What do you use to create PC Engine graphics?

[soop]

I'm guessing you could use just about anything, but if there's something more appropriate?

I'd be interested particularly in a program that can take a jpeg or a bitmap and convert it to the closest approximation of the PC Engine's palette.  Plus, as I'm currently using a netbook with a pointy nub or a desktop connected to a TV with a wireless keyboard, it would be nice to get something specifically designed for pixel art.

[djcouchycouch]

I'm working on a Genesis game project (Goplanes) and I've been using Graphics Gale (http://www.humanbalance.net/gale/us/) for my pixel art/animation needs. It supports bitmaps with 16 color palettes. It supports importing and exporting palettes. It should also be able to support importing bitmaps and/or jpegs.

ps: As there are 32 available palettes on the Turbografx, and each color's depth is 9bit (3 bits for red, green and blue) and configurable, there is no "one" TG16 palette.

[Arkhan Asylum]

I use NeoPaint and Grafx2, since they have proper PCX support.

[soop]

I use NeoPaint and Grafx2, since they have proper PCX support.

Ah, that's interesting.  I wanted to have a look at those tutorial PCX's and couldn't open them, I completely forgot that.

[Arkhan Asylum]

Yeah, if you want maximum painting powarrrrr, I suggest NeoPaint and Grafx2.

Screw all that expensive horsejive.

[_Paul]

I use Photoshop because I've used it for years and am very comfortable with it, but I guess any other paint software that allows layers is just as handy for stuff like this. I find pixel art is much easier with a mouse. I have a Wacom pad but only use that for drawing other stuff.

[Nando]

Just started doing pixel art, but I've been using Photoshop for quite a long time as well. If you have any tool that you are comfortable with already and it lets you do pixel lvl work, then just go with that. Learning curves can be a bitch if you want to churn out artwork NOW!

Also, if I recall correctly, Paul said that GIMP saves color the the PCX files in the format expected by the machine, and photoshop saves it backwards.  I think. Paul?

[Arkhan Asylum]

He probably said that.

Photoshop saves PCX file palettes upside down.  GIMP has a way to flip them back to non-upside downy.

[Keranu]

Tile Studio - simple, yet powerful. Animation is a breeze, you can flip through frames and play loops instantly.

[soop]

I'll try them all out, but I have to say, I grew up with Deluxe Paint, so I'm very comfortable with it.  Looks like Grafx is the favorite so far.  But as Paul says, I might need to wait until I get a mouse.

[Arkhan Asylum]

I'll try them all out, but I have to say, I grew up with Deluxe Paint, so I'm very comfortable with it.  Looks like Grafx is the favorite so far.  But as Paul says, I might need to wait until I get a mouse.

I'll try them all out, but I have to say, I grew up with Deluxe Paint, so I'm very comfortable with it.  Looks like Grafx is the favorite so far.  But as Paul says, I might need to wait until I get a mouse.

Grafx2 was made by AmigaDemoPeople

so, if you like DPaint, Grafx2 is going to make you hard in the pants.

[CrackTiger]

I use RGB2PCE to convert images to PCE colors and everything digital I do in Photoshop 7. Once I got comfortable touching up graphics and doing pixel art, I began to just convert to PCE colors and then redraw pixel by pixel on a new layer. Before that, I would convert sections of a screenshot that are at least one sixteenth of the screen size down to around 15- 19 colors tops, but as low as I could go without losing too much detail and shading. Then I would touch everything up.

For original artwork, I draw everything on animation paper, scan in a clean lined drawing at 600dpi, paint it using only PCE colors, balance thd composition proportionate to PCE res, resize down to actual PCE res and then convert/touch up.

[SignOfZeta]

Do any (all?) of these "pixel art"-specific programs easily accommodate working from scanned original line art? I'd really like to get into this sort of thing but I about as far as possible from those dudes that can draw with a mouse.

I want to do this "Capcom 1995" style.

[Arkhan Asylum]

Do any (all?) of these "pixel art"-specific programs easily accommodate working from scanned original line art? I'd really like to get into this sort of thing but I about as far as possible from those dudes that can draw with a mouse.

I want to do this "Capcom 1995" style.

I used Grafx2 for this.

I scanned in some crap, resized to 800x600 res (was for an RPG I was goofing with when I was 12), and colored them in Grafx2.

NeoPaint is great for this as well.  Those other programs (graphics gale, and shit), will do the same.


I'm all about using PaintPrograms that are free, or <100$


If you don't need proper PCX support, the sky is the limit.   For good PCX support, I suggest NeoPaint or Grafx2.

[Nando]

Do any (all?) of these "pixel art"-specific programs easily accommodate working from scanned original line art? I'd really like to get into this sort of thing but I about as far as possible from those dudes that can draw with a mouse.

I want to do this "Capcom 1995" style.

Gimp, if you want to go the free route, and it's a good program. Just a bit of a learning curve.

[touko]

RGB2PCE ???

[SignOfZeta]

Do any (all?) of these "pixel art"-specific programs easily accommodate working from scanned original line art? I'd really like to get into this sort of thing but I about as far as possible from those dudes that can draw with a mouse.

I want to do this "Capcom 1995" style.

Gimp, if you want to go the free route, and it's a good program. Just a bit of a learning curve.

From what I know of Gimp it's basically a Photoshop clone for a system nobody uses unless they have some kind of political axe to grind. I don't want anything close to that powerful. I want something tailored to low res low color graphics.

I already have Adobe CS 2, btw.

[Nando]

Do any (all?) of these "pixel art"-specific programs easily accommodate working from scanned original line art? I'd really like to get into this sort of thing but I about as far as possible from those dudes that can draw with a mouse.

I want to do this "Capcom 1995" style.

Gimp, if you want to go the free route, and it's a good program. Just a bit of a learning curve.

From what I know of Gimp it's basically a Photoshop clone for a system nobody uses unless they have some kind of political axe to grind. I don't want anything close to that powerful. I want something tailored to low res low color graphics.

I already have Adobe CS 2, btw.

It's available for Unix, Win and Mac, so not sure what you are referring to there, but if you have CS2, you've got plenty of horsepower right there.

You may want to download this

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-kEqV4nGSbHs/T14FjBUivOI/AAAAAAAACDs/twRXY-zes2U/s800/pcenginecolourpalette.png

it's the color palette for the system. Took that one from Paul on one of the spriting posts here.

[Arkhan Asylum]

GIMP is only useful to un-fuck the palettes from Photoshop.


It's GIMPed otherwise.

[spenoza]

Well, GIMP is free and Photoshop is like $700, so even if GIMP is a lot harder to deal with it has a distinct economic advantage.

[Nazi NecroPhile]

Well, GIMP is free and Photoshop is like $700, so even if GIMP is a lot harder to deal with it has a distinct economic advantage.

There's also the GimpShop version (still free) that makes it look more like Photoshop.

[Arkhan Asylum]

Well, GIMP is free and Photoshop is like $700, so even if GIMP is a lot harder to deal with it has a distinct economic advantage.

For free, you could just use Grafx2 instead, or get one of the other freebies.  GIMP and Photoshop are both over complicated. 

For retro game art, bitches ain't need nothin but MS PAINT.

[SignOfZeta]

Well, GIMP is free and Photoshop is like $700, so even if GIMP is a lot harder to deal with it has a distinct economic advantage.

I think both are ten thousand times more powerful than what I want for a job like this.

[Arkhan Asylum]

Zetotottoo:

Try Grafx2

If you don't understand how to use it, you should probably never open a paint program again. 

It's like, the easiest pixelfu program in existence, to be honest.

What you see is what you get.  Big Amiga looking buttons.

[Nando]

Well, GIMP is free and Photoshop is like $700, so even if GIMP is a lot harder to deal with it has a distinct economic advantage.

I think both are ten thousand times more powerful than what I want for a job like this.

They are for sure.

[spenoza]

Well, GIMP is free and Photoshop is like $700, so even if GIMP is a lot harder to deal with it has a distinct economic advantage.

GIMP and Photoshop are both over complicated. 

For simple stuff like this, hells yeah, but I still think GIMP isn't totally GIMPed given what it CAN do in skilled hands, especially given the cost.

[Arkhan Asylum]

You should see what people I know have done in MSPaint.  Good artists can get shit done with shitty tools!

[OldRover]

I use Paint Shop Pro 7.02. Version 8 and higher tries to be too much like Photoshop, including the time it takes to start the fucking program... 7 starts up really fast and is well-suited to low-color work, plus has good palette management stuffs and easily works with 16 color PCX files.

[soop]

I got my PCX background and it was nice and easy   I'm using Grafx 2 right now.

The picture I'm using is a bit small, so I guess I'll just have to use a border or something.  However, I can't believe there isn't a drag and drop option for multiple tiles in Mappy - Do I have to do an entire screen by hand?

Or can I perhaps make 32x32 tiles and convert them when the map is done?  And I guess the other thing is, if I have a static background, how many unique tiles can I get away with?

[OldRover]

For static backgrounds... if you're using the load_background() function, there is no "practical" limit aside from VRAM limits... if you're using the mapper though, you're limited to 256 unique tiles, regardless if you're using 8x8 tiles or 16x16 metatiles.

[soop]

Thanks dude.  Hmm, at the moment I think it's over 400.  But it does look good.
So does the load_background() function still use the tiles and maps from mappy?  If so, I think I'm done.

[OldMan]

I can't believe there isn't a drag and drop option for multiple tiles in Mappy - Do I have to do an entire screen by hand?

Depends on what you want to do. If you jst want to create a map from a picture, try
Map Tools -> Useful Functions -> Create Map From Big Picture.

how many unique tiles can I get away with?

VRam will hold a unique tile for (32x30) 8x8 tiles on the screen.....but that's -really- close to filling all of VRam
That's how the Huc Line-drawing functions work.

[soop]

that would probably be ok actually, if bad practice -it's a simple game.  a better method would be to mirro the tiles if that's allowed.

[Arkhan Asylum]

Soop, if you put your mouse over a spot and press F, it flood fills.

If you press L, it fills a line from current pointer to wherever the last tile you placed was at.


It helps.  Alot.

[CrackTiger]

RGB2PCE ???

I don't remember who made it. Just drag and drop RGB bitmaps onto this and it will spit out a copy in roughly PCE palette (integers of 36).


https://www.superpcenginegrafx.net/misc/RGB2PCE.exe


It doesn't like image sizes that aren't PCE resolution. If I'm converting something small, I usually place it on a PCE screenshot in photoshop and then drop the bitmap into RGB2PCE.

[ccovell]

Soop, if you're most familiar with Deluxe Paint, just keep on using it, along with other Amiga utils.

You can paint directly in 9-bit colour in Brilliance Paint, and use GfxCon or Personal Paint to save as PCX with no reversed palettes or size limitations.

[touko]

RGB2PCE ???

I don't remember who made it. Just drag and drop RGB bitmaps onto this and it will spit out a copy in roughly PCE palette (integers of 36).


https://superpcenginegrafx.net/misc/RGB2PCE.exe


It doesn't like image sizes that aren't PCE resolution. If I'm converting something small, I usually place it on a PCE screenshot in photoshop and then drop the bitmap into RGB2PCE.

Ok,Thanks, i ll try this ...

EDIT:it convert only in 9bit 16 colors ????
Or it also make sub palettes ??

[CrackTiger]

RGB2PCE ???

I don't remember who made it. Just drag and drop RGB bitmaps onto this and it will spit out a copy in roughly PCE palette (integers of 36).


https://www.superpcenginegrafx.net/misc/RGB2PCE.exe


It doesn't like image sizes that aren't PCE resolution. If I'm converting something small, I usually place it on a PCE screenshot in photoshop and then drop the bitmap into RGB2PCE.

Ok,Thanks, i ll try this ...

EDIT:it convert only in 9bit 16 colors ????
Or it also make sub palettes ??

It just converts to 9-bit color, it doesn't restrict the number of colors per so-many-pixels. But that lets touch up by hand in PCE color so that you only sacrifice the color/detail that you choose to.