This is how I make a tiny pixel

There are prettier tutorials online. This one was written by a person who learned on MS Paint and still argues with the zoom tool.

1. Don’t steal. First of anything: do not grab someone else’s pixels. One little GIF can eat an afternoon. If you use their work, say their name out loud like a spell. If you just lift it off their site and they find out, you are in big trouble, and also you are the villain of a very small story.
2. Make your own. Then nobody hunts you. Nobody writes you a paragraph in Comic Sans. Hehe.
3. Get an editor. MS Paint is enough to start. I started there, like a raccoon with a pencil. When I wanted things to move I got Jasc Paint Shop Pro. There are free editors now. Be resourceful. The program is not the talent.
4. Start tiny and boring on purpose. Hearts. Stars. Not a whole character with eyelashes on day one. When the squares start feeling like friends, you can make a lot more.
5. Trace a small picture. Pick an image. Shrink it until it looks shy. Zoom in until you can see every brick. Trace the edge, one pixel at a time. It is awkward at first. Your hand will lie to you. You get used to it.

That’s the whole magic trick. Some of it is hard. That’s why stealing is extra rude — you skipped the part that makes you want to lie on the floor. Try it yourself and you’ll see what I mean. Anyway. Screenshots.

Before and after of Mashimaro, who I pixelled and do not own. I only own the squares.

1. Get an image

I chose Mashimaro. He already looks like a pixel who forgot to finish loading.

2. Make it smaller

Resize it to the size you actually want. Mine is about a quarter of the original. If it still looks like a poster, you have not gone small enough.

3. Zoom and trace

Zoom until the edges turn into stairs. Trace those stairs with one-pixel lines — see the black squares on the side? That’s the pencil. When you’re done, erase the leftover photo like it owes you money.

4. Finished still

This is the quiet version. He sits. He judges.

5. Then make him blink

Same rabbit. Now he has a job.

From here → to here

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Hope that helps. There are a hundred other ways to do this. If yours works, keep it. This is only how I make mine. Sorry if you got confused — I am better at pixels than at teaching pixels.

♥ pixels pile · back to Tutorial