Small Introduction to Pro Motion 6.5

じ☆ve冰风

Hello, hello!  


Since Pro Motion 6.5 was in the Humble Bundle this year, it has replaced Gimp and GraphicsGale as my favourite tool for creating sprites and tilesets. While Gimp is still easier to use and offers much better cutting, copying&pasting tools (i.e. is very useful for frankenspriting), Pro Motion 6.5 is extremely useful for making Pixel Art from scratch (imho).

However I have the feeling that the vast scope of features that Pro Motion offers, is daunting and can be difficult to get used to. I hope that this Turorial gives a good idea on how to get started with creating sprites and tilesets in Pro Motion 6.5.

My knowledge about this software is limited. So far I was unable to find any tutorials on the internet, so I started trying out things and learned by doing. There's a handbook that provides some advanced help, but is to some extend difficult to comprehend. There's always something new to learn.

This means, if you are a user of Pro Motion, feel free to share your knowledge and I'll extend the tutorial!

Okay, here we go:

Getting started

SpoilerWhen you start Pro Motion 6.5, you might want to create a new project at first.

At the top of the screen, you'll see the tab "File". Click it, then click "New Project...". A new window will pop up, allowing you to make certain settings for your new project.

Alternatively you can open old projects with "Load Project..." or all different types of graphics with "Load Image...". The difference between these two is, that Project-Files (with the .pmp suffix) also store your project-specific settings, e.g. your palette and layers, while Images are simple, one-layered pictures (e.g. .png-files).

But let's assume it's your first time using Pro Motion and you want to create some custom sprites.

After clicking on "File"--->"New Project..." a window like this will pop up:







For now we only want to create some sprites.

Leave the Media Type "Unspecified".

Ignore "Tile Width" and "Tile Height" and enter the desired size of your canvas in the boxes below. It's reconmended to pick a size that is compatible with the RPG Maker you use. For example, we want to create a spritesheet for characters that are 32x32 pixels big, enter 384px (width) and 256px (height).
It's possible to change the size of your canvas without much problems later on.
 

Set "Frames" to "1" if it isn't already.

More are only necessary if you want to create GiFs or animations. Even if you want to work with different frames, you can start with one frame, and add more frames later on.
In our case this is not necessary, as the RPG Makers can process entire charactersheets, i.e. a single picture including multiple animation frames at once. Just like this:

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"Keep current Color Palette" - if you already have an open project you can choose to transfer the palette into your new project.
You can also save your palettes and load them when needed (although I have experienced some issues here).

"Use Alpha Transparency" - adds an Alpha Layer to you project. Leave this unticked for now. You can add an Alpha Layer later on if you like. More info on Alpha Layers is further down.

"History" and "Predefined" are useful for choosing specific canvas-sizes. "History" shows you which canvas sizes were used last, "Predefined" has some, well predefined sizes obviously.
You can give them names. For example here I name the 32x32px-size "Typical":

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How to do that? Check out the "Tips'n'Tricks" section at the bottom of the tutorial.
"Background" - sets the colour of the background your canvas will have. Ideally you want a white or greyish background.

We have 3 options in the drop-down box. Ignore the first two, and select "This palette entry:". Usually all palettes should have the colours black and white. Clicking on the field next to the drop-down box will open the current palette and you can pick a background colour of your choice.

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I strongly reconmend not to pick a colour that you'll use for your sprites. You can change the background colour later on, but I had many issues with that (probably it's my stupidity, not a bug  
)

You can also set your background to be transparent if you like. Can be easily switched on and off later on.

There are even more options, but I can't explain them all. Even if I knew what all these options are good for, explaining them all would take up to much space!

When you are done with the settings, click "OK" and your new project will be created.

Now, at the middle of the ProMotion window, appears a canvas of the size and colour we choose in the settings. Use your mouse wheel to zoom in and out. Also all the tabs and panels are now unlocked and stand ready at your command!


The Colour Palette (is awesome!)

SpoilerTheoretically we can now start with painting/pixelling, but there are a few more things we want to do first.

Creating a new palette:
The default palette (as seen in the above section) is a huge mess. Ideally you want a small set of colours, inclusive gradients, for your project. So what we do, is creating a completely new palette!
Click on the "Colors"-tab at the top. Now you can either edit the existing palette or load a palette that you created and saved from a different project.

So pick "Edit Palette..." or "Load Palette...". Assuming that you haven't created your own palette yet, we will choose the first option. Two new windows will pop up:







The bigger window is your current palette. Use the smaller window to your left for editing the colours in the boxes that you pick via left-click. You cannot "erease" the palette, but you can make all colours the same.
For example in your project, you want the darkest colour not to be black but a dark-violet. So pick a box and give it a dark-violet color. Then click on "Copy to" and select another box, preferably a few lines away. Now you have two boxes with the same dark-violet colour on your palette.

Select one of these two boxes and click "Ramp to". Click the second dark-violet box and you'll get this:

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We have created a colour gradient from dark-violet to dark-violet, i.e. all other boxes inbetween were colored dark-violet, too!
Do this with all the other colours as well:

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Now, this is tidy!

Note that I left the first and the last boxes, black and white. This is because ProMotion remembers which box we selected as colour for the background. In this case, I selected the box at the bottom-right. If I'd recolour this box now, the background of my project might suddenly change at some point, too.

If you want to change the background there are easier ways than that (top left):

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Clicking on "Auto" will change the background colour automatically to the colour of the bottom-right box.

Ticking the box "Transparent Color:" will turn the background colour transparent (obviously).
Ignore the letters at the top-right corner. We might only need "A", if you want to use Alpha Layers (explained further down).
Clicking on the white box (or depending on what your background colour is) you can pick an new box from your palette as background. Easy-peasy.

Now back to editing your palette. Let's create some colour-gradients:

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Pretty cool, right?

You can do that by picking a box, colour it, then "Ramp to" one of the dark-violet boxes.

Note that you can create ramps over different hues:

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The first row goes from bright yellow/orange to dark-violet. Boring.
In the second row it put a red box inbetween, creating a gradient from bright yellow/orange to red, then from red to dark-violet.
In the last row, the same thing with blue. That's a bad gradient, but it shows how easily you can create complex colour gradients. The example above took me less than 15 seconds!

Confirm your new palette by clicking "OK".


The Toolbox

SpoilerThis is your toolbox:

• Choose between different brush sizes. You can also create a custom brush size by entering the resize mode.
  To enter resize mode, right-click any brush. Then hold'n'drag with left a custom brush (rectangular or circular).
          I think it's also possible to save your brush. Click the "Brush" tab ---> "Save Brush...". For simple pixelling, however, you won't need this.
           
  
• Draw dotted lines! Right click to select the space between every dot. Not really useful for pixelling though. Continuous Painting is the "normal" paiting tool. Just draw what you want.
           
  
• Draw Line and Spray ---> self-explanatory.
           
  
• Draw a rectangle or circle. Right-click for dotted- or continuous drawing.
           
  
• This is NOT the selection tool. Instead these tools create a new brush from your selection. I use this for copying parts. It's useful for the so called "Tile-Mapping".
           
  
• Filling tool and zoom ---> self-explanatory.
           
  
• Grid-Painting allows you to only paint along a grid that you set up with a right-click on the tool. To give a better understanding what it does:
  

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It DOES NOT create a grid for orientation. It's only a very specific drawing tool, helpful for making wall- or floor-patterns.
Layers are pretty self-explanatory for most people who used graphic software other than paint before. For spriting simple charas that won't be necessary unless you want to create seperate hair-styles or clothing.

      8. Don't click that or it will delete your frame and give you a heart attack. If that happens, just redo the action. Text tool ---> self-explanatory.

      9. Drag around the canvas instead of using the scrolling bars.
          Antialiasing automatically creates additional pixels along the lines your draw in order to blend the lines better in. It will only use colours from your palette, so it works better if you make large colour-ramps.
          If you have only a few colours it'll look crappy.
          Anyway, if you do Antialiasing it's better to do it manually, so deactivate this, unless you draw (not pixel!) your art.

      10. Pick Colour ---> self-explanatory. You can do this much easier with crtl-left-click.
            Not sure what "Lock Background" does.

      11. At the moment I'm not sure what masks are good for, but I know that you can pixel without them.
           The cropping tool will resize your canvas to your selection. You won't need this either.

      12. Undo/Redo ---> self-explanatory.

      13. You can access the palette editor here as well. I'm not sure what the gradient editor is good for, as you can create all gradients with the palette editor, too.

There are dozens of other option for your brush under the "Brush"-tab. Also there are a few more interesting modes under the "Modes"-tab. I'd say, try them out yourself if you like. You won't need them for pixelling though.


Very Helpful: The Grid!

SpoilerOpen the tab "Options" ---> "Zoom Grid" ---> "Adjust Zoom Grid..."









Here you can create a grid that serves purely for orientation purposes. If you wan to create 32x32 big characters sprites, select "Box 32x32;". It's possible to select multiple grid layers at once, so you can have a 48x48 and a 32x32 grid at once (for whatever reason).

Or make your own custom grid! Click on "add". This will add a 1x1px grid to the list and select it. If it is selected you can alter the grid size on the right side of the window in vertical and horizontal directions, as well as pick a desired colour.

Another way to create custom grid is to get the pattern from a brush. In the toolbox-section is described how to create your own brushes. With "Pattern Grid" and "Get from Brush" you can set a pattern from the shape of your current brush. What is this good for?
Take a look at the entries at the top of the list "Pattern X=64; Y=32;" and "Pattern X=32; Y=16;". These are default grids that draw diagonal lines, i.e. are extremely useful for isometric art:



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A custom 32x64px grid (credits to Vexed for the sprite template):



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Tips and Tricks

SpoilerEasily creating repeating tiles







So, you want to pixel a tile that repeats itself smoothly over and over? Sometimes you might have trouble with getting the borders right, and while I haven't found an option in ProMotion that supports this (if you do PM me!), there's a workaround that has the same effect:

Start with creating a canvas of the desired tile size, 16x16px, 32x32px, 48x48px, whatever you like.

Then go to "Processing"--->"Pattern Drawing Settings..."

A window like this will pop up:

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Set the number of repeats to 3 in both vertical and horizontal direction. Make sure you have the box "Show Grid while drawing" ticked.

Click "Ok".

The canvas was now enlarged 3 times and is now 96x96x with a grid that gives you 9-32x32px squares.

Start drawing drawing your tile in the center, and the software will automatically copy everything into all other squares around. This means, if you draw over the borders of your central square, you'll continue drawing the opposite side of your tile. It's looping.

Not having to worry about awkwardly repeating tiles, I did this (granted, it's not a very pretty tile) in less then 10 Minutes:





Zoomed in:

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When you are done, go back to "Processing" and disable the pattern drawing by removing the mark from "Enable Pattern Drawing". Now the canvas will fall back to your 32x32px tile. Done:






Editing of Shortcuts

Spoiler"File"--->"Preferences". There's a "Shortcuts" tab that allows you to change how you want to use your keys. In think that you quiet often need the erase tool, so you can look it up in the category "Modes". For example I use "F2" for "Paint and F3 for "Erase", giving me a much better workflow.



Creating your own, predefined canvas size:

SpoilerWhen creating a new project, you can choose a canvas size from A. the last canvas sizes used or B. a couple of predefined sizes. Say if you want to add your own sizes to the predefined list, do the following:
 

Go to
C:\Program Files (x86)\Cosmigo\Pro Motion 6.5 and open the textfile "resolutions".
Here you can alter the existing names. You can also write behind the sizes, for example:
"32x32 typical".
Save it (note: you need administrator rights to overwrite). If that doesn't work, save the resolutions-file on your desktop instead, then drag'n'drop it in the \Pro Motion 6.5 folder, replacing the existing resolutions-file.
Now this is what you see when you look up the predefined canvas sizes:







I'm looking for a way to make it possible using custom sizes as well. Currently it's possible to add for example "384x256 - Ace Charactersheet", but these are only recognized if you leave "- Ace Charactersheet" away.

tl;dr:
You can add descriptions to existing sizes (32x32 typical).
You can add custom sizes (e.g. 384x256) without description.




More information will be added over the time, including a section for the Alpha Layer and perhaps Masks.


本贴来自国际rpgmaker官方论坛作者:Banquo处,因国际论坛即将永久关站,为了存档多年珍贵资料,署名转载到本论坛存档,由于官方帖子为英文原帖，需要中文翻译请点击论坛顶部切换语言为中文就可以将帖子翻译成中文浏览,方便大家随时查看,原文地址：https://forums.rpgmakerweb.com/threads/small-introduction-to-pro-motion-6-5.43199/