Pixel Composer

Pros: [list] [*]This tool is incredible and extremely powerful, and the procedural node non-destructive workflow is amazing for creating infinite number of variations, as well as being able to make huge changes and adjustments without ever having to worry about redoing the whole thing again is game-changing. I really adore substance designer, and so pixel composer naturally falls into that soft spot for me as well. [*]The software is constantly being updated with new features and bug fixes provided by the dev on a weekly basis, as well as releasing tutorials on his youtube channel, workshop project,.. which is all great [/list] Cons: [list] [*]The software can be very unstable. Random crashes, warning just for putting a node down and changing some numbers are all too common. Personally, it's not bad since I save often so I don't really lose a lot of work, but for anyone considering including this as part of a major workflow, I could see this being a big turn-off. [*]The documentation is really lacking, most of the resources you come across online are from the dev himself (once again big props for creating all those tutorials) but unfortunately isn't enough for a lot of cases. The discord server is your second-best bet but they aren't exactly searchable unless you joined it first. [*]This might be a genuine skill issue on my part, but I feel like a lot of the time, it can be really hard to get the software to work the way you expect it to. From an uneven gap size that sometimes switches between being 1-2px wide, to the node not tiling properly if you change some settings. [*]It can be really difficult to make things with a small resolution (like 16x16). The software feels more like it was meant to make pixel-style art rather than true pixel-art when each and every single pixel matters, if that makes sense. [/list] FWIW, I'm still recommending this because there is really nothing else like it, and it's being done by a solo-dev so I want to support the dev as much as possible, but you should only get it after trying out the free demo over on itch first.

นี่เป็นโปรแกรมที่คนไทยทำด้วยยิ่งว้าวมากๆ [ ที่กดซื้อเลยตอนเห็นวิดีโอฟีเจอร์ต่างๆกับแพทช์อัฟเดทอย่างต่อเนื่อง เรียกได้ว่าแทบจะทุกสัปดาห์! ] ผมเป็น Animator ที่ปกติผมจะทำทุกอย่างด้วย Frame by Frame ตลอดทั้งการขยับเอฟเฟ็คต่างๆ แต่โปรแกรมนี้ช่วยลัดขั้นตอนทั้งวาดกับอนิเมทและออกมาได้สมูทธมากกว่าเดิม เพราะเป็นตัวโปรแกรมประมาณผลให้เลย อาจจะมีงงๆกันบ้างในช่วงแรก เพราะต้องทำความเข้าใจ keyword ของ node ต่างๆพอสมควรกับการเชื่อมต่อของแต่ละ node แต่ถ้าได้ดูคลิปสอนของ Dev ใน Youtube และค่อยๆทำตามทั้งตัว Introduction และคลิปสอน ก็จะเข้าใจได้ไม่ยากแต่อาจจะต้องคลำๆไปหน่อยพอสมควร ถ้าใครชอบทำ VFX หรืออยากนำไปทำเกมก็ช่วยได้เยอะมาก ยิ่งตัวโปรแกรมสามารถนำไฟล์ดิบของ Aseprite ลากมาใส่ได้เลยนี้ยิ่งว้าวมากๆ แม้จะทำอนิเมชั่นใน Aseprite ไว้แล้วก็ยังนำมารันในโปรแกรมนี้ได้โดยไม่ต้อง Export มา Gif. หรือ MP4 เลย -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- VERDICT : 10/10 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PS. ตอนนั่งดูคลิปสอนก็ไม่ได้คิดอะไรแต่ก็ฟังทั้งสำเนียงต่างๆก็รู้สึกคุ้นๆเหมือนสำเนียงคนไทย เพราะตอนแรกก็อ่านชื่อ Dev ว่า มาร์คแฮม แต่ก็มาดูว่าจริงๆอ่านว่า มะขาม

I got this from a friend for doing some work for them, and honestly it was worth it. Janky as ♥♥♥♥, things seem to not work how you'd expect for zero reason, and really I have 500 problems I want to bring straight to the developer that weren't even there in old versions but do not know how. However, this will save you SO much time with making anything procedurally. Pixel based or otherwise. Incredibly useful and definitely worth the money... which at the moment is $15. Aseprite is also $15 and I'd say they're about even, Aseprite is FAR better for standard spriting and Pixel Composer does a bunch of other stuff well and is terrible at conventional spriting. Getting both is $30, $15 if you can compile aseprite from source.

Insanely good tool. After years of destructive suffering with Krita and Photoshop I can finally rest and pick my go-to software for image editing that does so much of what I need. After working with blender traditional 2D software felt extremely limited, for example creating pixel art 9 slices was such a pain: you had to draw it, manually duplicate sides, rotate them and any little adjustment had to be redrawn on each of those sides. And then you launch your game engine and it looks off and you have to redo all the steps all over. Here you just draw it one time, rotate, combine — boom. And there is so much more. Ability to work on several files in one workspace, batch editing, y-sorted scatter, support for 3D(!!). To me this is a dream come true piece of software and I regret so so much that I haven't discovered it earlier. Bonus points for regional pricing!

An incredible app from an incredible dev. Highly recommend if you have any interest in node-based digital art. This tool reminds me of blender nodes, but *only* blender nodes. 11/10, blew me away.

It's like Substance Designer for pixel art and it's absolutely incredible! Really quick to get up and making things and the level of control you have if you dig into is absolutely brilliant. Easy ways to render to a sprite sheet (I tried to create custom functions for this in SD and it was a janky nightmare!) and also very simple to export. I've tried a few of these node based FX tools and this absolutely blows all other similar software out of the water!

impressive for the price! Needs some performance improvements but this is amazing! Feels like node based photoshop

难用的要死，教程也没多少，还有经常属性参数都改不了的bug。

This is outright black magic

Missing executable.. Yep. Nice thanks.