HELP ME QUIT MSPAINT!

[Rynen10K]

  HELPMEHELPMEHELPMEHELPMEHELPMEHELPMEAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!

Okay, I'm getting real sick and tired of MSPaint, as it causes my workflow to go SLOW AS HELL.

Right now, I'm using a combo of Photoshop (Only when necessary, about 30% of the time) and MSPaint (unfortunately, 70% of the time).

I'm so stuck on this piece of dog doodoo for a few reasons:

*Quick canvas resizing (just grab and move the corner dots)
*Copy and paste within the same layer (since there's only one layer...)
*Line Tool actually shows you what it's going to draw, as opposed to showing you a guess as Photoshop does...
*NO ANTI-ALIASING AT ALL!
*ImageReady is a shit , IMO. Layer system makes no sense, and adding a layer adds it to EVERY FRAME.
*Large, square brushes (as opposed to PS's constantly circle-shaped pencil tool).
*No pixel grid (as far as I know) in PS

So, I'm hoping you guys can help me out with this... my choices seem to be:

A) Help me figure out how to pull these off in Photoshop:

-Turn off Anti-Aliasing for everything (not just fill tool and pencil tool - EVERYTHING).
-Rotate and/or resize (not ImageSize, mind you..) with Transform Controls w/out AAing...
-Paste WITHIN layers (rather than creating a new layer, combining with the next layer, then moving it around... what a chore!).
-Make Line Tool show what it's going to do before it does it in pixels.
-Change pencil tool to be square (I'm sure this one's easy - I just don't know it, though)
-Turn a pixel grid (similar to the zoom in Ctrl+G grid of MSPaint)

Or option B) Learn another program. I'd really rather not - I've gotten attached to photoshop despite all these annoying flaws. I do have a demo of ProMotion 5, but it makes no sense to me right now 
I tried GraphicsGale awhile ago, but that one made no sense either, and the menus were all screwed up... is there a translation patch or something? So if I'm gonna go with this one, I'd like:

-Some links to tutorials for ProMotion or GraphicsGale (I looked through the big topic that's stickied, but all I saw was a link to the programs themselves...)
-And your opinion on which program is better for what.

Whew! I know that's alot, but if you can help with ANY of those things, I'd much appreciate it, and you'd know that one person out there is one step closer to dropping MSPaint from theire repertoire...

Thanks in advance!

[Gil]

http://bigbluebubble.com/pixeltutorial/chapter14.htm

Tsugumo's tutorial on how to do pixel art in Photoshop...

[Sharm]

For square brushes, go to the brushes palette.  In the top right corner, theres a > that when you click on it pulls up a menu.  Click the one that says "load brushes" or something similar.  Direct it to the photoshop folder on your computer, then I believe it's "goodies/brushes"  In that folder there's a set of square brushes.  I hope that's right, this is from memory (I'm not on my own computer right now).

[Rynen10K]

http://bigbluebubble.com/pixeltutorial/chapter14.htm

Tsugumo's tutorial on how to do pixel art in Photoshop...

Holy crap, I thought this thing went down YEARS ago... awesome to see it's up, though!

Anyway, I knew about most of those hotkeys, but there are a few new ones in there I didn't know that could come in handy... thanks!

I'm guessing I have to get used to the CTRL+E thing, though...oh well. Guess it's not too big of an obstacle.

Anyone know how to get that grid up, though? And anything about the line tool? I think I use that thing more than I should...

EDIT: AH! Here's a new one! Rotate and/or resize (not ImageSize, mind you..) with Transform Controls w/out AAing...

[Gil]

It's never been down, it just changed hosting from time to time. Google is your friend...

[Rynen10K]

For square brushes, go to the brushes palette.  In the top right corner, theres a > that when you click on it pulls up a menu.  Click the one that says "load brushes" or something similar.  Direct it to the photoshop folder on your computer, then I believe it's "goodies/brushes"  In that folder there's a set of square brushes.  I hope that's right, this is from memory (I'm not on my own computer right now).

I tried it, and it works for the Brush tool, but doesn't seem to apply to the pencil tool... I'm sure there's a way though.

It's never been down, it just changed hosting from time to time. Google is your friend...

Yeah, I should've done a bit more reasearch before creating this topic  I just wrote it up quickly out of frustration.

I just saw that Tsugumo's tutorial and a ton of others are in the stickied help topic. D'oh.

Thanks for the help, though! I think I'm getting a little more used to this... I still want to give GG a try again, though.

[Sharm]

That's odd, it should.  What version of Photoshop do you have?

[Rynen10K]

CS2. It should be doing it, but I'm probably messing something up 

[Sharm]

Or maybe it's just that version of photoshop.  I'm sorry, I'm not familiar with it.  Maybe someone else could help.

[9_6]

Anyone know how to get that grid up, though? And anything about the line tool? I think I use that thing more than I should...

Can't be done in PS but why would you need a grid anyway?
To draw lines, click on a posistion with the pencil tool, hold shift and click to another position.
It will draw a line from position 1 to 2.
Took me 2 years to notice that 
Unfortunately there is no linetool with a preview (like in paint) in photoshop but that's about the only disadvantage Photoshop has (if you know how to get rid of the interpolation).
Photoshop is a fine tool for pixeling.

[Rynen10K]

Can't be done in PS but why would you need a grid anyway?

Just like to have it every once in a while... helps line things up sometimes.

To draw lines, click on a posistion with the pencil tool, hold shift and click to another position.
It will draw a line from position 1 to 2.

Hmm... I knew about that, but I never thought of using it that way... Thanks!

[Sharm]

If you need some lining up, the guides are nice.  Just turn on the rulers and pull these nice blue lines from them.  I've used them a lot for tile work.

[Ai]

hm. You mean photoshop hasn't any grid facility at all? I'm shocked. It seems pretty basic functionality.
In GIMP, it is easily doable by setting the grid spacing to 1x1 pixels.

[9_6]

I just noticed photoshop has a grid.
enable it under:
View/ Show/ Grid
Then set the grid spacing at:
Edit/ Preferences/ Guides Grid & Slices
to 1 pixel and off you go.
I never really noticed that because I never use it.

[Rynen10K]

I just noticed photoshop has a grid...

It.... kinda doesn't work very well. The spacing gets off for some reason.

Oh well, I don't absolutely need it anyway

[AdamTierney]

Pretty much everything you described is in ProMotion. Get it - the best pixel program out there.

- Adam

[Rynen10K]

Pretty much everything you described is in ProMotion. Get it - the best pixel program out there.

- Adam

Hmmm... I've had the trial for awhile, but never really messed around with it too much... I'll give it another try. Thanks!

EDIT: Niiiiice... it's like the best of both worlds from what I can tell!

Know of any help pages or tutorials to get me started? It seems pretty basic, but I'm sure there's some stuff I don't know about 

[Evil-Ville]

The manual is the best tutorial you can get.

[Rynen10K]

The manual is the best tutorial you can get.

I'd take a look at it if I had it... all I have is the demo right now.

I'd like to try it all out before I buy, I guess 

[Evil-Ville]

Help -> Contents? It was there when I tried the trial version.

It however isn't the "proper" manual you get when you purchase the full version. It should be enough to get you started though.

[Rynen10K]

Help -> Contents? It was there when I tried the trial version.

It however isn't the "proper" manual you get when you purchase the full version. It should be enough to get you started though.

Yep, that got it... can't believe I missed that! I was too busy looking for some sort of text document or PDF or something 

Thanks a ton!

[rougewisp]

-Turn off Anti-Aliasing for everything (not just fill tool and pencil tool - EVERYTHING).
-Rotate and/or resize (not ImageSize, mind you..) with Transform Controls w/out AAing...
-Paste WITHIN layers (rather than creating a new layer, combining with the next layer, then moving it around... what a chore!).
-Make Line Tool show what it's going to do before it does it in pixels.
-Change pencil tool to be square (I'm sure this one's easy - I just don't know it, though)
-Turn a pixel grid (similar to the zoom in Ctrl+G grid of MSPaint)

(I'm using the CS3 beta, so some of this might not be in your version)

I think the global removal of AA you're looking for is under
"Edit>Preferences>General>Image Interpolation"
I would say probably nearest neighbor is your best bet, It's worked well for me for some other pixel stuff. I haven't tried it but I'm pretty sure that's it.

For the line tool... I'm guessing you're aware that you can hold shift to constrain the line to certain angles, I'm pretty sure there's some way (although I can't remember what it is) that you can edit those angles. Would that help you? Most of the time the line it makes is jagged and not precise enough for pixel art anyways.

If you can't get square brush settings working, you could just make your own... I haven't made any in forever, but I think you can do it by just making a new image with whatever dimensions (square, obviously), filling it with black, and going to Edit>Define Brush Preset. If that doesn't work, you need a selection of some kind.

Pasting without making a new layer should be pretty easy, but I can't find it. I'll ask around and get back to you.

[robotriot]

It's kind of obsolete now since you're using PM, but here's my tutorial for PS: http://robotriot.hokuten.net/photoshop_pixel_tutorial.html