Aseprite

Aseprite is a program to create animated sprites. Its main features are:

• Sprites are composed of layers & frames as separated concepts.
• Support for color profiles and different color modes: RGBA, Indexed (palettes up to 256 colors), Grayscale.
• Animation facilities, with real-time preview and onion skinning.
• Export/import animations to/from sprite sheets, GIF files, or sequence of PNG files (and FLC, FLI, JPG, BMP, PCX, TGA).
• Multiple editors support.
• Layer groups for organizing your work, and reference layers for rotoscoping.
• Pixel-art specific tools like Pixel Perfect freehand mode, Shading ink, Custom Brushes, Outlines, Wide Pixels, etc.
• Other special drawing tools like Pressure sensitivity, Symmetry Tool, Stroke and Fill selection, Gradients.
• Tiled mode useful to draw patterns and textures.
• Transform multiple frames/layers at the same time.
• Lua scripting capabilities.
• CLI
• Command Line Interface to automatize tasks.
• Quick Reference / Cheat Sheet keyboard shortcuts (customizable keys and mouse wheel).
• Reopen closed files and recover data in case of crash.
• Undo/Redo for every operation and support for non-linear undo.

More features & tips