EDIT 2: Still great but having tried the animation timeline tools there are even more issues:

-The animation is FULL of problems and VERY barebones (there are no bones) which make animating a simple walk cycle almost impossible..
- Cannot drag or move multiple keyframes
-You cannot select more than one keyframe at once.
-When selecting a single keyframe it selects ALL the layers with that keyframe, so if you have your different body parts in different layer you can forget it. Not sure how they expect us to animate like this?
- No rescale time/keyframe, no offts of multiple keyframes etc.

EDIT: 6 months later there is still no modifier key to choose a colour from the image unlike every other art package in existence, instead the devs are more concerned with advanced features like animation rather than getting the basics right :(
Please..this is the only thing keeping me from using the tool. :(

This is almost amazing! 8/10

Does a lot of things right but there are some basic missing features. Note: These are all quite minor and I have no problem in recommending the program !! I'm posting them here in the hope that the devs eventually read them and one day address them.

-There is no way to have a temporary colour picker for quick colour selection, the tool is selectable via the 'i' key and keys cant be configured. It should be a modifier key. I am using to just holding alt temporarily when I want to select a colour. The 'i key is way over to the right and so its just annoying to use.
-When working with mirror you should be able to work in either side of the image. Currently you can choose to work in either the left or right but this just leads to confusion.
-Auto Shade is an incredible tool but there should be more options. Currently there is just rounded and directional but we need different kinds of bevel options like flat, bevelled, curved edge along with bevel widths etc.
-Vector and pixel layer should just work as one layer type without the confusion.
-Cant seem to flatten layers.
-No fast way to clear the contents of a layer as far as I can tell
-No Merge layers
-It would be really nice to be able to change the background colour of the transparent working area and the preview window.
- It seems a bit confusing that if you want to add a noise effect to a new child layer that you first need to fill the child layer with a colour before applying the effect, otherwise you font see any change.
-Would be nice if the temporary brush effects would appear in the preview window as they do in the main window. ie what the image will look like after I click the tool (erase, paint etc))

The program is damaged and buggy cannot open its own saved file.
After update 2025




I thought about what to write about pixelmash. Practically a simple program in which I have been working for several years. I admit that for a long time the program was very unstable, especially when you work with more than 50 layers on the scene, but after several patches of pixelmash it is more stable. Now it rarely freezes. The program is it's great for animations because of its simplicity, even though people write it's not a tutorial, but I think that everyone can master pixelmash in some time. If you want to know what the program can do, all my rpg maker tilesets and animations, I did my work in it, you can find it on steam under Neonpixel or neonpixel itchio

I used to like this program, but it's just not as good as it could be, and I feel like the devs have given up.

Even the simple things you expect in most programs like it don't do what you expect.

For example, if you select a few pixels and press ctrl+c you expect it to copy those pixels, right?

NOPE! This program copies the ENTIRE LAYER!!! Why they bother to have a copy/paste layer is beyond me, especially when you have a duplicate layer action, and they all do the same thing.

This copy/paste also applies to external programs. If you draw something in another program, the only way you're getting it into PixelMash is if you save and import. No copy/pasting between programs here.

I've owned this program for many years, and while it's better than it used to be, it's simply not a good program if they can't even get the basics right.

I'll leave you with another example... say you want to rotate a character's head slightly... how would you do that? Drag a select box around the head then use the transform tool to move it? No, don't be silly!

Instead, you have to duplicate the layer, then erase the head from the one layer, and the body from the other. Then place them over one another and THEN use the transform tool.

Why do things in 2 seconds when you can take 2 minutes?

As one of my favourite pixelartists use this, I do warmly recommend this, but I cannot say I am a master of this software but that this software surely is very good based on his workflow. It can achieve very neat results indeed.

Good for pixel art! I like dynamic res

I like ui.
missing somethings but it can be improved.

Planning to use it often now that it now has animation!

The trailer is very cleverly edited. This is a bare-bones product. They are over selling features that in reality arnt as easy to use. The support on the community page is almost none. Are posts from july and june that no one answered. Skip this. Get asperite. Or pixeledit. Or both.

A wonderful full featured lightweight sprite editor. Pixelmash receives regular updates along with new features very often. The interface is well thought out and intuitive, with useful tools sets to help unlock the full power of editor.

Pixelmash is my favorite pixel art tool. It's like a swiss army knife for pixel art and keeps getting better with every update. It's not overly complicated and offers everything I need to make great pixel art, sprites and gifs.

This is THE BEST pixelart software I've ever seen, and I've seen a lot.
I've been looking for vectorial pixelart so much, it really takes away much frustration cause I'm very slow at drawing.
I adore how easy and powerful it is, and will recommend it to everyone I know.
If you are casual or an expert THIS IS A MUST GET!

El mejor programa de Pixelart por lejos, y eso que he visto muchos.
IMPERDIBLE si te gusta el pixelart de forma casual o profesional, te vas a ahorrar horas y horas, con resultados excelentes.

I wonder why, and I say why, there are so many negative reviews on this product?
All these reviews, please note, are for the early stage of the program. Now in 2022 it has grown up in features enormously, so it is wise to check the recent ones. This said, for the first time in my life (and I'm doing computer graphics from more than 20 years up today) using the main program tutorial on Youtube, the one in the help section of the program, in just half an hour I learned all the main features of a graphics software.
And what graphics software.
Pixelmash has a truly new approach to pixel art, introducing the dynamic resolution. This means you can paint in hires, add the effects you want from a wide selection, and then dynamically lower the resolution to obtain your pixel art. In practice, the program stores the data in hires, so you don't need to worry about detail loss when rotating an object and so on.
Obviously the effects are cumulative and appliable at any resolution.
Just about objects: the software is object oriented, moving and rotating small parts permit to do animations and construct more complex sprites in minutes (I am reviewing the software after 2 hours because in just 2 hours I did some nice animation effects, while other softwares need weeks of practice to learn, not to mean how many to master them). And please note the other pixel art software are very good too, someone is incredible and I will continue to use them all. But this is just more intuitive, and has some nice features like arrays and masks, so it is a very welcome addition.
It lacks some other features (Bayer type dithering for example, and antialiasing at the present date august 2022) but the program is growing and I am confident new details will be added.

EDIT: the newly added vector layers and curves creation, are simply REVOLUTIONARY in speeding up pixel art creation and animation processes. I am very excited about these features and I am very happy for the growing features of this software. Today, as 6th of august 2022, I finally have a Pixelart Tool that make me focus on what is important of animation and gives me immediate feeling, no more need the terrible process of manually cancel and hand redraw every single keyframe I was used with all other software. The object oriented nature of this software, along with its exceptional vector editor. I have created some nice animations in a couple of hours, like never before. Then I retouch all fine details of my frames in Aseprite (another wonderful must have pixelart software) and the job is done.
It's a shame Stem reviews doesn't allow tho share images and animations to show what can be done in few minutes with this program. I really hope it will continue to have the support it deserves.