NES Assets Workshop (NAW)

A place for your artistic side. Discuss techniques and tools for pixel art on the NES, GBC, or similar platforms.

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nesrocks
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NES Assets Workshop (NAW)

Post by nesrocks »

NAW is a graphics creation tool targeted specifically for developing NES assets. The GUI should be familiar to artists.
Currently available for Windows only. I'm looking for a way to export to Linux.

The screen area is an emulation of the NES image. It contains all of the basic building blocks: the CHR data, nametable, palette and sprites. What you see is the real thing!

It allows editing the nametables, the CHR pages and OAM data, all using a very visual workflow.
Some interesting features include:
- paste any type of image you copied from an outside program directly onto the CHR area. Color will be automatically reduced if need be.
- load a tbl file to assign tiles to keys or assign them visually inside NAW so you can write to the nametable with the write tool.
- manipulate sprites. simulate scanline sprite limit, order sprites in OAM, simulate flicker.
- draw on the sprites layer directly and sprites will be created automatically. ideal for creating static screens (title screens, cutscenes, etc).
- export NROM with the static image.
- intuitive image editing tools (brush size, paint bucket, line, rectangle, color swap, selection).

It is in constant development and is available at itch. Name your own price (or free). You can edit the suggested price to anything you like to pay:
https://nesrocks.itch.io/naw

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I want to add big features to NAW:
- metatiles
- maps
- metasprites + animations
- assets management within a single project (chr, nam, pal, map, etc)
- assign assets to other assets and export asm or C code with all tables built

It takes work so I've created a patreon page last week. Please consider pledging or sharing if you like NAW! Thank you. https://www.patreon.com/bitinkstudios
Last edited by nesrocks on Sun Feb 05, 2023 10:14 am, edited 1 time in total.
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nesrocks
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Re: NES Assets Workshop (NAW)

Post by nesrocks »

I'm going to highlight some of the tools and features in NAW.

500 levels of undo: ctrl + Z. Redo is ctrl + Y.
5 Zoom levels. Grid helpers. UI resizing (integer scale from base 640x360).


Pen Tool: draw on the CHR or directly on the Nametable. Optionally turn on Free Draw so new tiles are automatically assigned on the nametable.

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Tile Tool: good old tile placement, butter smooth behavior. Easy and fast tile swap (hold control).

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Shape Tools: Line, Rectangle, Ellipse: Accepts different line widths (1,2,4,8,16,32,64,128,256). Can be used directly on the Nametable too (draws on already placed tiles).

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Bucket Tool: Paint globably or as a bucket fill. You can define a selection with the select tool and it will only act inside that selection. Can be used directly on the nametable, though since tiles are reused results may be hard to predict.

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Paste Import: Paste images from external programs using the Clipboard. Automatic resizing to fit the CHR page or a rectangular selection, image proportions are kept. Automatic quantization.

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Write Tool: Assign keys to tiles (or load .tbl files!) and start typing. Optionally use 4 directions click-place mode. You can export .tbl files too. Automatic line breaks inside a selection if you make one.

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PPU Import: Import graphics from games running on emulators. Mesen and FCEUx tested. This will import the PPU content (CHR, Nametables, Palettes). Games with mid frame changes will import partially. You can also import sprite data, just export OAM inside mesen and then import OAM in NAW. You may need to manually adjust some registers as shown here.

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Sprites editor: Add and manipulate sprites on the screen. Work in 8x8 or 8x16 mode.

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Draw on Sprite Layer: Excellent tool for drawing overlay sprites on static screens such as cutscenes or title screens. Use the pen tool while in the sprites module and it automatically creates sprites wherever you're drawing. There are four layers, one for each subpalette. For this feature to work it must be in 8x8 sprites mode and sprites must be aligned to a grid. It works easiest if you clear all sprites and just start drawing.
I'm going to highlight some of the tools and features in NAW.

Image
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elmernite
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Re: NES Assets Workshop (NAW)

Post by elmernite »

Just getting started on NES dev and this looks really interesting! I'll have to give it a go.
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nesrocks
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Re: NES Assets Workshop (NAW)

Post by nesrocks »

V 0.201 is out, now there's an optional installer!

- Added Overscan guides. It has three states: off, most TVs and all TVs (safe display). Click with Control and/or Shift for more options. This is a visual aid to keep important elements on areas of the screen that aren't hidden on some displays
- Tile tool is now always aligned to the grid on the CHR view. For free pixel stamping use only the Select tool instead
- Improved "Delete" hotkey: context based, deletes sprites and chr data. No longer deletes sprites when none are selected
- Now zoom and pan are maintained when switching modules
- CHR module: fill with solid color and with random data is now only applied to the selection, or the entire CHR page if nothing is selected
- Improvement: Right clicking with the selection tool will not change the selected color or attribute anymore
- Improvement: Right clicking with the tile tool will not change the selected pixel color anymore, but will still select the attribute
- Changed rotate left/right tool hotkeys to a more intuitive Control+Left/Right (was Shift+Left/Down)
https://twitter.com/bitinkstudios <- Follow me on twitter! Thanks!
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surfRJ
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Joined: Wed Mar 15, 2023 12:09 am

Re: NES Assets Workshop (NAW)

Post by surfRJ »

Fantastic stuff, thanks!
I really love the UI style
Also Seems to work flawlessy under wine linux
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