A good sprite editor

Anybody have good advice on good sprite editing software? Not only with Doom in mind, but making a new actor for Doom pretty much covers the bases for what I currently need. I've been using Photoshop Elements for some good results, but this has its limitations. I need a professional 2D animations package, for low-res work. The editor should:

- allow frame previewing (flipping through images) without scaling the next image back down to the default monitor resolution (like Windows' image previewer does)
- support functions for working with many low res frames at the time.
- basically, it needs to have a good frames previewer.
- work well with color-limited indexed palettes
- be purchase enabled (I'm not looking for unstable betas, w4r3z, or subscriptions, etc.)

I suppose Deluxe Paint II running on DOS box would be a good option, but I'd prefer a Windows 7 compatible program.

EDIT: Moved category from Dumb -> Help.

SLADE3 and Paint is all you need.

Crasger said:

SLADE3 and Paint is all you need.

I wish.

Check out Pro Motion, it might be the right tool. I haven't used it myself, so cannot say if it's any good. They have an evaluation version for download:
http://www.cosmigo.com/promotion

msquid said:

Check out Pro Motion, it might be the right tool. I haven't used it myself, so cannot say if it's any good. They have an evaluation version for download:
http://www.cosmigo.com/promotion

That one does look sweet. I've already downloaded the trial, but haven't dared venture out of my Photoshop bubble to install and apply to a specific task. Thought I'd check here to see if anybody might have any hands-on experience first. Hard to find good sprite forums. I'd try Deviantart, but I think they're mostly focused on high-res stuff.

Maybe the Adventure Game Studio (AGS) community might help you?
http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/site/community/

popular sprite art tools:

gimp - gimp.org
photoshop - adobe.com
graphicsgale - humanbalance.net/gale/us/

also see this list: http://www.pixelprospector.com/the-big-list-of-graphics-programs-windows-edition/

or if you're mac: http://www.pixelprospector.com/the-big-list-of-graphics-programs-mac-edition/

or even linux: http://www.pixelprospector.com/the-big-list-of-graphics-programs-linux-edition/

jmickle66666666 said:

popular sprite art tools:

gimp - gimp.org
photoshop - adobe.com
graphicsgale - humanbalance.net/gale/us/

also see this list: http://www.pixelprospector.com/the-big-list-of-graphics-programs-windows-edition/

or if you're mac: http://www.pixelprospector.com/the-big-list-of-graphics-programs-mac-edition/

or even linux: http://www.pixelprospector.com/the-big-list-of-graphics-programs-linux-edition/

Rad. At a glance, Graphicsgale looks like the hot ticket for me on that list.

On 7/12/2014 at 1:33 PM, msquid said:

Check out Pro Motion, it might be the right tool. I haven't used it myself, so cannot say if it's any good. They have an evaluation version for download:
http://www.cosmigo.com/promotion

jusr bumping up the thread to call you a liar

Just in case: In 2017 GraphicsGale became Freeware. Powerful tool imho.

www.humanbalance.net/gale/us/

If you have $15, Aseprite is well worth the money.

On 12/17/2019 at 7:53 AM, R4L said:

If you have $15, Aseprite is well worth the money.

I second this. Aseprite is well worth the investment. 

The next question is, do any of those natively support non-square pixels? Doom sprites/textures properly have a 5:6 pixel aspect ratio (slightly taller than wide). I've been using GIMP partly because it does support that*. It's the only free program I know of that does.

* Image > Print Size > set the horizontal resolution so it's 1.2x the vertical (for example, 6 dpi x 5 dpi)**. Then View > uncheck "Dot for Dot", and it will scale accordingly. Also, in tool options, set the "Aspect Ratio" slider to 0.20 to compensate.

** My own display is 70 dpi, and I ran the numbers: 168 * 140 pixels/ft, viewed at 100%, makes each texel scale to exactly 5x6 pixels.

9 minutes ago, Rainne said:

Doom sprites/textures properly have a 5:6 pixel aspect ratio (slightly taller than wide).

Damn fine point. File under things I always knew, but didn't know I knew.

do it the way id did! GrafX2 is closest to DeluxePaint you could get! ;-)

I've used paint.net for everything. Image editing, drawing, sprite editing, everything.

On 1/14/2020 at 5:25 AM, Spineapple tea said:

I've used paint.net for everything. Image editing, drawing, sprite editing, everything.

same