Image Editor

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Cofefe

Guest
Hi all, I've been using Game Maker Studio 2's built in sprite/image editor a while now as I work on my current project which I *might* release some day. I'm immensely impressed with it compared to GMS1.4's, which was inferior to even MS Paint. However, I know a lot of devs use other tools for sprite creation, because those tools offer a lot of functionality that GMS2 does not (such as a gradient tool REEEEEE). For just creating 16-bit pixel art though, GMS2's built in editor really does everything I need it to do very well and is very convenient to use. So who else uses GMS2's image editor? And what other image creating tools do you use?
 

Japster

Member
Hi! - I think it's okay, and great that it's in there, especially for quick fixes, but I tend to use Paint.Net for most work, especially as it's got layers, and some great functionality.

As for animation, and different graphics styles, I use both SpritePile, and Spriter Pro (only as I got them cheap on a humble bundle, along with a hex pixel art package I also bought cheaply, but not had a chance to use much...

But yeah, unless you're intending to painstakingly pixel in your artwork, and don't mind having no easy method to re-hue / colour in areas or details easily (like attire colours etc), I personally avoid the sprite image editor for most things - again though, within its limitations, it's a great tool, and great to have it within the IDE!
 
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Cofefe

Guest
I think the biggest draw for me personally is that I already have it.

For some reason I'll drop 100 bucks on a 2D Game Maker, but I'm too cheap to spend less that 10 dollars on a pixel art editor that's actually good. :rolleyes:
 

Toque

Member
I think the biggest draw for me personally is that I already have it.

For some reason I'll drop 100 bucks on a 2D Game Maker, but I'm too cheap to spend less that 10 dollars on a pixel art editor that's actually good. :rolleyes:
Your comfortable with it. I understand that.
I feel the same way about pyxel edit so I go back to it.

I will get asperite eventually.

I have affinity designer and Graphic but they donā€™t do pixel art well at all.

I tried the colour pick up on a Mac and it does not work.
 

Rayek

Member
I never use built-in graphic editors in game engines: just way too starved of functionality, excepting for the odd placeholder graphic for quick testing. Otherwise, I just don't see the point in limiting yourself by the tools when great pixel art editors exist which will speed up your work and make your life that much easier.

For pixel art I mostly use a combination of Krita and Pro Motion NG. (I absolutely hate Asesprite's "pixel art" interface, btw.)

If you can't deal with spending any money on a decent pixel editor, just get Graphics Gale, which is now free. Or if you are less of an indexed mode / palette purist, use Krita (which is also free). Krita also supports so-called "index painting", which allows for a free-flowing painting workflow that is automatically converted to a 16-bit pixel art look.

Look on YouTube for videos how to set up Krita for pixel art.

Here is a nice one which explains the index painting method:
 
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dannyjenn

Guest
I heard that Aseprite is no longer open source. I'm guessing the one on GitHub is an older version?

There's also LibreSprite which is based on Aseprite's code. I couldn't get it to compile on my machine though, so I just purchased an Aseprite license. (Literally just a few days ago.)

So I just started using Aseprite, and what I don't like about it so far is its name. I keep wanting to call it 'Aesprite'. (That's how it's pronounced, isn't it? So why is the 'e' between the 's' and 'p'?)

I haven't worked with it much, but so far I'm liking it more than what I was previously using (GIMP, which isn't really tailored towards pixel art).
 

Yal

šŸ§ *penguin noises*
GMC Elder
I'm surprised nobody brought up GIMP yet (the GNU Image Manipulation Program)... it's more focused on Photoshop-style filter-based editing, but it's not completely terrible at pixel art. My favorite feature is partially transparent layers bundled with the more exotic blend modes... you can create a lot of effects by combining a bunch of distorted layers with the right blend modes (like copying a text, blurring it a lot, and drawing it on top of the original with additive blend mode - now you've got subtly glowing text!). You can get decent-looking pixelart backgrounds / title cards if you render an image to PNG, load the rendered version in as a separate image (so that all the layer effects become "hardcoded" into a single layer), and change its mode to indexed with the right palette settings... I usually make the title text for my games this way.

Example:
 
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Cofefe

Guest
I'm actually glad you mentioned Gimp, because that is a program I use for mostly non-pixel art and usually not for Game Maker. Its not super geared for pixel art, but that's an interesting trick you mentioned with text. My title screens always look so garbage, so that's something I could look at to make them less garbage. :D
 

Jabbers

Member
I also use GIMP but mostly for general editing. I used PaintTool SAI for a while based on a friends recommendation. I wouldn't use the built-in editor for anything serious.
 
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