Photoshop workspace for pixel creating

[Nando]

just wondering if any of you use PS for pixel art. Been messing around with it for a little while, still practicing.

What does your workspace look like?

[Arkhan]

Ask sunteam paul.   He uses Photosherp.

[sunteam_paul]

Here's what mine generally looks like.

I've had to blur our the actual artwork due to its confidential nature

[Arkhan]

that confuses the hell out of me. 

It looks like a puzzle game, not a paint program.

[Nando]

Very cool, thanks!
Have you ever tried the index color table trick as shown here?

http://kiwi-rgb.deviantart.com/art/Speed-Spriting-with-Photoshop-117628734

[sunteam_paul]

I like to know exactly what my colours are as I'm painting rather than converting them to 'nearest' after the fact, where things can look mightily different. And Photoshop doesn't arrange the palette the way I need until I pick each colour onto it manually. It's the only way to make sure it's correct.

[Nando]

Makes sense. Thanks!

how do you work your sprites? I'm trying going from a pencil rough, to clean line art to pixel lines and man, I thought 2D animation was ROUGH! this can be brutal!

[Keranu]

I use Tile Studio. It's great for animation since you can instantly flip through the frames and test the animation at any given time.

[sunteam_paul]

Makes sense. Thanks!

how do you work your sprites? I'm trying going from a pencil rough, to clean line art to pixel lines and man, I thought 2D animation was ROUGH! this can be brutal!

Most of PCE sprites are pretty small so I just draw them as I go, usually start with blobs of the medium range colour, then adding shadow and highlights. Sometimes I do a clean outline first, but not often. I find it can help if you start off with a good monochrome (i.e. ZX Spectrum style) shape that is refined so it looks right, then worry about snazzing it up. I've recoloured a lot of old Spectrum graphics and you get a feel for how good the artists originally were by getting the shapes just right.

For anaimation, I just use the inbuilt animation feature. It's a bit crappily long winded but does the job.

[Nando]

Thanks Keranu


Paul: I will have to study some ZX sprites.  Thanks again for the tips.  It's both challenging and rewarding working with a set of limits.

[lord_cack]

I use MS Paint. All the work for MSR I did, Pyramid Plunder, and all the original work for Jungle Bros. was done in MS Paint....  Seriously

[Nando]

I use MS Paint. All the work for MSR I did, Pyramid Plunder, and all the original work for Jungle Bros. was done in MS Paint....  Seriously

 

I believe it but, DAMN!

did you use a wacom or the good 'ol barsoa...erm mouse

I've tried different styles to see what sticks with me, I'm still getting a disconnect from my pencil art to the pixel level. One has to be definitely spartan and be thinking a few steps ahead. Mad respect for all pixel artist of all times.

[Arm]

I use photoshop and sometimes graphicsgale along with a wacom tablet.

[Arkhan]

I use NeoPaint whenever I actually have to paint.

Spectrum and MSX sprites are great to look at.  Monochrome = requires skill

[ccovell]

C'mon, guys, get Win(Mac/*nix)UAE, Dpaint, Brilliance, and PPaint and end the agony!

Or at least Grafx2.