AuthorTopic: The Ongoing War  (Read 13033 times)

Offline Dusty

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Re: The Ongoing War

Reply #20 on: January 28, 2009, 08:40:50 pm
All this talk about GG convinced me to download it... one gripe: is there a way to change the cursor? I hate the pen cursor and I like the cross-hair-type when I'm using a pen tool.

edit: I like how it starts up instantly, especially compared to Photoshop which takes a minute to load modules and all for me(even though they both have nearly the same capabilities).
« Last Edit: January 28, 2009, 09:05:16 pm by Dusty »

Offline Atnas

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Re: The Ongoing War

Reply #21 on: January 29, 2009, 03:02:52 pm
You can change all the cursors with reshack.

Offline Scribblette

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Re: The Ongoing War

Reply #22 on: April 24, 2009, 08:21:22 am
Regarding Graphics Gale, you can create custom pens as detailed in the help file.

Create 32x32 black and white bitmaps with white representing the paint brush, then store them here:

C:\Documents and Settings\ (your user name) \Application Data\Humanbalance\GraphicsGale\pen

Pro Motion boggles me about the same as trying to use that map cad software, Campaign Cartographer. It took me several minutes in PM just to figure out how to PASTE an image in there! It's under 'paste frame' and then it asks me questions about color palette and whatnot - I don't want to revert to 256 colors necessarily, for example - and that threw me off.

It needs a thorough reading before it can be used properly, I guess. I don't know what magic tools in it I need yet over GG, but I'm still a complete nubface. :|
Now reading: Animator's Survival Kit, Drawing On The Right Side Of The Brain, Fun With A Pencil. No time to pixel!
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Offline Squiggly_P

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Re: The Ongoing War

Reply #23 on: April 25, 2009, 04:52:08 pm
I've personally never been satisfied with either of them.  I've not tried the non-free version of GG, so maybe the paid version is far superior, but if I had to choose between the two I'd say GG.  I tend to try out a lot of different pixel apps, tho.  Lately I've been using Alegro Sprite Editor more than anything.  Animation isn't the easiest with it, but the tools are straightforward.

Personally, I think the whole trend of basing every pixel art app on old pixel art apps is kinda dumb.  Lots of music apps have this problem, too.  There are so many free music-making tools, but 90% of them are all based on Fast Tracker or Pro Tracker...  apps that are 15+ years old.  Pixel art apps all seem to be obsessed with Delux Paint and a couple of other old painting apps...  Why not make something new?  I've actually been dicking around with C++ just so I could start working on a pixeling app.  There are some nice things about a lot of pixel apps, but none of them really feel right to me, or they're missing some fundamental function...

I dunno.  For now I'll just keep learning C++.

Offline lollige

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Re: The Ongoing War

Reply #24 on: April 25, 2009, 07:31:39 pm
Hmm, why didn't I read this before? Anyway, I recently wrote an article on my brand new blog about pixel software. I did not go in detail into Pro Motion, simply because I do not use it very often (I had some trial or so) and therefor can not write as an expert about it.
I however did ad another program noone seems to have mentioned: MTpaint
I really love it. It is extremely simple and easy, in that way that it has hardly any functions, and the palette editor is much more pleasing than the one on graphicsgale! Layer and animation support is however poor.

Read up the article here

Offline Squiggly_P

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Re: The Ongoing War

Reply #25 on: April 26, 2009, 04:39:36 am
Link was screwed up:
http://lolsoft.com/mrlollige/?p=27

You should try out Allegro Sprite Editor and add it.  It's got layers, animation and it's just simple to use.  The only drawbacks are the way the pallet behaves sometimes (changing the top color will destroy your pallet...  i think it's a 'feature' but it's lame as hell), and the frames and layers are only accessable by tabing to them, but that's just a mild annoyance most of the time.

I've got about a half-dozen others as well that are in various states of useability.  Grafx 2 is another of those apps that is heavilly based on another app's design (is it a port?).  I like MTpaint, but it's got some weird design as well.  The number keys are zoom levels, but 1-4 are 10%-100% and the next level with 5 is 400% and then 6 is 800%...  what happened to 200 and 600...  and why would you want to zoom to 10% or 25% when editing pixelart anyway?  1-4 are pretty much wasted levels, and the others aren't really useful.  100% and 400% are the only really useful zoom levels...  the rest you have to use the menu or manually zoom to it.  It does have some neat effects, and if you want to achieve a pixeled sort of look, but aren't really familiar with pixel art you can make some pretty neat pseudo-pixel-art with it rather quickly.  The vertical pallet is odd as well, and i dunno if it's common or if my computer just sucks, but it's got glitches with some of the tools.

Pro-Motion is weird...  it LOOKS like photoshop or the gimp, but aside from that, it's completely alien in the way it behaves.  Actually, it sorta intimidated me.  You go to make a new image and it pops up this form with tabs and a million settings.  I still don't know if I understand half of it, so I don't know if I'm screwing things up or not.

Anyway, I'm probably taking this way off topic and sounding like a whiny biatch, so I'll shut up.  It might be interesting to explore future GUI / interactivity of pixeling apps, or just apps in general.

Just curious, how many people use a tablet to do their pixeling?  I've tried it a few times, but it just doesn't feel right to me.  And I wonder what it would look like to use vector art to create pixel art...  aliased vector art that could be rotated, scaled, etc...  maybe textured...

Offline Scribblette

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Re: The Ongoing War

Reply #26 on: April 26, 2009, 07:05:20 am
I'd rather it if Photoshop had those little fixes too, if it was to hold my interest. Namely zoom levels being in 100/200 etc, an option to prevent anti-aliasing only 'outside' an image (not so pixel art, but still handy for small screen games), and I forget what else with my GF blasting away in Fable in the background.

I use a Wacom Intuos 3 wide screen here. I'm not much of an artist to state it has 'improved' my work, but it is quicker than using a mouse and more accurate on hand-free... what's the word... hand... free - oh, free hand, bah - free hand curves. MOST OF ALL, however, is it prevents me from cramping up my hand or wrist. If I feel even the beginnings of a twinge or discomfort, I switch between mouse and tablet. Helps when working without breaks.

I'd think issue with vector art = detail = shrunken detail = messy pixel art. Program can't manage to 'know' what works best as an illusion as human eye can - or some such, maybe.
Now reading: Animator's Survival Kit, Drawing On The Right Side Of The Brain, Fun With A Pencil. No time to pixel!
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Offline Ai

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Re: The Ongoing War

Reply #27 on: April 26, 2009, 08:10:58 am
Just curious, how many people use a tablet to do their pixeling? 
I do, it makes drawing much more natural, same as with CGing.

Quote
And I wonder what it would look like to use vector art to create pixel art...  aliased vector art that could be rotated, scaled, etc...  maybe textured...
It would look like Yoshi's Island bosses, naturally :) or Out of this World. (both of which were a little messy, as scribblette suggests.)
If you insist on being pessimistic about your own abilities, consider also being pessimistic about the accuracy of that pessimistic judgement.

Offline Ben2theEdge

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Re: The Ongoing War

Reply #28 on: April 27, 2009, 01:51:49 pm
I use a tablet almost universally for pixel art. With a bit of practice it's just as precise as a mouse and it's way better for making organic shapes.
I mild from suffer dislexia.

Offline Conzeit

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Re: The Ongoing War

Reply #29 on: May 01, 2009, 07:59:09 am
I use a tablet almost universally for pixel art. With a bit of practice it's just as precise as a mouse and it's way better for making organic shapes.

GEEEEEEEEEEEEEV MEEEEEEEEEEEEEE OUUUUUUUUUUURRRRRR TAAAAAAAAAABLEEEEEEEEEEEEET
 
Ok, to try and make something useful out of this, Madgarden had an idea to make a pixel app that employed vectors in favor of pixels....feel free to harass him into doing it, I will thank you for it and he will tell me to mind my own  vucking busyness :p
« Last Edit: May 01, 2009, 08:02:57 am by Conceit »