Aesprite

[First Spear]

In my quest for a fluid way to make Inty graphics using my limited ability to comprehend stuff, I stumbled across Aesprite. It's a free/$10ware tool for making old-school graphics. The palette is also customizable, I have not messed with it yet, but it looks very promising.

 

 

 

[+DZ-Jay]

You know, I once thought using my iPad to design my sprites while sitting comfortably on the couch, bed, or easy chair, would be the epitome of living in the future. To this end, I purchased a couple of sprite design and animation programs from the App Store. They were very powerful and easy to use, and ticked all the right boxes.

 

In practice, though, I realized that drawing pixels with my finger didn't feel quite as natural as using pencil and graph paper, so I went back to basics.

 

In the end, I ended up drawing all of Christmas Carol's sprites and animations manually, in ASCII files, using "dots and hashes." It turns out that years of typing on a keyboard has atrophied my pencil-holding skills, to the point that moving the cursor around and pressing keys felt distinctly more natural than that wooden stick.

 

I blame all those years stuck in "vi."

 

 

P.S. Do you know of counterpart of that application for Macintosh?

[freewheel]

It's available for OSX.

 

Pretty much any graphics program has the ability to draw pixel-by-pixel, although this one does have some neat animation tools. You'd still have to transcribe things by hand to code though, so it's not much different than using MS Paint when it comes to static sprites.

[First Spear]

One thing that I like about the program at this initial juncture, which I don't seem to get from Paint Shop Pro or MS Paint, is the ability to easily set & use a palette. I defined the Intellivision palette and started messing with it pretty quickly. Seems to be pretty forgiving.

 

intellivision.gpl.txt

 

Until there is a True Intellivision Graphics Tool , I think I'll flip betwen PSP, Paint.NET, Aesprite, and the Elektronite Tile Editor....

 

[freewheel]

I just loaded up a png in PSP in a separate window with the pallette, and take my colors from there (ctrl-click selects a color for primary/secondary depending on the mouse button you use). I really love how PSP lets you easily define your grid size, so you can flip between pixel-level and card-level pretty easily. But the animation tool has my interest piqued.

 

I didn't know Elektronite had a tile editor? Or maybe I've tried it and forgotten?

[First Spear]

What version of PSP are you using? I'm not familiar with customizing the grid side.

 

The Elektronite editor can be had by "special request" email to the folks over there, it's not for general consumption, and they don't want it shared/distributed except from them directly. It has its own quirks (doesn't everything) but does have some power.

 

 

I just loaded up a png in PSP in a separate window with the pallette, and take my colors from there (ctrl-click selects a color for primary/secondary depending on the mouse button you use). I really love how PSP lets you easily define your grid size, so you can flip between pixel-level and card-level pretty easily. But the animation tool has my interest piqued.

 

I didn't know Elektronite had a tile editor? Or maybe I've tried it and forgotten?

[freewheel]

What version of PSP are you using? I'm not familiar with customizing the grid side.

 

The Elektronite editor can be had by "special request" email to the folks over there, it's not for general consumption, and they don't want it shared/distributed except from them directly. It has its own quirks (doesn't everything) but does have some power.

 

PSP 7.00 (ie: ancient). View -> Change Grid and Guide Properties opens up a dialog that lets you specify your grid in cm/in, or pixels - and you can select the exact amount. I flip between 1 and 8 all the time, for obvious reasons (no hotkey for that though, which would be amazing).

 

I don't quite understand the concept of "not for general consumption, but email us and we'll share". Is there some kind of vetting process involved? Secret handshake?

[+DZ-Jay]

 

PSP 7.00 (ie: ancient). View -> Change Grid and Guide Properties opens up a dialog that lets you specify your grid in cm/in, or pixels - and you can select the exact amount. I flip between 1 and 8 all the time, for obvious reasons (no hotkey for that though, which would be amazing).

 

I don't quite understand the concept of "not for general consumption, but email us and we'll share". Is there some kind of vetting process involved? Secret handshake?

 

I don't think they want to share it with just anybody; I believe they would share it with developers that have the intention of making games for Elektronite. At least that's what they suggested in the past. That's why, if you're an Intellivision developer, and are interested in making games, and further interest in releasing your games through Elektronite, then you contact them directly and ask for the tool.

 

At least that's my understanding.

 

-dZ.

[freewheel]

 

I don't think they want to share it with just anybody; I believe they would share it with developers that have the intention of making games for Elektronite. At least that's what they suggested in the past. That's why, if you're an Intellivision developer, and are interested in making games, and further interest in releasing your games through Elektronite, then you contact them directly and ask for the tool.

 

At least that's my understanding.

 

-dZ.

 

Ah. Well then I guess I'd need to figure out the secret initiation rites to become an Elektronite developer.

 

I think everyone has interest in releasing games through Elektronite (well until something goes awry), it's them who is the arbiter on that one.

Edited January 19, 2015 by freeweed

[First Spear]

Small update.

 

First of all, the proper spelling is "Aseprite".

 

Second, the integrated on/off grid functionality is turning out to be pretty helpful. I have created a screen with my pixel specifications, generated my own Intellivision palette, and after saving as .bmp I have a small CMD that tweaks it with Image Magick and then washes it through IntyColor for cutting into tiles. When IntyColor has a problem (eg too many colors in a tile), I flip to Aseprite, modify, save, and then run the CMD again.

 

 

 

In my quest for a fluid way to make Inty graphics using my limited ability to comprehend stuff, I stumbled across Aesprite. It's a free/$10ware tool for making old-school graphics. The palette is also customizable, I have not messed with it yet, but it looks very promising.

 

 

 

 

 

[dotyj]

On 2/10/2015 at 6:26 AM, First Spear said:

Small update.

 

First of all, the proper spelling is "Aseprite".

 

Second, the integrated on/off grid functionality is turning out to be pretty helpful. I have created a screen with my pixel specifications, generated my own Intellivision palette, and after saving as .bmp I have a small CMD that tweaks it with Image Magick and then washes it through IntyColor for cutting into tiles. When IntyColor has a problem (eg too many colors in a tile), I flip to Aseprite, modify, save, and then run the CMD again.

 

 

 

 

I don't know what I'm doing wrong but my drawings aren't turning out.  I'm also using Aseprite.  Can  you help?

[dotyj]

I was successful using Paint.net but just couldn't get Aseprite files to convert properly.  I still don't know what I'd done wrong.

 

I'd like to get Aseprite to work, I really like that program.  But at least Paint.net will do the job.