Art tool with object selection

[Antylum]

I use Graphicsgale for creating pixel art. It has many cool features, but that one, that is missing for me, is object selection. Everyone, who have used flash, will understand - after drawing a simple object, like ball or more complex character, after conveting it to symbol or movieclip, whenever you click at this image, you can drag and edit it, cause it's properties are saved in memory. 

Is it possible to save object like this in graphicsgale or another bitmap graphics tool(free, paid)? Cause it takes much time to select area of object each time, when working with 2 or more on the scene.  I'm looking for something like quick selection tool, but better are saved objects - for bitmap graphics!

[blackmoondev]

You could try Fireworks - it's a raster editor very similar to Flash (it was created by Macromedia long, long time ago - then Adobe bought it and I guess it's dying somewhere on their servers).

[Paul-Andre]

Can't you do that with layers? (as in Photoshop or Gimp)

[MikeHart]

Or look into Inkscape.

[Antylum]

To use 1 layer for 1 object is not the best idea - there are 20 objects on the scene, and switching between 20 layers to operate with object consumes much time.

 

Haven't worked with Inkscape - can it save different parts of drawing as objects? Does it support working with raster images?

[mwatt]

Inkscape is a vector-based drawing application.  However, it can export to PNG files.

 

You can edit with the built in shapes which are objects - you get the shapes you'd probably expect plus a few fancy ones - and these can be stretched, sized, rotated etc.  You can also group objects together to form aggregate objects, but even after that has been done, they can be split back out later, if you so desire.

 

You can also turn any shape or line into what is called a "path".  These paths have multiple adjustable nodes that can be moved in order to deform/reform what has been drawn.  A path is in itself, a kind of an object.

 

Any of these objects could be copied and saved to a separate file or put into a separate layer.

 

As I am a beginner with Inkscape, I may have missed explaining something - or mis-explained something.  I hope others will feel free to jump in.

[MikeHart]

You covered it very well mwatt.

[YellowAfterlife]

You can embed images with "link" mode into Inkscape by dragging images onto the document. This permits realtime composition and creation of mockups. Personally I prefer making a main SVG, and then making a folder called "assets" that will contain images to be embed into it.

[YellowAfterlife]

Though actually, PyxelEdit has signs of such feature being added in soon future. Maybe you could take a look.

[kingsushi]

Wouldn't this work in Photoshop if you used groups?

[Funkyy]

Illustrator should be your tool. Learning curve is pretty long though... But once you learn it - moving to Photoshop or any Adobe product is as easy as 1-2-3.