whats a good program for 8 bit graphics

gilesgkagilesgka Member Posts: 73
just wondering what would be the best program to use and maybe if u guys had any useful techniques to making 8 bit/retro graphics to help?

Comments

  • MetzoPainoMetzoPaino Member Posts: 195
    Pixen is a good Mac pixel program.
  • gilesgkagilesgka Member Posts: 73
    i have windows sorry i didnt say
  • MetzoPainoMetzoPaino Member Posts: 195
    Paint?
  • gilesgkagilesgka Member Posts: 73
    lol
  • OskarDeveloperOskarDeveloper Member Posts: 533
    paint is a good tool! zoom in and use the pen
  • AsymptoteellAsymptoteell Member Posts: 1,362
    I've heard good things about Paint Tool SAI. I've never used it since it only works on Windows, but I've heard it's a great program.

    www.systemax.jp/en/sai/
  • DhondonDhondon Member Posts: 717
    Try GraphicsGale.
  • alimpo83alimpo83 Member Posts: 188
    Actually, I do all my Pixel Art in Illustrator. You have to manually set your working area, but then you have access to all the effects illustrator has to offer.
  • MobileRocketGamesMobileRocketGames Member Posts: 128
    edited June 2012
    Photoshop will always be king.
    Illustrator too.
    Cant get any better than those two.
    If you need a grid, the newer shops CS4+ have the pixel grid feature when you zoom in.
  • MetzoPainoMetzoPaino Member Posts: 195
    Photoshop will always be king.
    Illustrator too.
    Cant get any better than those two.
    If you need a grid, the newer shops CS4+ have the pixel grid feature when you zoom in.
    Photoshop is also an awful lot of $$$, and I think in most cases too powerful for most people's needs.

    The guy who made the art for Sword & Sworcery used ProMotion, but that seems like it's because he knows the tool well, which is always most important. I've seen amazing art made in Paint because the artist knew how to use it properly.

    http://www.cosmigo.com/promotion/index.php

  • SpriteAttackSpriteAttack Member Posts: 524
    Photoshop is a monster to work with and imho total overkill for pixelart. It lacks the ability to do and test animations, the tools for palette control are very limited and even the simplest non-smoothed brush still plays up every now and then and you get unwanted anti-aliasing.

    My personal favorite is corel's photo paint for it's ability to make animated gif files and has decent palette controls (plus I can throw in vector sketches without a problem) and promotion (http://www.cosmigo.com/promotion/index.php) which is a really nice pixel editor in line with my all time favorite DPaint (from the old Amiga days).
  • MarkOnTheIronMarkOnTheIron Member Posts: 1,447
    edited June 2012
    This is more to 3Dize pixel graphics and for some isometric help and unfortunately is only for Windows but I like it: http://www.minddesk.com/index.php

    However I mainly use photoshop to do it, I'm working on an isometric game and with PS I have a strong layer system that helps me a lot.

  • MobileRocketGamesMobileRocketGames Member Posts: 128
    Photoshop is also an awful lot of $$$
    Photoshop is free if you know what you're doing...
    If you dont know how to get PS for free and your trying to design games for a living... it's time to go back to school!
    Photoshop is a monster to work with and imho total overkill for pixelart. It lacks the ability to do and test animations, the tools for palette control are very limited and even the simplest non-smoothed brush still plays up every now and then and you get unwanted anti-aliasing.
    It definitely is overkill, but since when is too much a bad thing? Having too much is always better than too little. And yes, you can create animated Gifs in PS (shame on you SpriteAttack =P ). You have full pantone selection over palette control. and you can create your own custom palettes using the swatches tab.

    I think MetzoPaino hit the nail on the head though, it really is whatever you are best with and most comfortable with. Pixel editing is such a universal ability you would be hard pressed to find an image program that doesnt let you create pixel art. I like PS because that's what i was taught and that's what i'm most efficient with.
  • DhondonDhondon Member Posts: 717
    @MobileRocketGames

    Tell me how to get PS for free. I hope you know that cracked software is illegal and can not be considered free software?
  • NovicaStudioNovicaStudio Member Posts: 174
    MS Paint For Windows,
    Pixen for Mac
    Quite Honestly, Pixen is what I use for up to 64x64 art. I love it xD
  • MobileRocketGamesMobileRocketGames Member Posts: 128
    @MobileRocketGames

    Tell me how to get PS for free. I hope you know that cracked software is illegal and can not be considered free software?
    Well, I'm a horrible, dirty, filthy criminal then aren't I.
    Look if you are making money off the software then by all means, you should pay for it. But if you are a student, or doing things as a hobby its ridiculous to expect you to pay hundreds, in some cases thousands of dollars for software before you even get a job.

    Every professor at college condoned the use of illegal software for students. These were professionals working in the games industry. They know that companies and schools HAVE to license their software and were talking every single computer in large studios and schools with hundreds of computers. They also know its in companies like Adobes best interests to allow students to use the software for free.
    Students need to use the software in order to learn it and get jobs using the software. If they didn't use it for free, they wouldnt learn the software and there wouldn't be anyone to buy the software in the future.

    Unless of course, you know, we all decide to start buying software we don't know how to use..... riiiight. If you want to let something as ridiculous as the morality of using cracked get in the way of you succeeding, that sucks for you. I payed over $800 for my license for Maya back in the day, !@#$% them if they think they are ever getting another penny out of me ><
  • DhondonDhondon Member Posts: 717
    edited June 2012
    @MobileRocketGames

    I can agree your argument to use pirated software for learning/education. I mean 30trial for photoshop or maya might not be enoght to base an decision of to spend hundreds or thousands of dollars on a pieces of software ( unless they have an PLE version).
    BUT, if you're making games and earning money ( either through paid versions, ads or free version) you're an criminal in my eyes. And I think GS would not be to happy to earn money through playhaven ( everything released with the free version) with games containing graphics produced with illegal software.

    If you don't think PS is worth it's price, find something cheaper ( like PhotoLine). Or something free ( like GIMP).
  • maxbeaumontmaxbeaumont Member Posts: 616
    Photoshop is great, and well worth the price. Thats just my opinion..

    -Max
  • SpriteAttackSpriteAttack Member Posts: 524
    @MobileRocketGames - I disagree with your rather arrogant statement... It's not stupid to pay for the software you use to get a job done. Once you use software professionally or even just aim to make money off the creation pirated copies are plain wrong. I don't consider you smarter because you know where to get things for free.
    I just encountered one of those 'smart bastards' with my 2D game assets. Buying digital content from myself and deepblueapps and then disputing the transactions on paypal. Wow - what an ingenious idea - you get a few bucks worth of content for free... What a heroic achievement. It has one nasty side effect - enough people stealing from small content providers of software developers kill their motivation to create the content, templates or software you so eagerly wanted but didn't want to pay for.

    You would get upset if your successful game would be hacked and distributed freely, wouldn't you?

    I am far from defending or liking Adobe or Autodesk or Microsoft but they create software that we like to use. If money is the issue go for a free alternative - there are more than enough of them out there.

    I don't like Adobe's price policy and do skip a version or two when I don't think the upgrade warrants the price-tag (or in the case of illustrator or flash (tools I rarely use) I won't upgrade at all and work with my 8 or 9 year old version when I have to).

    ...but thanks anyway for letting us what a 'smart cookie' you are and what morons we are for handing over our money to Adobe and the likes.
  • Braydon_SFXBraydon_SFX Member, Sous Chef, PRO, Bowlboy Sidekick Posts: 9,271
    @MobileRocketGames - I disagree with your rather arrogant statement... It's not stupid to pay for the software you use to get a job done. Once you use software professionally or even just aim to make money off the creation pirated copies are plain wrong. I don't consider you smarter because you know where to get things for free.
    I just encountered one of those 'smart bastards' with my 2D game assets. Buying digital content from myself and deepblueapps and then disputing the transactions on paypal. Wow - what an ingenious idea - you get a few bucks worth of content for free... What a heroic achievement. It has one nasty side effect - enough people stealing from small content providers of software developers kill their motivation to create the content, templates or software you so eagerly wanted but didn't want to pay for.

    You would get upset if your successful game would be hacked and distributed freely, wouldn't you?

    I am far from defending or liking Adobe or Autodesk or Microsoft but they create software that we like to use. If money is the issue go for a free alternative - there are more than enough of them out there.

    I don't like Adobe's price policy and do skip a version or two when I don't think the upgrade warrants the price-tag (or in the case of illustrator or flash (tools I rarely use) I won't upgrade at all and work with my 8 or 9 year old version when I have to).

    ...but thanks anyway for letting us what a 'smart cookie' you are and what morons we are for handing over our money to Adobe and the likes.
    Well said~
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