PCE Pixel art tools?

[Gredler]

We use steps of 36 because it's "close enough". It would be closer to use 36.43 stepping, but I've never had a problem with the toolchain correctly converting colors in steps of 36 so I just stick with it. If you want to be dead-on, a closer list would be:

0 36 73 109 146 182 219 255

but these would be converted the same as doing steps of 36.

from http://www.pcenginefx.com/forums/index.php?topic=21600.0
reply #13

Thanks dude, great pull. Those values should be engrained somewhere on some sort of stone tablets ;p

Either way, I am still thinking Photoshop is unmatched if you have a good handle on it  for static images. I can't speak to the workflow for animation as I haven't used promotion for that, only done it through Photoshop.

Also, has anyone tried doing bakes using maya/max and or zbrush for intricate animations and 3d shapes?

I was surprised when I found out that's what George Simmons did for the NHL and Madden games for the 16 bit entries

[Black Tiger]

I like inbetweening in photoshop. Being able to use opacity to view multiple frames at once and flip back and forth between frames the same as animation paper on a light table.

I just use Microsoft Gif Animator to test frames and timing. I prefer having complete control over each test frame in PS and only fiddling with timing after that.

[Gredler]

I like inbetweening in photoshop. Being able to use opacity to view multiple frames at once and flip back and forth between frames the same as animation paper on a light table.

I just use Microsoft Gif Animator to test frames and timing. I prefer having complete control over each test frame in PS and only fiddling with timing after that.

Have you experimented with the timeline palette/window in photoshop? I am not sure what version you're on but the current one is great. You can set the duration for each frame and play the animation with a hotkey, and you can also flip between frames with hotkeys so you can flipbook animate pretty easily in it. You can even edit full videos if you've not tried it's pretty funny how powerfull it is - almost unnecessarily so, who edits video in photoshop?

[fragmare]

Right, was in the middle of editing stuff.  The closest PCE color would be 255/182/144

It was my understanding it needed to be divisible by 36 to be valid, so would 255 and 182 be invalid? I wish  we could clamp available colors to valid colors in photoshop across the full spectrum, not just either 256 colors or the full 16bit gamut Promotion is kinda good about it, but still 256 or full gamut and f that


Also I didn't mention how cool the alien head thing looks, nice dude

Photoshart does allow you to clamp the RGB values to 9-bit color.  You go to 'Posterize' and input a value of 8.  Iirc, it will use RGB values of 0, 36, 72, 109, 145, 182, 218, and 255

[fragmare]

Also, editing or creating a post on this forum from a mobile device is a f*ckING NIGHTMARE

[esteban]

Also, editing or creating a post on this forum from a mobile device is a f*ckING NIGHTMARE

I know, that’s why I use the silly Tapatalk app, it makes it fun to post.

If it weren’t for Tapatalk, I wouldn’t have been posting much for the past few years.

SRSLY.

[Gredler]

You go to 'Posterize' and input a value of 8.  Iirc, it will use RGB values of 0, 36, 72, 109, 145, 182, 218, and 255, iirc

I've never tried using posterize to clean up a low color count rgb image - only to reduce colors from high color count rgb images - so I can't confirm if that's how it behaves, but it was my understanding that it does clamp them but it just uses a nearist neighbor and clamps the colors down to a range defined in the value you input; That would be awesome if that's how it works though, each number representing a bit depth?


I looked into it briefly and it sounds like the number represents the # of colors per channel it will clamp the image down to. I am not certain it relates to bit depth, nor will set the colors to be any different value other than choosing the nearist neighboring color on the gamut

[fragmare]

You go to 'Posterize' and input a value of 8.  Iirc, it will use RGB values of 0, 36, 72, 109, 145, 182, 218, and 255, iirc

I've never tried using posterize to clean up a low color count rgb image - only to reduce colors from high color count rgb images - so I can't confirm if that's how it behaves, but it was my understanding that it does clamp them but it just uses a nearist neighbor and clamps the colors down to a range defined in the value you input; That would be awesome if that's how it works though, each number representing a bit depth?


I looked into it briefly and it sounds like the number represents the # of colors per channel it will clamp the image down to. I am not certain it relates to bit depth, nor will set the colors to be any different value other than choosing the nearist neighboring color on the gamut

It's just a quick and easy way of color reducing a higher color image to 9-bit color, and especially useful in photoshop since you can't really import a 512 color palette