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Anonymous08/11/25, 17:33No.7686491Pixel Art isn't hard: Megathread
I did this shit for 20 years, it ain't that hard bro.
What to use for it:
-GraphicsGale Use this if you want something good and free. been using it since the days it was a paid program.
-Asesprite. desu I don't like this thing the UI is dogshit but everyone swears by it so it's probably fine.
-ProMotion NG. uhh, lmao? I guess if you like photoshop this is cool but it is a gigantic pain in the ass to use for animation.
-Photosh- no, get that shit outta here. garbage.
THINGS TO LEARN WITH:
LOSPEC:
https://lospec.com/pixel-art-tutorials
I don't personally think these are the best tutorials out there but they're good to start out with and it's a bunch of stuff in one place.
The Pixelogic book is actually good atleast.
OLD THINGS:
https://web.archive.org/web/20130501035641/http://pixel-zone.rpgdx.net/shtml/tutorials.shtml
Some of the things I learned from as a teenager are here.
ABOVE ALL YOU NEED TO GRAB THINGS AND STUDY HOW SPRITES ARE DONE.
I cannot stress this enough. go grab screenshots and try to draw on them. use spriter's resource to look at things from the masters. I had to learn that way too, we all tend to reverse-engineer in this field and then build our own from the skills we learn.
Also feel free to ask me questions. Don't be a dipshit.
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Replies
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Anon08/11/25, 17:42No.7686498
>pixel art is easy
>want to animate the rotation of a large detailed object without rixels
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Anon08/11/25, 17:50No.7686512
>You are just lazy
Story of my life, breh
Anyway post some more of your art and maybe share your process
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Anon08/11/25, 18:57No.7686595
How do you think sprites like this one from arcana heart were made? From what I could infer, they were drawn digitally in black and white, although I'm not sure if they are downscaled or they drew them in this resolution. After they applied some shadows they converted it to a 7 color grayscale palette (because each color zone in the final sprite has 7 shades). Then they colorized somehow the different areas and touched it up a bit.
I have no idea what software they used. Asesprite doesn't have a way to colorize it quickly.
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Anon08/11/25, 19:36No.7686651
Hm, wasn't there another thread just like this? Did it die?
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Anon08/11/25, 20:42No.7686731
I have not done anything with pixel since ehhh 6 months I do believe. And I never touched for more then a dozen of times
Rate my best work
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Anon08/11/25, 21:10No.7686769
>disliking Aseprites UI
You can download addons that change it but agreed: default sucks. Aseprite only has an edge over GraphicsGale if you're making games from scratch, really. For more general pixel art use I find it kind of overhyped
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Anon08/11/25, 22:37No.7686855
I still don't understand why you come to this site and put up with these dumbasses
I know socmed is bad and our dead gay comedy forum is quiet but it can't be that bad surelynobody here is worth your time unless they decide they are worth their own time
being on here is kinda proof they don't think they are worth their own time man
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Anon08/11/25, 22:41No.7686861
anyways idk you're more patient than me
hopefully at least one user here like, idk, is kind enough to themselves to actually try the stuff you're recommending
i'm gonna go fuck around w/ level code and watch more masshole miku
later
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Anon08/12/25, 19:00No.7687846
Does GraphicsGale allow for layer-specific indexed pallets? I have an entire canvas I use for pixel art but I can't use index in aseprite to stay system-legal because it applies to the entire thing instead of individual layers
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Anon08/13/25, 02:02No.7688328
I recently made a pixel art game and got really burnt out near the end. I have trouble getting traction on any social media posts I made but I'm confident my work was pretty good, especially for a solo project.I definitely empathize with some anons here who think that pixel art recently has lost its purity. I very quickly went to the dark side when using 360p canvases and started to downscale linedrawings and use halftone effects in CSP to save time. Towards the end I was using glow dodge effects too.That being said, Aesprite changing common shortcut keys across painting software was a tragedy and if it wasn't for the onion skinning. I would have stuck to CSP
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Anon08/13/25, 04:11No.7688477
I've only very recently gotten interested in trying pixel art and I've been having issues finding answers to certain questions and I'm left having to analyze the sprite work I want to emulate and maybe guessing what their workflow was
For example, two things I'm looking at are 1.) the comic panels from EBA/ Ouendan and 2.) character sprites from AA. I can kind of tell the EBA comics are just downscaled from full-res art but I can't tell for sure if that's what they did for AA as well. It feels more likely for AA4, since that was the only one fully built from the ground up for the DS
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Anon08/13/25, 04:43No.7688503
ProMotion NG is great, non destructive dithering for control. I can move palettes easily and make my own dithering patterns.
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Anon08/13/25, 04:46No.7688506
Also Grafx2 if you are a hobbyist and need a free lightweight program
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Anon08/13/25, 14:02No.7688842
Finally a thread.
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Anon08/13/25, 14:16No.7688857
Do you draw? As in, do you draw normally and then use that to overlay with your pixel art, or do you directly start with pixel art?
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Anon08/14/25, 00:47No.7689522
I've been getting into making pixel stuff, it's fun. The downside is that I fucking suck at coding and even the simple stuff is tripping me up, there always seems to be something these video tutorials say to do and then GML Code says "nah something's missing from the create event" and then I don't know whether to cuntpaste the code or what. If I could just fucking HELP someone else that's good with programming but sucks at sprites, man.
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Anon08/14/25, 19:41No.7690448
Felt like sharing another fun thing today cuz I'm getting ready for a trip and the laundry is gonna be anotther couple of hours.A rather large amount of the time you can get away with basically not animating pixel art by just having tons of rotatable chunks. While this is pretty "duh of course you can" sort of thing, the levels of tomfoolery you can get away with doing this are really fun!So for this boss, I wanted to give it an interesting death animation and intro, but doing all of that would be a pain if I actually hand-animated given how big the sprite is. So, the entire top-half is a bunch of separated chunks parented to the body.
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Anon08/14/25, 19:52No.7690476
another thing you can do with this is change the palette of a section to fake motions, such as this with the 'leg lift'. there is no extra animation, just changing the colors to make it look like it is!
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Anon08/15/25, 14:28No.7691311
lua scripting, palettes, tagging, tile maps, pixel perfect, are all reasons aseprite is better than graphics gayle. that and it's actually actively developed.
if you choose not to use aseprite because of some non-issue like UI (it's highly customisable, you can even script together your own), you're severely hindering your workflow.
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Anon08/16/25, 22:52No.7693388
Here's a pixel art course for you guys
>GameDev.tv Team / Pixel Art Characters: 2D Character Design & Animation
>https://files.catbox.moe/08z8yb.torrent
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Anon08/17/25, 00:48No.7693471
/beg/ here, i made this, can you tell what it is?
what can i do to improve it?
(using gameboy palette so only 3-4 colors)
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Anon08/17/25, 03:05No.7693601
Having to clean up an animation is miserable with how pixels get scattered after every rotationI don't hate that I have to do it, I just hate how long it takes.
Should've gone into 3d animation...
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Anon08/17/25, 09:10No.7693806
So I wanted to try working in Aseprite for a change but the colors in the Aseprite window specifically are messed up
Despite the color picker showing a full #ffffff white, it's displaying as this cool white, pictured here
Am I doing something wrong? I don't have indexed coloring on. I'm gonna try saving the file and opening it on my iPad and seeing if it stays like this
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Anon08/18/25, 17:40No.7695531
I made this in case I need it. (I probably will lmao)
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Anon08/18/25, 22:44No.7696002
where is the ic wplace zone, the jannies on v are suppressing any wplace threads cause i guess we need more pornbait or we
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Anon08/19/25, 12:20No.7696548
thoughts on color cycling ?
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Anon08/22/25, 18:28No.7700864
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Anon08/23/25, 18:16No.7701990
How is this person getting so much smoothness out of the Deltarune sprites?
I asked them if it was subpixel animation and they said no, though I did specifically link this
https://2dwillneverdie.com/tutorial/give-your-sprites-depth-with-sub-pixel-animation/
so it might be subpixel animation just not that specific way of subpixel animation
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Anon08/27/25, 09:06No.7706017
rare quality thread
thanks OP
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Anon08/27/25, 14:25No.7706197
Finally, a pixel thread for me.
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Anon08/27/25, 14:40No.7706216
If I never done pixel stuff where should I start? Kinda want to try for fun.
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Anon08/27/25, 16:43No.7706351
Any tips for isometric walk cycle animations? I've made a few but they're quite sloppy
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Anon08/29/25, 23:51No.7709217
Not enough free time to animate the body
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Anon09/04/25, 18:17No.7715894
Love pixel art and started drawing with it, but trying to learn other mediums feels harder because of it.
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Anon09/06/25, 10:32No.7717718
I suck at pixel art and I think its easy
I drew this on my phone thoughts? supposed to a rabbit-like creature
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Anon09/09/25, 16:58No.7721666
Bringing this back to the front to piss off the no-draws.
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Anon09/11/25, 01:12No.7723383
You inspired me to make pixel art.
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Anon09/11/25, 20:00No.7723918
My second attempt at trying pixel art, I thing it's better than the shitty trees I made last time.
BTW, Thanks for this thread, It is giving me something new to try.
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Anon09/12/25, 03:34No.7724194
I feel like there is something wrong
Is subpixelling even possible or useful here? I couldn't apply it at all.
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Anon09/12/25, 04:35No.7724323
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Anon09/12/25, 04:37No.7724325
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Anon09/12/25, 05:12No.7724349
Currently trying to break down this guy's process and it's difficult. He's got a couple WIPs online but I'm convinced he starts with a painting then uses some sort of post processing to reduce the colors.
Im not opposed to that at all but its very tricky to try to break this down.
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Anon09/12/25, 22:31No.7725071
sweet a pixel art thread, rare,might as well drop the title from the old general I use to host sometimes. This threads tend to fizzle out since the art form is esoteric.Previous thread [Link to previous thread]> Rules:
- Resize your images before posting!
- Binary art allowed if its low resolution.
- Converted/Photobashed images are not allowed.
- NSFW allowed.> Resources
How do I learn pixel art ?
Where do I learn those things?
What software do I use ?
Where can I share my work ?Check this out
https://pastebin.com/BK9s37m7 (embed) (embed) (embed)# TOOLS
http://graphicsgale.com/
https://www.getpaint.net/
https://www.aseprite.org/
https://www.piskelapp.com/
http://grafx2.chez.com/# TUTORIALS
https://2dwillneverdie.com/tutorial/
https://lospec.com/pixel-art-tutorials
https://pixeljoint.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=11299
http://pixeljoint.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=24744
https://saint11.org/blog/pixel-art-tutorials/
https://twitter.com/Sadface_RL
https://bandygrass.tumblr.com/# COMMUNITIES
http://pixeljoint.com/
http://pixelation.org/
https://www.spriters-resource.com/
https://dotpict.net/
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Anon09/13/25, 17:53No.7725754
Are there any tools that would let me animate pixel art in layered segments, for example I want to have a flowing river with three frames looped, while I animate some extensive character action next to it with 50+ frames, without having to worry about doing the river animation in every frame individually
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Anon09/14/25, 02:16No.7726161
it is a custom cursor
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Anon09/14/25, 06:35No.7726317
Finally pixelart thread. I haven't seen him for a long time. Does anyone have archives of previous threads?
Anyway does anyone use Clip Studio Paint? I'm very satisfied with this program, I'm still using old version but for pixelart is more than enough for me
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Anon09/14/25, 07:20No.7726342
what's stopping me from downscaling a drawing to like 64x64 to make it pixel art? seems faster than handpicking each pixel
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Anon09/14/25, 13:17No.7726477
OP, you should write a book about this
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Anon09/15/25, 06:47No.7727374
I bought asprite and fucked around with it for like 40 minutes here's my first attempt how'd I do? I tried to copy another guys work but eyeballing it that's a "reference" right? but it kind of turned out like that one kevin james meme.
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Anon09/15/25, 06:54No.7727376
resized so it's not for ants. also, what resolution should one start out as? would 64x64 work or should I mess around with smaller stuff? for attempts to get better how good of an idea is it to just try to copy someone else's work while you get the fundamentals down or am I misconstruing what a reference even is for art?
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Anon09/15/25, 14:35No.7727588
Is pixelation.org permanently down? That was the best place for actual pixel art instruction.
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Anon09/15/25, 14:54No.7727610
Hello anons..
What is the maximum resolution a game can have before pixel art becomes redundant? I can accept estimates
>inb4 about 3 fiddy
I was thinking of making a game like Stronghold and I thought pixel art would be a really nice choice of aesthetic, but I’m kind of hesistant because of the size difference between the human units and the buildings. If I make the units too small then I wouldnt be able to properly portray the animations which gave the original Stronghold such a wonderful degree of liveliness. If I make the buildings too detailed I fear that I’ll just waste a lot of effort especially since Stronghold players tend to zoom out the screen to get a better game feel at the moment.
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Anon09/17/25, 05:30No.7729211
Made with libresprite, any advice??
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Anon09/18/25, 02:41No.7730046
Today, I made del from animal crossing :D
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Anon09/20/25, 17:49No.7732167
Saw this pixel art jam, and thought of you guys; https://itch.io/jam/gbpixelartjam25
I might enter it myself? Seems like it could be fun.
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Anon09/22/25, 23:37No.7734674
i was/am learnin gamedev and made a crummy sprite to go with the crummy provided assets, but this thread inspired me to do something a lil betteralso that palette site is pretty cool thx
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Anon09/23/25, 05:32No.7734923
>log in to wplace
>spot some half completed pixelart
>colors are garbage, anatomy is wonky, nonsensical clusters etc.
>try to fix it, maybe add some stuff to make it interesting
>OG 'artist' comes back and manually remove everything i've done
>...
>i've tried to polish a turd but the turd wants to be a turdToday i was a fool. What will i be tomorrow?
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Anon09/23/25, 09:13No.7735005
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Anon09/23/25, 12:18No.7735094
Considering GraphicsGale now
Sticking with the ProMotion demo cuz I like the palette limit and the color cycling. Wish there was some easy tool to have x-bit palettes on GraphicsGale or other pixelart programs. I know it may be silly to limit oneself as a beginner but I really like the look of older console and would like to emulate that aspect where possible.
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Anon09/26/25, 06:12No.7737837
WIP I dunno
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Anon09/26/25, 08:41No.7737923
I love pixel art.
Here's an old one I made.
Character named Kasha, from various games I'm making.
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Anon09/27/25, 00:46No.7738841
Im too lazy to read this entire thread, @You me with the best posts
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Anon09/29/25, 02:24No.7740934
Here's a video game that teach pixel art:
>Magnet link
Here you go, keep seeding after DL:
>magnet:?xt=urn:btih:95904C42383732F03E7E30B761310FA1D9C0219F&dn=Pixel+Art+Academy%3A+Learn+Mode&tr=http%3A%2F%2Fp4p.arenabg.com%3A1337%2Fannounce&tr=udp%3A%2F%2F47.ip-51-68-199.eu%3A6969%2Fannounce&tr=udp%3A%2F%2F9.rarbg.me%3A2780%2Fannounce&tr=udp%3A%2F%2F9.rarbg.to%3A2710%2Fannounce&tr=udp%3A%2F%2F9.rarbg.to%3A2730%2Fannounce&tr=udp%3A%2F%2F9.rarbg.to%3A2920%2Fannounce&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Fopen.stealth.si%3A80%2Fannounce&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Fopentracker.i2p.rocks%3A6969%2Fannounce&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Ftracker.coppersurfer.tk%3A6969%2Fannounce&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Ftracker.cyberia.is%3A6969%2Fannounce&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Ftracker.dler.org%3A6969%2Fannounce&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Ftracker.internetwarriors.net%3A1337%2Fannounce&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Ftracker.leechers-paradise.org%3A6969%2Fannounce&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Ftracker.openbittorrent.com%3A6969%2Fannounce&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Ftracker.opentrackr.org%3A1337&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Ftracker.pirateparty.gr%3A6969%2Fannounce&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Ftracker.tiny-vps.com%3A6969%2Fannounce&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Ftracker.torrent.eu.org%3A451%2Fannounce
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Anon10/03/25, 00:48No.7745776
pc98 was pretty much the peak of pixelart to me, they really pushed 16 colors as far as it could go. some of it even goes beyond pixelart and into just low res digital art.
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Anon10/05/25, 01:10No.7747909
Any of you can recommend a pixel art editor with a TILING function for Ipad?
You know, how in Aseprite you can turn tiling mode and have shit extend. Resprite only has a tiled preview, you can't draw on the extended tile
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Anon10/05/25, 01:52No.7747945
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Anon10/05/25, 18:10No.7748705
Any chance someone has a compilation of Henk Nieborg's tutorials? He had a Patreon at one point, I'd be grateful if someone could share it.
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Anon10/06/25, 00:29No.7749233
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Anon10/08/25, 00:29No.7751386
first time trying to make something 3d in pixel art
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Anon10/12/25, 21:27No.7755758
>I did this shit for 20 years, it ain't that hard bro
>therefore it isn't hard for people to learn???
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Anon10/13/25, 23:24No.7757270
How does it look? I'm just learning to draw, and I think pixel art is the easiest.
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Anon10/14/25, 04:05No.7757554
Trying to do a JRPG looking tree but also more "modern" at the same timeI agree with you, Appleheck is a subhuman who has the balls to brag he did pixel art for 20 years, all he has to show for is mediocre decent anime looking low effort girls in tight suits and some metal ships with 0 originality. I've known him for almost 10 years, 0 improvement since I've met him and he claims he is cool with it and he does it for the money, he must be pretty low IQ for choosing art for the sake of money. This tree I made for a game asset has more detail than his "illustration"
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Anon10/14/25, 06:32No.7757662
Learning pixelart wasn't super easy, but yeah, keeping refs and trying to imitate them was the best way to go.
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Anon10/14/25, 14:09No.7757897
Why the FUCK does my art feel so goddamn sovless?.
I've been trying to get back into pixel art but when i take a step back to just look at what I've made it feels so fucking boring?
I've been trying to systematically break down why i think it feels so mediocre and i think i've got something down but at the same time i also have no idea how to fix it.Feel free to disagree if you think my judgement is off but i don't think it has to do with the animation of her torso and legs or the posing. Her fairly idle positioning is completely intentional - but there is a tingling feeling in in my head telling me that something is wrong with how her arms and head are drawn or animated.
Then there's the colour palette. i don't think there's anything inherently wrong with it; seeing as i basically just ripped it from the characters original portrait which looks fine in my opinion. But it feels like there's something wrong with how I've actually used the darkest color (the one lining her fist/soles of her feet)
When i replace all of the darker pixels with the next color up it looks relatively fine but when i do the same for any other shade with a shade up or lower in brightness it looks ass and something is telling me that's why it looks off but i don't know how to fix it.anyways someone with more skill please offer advice and show me how to make it better i kneel.
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Anon10/15/25, 01:24No.7758668
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Anon10/15/25, 10:03No.7759048
I understand why the PC-98 distinct style can never be recreated. The colors are similar to an analog camera.
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Anon10/15/25, 10:05No.7759050
The Western Mind isn't capable of seeing in 16-colors
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Anon10/17/25, 04:45No.7761582
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Anon10/19/25, 06:13No.7764560
Tried to eyeball Darcy from the western VN "Misericorde" but I don't think what I did really counts as pixel art...
