Palette Editor (1.31b)

[Xifanie]

This tool allows you to open BMP (8bit) ONLY, convert them from/to old/new shishi arrangement. And if course it allows you to switch palettes.

Before importing in shishi just load the bitmap and click Null palette.

If you want to copy a palette, just drag & drop the one you want to copy unto.

http://zodiac.ffhacktics.com/Palette_Editor.7z

[Cheetah]

Excellent sounding tool Zodiac. I look forward to giving it a test run.

[Xifanie]

Update.

New interface and less buggy.

There are 3 palette edit modes:
Copy Row: Drag and drop to copy an entire palette row.
Copy Single: Drag and drop to copy a single palette color.
Color Edit: Double click the color to change its RGB values.

Since it still auto-saves I strongly suggest making a backup of your spritesheet.

[Vanya]

Sweet! That'll be a really helpful utility for us.
Thanks, Zodiac! ^_^

[R999]

Hey Zodiac... just wanna say a big thank you for putting this out. I have had a great deal of fun playing with palettes. I am not a pixel artist (though I do a lot of 2D UI and web design) so this is really my starting point, I find it fascinating that it's so quick and easy to completely change the appearance, look and feel of a character working with 16 colors.

By the way, this program is just wonderful on the Mac (via Windows, VMWare), with OS X's Zoom (deselect Anti-alias though). Zooming with this is more than sufficient for most people's needs. It works beautifully. If it was a Cocoa app (Mac program) I would glady add an Undo/Redo stack for it. I use XScope for color coding and correction, so an eye dropper isn't really needed (but it'll be nice).

[mav]

Yeah, this is a seriously efficient program--the time it takes to edit palettes have been cut down tenfold. There are a couple changes that could make this program phenomenal, but it's definitely good as.

[Xifanie]

Umm, small update.
http://zodiac.ffhacktics.com/palette_editor.rar

It still auto-saves; I plan to fix that in the next version.

- Palette choosing was implemented, along with the original limit of 5bit per color, meaning the color you choose will be the same compressed by shishi.
- Highlight yellow on the selected color
- Forced file open on startup

[R999]

Zodiac, you just made an already easy to use Editor 10x easier to use now that it's got a killer UI. Those RGB sliders are exactly what I would have wished for (and with clearly visible RGB values to boot). Excellent work!

edit: Think you could change those RGB labels to text fields instead? So to  let the user still be able to manually enter in the RGB values manually. It's a minor thing really (I am not hypersensitive with color). Say I wanted color 035151, I just type 03 tab 51 tab 51 on the first field, much faster than having to drag the sliders.

edit: Ok here's another thing that's not from the previous version, I can't see the location for the color selected in the color map. Not sure if this is a bug or not... hmm. Regardless I still find it being a lot easier to use.

[Xifanie]

The color map is custom, this was the only way I could have nearly every possible color without a luminosity bar. Therefore the same colors may be present many times, rendering it impossible, or absolutely not worth it to have a marker on the map.
I made text fields before but either my compiler or Delphi don't support error handlers, which would make the program crash when you'd enter a letter of leave the field empty. The easiest solution was to just have the Track Bar to select manually RGB values.

By the way you can just copy the color unto the other one and slide the bars, the end result will be pretty much the same.

[R999]

Now that you mentioned it, i can see why it was made like this.
Although abeit strange at first.. On a personal level, I actually prefer having the luminosity bar but that's because I am used to it more.

These are the two most common ways for designers to work with colors,






It's much easier to work with because it's based on color theory. Although I am okay with RGB sliders too. It's non issue since I could always use the older version along with it if I really wanted to use the color map and luminosity slider.



edit: So after about a week of using both editors, I am finding myself to be actually more productive using the older version. I can really pinpoint the colors I am looking for more easily that way... I guess I just can't adapt to the new version well enough. For now I still use the new editor for quick and dirty changes. But for serious work I am sticking to version 1 for now.

There also appears to be a bug when opening files with beta 2 of the editor. Just try to open several different BMPs without closing the app. It looks like a visual bug to me as these black pixels aren't saved. I'll try to capture a screenshot when I encounter it again.

[DeadManWalking]

If you're still looking to improve this, could you add a zoom feature?  It would make it much easier to tell how the sprites and portrait are looking for me.

[R999]

If you're still looking to improve this, could you add a zoom feature?  It would make it much easier to tell how the sprites and portrait are looking for me.

If you are on a Mac, Ctrl+Scroll Up/Down to zoom in/out (system wide). You can turn off anti-aliasing too in the preferences.

If you are on a windows, you can try lowering your monitor resolution when working with palettes.


Unfortunately either method will decrease your screen estate. I would prefer to have 4-5 palette editors opened at the same time to work (and zoom'ed in). It's not a big deal though.

[Xifanie]

I plan to, but not for the next release.
Next version will have:
- Custom demo sprite; copy/paste certain parts of the spritesheet as you want with:
• Zoom Level
• Portrait rotation
• Custom Background color
• Watermark (for the spriter's signature or something else)
• Tiling mode (like 4x2, or 8x1 to show all 8 palettes)
• Current palette or all non-black plalettes
- Auto-save removed
- Reintroduction of the old color selecting mode (while keeping the new one)

And I don't plan to allow anything to show all the 8 palettes at the same time for palette editing. Not only do you edit only one palette at a time, 8 full spritesheets would take way too much space on the screen.

The next version (after the one mentioned above) will probably have a batch function for the Custom Demo Sprite function above.

[R999]

That's a pretty good challenge to take upon Zodiac.

To be clear about opening many palette editors, I meant I like to say, have my Male Knight opened on the left, female Knight opened on the right, Priest opened on the top left... etc.. It's useful for color correction and fine tuning contrast / color balance.

And, if you can, add two window views per sprite/palette opened, one for 100% zoom, and one for 200% zoom (adjustable). It really saves a lot of time if the user wouldn't have to zoom in and out manually. Oh, do you mean by bringing back the version 1 color map please? It's the only reason why I am keeping version1 around.

[Xifanie]

If I ever do that, it won't be before a long while since I lack the coding knowledge to do it.

[mav]

Tiling mode (like 4x2, or 8x1 to show all 8 palettes)

Perfect. This will make life so much easier for me.

Great work, Zodiac. I look forward to whatever comes next.

[Xifanie]

- Custom demo sprite; copy/paste certain parts of the spritesheet as you want with:
• Zoom Level
• Portrait rotation
• Custom Background color
• Watermark (for the spriter's signature or something else)
• Tiling mode (like 4x2, or 8x1 to show all 8 palettes)
• Current palette or all non-black plalettes
- Auto-save removed
- Reintroduction of the old color selecting mode (while keeping the new one)

So yeah, I haven't done everything I was supposed to, but that's gonna be it for now.

Download is attached in first post.

By the way, feel free to post your scripts here; I only made 4 and everyone could use a lot more.

[R999]

Excellent work Zodiac. The scripts implementation is quite clever.

However...
1. Why is it that the Demo Window isn't updated on the fly?
2. Refresh button (for the demo window) isn't working for me [it's greyed out].
3. Why is there a "Save" button for the demo window?
4. A reload button would be a nice and easy feature, as opposed to re-opening the same file.

[Xifanie]

1. Because the way it is currently handled, generating demo sprites consumes way too much resources and therefore should only be activated manually.
2. Not yet implemented.
3. To save the demo picture; duh.
4. Yes I planned this for the next update.


(8x1) Basic Monster Poses[100%].script

Code Select Expand

//Basic Monster
Col(1)
Background(000000)

Portrait(000,028,1)

//First Row 56x56
Copy(000,256,056,056,032,000,1)
Copy(056,368,056,056,088,000,1)
Copy(112,312,056,056,144,000,1)
Copy(168,312,056,056,200,000,1)

//Second Row 48x48
Copy(000,096,048,048,048,056,1)
Copy(192,048,048,048,096,056,1)
Copy(048,144,048,048,144,056,1)
Copy(096,192,048,048,192,056,1)

[Timbo]

Zodiac, I love you man.  This is going to make my Frankenspriting to a new level.