Live Vector Layers

[jetrotal]

Some years ago, an indie pixel art tool, called xprite editor ( https://github.com/0b01/xprite-editor ),
presented a powerful concept to convert vector curves to pixel art in real time:

It's pretty similar to Asesprite bezier curve, but it made me think on new features from vector apps, like:

• Always edit the curve when clicking on it.
• Option to Open / Close the vector shape's gaps
• Apply Fill
• Change stroke size / thickness
• Taper stroke size from start cap to end cap.
• Trim stroke length from start cap to end cap.
• Rasterize layer

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A tool like this, could bring a world of possibilities to aseprite workflow.
I can show these possibilites by showing some experiments with "fake pixel art" I made in After Effects:

By animating vector layers in AE, I was able to easy deform, apply smear frames and rotate all vector components.

But, since AE is not optimal for this kind of work, I had to spend a long time isolating each layer by color
and applying mosaic effects to give each layer a square-pixel look.

The workflow became a lot clunky and time consuming.

That workflow would be easier to deal with some kind of vector-based tool for pixel art.

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A similar workflow is already used on games like Dead Cells.
The difference is that they convert 3D shapes to pixelart, instead of vector shapes:
https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/313026/Art_Design_Deep_Dive_Using_a_3D_pipeline_for_2D_animation_in_Dead_Cells.php

[dacap]

Hi there @jetrotal, it's something that I thought several years ago (probably from the very beginning of Aseprite - Allegro Sprite Editor). It will be something for a future and far version (the complexity of adding a new kind of layer takes us 3 years for tilemaps, so something similar would be expected for vector layers).

https://community.aseprite.org/t/poligons-editor-in-aseprite-another-world-editor/3631/3

[jetrotal]

Ah! based on another world render engine!

I can imagine the heavy work would be to pull this together.
It's close to developing an entire new application to do vector art, before converting it to pixel.

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One guy in the community link you posted, suggested using blender to do 3D based pixel Art.

The main problem with Blender / pure After Effects mosaic solutions,
is that you'll always have problems with adjacent pixels:

source: https://cort3d.tumblr.com/post/621938189075136512/tutorial-pixel-style-rendering-in-blender3d

To solve that, in after effects, I isolated every color as a new layer before converting it to a pixel-like mosaic,
then forced after effects to consider every semi-transparent pixel as full opaque.

That entire workflow is the real problem with most DIY solutions.

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Thanks for the attention :]
I hope you guys find motivation to start this project in near future, there's nothing like this yet.

[jetrotal]

Request by SliminyJim on #2976

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A concept for game engines, showed on Jacob's video

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Rquest by EyeGem on #272

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Some Insight about Another World's Vector Editor and Engine

And a Video Documentary:

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"Custom Brush + Curve Tool" posted by ThKasparrr:

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Yali on twitter has tons of demos and tutorials on using blender to convert 2D graphs to pixelart

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SVG 2 PIXELART - An HTML tool I made in Javascript, exploring vector to pixelart workflow.

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A tweet I made commenting one of the best ways of creating animation with vector art

[dacap]

Hi @jetrotal, thanks for your summary. I'm aware of several of those videos and ideas of Éric Chahi. Unfortunately a new kind of layer would take almost a similar amount of time of the tilemap feature (v1.3) which is not ready, so although this is planned for a future, that future might be 3 or 4 years ahead.