So, I’ve been looking into making my own custom animations, but I don’t know what tools/applications to use, or even what my options are.
To anyone who has experience on the subject, what animation tools are out there?
always aseprite, layer system and onion skinning
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Aseprite is currently the best tool, but GraphicsGale was the OG and works fine.
I personally am unhinged and sprite directly onto a sheet with usenti, then import it elsewhere with specified tile sizes to preview.
This is probably why I’ve yet to finish an animation.
If you’re doing it via sprite sheet → import, then GIMP or just about any art program with a 1 pixel aliased brush and layers would work great. I’m not sure why I insist on not using layers even when digitally painting, but no one should follow in my footsteps.
Edit: another factor for not using aseprite is that the UX was intolerable for me without plugins/changing the cursor sheet/etc. And the way the UI doesn’t scale naturally but does some pixel integer scaling crap because it’s insistent on being pixel art is incredibly offputting. Also the preview doesn’t go to 1x magnification for some reason. onion skinning is overrated for pixel art at this scale anyway smh. ← coping
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Probably stupid, but I’m an ancient dinosaur who still uses MS Paint. (XP/Vista in particular)
would likely explain why i can’t do custom sprites well.
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Been using paint . net for quite some time
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can’t go wrong with Microsoft Paint + Usenti
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Paint.NET was my first tool and suddenly I move into Aseprite in my pc and Pixel Studio in my cellphone
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From the responses I’ve gotten, I think I’m going to just start in Usenti and then maybe move to something like Aseprite later on. Thanks y’all!
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Usenti is great for stills and keeping track of your palette, but a lot of people hate how it determines which pixel your cursor is on. I personally prefer it, but if it’s giving you trouble, switch to mspaint and just open it in usenti when you’re checking the palette.
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I’ve been using it for portrait edits for awhile now, so I’m already used to it at this point. For now it seems like the best option for me.