AuthorTopic: The Ongoing War  (Read 13035 times)

Offline Shrike

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The Ongoing War

on: January 26, 2009, 05:18:03 pm
Do you like Graphics Gale or ProMotion better?  Why?  I've always used Graphics Gale, but after watching several of Helm's awesome videos which he did in ProMotion I though ProMotion is more powerful, but I'm finding the interface and shortcuts seriously cumbersome.  Specifically, I'd like to have the right-click be a color dropper, as this was immensely useful in GG, but I can't find the shortcut in the preferences.  Is there an other shortcut for it?

Post here please, keystroke help or which program you prefer.  I'd be willing to pay the money for the ProMotion Full, although, I want to know if it's worth it or not.  Help?

Thanks!
Shrike

Offline ptoing

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Re: The Ongoing War

Reply #1 on: January 26, 2009, 05:26:30 pm
In Promotion you can quick colourpick with ctrl-click. The thing is that the interface of Promotion is based on DeluxePaint. I used that back in the Amiga days, so I got used to PM fast, and I love it.
There are no ugly colours, only ugly combinations of colours.

Offline Gil

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Re: The Ongoing War

Reply #2 on: January 26, 2009, 07:07:02 pm
I don't like ProMotion at all and since I can afford to take a long while to work on my art, I don't need all the complex stuff right now. So I stuck with GG, which I like a lot in terms of workflow.

I do plan on making my own version of a GG lookalike, since I think the updates on GG are a little too slow for my liking. There's a bunch of stuff I need that we aren't going to see quickly in GG. Basically, there's a few annoyances I have while working with GG in terms of working paletted and undo features.

In ProMotion, the absence of right click color pickers and the layout were some things that annoyed me, but the biggest drawback in PM is definately the lack of pixel-snap on the pencil tool. I can't pixel without having pixel-snap on the pencil tool.

Offline dekutree64

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Re: The Ongoing War

Reply #3 on: January 26, 2009, 08:03:20 pm
I've worked with Promotion some, but haven't really gotten to know it well enough to judge it on features. But that fact alone gives Graphics Gale a big boost in my opinion. There was basically no learning process needed, beyond discovering what shift and ctrl do in the palette editor.

The main gripe I have with Gale is the limited number of brush sizes. It would be much better if you could just set the diameter in pixels, ala oekaki. Maybe select shape too, but I rarely if ever find myself wanting to plot giant squares anyway. Also, oekaki-style mask/remask would be nice.

What I love most are the drag-and-drop palette editor (not perfect, but better than anything else I've tried), easy setting of different grid dimensions, easy working with layers and frames.

Gil, what do you mean by pixel snapping? I thought you just meant that when zoomed in, it shows you where the pixel will be drawn if you click. But I just opened PM and it does that too.

Oh, and another thing that would be nice is automatic conversion between frames and sprite strips. Although I suppose special-case tool like that are what lead to a cluttered interface like PM in the first place... Actually it looks like PM does have frames to strip at least. I really should spend more time with it. It probably is the better tool, but GG has an amazing balance of power and simplicity that keeps the battle going.

Offline Panda

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Re: The Ongoing War

Reply #4 on: January 26, 2009, 08:12:45 pm
ProMotion for me.
I've been using it for around 3 years, and I find it awesome.
Easy to use, robust and a rather complete package.
Once you learn the shortcuts you use often, you'll be pixelling fast.

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Offline ptoing

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Re: The Ongoing War

Reply #5 on: January 26, 2009, 08:14:42 pm
PM has both animation to spritesheet as well as the other way round (but that is fiddly). To make the latter easier I will for sure take that to Jan (seeing as I was a beta tester for PM 6), so he will implement it in a future version. This for me is one huge selling point for PM as well, I am in direct contact with the one person developing it and can utter my wishes, many of which have been heard in the current version.

Also, pixel snap, what? You always see exactly what you will be laying down in PM.
There are no ugly colours, only ugly combinations of colours.

Offline Gil

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Re: The Ongoing War

Reply #6 on: January 26, 2009, 08:45:31 pm
Not on my version of ProMotion. Maybe it's an older version, I should try the new one then.

Also, Gale can do the animation to strips too, though it lacks the other way round.

Offline ptoing

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Re: The Ongoing War

Reply #7 on: January 26, 2009, 08:48:52 pm
Can you take a screenshot of what you mean? I do not get it really. In the versions I have used (4.7 up) you always had your cursor and under that you have the current brush, which is whatever you picked up or stuff like singlepixel, 2x2 and such. And that always pixelsnaps in whatever zoom you are.
There are no ugly colours, only ugly combinations of colours.

Offline Shrike

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Re: The Ongoing War

Reply #8 on: January 26, 2009, 11:40:44 pm
Woah, I wasn't expecting so many replies!  I guess it really comes down to what you're most comfortable with, since I'll get the most out of what I can work best in, but I'll give ProMotion a shot, and try working with it some.  I'm just finding it very difficult, but all the greats are using it so I guess I'll work on it more.

Even though I'm pretty much resolved, and I might need more PM guidance, and it seems like this is quite a controversial and popular subject, so let's leave it open.   :)

Toodles!
Shrike

Offline ndchristie

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Re: The Ongoing War

Reply #9 on: January 27, 2009, 12:12:49 am
while i tend out of habit to use an older program called IDraw3 (lots of the palette functions of promotion, plus intuitive selection, snapping, and - get this - right click to colorpick! :P) I find that promotion far exceeds every other program I've tried. in almost every regard.
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The same mistake three or more times is a motif.