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Forums > C64 Pixeling > how to draw C64 on a pc?
2010-10-30 12:53
STE'86
Account closed

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:
2010-10-30 12:58
STE'86
Account closed

Registered: Jul 2009
Posts: 274
standard multicolour (koala)

application(s):

Photoshop c2 and above AND Project One

method:

replace the default photoshop swatches with the c64 palette of your choice (usually pepto but not by me :) ) see link at the bottom for palettes.

create a new document in rgb at 160x200 resolution at 72dpi

set the pixel aspect ratio to 2:1 and presto! you are now drawing in c64 MC res. but with layers.

turn off any auto antialiasing you can see on the top menu bar.

using the PENCIL tools you can now draw pretty much what you want.
stay away from BRUSHES as these will automatically try to feather edges.

you can however get the airbrush to work after a fashion in "splatter" mode pretty much
how the one in Blazing Paddles works.

setting the grid to 8x8 will help you to keep track of the MC attribute limitations as will
installing and periodically running the script in the link at the bottom of the post.

to create a c64 image from your photoshop document:

flatten the image and convert to indexed colour using the same palette as you drew the image with
(it also helps alot if u use a palette that Project One has as standard
(see link again for an ammended project one .ini with additional palettes)

use the IMAGE>IMAGE SIZE option in PS to scale your image back up to 320x200 REMEMBERING to set the "bicubic" scale option at the bottom of the screen to me "nearest neighbour" instead

save off your indexed colour image ( i use 16 colour GIF as it preserves palette order etc)
but BMP can also be used

import that image into project one, AFTER making sure project one is using the same palette as you have used. if you can select it. (again see amended P1 .ini)

when you are happy with your image, save the image as a koala .kla file.

convert your .KLA file to an executable .PRG file using the converter commandline program
again in the link at the end (instructions for use are in the zip)

your image can now be executed by and c64 or c64 emu.

link:
Useful c64 graphics apps and bits

Steve
2010-10-30 15:08
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:)

2010-10-30 16:00
Digger

Registered: Mar 2005
Posts: 448
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!
2010-10-30 16:26
Celtic
Administrator

Registered: Jan 2002
Posts: 807
Ask that question in a timanthes thread, i am sure Lars will see & awnser it
2010-10-30 16:55
Hein

Registered: Apr 2004
Posts: 965
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 :)
2010-10-30 17:51
Digger

Registered: Mar 2005
Posts: 448
Thanx Hein, I will try these tips. Happy halloween! ^_^
2010-11-01 09:23
enthusi

Registered: May 2004
Posts: 679
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
2010-11-01 15:36
STE'86
Account closed

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
2010-11-01 16:28
PAL

Registered: Mar 2009
Posts: 310
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.
2010-11-01 16:37
chatGPZ

Registered: Dec 2001
Posts: 11523
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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