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STE'86
Registered: Jul 2009
Posts: 274 |
how to draw C64 on a pc?
On lemon recently a few of us have been advising someone who wanted to try c64 art on how to go about doing it on a PC.
this lead me to thinking that I too wanted to know this info last year so why not do a thread on it which hopefully many current c64 artists will contribute to and then maybe we will have a very useful "kickstart" to anyone interested in starting or returning to c64 graphics.
there is one oldschooler who shall remain nameless atm who i spent some of yesterday trying to coerce back into the saddle :)
so i'll kick it off, theres are bound to be additional steps i have forgotten but here goes: |
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Celtic
Administrator
Registered: Jan 2002
Posts: 807 |
My way back to c64 pixelling was through Timanthes.
Basically Go to
Timanthes
Timanthes 3.0 Beta
and download 3.0 beta. For windowns only i believe, but boy you can immediatly start working on pixxeling. It has great functionallity and can export pictures directly as en executable.
Read some of the comments and threads here on the csdb to get some tips/advice on working with timanthes, but once you have done that it is very very easy to start again.
Timanthes is a pixelprogram made for graphicians by a graphician. And within 30 minutes of using it, you start to get back that c64 pixelling skill.
and most importantly, Layers:)
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Digger
Registered: Mar 2005
Posts: 421 |
I need to convert a PNG image to tiles (charset) and then export them to a file. Got so far as getting Timanthes to create tiles and optimize them... great! But how the hell I can export them to a file? There are values at the bottom of the tiles panel but no export options :( Anyone can give hints? Thanks! |
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Celtic
Administrator
Registered: Jan 2002
Posts: 807 |
Ask that question in a timanthes thread, i am sure Lars will see & awnser it |
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Hein
Registered: Apr 2004
Posts: 933 |
Quote: I need to convert a PNG image to tiles (charset) and then export them to a file. Got so far as getting Timanthes to create tiles and optimize them... great! But how the hell I can export them to a file? There are values at the bottom of the tiles panel but no export options :( Anyone can give hints? Thanks!
First re-index your layer. Then optimize your tiles (re-indexed tiles compress better).
Make sure your layers are correct before exporting.
Export. Never mind the export settings, when you're using a tile layer, Timanthes doesn't use those (afaik). Once saved as prg, load in Vice or C64, you'll have your charset at $2000, the colour data at $2800, after that your screendata. Depending on how many tiles are used, your screendata location will vary.
Not sure how things go when you have more than 256 tiles :) |
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Digger
Registered: Mar 2005
Posts: 421 |
Thanx Hein, I will try these tips. Happy halloween! ^_^ |
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enthusi
Registered: May 2004
Posts: 675 |
HiRes mode (2 col per 8x8 block):
GIMP + cbmplugs (by tao) + simple patch.
Once getting used to it, GIMP is a very powerful crossplatform pixel-tool IMHO.
It allows to save in many formats. Koala included.
Also it provides a 'nice' palette already.
That save-plugin will warn you about color clashes (but not where they are ;-).
The latter can be simple fixed in the plugs-source...
Features I used here:
- Palette
- Layers
- Grid
- "preview" (if you disable dot-for-dot display)
- zoom on mouse-wheel
You can't convert images to HiRes format though. To 16-col c64-palette: yes. 2col per 8x8 char restrictions: no.
Here you see a setup of mine on that mermaid gfx from Syntax'09:
Multicolor (koala):
Skoe's 'multicolor' is crossplatform as well and very nice for pixeling:
MultiColor V0.2.1
Check out latest souce-revisions for very neat extra-features:
http://hg.berlios.de/repos/multicolor
I.e. forced use of %10 or %01 pattern per color (which was used in Zak Is Back for sprite-background-priority (not only %00 are background!).
Of course you can also (ab)use 160x200 in GIMP and resize to 320x200 in the end, or pixel with 2x1 brushes (eeek..),
but I prefer multicolor for this.
Check a setup here (build from source):
You can see the c0-c3 colors, x/y-positions and memory-offsets for bitmap and colormap which I considered quite useful for the animations in there.
The Koala pic in there is based on the EGA-PC-Version with a wonderful touch up by veto btw. (I just changed some bit-patterns).
These are my 2 cents about PC-pixeling (working for linux, windows, mac).
Cheers,
enthusi
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STE'86
Registered: Jul 2009
Posts: 274 |
drawing symetrical circles in photoshop:
DON'T use photoshop's ellipse object to draw circles for your c64 image, as without antialiasing, they are drawn totally asymetrically and uneven.
DO use either the circular marquee tool to draw the circle and then flood fill OR create a circular pencil at the diameter you require and then just "click" it on.
Steve |
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PAL
Registered: Mar 2009
Posts: 269 |
Hello all.
I use a software called Promotion from cosmigo software, it is a deluxepaint clone for the PC created by Jan Zimmerman(he created something called gunpaint on the c64 in his days).
I find this tool very nice as a hub when doing pixel by pixel images. It holds no c64 formats, but I put on a grid and a char grid, and I double in x the brush/pixel and set up a grid for placement of the double pixel... You can press a key for going one color up on the palette and another to go one color down again... this way you can work quite fast in here too. It is super nice to just sit in and do the pixel work. |
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chatGPZ
Registered: Dec 2001
Posts: 11116 |
yeah, i recommend promotion aswell. has a lot of nice features which are very handy for classic pixel stuff. (i seriously cant see a single reason why anyone would use photoshop instead =)) |
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JCB
Account closed
Registered: Jun 2002
Posts: 241 |
Hmm, lets see, a "do anything" paint program that has the same "no c64 limits", can draw in 2:1 AR like promotion but endless possibilities for creativity with all it's tools and plugins.. Of course nobody should use that for drawing.. |
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