Looking for an artist to collaborate on a shooter

[Nando]

Dam Siskan! Very nice!

[Siskan]

Thanks!

[Tatsujin]

what kind of pixelsoft are you using? btw. nice work sis

[ParanoiaDragon]

Word up!  We should have another nice looking shmup to look forward to now!!

[Siskan]

Thank you. I'm using GraphicsGale.

[Arkhan]

Thank you. I'm using GraphicsGale.

Better learn a paint program that supports PCX, then!

[Siskan]

No need to use anything inferior when you could just convert to pcx though.

[Nando]

Thank you. I'm using GraphicsGale.

I've been curious about the program, just don't want to deal with the learning curve as I already use photoshop. I'll have to look into it more one of these days. What I liked the best about it were the spline/curve tools and all the dedicated pixel art stuff.

Do you have "portfolio" with more of your work?

[Siskan]

I've been curious about the program, just don't want to deal with the learning curve as I already use photoshop. I'll have to look into it more one of these days. What I liked the best about it were the spline/curve tools and all the dedicated pixel art stuff.

Do you have "portfolio" with more of your work?

I've used Photoshop for many things other than pixel art for years and I have to say GraphicsGale is much easier to use. It's simple as it has many features tailored for pixel art, but not another million features Photoshop has that you won't use for pixel art. Since a couple of years back it's also easy to rearrange the user interface so that it feels logical to yourself.

One thing I like which my old version of PS does not have (not sure about newer ones) is the fact that GG
makes a difference between layers and frames. Which means you can have several layers within each frame. But most of all, it's the way the line tool works. Pixel art is all about planning each pixel, but if you do it the right way you can place several pixels at once with the line tool, as well as just one. So no need to switch tools. Also PS enforces automated anti-aliasing with most tools, which is a big no no.

I haven't done a very good job at making my work available online for many years now. I don't have any portfolio, but I have a deviantART account with mixed media. The majority is stuff from 2006-2009 but there are maybe ten pieces sporadically submitted during the last few years.

[Arkhan]

No need to use anything inferior when you could just convert to pcx though.

I'm not sure I would call PaintShopPro for example, inferior to Graphics Gale, and it really does help if you plan PCE palettes out ahead of time, especially when you're talking about multicolor backgrounds.

Otherwise you have to convert it with a utility and hope it does a good job. 

Sprites you can be a bit more sloppy with, at least.


Paint Programs That Support PCX, and seem to work nicely:

NeoPaint
PC Paintbrush
Grafx2
PaintShopPro
Photoshop (inverts the palettes because it's a dick)
Gimp (Can uninvert the palettes that photoshop screws up)

I prefer NeoPaint or PSP, myself.

[Siskan]

I'm not sure I would call PaintShopPro for example, inferior to Graphics Gale, and it really does help if you plan PCE palettes out ahead of time, especially when you're talking about multicolor backgrounds.

For the task in question, many of these are. I've tried basically everything I could find and one thing I've learned is that universal editors come with a lot of obstacles. In many cases I'd rather use an old version of MS Paint over these. Some editors which are very old benefit from their limitations, but the fact still is that they were designed for other techniques and that becomes evident in the end. Also, they don't support modern file types, which is what I want most of the time.

Also, as I've pointed out above, the way the line tool behaves in GraphicsGale really speeds up the process for me. So if the conversions take a few seconds, that's nothing compared to hours saved. I continuously try new software I come across though, but so far I've always missed some major features.

[Arkhan]

Well, Grafx2 was designed with demoscene pixel art in mind.   I'd suggest taking that one for a spin sometime.  It's all WYSIWYG, supports tons of file formats, and adheres to PCX palette stuff really well, which makes it really handy for PCE art.

The same goes for PSP, and I have a hard time believing that it's inferior to GraphicsGale. 

Same with NeoPaint.  That tool is pretty effective for the price.

Anyway,

The conversions of high-color backgrounds take a few seconds, with shades of gray.   You may not get what you want out of the conversion, especially if you're providing tiles for a multi-screen map.

So, you'd essentially be making more work for whoever is coding the game.

They already have the harder job, so why make it harder?

[Punch]

Photoshop (inverts the palettes because it's a dick)

I've found that if you invert the palette before saving it inverts the inverted palette which is the same as a normal palette. Pretty retarded fix but functional. It is good to reduce pictures to fewer colors.

By the way Arkhan, not to hijack the thread but does the PCX import on PCEAS writes all 255 colors on rom or just the first 16 when the 17~255 is only black/white? If yes is there any way to force the .incpal to import only the first 16 to rom?

[Lochlan]

By the way Arkhan, not to hijack the thread

Pretty sure Arkhan already hijacked the thread, lol.

Thanks for all the replies everyone, PMs incoming!

[Arkhan]

By the way Arkhan, not to hijack the thread but does the PCX import on PCEAS writes all 255 colors on rom or just the first 16 when the 17~255 is only black/white? If yes is there any way to force the .incpal to import only the first 16 to rom?

What PCX import?

If you use the palette stuff, it will successfully extract a dickload of palettes out of a high color PCX (each 16 becomes a palette),

but the problem you run into is associating said palettes with tiles on screen.  EACH tile has to be told what palette to use.

So, if you've just run a highcolor tileset through a convertor instead of planning what you're doing, making a BAT file can turn out to be a real bitch.