Pixelation
General => General Discussion => Topic started by: Mayor Pirkle on July 05, 2007, 02:26:41 am
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1. Is there a place where I can get new pen shapes and sizes for GraphicsGale? By default the only square pens are 1x1, 9x9, and frickin' hugexfrickin' huge.
2. This is the first pixel art program I've used. All my current works have been created on GraphicsGale. Is there a better program out there that I should be using?
3. I keep hearing a lot of talk about colour selection being a big part of good pixel art. Is GraphicsGales default palette good enough? Or do I need to go through and edit it?
That's all for now. Thanks for all the help you may offer!
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2. This is the first pixel art program I've used. All my current works have been created on GraphicsGale. Is there a better program out there that I should be using?
That is a matter of preference. Most people on this board use GraphicsGale or ProMotion (The latter costs alot though).
3. I keep hearing a lot of talk about colour selection being a big part of good pixel art. Is GraphicsGales default palette good enough? Or do I need to go through and edit it?
I don't know anything about the default pallete, but I do recommend you make your own palletes regardless. You'll learn more that way, in theory.
Anyway, just set the color depth to 256, and you'll get a pallete with some default filler colors and a ton of pure black. Also, when working in lower color depths, when you change a color on the pallete, that color on the image will change too. Good for experimenting :D.
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Thank you very much Sherman! I was starting to get worried that no one was gonna help me :).
Well, on to more pixeling.
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You can add more pencil shapes to the program, as well as new "tiles" (what i'd call "patterns", and some would call "aslkgjrtkyddsa", which i think is silly).
You create a folder called "pen" on the graphics gale instalation dir, create your pencil image in a 2-bit 1 bit*, 32x32 image in only pure black and white (one will mask, the other will lay pixels), and save it on that dir, as a bitmap .bmp (any name will do). To add new tiles, i know you can only do it at 16x16, similar process, but i don't really remember the details on this. It's in the documentation, although somewhat obscuredly hidden.
To check how (or if) this can be done, go to your Graphics Gale help file,
Select "Contents",
"4 - Exposition of screen",
And click on the palette and tools floating bar (middle of the screen, on the right).
A bigger image of this floating toolbar should appear, and you would click on the brush size zone, or below, on the tile (pattern) zone.
You're redirected to a screen which says:
"Pen - Chooses a shape of a pen. A pen can also be made."
Click on "a pen can also be made" link, and you're sent to a page which has that info somewhere in that screen. It says:
Reload Pen/Tile
Reloads pens and tiles user made.
Pens and tiles must be BMP file, and must be placed in the folder named "pen" in GraphicsGale's folder. (ex. c:\Program Files\GraphicsGale\Pen)
Besides, the BMP must be a monochrome(1bit), the size of a pen must be 32x32, and the size of a tile must be 16x16.
In a pen, white area will put a color in the canvas. In a tile, white area will be replaced with the first color, and black area will be replaced with the second color.
Enjoy it!
This is how i added 2px wide pencils, spray brush type, and new dithering patterns, therefore becoming the proverbial "bom".
* thanks Eyecraft :)
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Ah, thank you much Turbo! This'll cut down the work I need to do on some pieces.
I'll try to make something that's presentable to show off, though you shouldn't get your hopes up. :)
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Cool, I didn't know that about the brushes. So making some now...
In regards to GG's palette, I don't use it at all. I just flip it over to HSV and slide my way to a colour bananza.
EDIT: Oh and Turbo, don't you mean 1bit images, rather than 2bit?
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Thanks Turbo, though I'm having slight troubles with this. Does it only work with the full version? If not, does there have to be a specific name? :sigh:
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Yeah, I couldn't get custom brushes to work either. :-\
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Ok, updated the previous post with some correction info and some info that was missing. Thanks for the pointer Eyecraft!
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THANK YOU! I didn't select 1 bit when making a new image. so I saved as a 24bit bmp which screwed me up. Works now, But screwed up the first time I got it to work. Black is the transparent color btw.
So Yes, Thank you SO much Turbo.
Edit: OOH yes, and for the free version users it does work with that version.
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Hmm... it's not working for me....
I'm saving it as 1bit, using white as the color and black surrounding it, and saving it in a new folder labeled "Pen" in the GraphicsGale folder, then hitting reload pen/tile in the program.
...It's not loading anything :(
Yes, the help file does say all that stuff (I think I have the latest version), so it should be working.
Do I have to name it a certain filename?
I also can never seem to get onion skin to work...
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Are you sure you're saving it as a bitmap, Rynen?
For onion skin, make sure you have a transparent color on the frame.
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Are you sure you're saving it as a bitmap, Rynen?
For onion skin, make sure you have a transparent color on the frame.
Yup. 1-bit, 32x32, black and white bmp file in the 'pen folder in the graphicsgale folder.
Looky Looky:
(http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z196/Rynen10K/pen2.png)
I don't get it. I've tried it on 3 different computers now, and none of them are loading.
Oh, well. I justfound out how to customize the hotkeys, and I'll try out the onion-skin thing in a sec. I'm really starting to like this program - I just hope I can get this to work...
I have an unregistered version of the shareware version, but someone mentioned that it should be working anyway... I tried it out on the free version, too, but that didn't work either.
HALP, PLZ.
Thanks in advance! :)
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You have the folder correct. you sure you loaded as 1 bit
(http://img405.imageshack.us/img405/7285/gghelpxv7.png)
did you reload the pen?
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Yup, did both of those things, too :(
I have no idea what I'm doing wrong :\
Hoping it's just because my version isn't registered yte.
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That doesn't seem like it would be the issue though since I'm using an unregistered free version. The only thing different from what I have and you have is.. the folder named pen
Yours is not capitalized and mine is, but I really doubt that could be the issue, though it is worth a try.
Also, Check if there is a scroll bar maybe you just haven't noticed it and it wont show your custom ones unless you scroll down on the pen section.
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That doesn't seem like it would be the issue though since I'm using an unregistered free version. The only thing different from what I have and you have is.. the folder named pen
Yours is not capitalized and mine is, but I really doubt that could be the issue, though it is worth a try.
Also, Check if there is a scroll bar maybe you just haven't noticed it and it wont show your custom ones unless you scroll down on the pen section.
I've tried messing with te capitalization of the folder, too, with 'pen, 'Pen', and 'PEN'.
Didn't see a scroll bar, either...
Either I'm missing a small step, or I just have terrible luck. I'm hoping the former, because I've had the same situation happen t0o me on several different computers.
Oh, well. This doesn't ruin the program for me or anything - It just would be cool to get it to work. Thanks, guys :)
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I am having the same problem with the pen/tile feature. I tried capitalizing the file name, capitalising the folder. I have tried to edit a pen/tile in 3 different paint apps. I agree I still enjoy this app but it would be so cool to get the tiles to work. If you have any idea what is going wrong please help.