Creating pixel art app - need input on features
Printed From: Pixel Joint
Category: The Lounge
Forum Name: Resources and Support
Forum Discription: Help your fellow pixel artists out with links to good tutorials, other forums, software, fonts, etc. Bugs and support issues should go here as well.
URL: https://pixeljoint.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=16858
Printed Date: 13 September 2025 at 10:58pm
Topic: Creating pixel art app - need input on features
Posted By: solarfuse
Subject: Creating pixel art app - need input on features
Date Posted: 02 August 2013 at 9:42pm
Hi all, new member here. I've been lurking here for some time. I'm an absolute novice at pixel art, but I have gone through the excellent tutorials here a couple of times.
I'm building a pixel art drawing application - mainly for fun. But since I'm not an seasoned pixel artist, I don't really have a clear vision for how I want the software to function, what features I want to include, etc. That's why I was hoping to get some input from the community here.
I've used Grafx2 for a little while and I just tried GraphicsGale tonight. So I'm not coming into this completely blind. I have a basic understanding of what features I need to have. But any input would surely help.
What do you like about your preferred drawing tool? What features are lacking? For instance, GraphicsGale is highly praised, but Grafx2's palette editing seems much more advanced. Grafx2 has the whole concept of "brushes" and has several built in by default (such as dithering brushes). Do people use these? Or do they just complicate matters without bringing much value? I know many of these may be personal preferences, I'm just trying to get a better idea of how some of the expert users here function.
Thank you!
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Replies:
Posted By: victorgrunn
Date Posted: 05 August 2013 at 2:26pm
I am not an expert user, but one thing I really enjoy about GraphicsGale - what makes it a must-have app for me - is the ability to do frame-by-frame animation, and for those individual frames to be able to have distinct layers. Also the ability to export a png spritesheet is great, as is the ability to export a gif.
What it's lacking, and what I really wish it had, would be the ability to more easily organize the frames (for multiple loops of animation of the same sprite), and the ability to copy multiple frames, and paste multiple frames into a position I want.
So if you intended to add some animation functionality, there's my two cents.
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Posted By: solarfuse
Date Posted: 05 August 2013 at 2:41pm
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Perfect feedback - exactly what I was looking for. Thank you!
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Posted By: yrizoud
Date Posted: 06 August 2013 at 2:48am
A complete painting program is very big. If you look at something as basic as MS Paint (the Windows XP version), there are some features that are absolutely needed, and not so easy to implement : Undo/Redo, and support of the Windows clipboard.
I don't think it's realistic to aim for a general-purpose painting program, as it's verly likely you lose motivation when nobody uses it (since something else is always better).
Now, a better idea would be an optimized program for a task where all other programs are not good.
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Posted By: solarfuse
Date Posted: 06 August 2013 at 5:39am
Yes I may be underestimating the work involved here...
I already lost a little motivation :) The app is web based (which may turn some of you off). Even drawing a simple line properly on an html5 canvas is not exactly trivial. If you use the built in API you will get a blurred antialiased line.
Every day I overcome hurdles like that and then get hit by something else. Yesterday, I discovered how much fun it is to draw a single pixel properly on a Retina display across multiple browsers! ugh...
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Posted By: helcril
Date Posted: 05 September 2013 at 5:47pm
Hello, I'm not a pro at all, but IMHO the best program would be something like mix of GraFX2 pixeling features (brushes, tiling, palette, a lot of shortcut keys, various zoom options for images and interface) with GraphicsGale animation features, that I like (multiple layers for frame, onion skin, window showing the whole animation).
Good luck!
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