Every artist has their tools, and those tools are but a matter of preference. You can make the best artwork with tools with limited use and the worst artwork with the best tools available. It’s all about the artist wielding the tool, in the same way that giving someone amazing gear wouldn’t make them magically good at a sport.
But, if you could make the creation process easier, wouldn’t you? That’s the heart of the argument when artists clash over what creative program is superior. Pixel artists, we’re here to explain why Aseprite takes the cake, and why you need not consider other alternatives.
What Is Aseprite?
Aseprite is an animated sprite editor and pixel art tool for Windows, Mac, and Linux that was developed by Igara Studio—namely David Capello, Gaspar Capello, and Martin Capello (according to the “read me” file on Aseprite’s GitHub).
With Aseprite, you have access to a library of pixel drawing and manipulation tools designed to help you create 2D sprites and animations for art, video games, and more. You can download Aseprite directly from the official website after purchase, or opt to get it on Steam.
The sprite editor also has a very active community, so not only are users constantly looking for ways to make Aseprite better, but they’re also very willing to show you the ropes. On the program’s official website, there is a dedicated tutorials page that features how-to videos and FAQs. Some of which, were made by Aseprite fans and not the developers themselves.
Aseprite Tips: A little thread with some random tips 🧵🎨 we’ll be adding more in the future, thanks to all asepriters to record these little tutorials
— Aseprite (@aseprite) May 3, 2019
Aseprite’s official Twitter account (@aseprite) also has a thread of tips and tutorials made by its users pinned to the top of its profile.
Download: Aseprite ($19.99, free trial available)
Why You Need a Dedicated Pixel Art Editor
You might be thinking: “Well, I can make pixel art in programs like Photoshop, GIMP, and Krita! Why would I use another editor when I already have one that can get the job done?”
And you’re right, to some extent. There is a lot of value in creative software that is able to work with many digital art forms. However, in using these other alternatives, you’ll never get to experience the ease and speed of using software that is dedicated to this art form specifically.
Pixel art’s tiled nature enforces a particular set of rules that other types of digital art are not obligated to follow. You need to have control over every pixel. Tools you’d find in most raster image editors, like the smudge tool, gradients, and brushes (not to be confused with pencils, but we’ll get to that in a second) are things that you won’t be able to make use of.
A dedicated pixel art editor would have all the essentials, as well as some features that are particularly useful to pixel artists. Aseprite, for instance, has these time-savers:
- Symmetry modes, both vertical and horizontal
- Tiled mode (for patterned or repetitive images)
- Non-contiguous bucket fill
- Tile sheet and color palette import/export
- Onion skinning and real-time animation preview
We think that it’s these things, in addition to Aseprite’s clean and easy-to-understand interface, that put the program ahead of contemporaries like Pyxel Edit and GraphicsGale.
A Guide to Aseprite’s Basic Tools
Let’s talk about the essentials—the basic tools (and their shortcuts) that you’ll be using for just about every pixel artwork that you create.
Pencil (B)
The pencil is where it all begins. This is your main drawing tool, which by default, places one pixel. In Aseprite, you can scale the pencil’s size up to 64px. You can also select whether you’d like to use a circular pencil or a square one.
Typically, the difference between the pencil tool and the brush tool in art programs is anti-aliasing. The pencil does not have anti-aliasing, so it always produces a hard edge. Brushes, meanwhile, may fade in/out at the beginning and end of a stroke. For pixel art, you should always use a pencil.
Eraser (E)
The eraser does exactly as you’d expect it to: erases pixels you’ve already placed. That is, if you click the left mouse button. Clicking the right mouse button will instead replace the foreground color on your canvas with the background color you have selected.
Like Aseprite’s pencil, the eraser can be scaled up to 64px, circular or square.
Eyedropper (I)
With the eyedropper tool, you can click anywhere on the canvas to copy that pixel’s color for you to reuse it. This is especially useful if your sprite needs to keep to a certain color palette.
Paint Bucket (G)
The paint bucket fills an empty area with one solid color. Typically, that area is defined by closed shapes. Aseprite gives you the option to turn off that “contiguous” fill.
Untick that Contiguous box, and the paint bucket will instead replace all pixels on the canvas that are the color you clicked on with the color you have selected. So if you had a bunch of red pixels, and you clicked on one red pixel with green, then all pixels on the canvas that are red will turn green.
Select Tools
Most programs will have a few different select tools, and Aseprite is no exception. The five select tools are as follows:
- Rectangular Marquee (M): selects pixels in a rectangle-shaped area
- Elliptical Marquee (Shift + M): selects pixels in an ellipse-shaped area
- Lasso (Q): selects pixels in an area that you draw freehand
- Polygonal Lasso (Shift + Q): selects pixels in a polygon-shaped area
- Magic Wand (W): selects pixels of the same color in an area
Aseprite: Everything You Need in a Small Package
Aseprite is like a love letter to retro-style graphics and the 8-bit/16-bit era, and is by far the best pixel art editor available right now. We didn’t even get to touch on frame-by-frame animation, custom scripts, or color palettes.
There’s so much that the program has to offer. Whether you’re a new pixel artist or you’ve made a million sprites by now, we highly recommend that you try Aseprite out for yourself.