Pixel art is a form of digital art, made up of pixels. It is a type of low resolution art also known as bitmap images. The pixel art comes from the use of chartered blocks with massive amounts of color to create an illusion of 3D objects or characters that appear bright from a distance. This form of artwork has been used since the early days of computing and is still evolving and gaining popularity even today.
Pixel art is a form of digital art, created through the use of raster graphics tools, where images are edited on the pixel level. Pixel art is characterized by the individual, square-shaped pixels that form the image. These pixels can blend together as with traditional cartoon animation or be manipulated individually with contemporary, computer-based tools.
Aseprite
Aseprite is another well-known program created for the sole purpose of designing pixel art.
Here’s the deal with using Aseprite – it is available for free if you’re someone who can arrange the program yourself, otherwise you can get the compiled and finished software at $15 (which includes as much modern features as you can think of).
If you’re wondering why it’s a famous software among pixel editors, that’s because Aseprite offers artists alluring creations as well as an easy user interface. It is capable of performing heavy-duty tasks effortlessly.
Let’s have a look at one of its features – onion skinning – which allows users to add frames both above and under the one they are currently creating. This option makes the work of the artist much easier and faster. Moreover, beginners will likely find the timeline easily accessible on their very first use.
It also contains exceptionally good sprite sheet exporting tools which are useful daily materials for game developers.
One other feature that contributes to its popularity is that it can edit fonts into pixels. A lot of game developers find this feature highly desirable.
Since we are on this topic, we also want to include the wrapping tool which is used for tiling, except that it repeats the process. If you’re thinking about a faster way to create roof tiles, Aseprite has got you covered.
Photoshop
Adobe Photoshop is one of the best programs one can use not only for pixel art but also for digital painting and graphic designing. You can say that this software is the total digital editing package.
Because of what it provides, Adobe Photoshop is among the most popular picks when it comes to pixel editors too. It offers users all the important tools needed for creating high-quality pixel animations.
However, keep in mind that Photoshop can be pretty tough to get used to since it contains more features than any other program intended for pixel art, given that it serves multiple purposes as well. But to make things easier for the absolute beginner, there are numerous online tutorials about designing pixel art to look up.
If your plan includes learning to create more than one type of animation, Adobe Photoshop is the right software for you. Rather than jumping from one program to the other, all your projects can be done on a single platform.
Among many uses, Photoshop is widely known for its many available resources. And the best part is that there are tutorials for almost each and every single one of them. On top of that, you can also find free plugins and scripts to gain more flexibility for using the program.
Knowing how to operate the program can increase your chances of developing games as a career.
GIMP
A very similar program to Adobe Photoshop is GIMP. The main difference is that GIMP is available for free downloads.
Similar to Photoshop, it comes with a lot of tools, resources, and features to create digital art including pixel designs. Here, you’ll find there are effective tools meant for photo editing as well as digital painting.
But unlike Photoshop, GIMP has a friendly user interface that’s customizable, so it is perfect for starters. However, it includes an animation player and a timeline which are pretty much like those of Photoshop.
Since the program is popular with many digital artists out there, it receives a lot of support from creators as well as experienced users who provide video tutorials on YouTube.
Another important aspect to consider is that it saves money for those on a restricted budget who are searching for a complete package.
Pixie Engine Editor
The Pixie Engine Editor is available for free download online. It provides all the fundamental tools required for creating pixel art.
It is true that many professional digital artists may not find it to be completely satisfied when it comes to doing detailed work because of its lack of resources. However, it is well-suited for beginners who are looking forward to learning pixel art without having to pay any fees.
Although you can only create static animations, there are other benefits that come with this program such as a huge collection of colors and it also allows you to save an image after designing.
If you want to learn how to make proper use of this software, they have a separate section on their site in which you can go through the masterpieces of other experienced artists.
It also offers a tune composer for artists who want to develop games so they don’t have to look for this feature elsewhere.
Krita
Krita is a free and open-source professional painting program aimed at digital painters, cartoonists, illustrators, and concept artists.
With some minor configuration changes, Krita can be used for beautiful & professional pixel art.
Because the program is tailor-made for painters, many artists will find the workflow is very natural and easy to learn.
Krita is perfect for those with a traditional background in the painting who want to transition into digital art. In 2015 the Krita community crowdfunded for an animation feature making it fully capable of adding motion into your pixel artwork.
While not as feature-rich as Photoshop or GIMP, Krita has many tools that you won’t find in programs dedicated to pixel art creation alone.
Depending on your needs this may be a benefit.
If you’re looking for a program that can handle both pixel art and high-resolution illustration work, and even animation, then Krita might be exactly what you’re looking for.
When it comes to a digital painting program Krita is hard to match—especially for the price of free.
On the other hand, Krita’s documentation is lackluster or missing in some areas, especially those features that have been recently added. Although you can find plenty of great tutorials online for free.
As a niche tool, it also lacks the robust communities that you’ll find around some other software.
But with its easy-to-use and customizable layout, Krita is solid choice for beginners and experienced artists alike.
Pyxel Edit
Pyxel Edit is another popular program beloved by pixel artists worldwide.
It’s known for its ease-of-use and user-friendly interface. While there is a free version available out there, it lacks many of the features that make Pyxel Edit a worthy choice.
The elegant interface is a big selling point for Pyxel Edit.
The program contains all the features necessary for creating static and animated images, including animation onion skinning which lets you overlay sequential frames in your pixel art.
At only $9 Pyxel Edit may be the perfect choice for those working with a low budget.
Pyxel Edit is best known for its powerful tileset creation tools.
Working with tilemaps can be a tedious process for any artist, but Pyxel Edit is here to help with a set of tools designed to speed up the workflow. Tilesets can be easily imported and exported or converted to XML or JSON filetypes for use in-game engines.
Game designers working on multiple tilemaps might find that Pyxel Edit saves them a lot of time and hassle. It’s just a great tool for anyone serious about(or getting into) pixel art.
Piskel
Piskel is a free online editor for animated sprites & pixel art. Like Aseprite, Piskel was designed for pixel art and therefore makes it easy to pick up and all the tools you encounter in the editor are related to pixel art. One of its strong points is the animation editor, with live preview and animated GIF exports. And since the editor is based online, you can save your files online and access them anywhere you have access to a browser.
Features:
- Full Featured Pixel Art Software for creating pixel art images
- Store images online for access anywhere
- Run the editor on any browser
- Free to Use
Adobe Illustrator
Adobe Illustrator is a professional vector graphics editor created by Adobe Inc. for macOS, Windows, and Linux. Originally designed to make vector graphics, Illustrator has grown to be a favorite amongst pixel artists as well because of the ability to scale pixel art up with ease. Once pixel art is made inside of Illustrator artists can take advantage of the dozens of tools and features Illustrator has to offer. Illustrator is also very friendly with artists and developers alike with multiple export formats to meet a variety of project needs.
Features:
- Full Fledged Vector Editing Software
- Support for creating scalable pixel art
- Virtually unlimited size
- Dozens of tools and features
- Multiple export formats
Pro Motion
Pro Motion is a pixel drawing and animation software designed by Cosmigo for creating pixel art. Because Pro Motion was designed specifically for pixel art all tools and features in the program are pixel art related. This makes it perfect for artists and developers who don’t want the extra features of other software that are not pixel-related. Pro Motion comes with awesome features including animation layers, tilemap engine, onion skinning, and tile drawing tools. Pro Motion is available for Free with a limited feature set or a one-time price for all the features.
Features:
- Complete Pixel Art Editor for creating, editing and painting pixel art
- Tile Map Engine for making Level Maps
- Onion Skinning for Animation Creation
- Tile and Pattern Drawing Tools
Conclusion
Pixel art is a form of digital art made up of pixels, or small squares. Over the years pixel art has undergone an evolution and taken on a new meaning. Pixel art originally used to refer to any kind of digital graphics, but now it refers to graphics made up mostly of pixels. It’s actually possible to create pixel art even without using a pixel-editing program; there are few ways to achieve this though, the most popular one being Photoshop’s Brushes palette with very small brush sizes. Still, with all these technological advances there are many people who prefer the old fashion way of doing things, simply for the nostalgic value if nothing else. Many consider creating pixel art to be more challenging than creating vector art.