Shook released a bit on color and contrast!
http://forums.toribash.com/showpost.php ... stcount=50

(Also, I'll be adding new sections soon, hopefully.)

And you supplemented it quite nicely. Honestly, i didn't know the things you wrote there. :>

Update!
I read through it a few more times and found some places where the wording was weird or hard to understand.

I have (hopefully) fixed those problems!

(I actually ended up rewriting about half of the tutorial. Go! Reread!)


Also, I added Arne's wonderful art tutorial!

Not sure you guys are too fond of the idea but I think it would really help if you could make a video saying how you prepare and sprite just something simple like a gun. It would help me understand it a lot more.

i cant find any good programs that will allow me to use as a pixelation creator

GIMP. Or Paint.net, both work.

I plan to make a series of video tutorials over the summer.

I've tried Graphics Gale and Paint.net since I've been using my W7 laptop a lot- and I gotta say I prefer Window's 7 Paint over those.

O_O W7 paint is terrible for pixeling imho. Paint in general is a bad tool for it. Gale is nice, especially for animation, but I do most of my pixel work in GIMP or Photoshop out of habit. Gimp's tools facilitate pixelling better than Photoshop's, as does GIMP's ability to have layered, indexed images (PS doesn't support this as of CS4, haven't owned/used any higher versions).

Paint is the only program and that's final.

*Crosses arms*

Paint = Lose

I'd like to try promotion at some point but don't feel like buying it, afaik almost all the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ on pixelation use it.

PAINT CAN DO EVERYTHING YOU NEED IT TO

Everyone has their fancy. No arguement needs to happen.

GIMP and Photoshop are definitely more professional tools for pixel art, along with Graphics Gale, but I personally prefer Windows Paint for it's simplicity. I don' t need blur, ruler, smudge, or any other fancy shmansy tool. Pixel art is pixel art.

Anyhow, just as Emogotsaone said, everyone has their preference. If you want to discuss it more in-depth, I suggest making a new thread.

Yeah, but the same argument can be made that MSnotepad can do all I need it to in terms of coding.

Except it cant.

Notepad can't undo more than 1 step, can't highlight my code, makes it horrible to work with indented code (ENTER TAB TAB TAB TAB TAB typing ENTER TAB TAB...) and doesn't like having more than one file open. It's not suitable for coding. You can code in it, but that doesn't make it suitable.

Similarly:

Paint can't undo more than a few steps (is it 3? maybe 5?), can't colourpick without switching tools, doesn't support tablet pressure, doesn't support palette swapping (without some hellish tricks involving pasting into a new file using a colour as transparency), doesn't allow me to make oddly shaped selections doesn't support animation doesn't support transparency doesn't allow arbitrary zoom levels doesn't allow me to rotate the canvas arbitrarily doesn't handle rotation at any angle not a multiple of 90, doesn't allow layered image editing doesn't compress PNG images well doesn't allow semitransparent brushes doesn't support RLE encoded bitmaps, oh and the W7 version ♥♥♥♥ up indexed images.

That's off the top of my head.

Paint is not a great image editor, it's not even a good image editor. It's drastically outcompeted by every other semi-mainstream image manipulation program out there and it's horrible for pixel-level work. The only reason I can imagine someone prefering it is that they're comfortable with the MSPaint interface and don't want to have to deal with facing a new interface for a while however such a person would only be doing themselves a disservice - limiting themselves in their productivity from the get-go.

Suggesting MSPaint is the best because you can do good things with it is like suggesting we should still be using the Amiga because there were some amazing games made under those restrictions, or that everything should be coded in ASM because its faster that way and who needs high level languages anyway. The truth is that Paint is an underpowered dinosaur compared with anything else you'd use for serious art, just like the Amiga is an underpowered dinosaur compared to my 6 year old laptop and ASM is a nightmare to work on any large project in.

This is not a subjective argument.

tl;dr: If you want to get good, dont limit your output by using retarded underfeatured software. Learn to use programs that come recommended by the majority of professionals because believe it or not 9/10 times the people working in the trade know better, and 99999/100000 times they wont use MSPaint for their work.

I'm posting this even in light of MLC's post because I think a lot of new pixel artists default to MSPaint when they shouldn't, and because picking the right tools for the job is an important part of learning to pixel.