What image editing programms do you use?

Gratuitous Forum Gratuitous Modding
1

Ive been using a combination of Sketchup, Photoshop and Pain.net to do all my sprite making.

Is there any other programs that people use that may be better?

Like for finding coordinates I use paint.net,

But im having a hard time getting my prites to zoom well without losing quality, without each sprite being like 10 megs…

Any advice on this?

Thank you in advance for any help.

-BroodQueen

2

you can have your sprite in higher quality than 512.

but you can only multiply with 2. like 512, 1024, 2048, 4096 and so on.

usualy i use about twice the size of the ship ingame. so if im gonna have a ship that is larger than 500 i make it 1024. but the smallest size i use is 512, no matter the size.

an if you are exporting a image directly from sketchup, when you click “export 2d graphic” you get a new window, in the lower right corner there is a button “option…” there you can change the resolution of the 2d graphic.

now when im reading this, i realise that i didnt really help you -.-

i just use sketchup, paint.net and gimp for damage…

3

oh you have helped me alot,
Like a said ive owned the game about a week and have been modding as long,

And started using sketchup just for this…
And I was under the impression that they had to be 512, (why you should only learn to mod Sober)

So its alot of help :slight_smile: thanks

-BroodQueen

4

Is it good?

Really? I thought that you can have a sprite of any size as long as it is squared (eg.2000x2000, 1500x1500)

5

Only if u save the sprite as a COMPRESSED texture, the size must be multiple of 2. If u dont use compressed textures, u can save the sprite in the size u want (even if u want to save the sprite in 256x1024). But of course is better to use squared sprites, to easily place turrets in laterz steps.

If u dont save the sprite as compressed texture, the size is going to be big. In some cases very big. If u use sketchup for render the sprites (i do that too xD), u will need to compress the sprites, or u will get sprites over 5 mb of size. That if u use sprites of 1024x1024 and over. Be aware, that compressed textures has a bit of quality lose, if u are using tiny glows, or u modify the sprite with paint.net (i use gimp) or the program u use adding glow effects and something like that, its probably that u will expect compression artifacts in the saved sprite. Thats the reason, for example i dont use compressed textures, i only use compressed textures in the damage and hull sprites.

6

if you want to resize, chop shop, reposition, recolour or edit layers, then YES!! the reason is that it has a easier ui than ps or gimp.

BUT! it comes with some limits… you cant use your 300 layer 5gb imaginaty ships, or the computer will crash in 11 out of 10 times xD

and it have some problems with smoothe brushing. thats why i make the black burnt spots in gimp and add the flame layer in paint.net

7

Once u get the basics on gimp, u will ask yourself y u didnt try it before… (its really easier than it seems).

8

i know the basics. i just prefer paint.net

if it had the power of gimp, then it would be the perfect image editing program…

9

Yar I used gimp for years before I found paint.net and havent gone back.

10

Well, depends on wat level of detail and workaround u want in your mods. With paint.net u cant achieve very imaginative mods. I used paint.net for about the first month i starting modding, after that i realized that i needed more. … and dont try to load 200 brushes in paint.net…