen could show it in motion based on the parameters you provide, so that you can be sure it looks right.

I think some kind of basic tab browsing system could work well too, as when you're working with tilemaps, you usually need to flip between images quite often (at least I need to, anyway).

Also, smarter pallete control would be useful. I'd like a toolbar on the bottom of the screen that holds say 16 custom colors that you use often, and maybe some kind of feature to build up a gradient between any two chosen colors.

I also think it would be nice if the program was aware of translucent colors, particularly for 8-bit color modes so that it could automatically generate masks. Also, it really would be nice if you could make anti-aliasing ignore the masking color.

I could be completely wrong about this - perhaps there is such a tool out there. If so, I'd like to know about it, as I'd definitely use it myself!

I'd like to hear other people's opinions on this. What tools do you currently use? What do you think of them - what do you like and dislike? What features do you think you'd like to see in a dedicated 2D game art program? Or do you think the whole thing is a waste of time?

Comments and critiques please! :)
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[tsb]

I use GIMP for pixel-work. The interface is somewhat fruity, but it's much better as of version 2, and I'm relatively efficient with it now that I've gotten used to its various quirks.

I typically use separate image files for different sprite frames, then combine them all into a single image using a Python script. (GIMP also has some support for this sort of thing)
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—andy
http://ika.sf.net

[Rainer Deyke]

When I do pixel art (which is rare, because I suck at it), I use Tile Studio. It's really a map editor, but the integrated bitmap editor is good enough for my purposes, and better than any alternative that I am aware of.

[Bjorn]

I use the GIMP too. Since version 2, I really like its interface, which looks specifically nice when it integrates with a GNOME desktop. It has quite good pixel editing support and supports pressure sensitive tablets too.

I don't think it has features like ignoring the mask color on interpolated resize or show the image tiled while editing it, but you could probably write plugins for that, which would be a lot less work than writing a whole new sprite editing application, and you won't miss out on all the other features of the GIMP. For looking at how an image tiles, I safe it in the patterns folder and then fill a new image with the pattern.

Not to mention the GIMP is free and works on almost any operating system, in contrast to everything you mentioned.

[white_door]

I use Pro Motion, I actually registered it. It a bit funky when run through wine, but is still solid. So I'm happy with my purchase. Unlike some of the tools you mentioned it a tool that actually designed with pixel art specifically in mind.

[Terry]

GIMP just slipped my mind, sorry :) I've used it a little, but I don't really like it simply because it doesn't work at 800x600.

I've never heard of either tile studio or pro motion. I'll check them out, thanks :) After all, I've got no desire to work on a pointless project.
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[ThousandKnives]

I use Corel Photo-Paint. I'm surprised you didn't list it as Corel is a major player in the graphics design field. Unless you have something against Canadian software. hehe

[js71]

I use Character Maker 1999 (aka Character Mucker).
It was meant for RPG Maker 2000, but it's good for a lot of things. People always bash it for some reason, but it's good enough for me and I'm just used to it. Not fancy or anything, but I couldn't really work as well with anything else.

[potato]

a lot of bums at pixelation use
http://www.humanbalance.net/gale/

for years i've used
http://www.vector.co.jp/soft/win95/art/se035696.html
dPixed (might be more accessible at DoiChan's Home Stadium, creator's HP).

[Rainer Deyke]

日本語がわかりません。

[Ninkazu]

[Rainer Deyke]

I know a bunch of characters and a couple of words, but not nearly enough to understand those websites. Fortunately GraphicsGale runs in English, so non-Japanese speakers can use it once they manage to download it. To any people who can't find the download button, it's spelled ダウンロード.

[Terry]

Even better, it's here: http://www.humanbalance.net/gale/setgale.exe

I've tried and been very impressed with both pro motion and graphics gale, so I guess this project is a little pointless. Thanks for the info anyway, everybody.
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[DeveloperX]

I use alot of programs, depending on what I'm trying to work on.

On my 'roster' in no particular order are:

- Paint Shop Pro 7
- Paint Shop Pro 8
- Corel Photo Paint 4
- MS Paint
- Tile Studio
- Autodesk Animator
- pp256
- nuPaint (a friend's qb drawing program)
- SPRT (my qb drawing program)
- ARTIST 7 (my better qb drawing program)

Well, yeah, thats what I use for my artwork. :)
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Rambling Indie Games, LLC

See my professional portfolio

[DeveloperX]

heh whatever. can't read what you're saying, lol.
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Principal Software Architect
Rambling Indie Games, LLC

See my professional portfolio