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Feedback for a web-based 2d sprite editor


juliandescottes
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Hi everyone (first post here by the way !),

 

I've been working on a web based pixel-art/sprite editor for some time. It's not finished, but I think it's stable enough to share.

I'm not trying to sell anything, it's really just a pet project. I would love some feedback from game developers. 

 
You can try the application here :
An example of a sprite made with the application : http://piskelapp.com/p/agxzfnBpc2tlbC1hcHByEwsSBlBpc2tlbBiAgICAiK--Cgw/edit

 

piskel_screenshot.jpg

 

Let me know what you think (the source is on github if you're interested https://github.com/juliandescottes/piskel )

 

Thanks!

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Thanks for trying it out and for the nice comments !

 

My image upload service died earlier today. Probably not used to used by more than one person at a time !

If you tried to save your sprites as GIFs, it probably failed because of that. I replaced it now, and it should work better.

 

@Stunt Pixels : Ideally the use case it to create 8bit style sprites that can be used as assets in a game. Since it's all web based I think it's also makes it pretty easy to share your work with others and get feedback. At least that's how I see it :)

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This is great!

 

How about a palette feature? I like to define some colors for my games and use only them to ensure a consistent look and feel. Would it be possible to upload or define a palette for a sprite? It would be even better if you could upload a palette to your account and have a list of different palettes for each sprite. :)

 

I will give Piskel a try the next time instead of Aseprite. :)

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I really like the interface. Definitely stick with it. I could see myself using it if I ever decide to give pixel art another go. It needs a palette feature. One thing that always gave me trouble with other pixel art software, is the little color boxes in the pallets were always so so small. Which made if difficult for me as I'm colorblind. If you could have a palette that you could drag the corners of it to make it bigger, that would be awesome and make it less fiddly for me than all the others.

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This is awesome. I'm used to the kinda buggy Pixen, on OSX, and the mirror pen amazed me!

 

I'll also love to see a palette manager, along with a feature to export the frames separately, maybe zipped or something.

A great extra would be transforming tools. Ok, maybe that's asking too much =/

 

My only concern is how the selection tool works. After finishing the selection, if I change to the move tool, it handles the entire frame instead of the portion I selected. Is this intended?

 

Keep up the good work!

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Reading your comments, looks like a good palette manager is a must :) . Adding this to the todo list right now ! 

 

If you could have a palette that you could drag the corners of it to make it bigger, that would be awesome and make it less fiddly for me than all the others.

I think I understand what you mean, but can 'you show' me what kind of palette is readable for you ? Bigger squares ? More padding/space between them ? 

 

 

I'll also love to see a palette manager, along with a feature to export the frames separately, maybe zipped or something.

A great extra would be transforming tools. Ok, maybe that's asking too much =/

[...]

My only concern is how the selection tool works. After finishing the selection, if I change to the move tool, it handles the entire frame instead of the portion I selected. Is this intended?

I have lots of questions if you have some more time :)

 

Export : The only export I have right now is the 'upload PNG'. It creates a big PNG with all the frames side by side. It matches my needs for creating game sprites, but I agree it's really limited.

Why multiple files ? Is it to reuse them in another tool, or is it the way your game consumes them ? Having more export options is a must anyway, I'm just curious about the workflow. 

 

Transforming tools : you mean such as rotate, mirror, resize etc ? Applied to the whole frame, that's pretty easy to add. Linked to a selection would be better though, right ?

 

Selection tools : they need a huge rework to be usable. I can attempt to explain 'how' they work in today's version, but it's quite obscure.

1 - choose the rectangle selection tool

2 - select an area on the screen 

3 - copy (ctrl+c) or cut (ctrl+x) (or cmd+c and cmd+x if on Mac)

4 - move your selection (don't switch tools, just mouseover the selected area, you should see the cursor change)

5 - paste (ctrl+v or cmd+v)

 

The standalone move tool always targets the whole frame. I will try to fix this mess and propose something more usable.

 

Thanks!

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Bigger squares!

 

Am I the only one that finds the tiny little squares most pixel art software uses in their palettes really difficult to use? If the square is too small, green just looks the same as brown to me. Blue the same as purple. I know I'm color blind but apprently that's pretty common in men.

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Sorry for the delay!

 

Export: separated images would be good because I use Zwoptex to create the format that cocos2d-html5 uses.

 

Transform: exactly, transforming the selected pixels =)

 

Some more ideas (wishlist!):

- Custom sized grids

- Hold alt/shift/whatever to use eyedropper

- Change color by entering RGB values

- Delete selection

 

To get the hang of the app, I made for my game: http://i.imgur.com/BXgChUw.png

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Am I the only one that finds the tiny little squares most pixel art software uses in their palettes really difficult to use? If the square is too small, green just looks the same as brown to me. Blue the same as purple. I know I'm color blind but apprently that's pretty common in men.

 

You're right ! I think having bigger squares would actually benefit everyone, color blind or not. I'm mostly using the eye dropper to pick previous colors so I never gave much thoughts about this. I will improve this when I work on adding a color palette manager !

 

 

Export: separated images would be good because I use Zwoptex to create the format that cocos2d-html5 uses.

 

Great ! I was afraid I would have to develop a very flexible export feature to cater to different workflows. But with this kind of software, exporting in separated files should be enough for most cases. I'll work on that feature then :)

The remaining items in your wishlist are pretty easy to add, so they will probably appear in the application in the coming days !

For info, today you can already use the middle/wheel button to trigger the eyedropper. If you're on a touchpad you're out of luck though.

 

By the way, your sprite really looks nice ! I want to setup some kind of gallery/example page on the site, do you mind if I use it ?

 

Thanks again for the feedback !

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  • 2 weeks later...

I love photoshop but this is much easier to use. When creating pixel art I just find photoshop a pain to run. 

Some features to add:

*More shapes (Stars etc.)

*The ALT + Shift shortcut from photoshop. (scale from origin + keep aspect ratio)

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Thanks !

 

*The ALT + Shift shortcut from photoshop. (scale from origin + keep aspect ratio)

My photoshop days are far away and I don't have it installed anymore. To be sure : this 'maintain aspect ratio' would be used when drawing a shape ?

 

 

I've been mostly working on a color palette tool since my last post here. Should be ready soon !

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Hi all !

 

I just uploaded a new version of the application with a color palette manager. 

 

9f682626-b910-11e3-9609-291950c4dc89.jpe

 

You can create palettes (basically, just a list of colors). Palettes can then be used while drawing to quickly pick colors 

If you want to give it a try and let me know your opinion, I'd love to hear it !

 

Still the same url : http://piskelapp.com

 

Thanks !

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  • 2 weeks later...

@Solpeo Thanks ! Let me know if you find any bugs :)

 

I'll also love to see a palette manager, along with a feature to export the frames separately, maybe zipped or something.

 

I just found out about JSZip (https://github.com/Stuk/jszip , amazing lib !) and added an 'Export to ZIP' feature. It's in the right-menu, bundled with the previous 'Export to PNG' feature : 

 

893dddca-c0fc-11e3-83ef-631fe62b8a46.jpe

 

Hope that will be useful !

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