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GDTips 3: Affinity Designer for Pixel Art

Ray of Ideas 💡 Tips for Game DevsFeb 26, 2021, 11:51:24 AM

Hello, there!
My name's Raynhard. I'm a game developer.
Welcome to Game Dev. Tips episode 3 🎉

Pixel art is probably the easiest form of art one can produce. However, it doesn't mean managing pixel art assets is an easy task.

Introducing Affinity Designer to solve this problem!

I'll be showing you some features in Affinity Designer that can help you produce tons of pixel art easily and fast

Well, this topic may not be for everyone, but at least stick around to find some features that may lure you to use this piece of amazing software.👀

Reading duration: 5 minutes (250 wpm)
Originally published: Feb 25, 2021
Updated: July 24, 2021
Video version:

or watch via 🔗Minds

1. About Affinity Designer

It's a paid product, alright. Normally it costs around 60 USD, but I managed to buy it for 30 bucks when it was on sale (at the time I was writing this, it's still on sale).

Well, if you've ever heard of this application, I believe you have also heard about vector drawing. Simply put, the main features of Affinity Designer are used mainly to make vector graphics, not bitmap images that relies on pixel accuracy. Having said that, Designer can help vector artists to fine-tune its piece to pixel unit using one of its main features, Pixel Persona.

Before I elaborate more about Designer, I think it's wise to also mention some specialized pixel art tools out there that deserve love, especially from those who like free open-source softwares.

I have at least three recommendations for you: Aseprite, Krita, Pixelorama.

Aseprite: the most popular pixel art tool. You can get it for free if you can compile it (I can't), or you can buy it for 20 USD. It has simple UI, active community, and many features including animation. 🔗Link
Krita: it's free and commonly used for digital drawing. It supports pixel art and animation. 🔗Link
Pixelorama: this one can run on browser, and made using Godot engine. Perhaps the simplest of the three, but this app runs smoothly and fast. Just give it a full try: 🔗Link

2. Features

Besides the fact that I use Affinity Designer for vector drawing and layouting (which itself is a pretty strong reason why you should have this app), here are the reasons why you should consider Designer as your choice of weapon to craft pixel art:

a. Artboards

The problem is, when making game assets, you want to organize all of your files in one centralized place. Especially for me, I want to be able to view all of my assets in a single glance without switching files or tabs.

"Artboards" feature was developed just for that specific reason. All of your drawings (or you can say canvases) are organized under one .afdesign file. By this feature, you can easily see references to your other piece of art, and control the look of your sprites easily.

b. Assets

Sometimes you want to compare one of your drawings with another drawing. On most tools, you are required to open the file or drag-and-drop the reference file you need. This is no longer the issue with "Assets" feature.

Assets keeps the selection of objects that you want to reintroduce back to your document. This is the best and the fastest way to draw reference and keep the consistency of your art style.

c. Symbols

Sometimes you want to tweak some parts of your animated sprite, but there's no way to adjust all the frames with a single click. This problem is easily solved with "Symbols".

This feature creates an instance of an object that can be cloned across the document. Once you tweak one of the cloned object, all of its brothers will also be tweaked.

Though it's powerful, it's not super dynamic. For example, you can tweak the form of the head of your animated character without causing any problem because most of the time the head is not animated, but you can't easily adjust its body and expect all instances of the body symbol to adjust accordingly. In other words, symbols are static since one instance of a symbol effectively links to its brothers.

d. Color Adjustment

Most drawing tools have this feature, but I think it's worth to mention it as well because Affinity Designer can easily help artists to tune the color of their piece.

e. Effects

Built-in blur effects, or drop shadow are present in Affinity Designer. For those who seek to enhance their art with neon lights, or smooth shadows, this feature is a must-have in their toolbox.

f. Export Persona

Because of its Artboards feature, Designer is also accompanied by an export feature that is manageable. With one or two clicks, you can export your pixel art in any size, in any scale without a problem. Also, you will no longer be confused your edited artboards and finished artboards with this feature.

g. Snapshots

You don't want to commit your changes, but want to save all the different versions of your works into a single file? "Snapshots" can do it for you.

Versions of your works can be kept if you take a snapshot of it. It's not compatible with Symbols, though. Symbols operates in document scale, so every version of the snapshots refers to the same symbol.

h. Aliased Vector

I've never seen this "feature" before in other apps, but the basic idea here is: you can create pixelated your vector to create basic or complex shapes. Normally you can only use a pixel brush to draw pixels, but using this feature, you can create a pixel art drawing using points and lines that are reshapeable and recolorable.

To pixelate your vector layer, simply do the following:
1. Make a tiny artboard (64x64 pixels or so), then make a vector drawing
2. Select your vector layer (curve layer, rectangle layer, etc.)
3. Click the cogweel icon ⚙️ inside the Layer studio/panel
4. On Anti-Aliasing setting, choose Force-Off
5. If you're in Vector View Mode, switch to Pixel View Mode to see the effect.
6. Reshape your vector or recolor it as you like.

To add pixels using pixel tool, you must convert the vector layer to a pixel layer. However, once you did this, you can no longer reshape or recolor your drawing because it has no more vector features inside the layer. To rasterize (or bake) the layer:
1. Right-click on the vector layer
2. Group the vector layer
3. Right-click on the vector layer again
4. Rasterize it.
5. Switch to Pixel Persona, and use Pixel Tool to add/erase pixels

i. Lacking Features

Sadly and obviously, Designer doesn't have any animation feature. You can't check how every frame goes, and edit them on the spot, you have to use another app for that. Also, I must admit that sometimes you need to use some hacks to get execute a certain commands that supposed to be in this software. It's hard to explain, but more on that in my video:

Nevertheless, Affinity Designer is a superb tool to craft your pixelated artworks.

3. Setup for Pixel Art

Vector drawing software is rarely used for pixel art or even digital painting, except if you can set up Affinity Designer correctly.

There are only a few things you must do to set up the environment for pixel art:

Switch to Pixel Persona for pixel art. You can't draw in pixel unit in other persona.
Always switch to Pixel View to check your drawings more accurately.
Make a new Square Brush to be used with Pixel Tool.
Use Pixel tool to draw, erase, and color pick. Do not use Brush tool because it is less accurate. To erase, hold Ctrl, then MouseClick. To pick a color, hold Alt then MouseClick.
Manage Grid by choosing Basic mode, and change the spacing and divisions according to your preference.

Here are also some guidance to keep in mind:

Always place your artboards or any object on a round coordinates. Placing them on decimal locations may cause the image to be blurred.
Do not activate Snapping feature to prevent objects to be positioned on decimal coordinates.
When rotating objects, set the Transform origin on the edge of the selection, not in the middle. This will cause the image to blur also.
If you intentionally scale the image unevenly to blur the image, and want to apply the result, then don't forget to Rasterize the image. Without it, you can't draw in the pixel unit and the transformed image can be transformed back to normal.
Always, always view in Pixel View.

That's ALL~~🎉

I know this software is pretty expensive for most people, but I think it's worth it! It can do Pixel Art and Vector Drawing with a single app you know!?

If you need any help with anything, don't be hesitant to comment down below. Also, if you feel like giving me a tip, you can tip me through my page. These articles do not write by themselves you know 😂

This is Game Dev. Tips 3: Affinity Designer for Pixel Art
By RayOfIdeas

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