Pixel art and animations...

[Thrawn]

Im new to pixel art (drawing it that is)and Im used to drawing using Flash with vector. Pixel is def. a different beast. Im used to photoshop as well, but never really drew in that as much.
I was wondering if there are any other tutorials that you know of besides the ones on the clickteam site? I have went thru those and was looking for something a bit more about techniques for creating great pixel art.
Also, anything explaining the animation process for MMF2 in more depth would be awesome.
Thanks for the replies in advance. I really appreciate all the help Ive gotten so far.
Jeff

[Atherton]

In regards to pixel art here are two really good tutorials on the subject that you might be interested in.

http://www.petesqbsite.com/sections/tutorials/tuts/tsugumo/

http://www.derekyu.com/?page_id=218

[Thrawn]

Atherton, hey thanks! Thats exactly what I was looking for.
If anyone else has any tips or ideas, please let me know.
Jeff

[BrashMonkey]

Check out ProMotion by www.cosmigo.com.

It's the most commonly used specialized program for pixel art and sprite animation. There's also a series of vidoes showing how to use the program.

[Thrawn]

Thanks HolyMonkey, going to check that out now.
Anyone have any art tutorials specific to MMF2?

[Atherton]

Anyone have any art tutorials specific to MMF2?

If you check out the "tutorials" link located on the right of this forum should find a tutorial that covers using the image editor.

However as far as I know MMF's picture editor isn't much more advanced that Microsoft paint(which is a bit of a shame really)so you may actually find it easier to create your art & animations in another program before importing them into MMF.

[BrashMonkey]

You wouldn't expect to be able to make great music for your games with MMF and you should not expect to be able to make great sprites in MMF.

We should be greatful Clickteam gave us a little more than the bare minimum image editing tools within MMF. Lets let them focus on the game making tools.

[Shawn]

A trick that I use sometimes is to use layers in Photoshop (or GIMP or whatever). Have your first frame of animation on the first layer. When you are ready to do the next animation, create a layer on top of that one, and adjust the transparency low on the first one so you can still see it faintly as a guide. So you just use it as a template to adjust the animation to the next frame. Hide the first layer, do the transparency to the second layer, then add a third on top of that. Basically repeating the cycle. If you leave all the layers visible as you go, you won't be able to tell what you're doing. So just make sure you only have one layer visible to work over at a time as you go.

Hope that made sense.

[Atherton]

You wouldn't expect to be able to make great music for your games with MMF and you should not expect to be able to make great sprites in MMF.

We should be greatful Clickteam gave us a little more than the bare minimum image editing tools within MMF. Lets let them focus on the game making tools

Call me ungrateful but I just think that it's a pity it hasn't been designed with creating simple animations & repeating tiles in mind that's all.

[Shawn]

You wouldn't expect to be able to make great music for your games with MMF and you should not expect to be able to make great sprites in MMF.

We should be greatful Clickteam gave us a little more than the bare minimum image editing tools within MMF. Lets let them focus on the game making tools.

I agree that it really isn't Clickteam's job to make an advanced picture editor, but I think making music is a lot harder than drawing sprites. And as far as the picture editor is concerned, it's definitely possible to make a good looking sprite if someone knows what they are doing. There's ways to make animating a bit simpler in other programs(such as the method I suggested above) but overall, if you know how to do pixel art, the editor in MMF2 is certainly capable. The main thing I don't like about the picture editor is the color palette, but I think you can make your own. Not sure, never really tried.