a tip of good programs

[bitstate]

Many tc makers are using paintshop. The doomlegacy skin sektion tips about deluxe paint.
However, having my roots in the demoscene i know of two other programs you might enjoy :o)

First, Grafx. (http://www-msi.ensil.unilim.fr/~maritaud/sunset)
Grafx is a somwhat 8bit (256 colors) deluxe paint clone although it has many more features. It handles palettes great (when doing gradients it actually lets you specify the colors you want to use one by one, not foreground-to-background as in many other proggs)

Grafx is freeware and runs in dos (great for all deth/zeth users?)

Then artgem. (http://www.rlvision.com)
Although artgem isn't freeware, it's still very good, and runs in windows. It's related to deluxepaint by using the same keyboard shortcuts. Artgem is 16 bit (but works great in 8bit too) and has great features, like layers.

Both above programs are made with pixel-painting artist (not effect freaks like photoshop) in mind and I believe both are very suitable for doom tc makers.

Have fun :o)

[Risen]

Don't be so hard on Photoshop. :)

I use it all the time, as part of my school work and both my outside jobs. Once you get to know it, it's great for both effects and pixel work. I've recently been using it for palette conversion from 32bit color in my 3D renderer to DOOM's palette. The color handling is incredible, especially with the dithering functions. Admittedly, it's not a program for newbies or anyone who isn't interested in the technical aspects of raster imaging. Kinda like WadEd 1.42 (not so much 1.8x) I guess... If you take the time to learn what everything does and how it works, it's really a great tool you don't want to go too far without.

[bitstate]

Hehe, Don't get me wrong, photoshop is great for anything >8bit, what photoshop wasn't made for whas the drawing tecnicue know in the demoscene as pixel-painting.

That's why many painters still use deluxepaint 2 for dos, The programs above are designed to for people drawing using a 8 bit palette, as doom is 8bit I thought those could be really useful :o)

[Risen]

True, it wasn't built for that. But with Photoshop 5.5, it's been updated as to start to deal with Web images, which can be 8bit, so its 8bit handling has been much improved. But I don't claim it to be the end-all for raster imaging... Just one very useful tool for the job.