“How do you start Pixel Art?”…Here’s what I did!
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 17 พ.ค. 2024
- Grab the free character template here: i.redd.it/wuwerlmdn28b1.png
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0:00 Intro
0:06 How I started Pixel Art
2:23 Understanding the Mega Man Template
3:28 First Time Designing Sprites
5:09 Levelling Up
6:04 Iterating on Your Designs
10:33 Using Limited Colours
11:49 Final Thoughts and Character Template
12:30 VID OVER
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Check out my art here:
/ brandonjamesgreer
/ bjgpixel
INPRNT Shop: www.inprnt.com/gallery/bjgpixel/
Redbubble Shop: rdbl.co/bjgpixel
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Software used: Adobe Photoshop 2022
Need help picking a pixel art program? Watch this: • What Program to use fo...
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Title sequence theme music by Failpositive:
www.failpositive.bandcamp.com/
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Background music obtained through Royalty Free Planet:
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Digital Sunlight by Raven
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Other background music courtesy of TH-cam Audio Library. - เกม
You have a true talent, not just as a pixel artist, but as a very clear and concise educator! I always enjoy how simple and easy to follow your explanations are. Color theory, perspective, design, you have an knack making those complex topics so accessible. Thanks for this one!
i second this
Yes!! Exactly 💯
No better way to put it, Pal!
I could not have said it any better. Ditto!
Yes! Thank you Brandon. Looking forward for more educating videos!!!
it was so cool to watch everyone slowly morph at the end turning into a dramatically different sprite despite hardly changing in size
As a Mega Man fan and artist(primarily traditional and digital outside of pixel art but I work with pixels too), I find it actually kind of funny in hindsight that the Mega Man NES sprite is basically THE pixel art base. Especially since Mega Man sprites in general(from the actual games, for the whole cast) are actually more diverse than the edits since Rock is tiny even compared to other characters in that original style. Even small, more-humanoid Robot Masters, like Heat Man, don't look like him.
It's like the gamer "so retro!!!" equivalent to how, for over a decade on the internet, the whole 'Powerpuff Girls art style' in style mimic art was just turning a character into one of the Powerpuffs/Rowdyruffs, since otherwise that show just uses the exact same art style as Dexter's Laboratory with some alternate adjustments and motifs.
The idea that a single pixel can completely alter the interpretation of a low-rez sprite and how you can view these as permutations has always been what's drawn me to this medium as a way to learn more about art. Your channel has taught me so much about colour theory and composition; I think it's incredible that you can do that with a handful of pixels!
That was a really nice breakdown of the essence of pixel art, fitting for this square guy's origin story ⏹️🐵
Hahaha the origin story; I'm just a simple man trying to pixel my way through the universe 😌 And yeah the low-res permutations thing is really the most fun, it's kinda like drawing but also puzzle-solving, so on top of being artistic it's also a satisfying exercise in the way that sudoku or tetris may be :D
@@BJGpixel I heard someone mentioned Tetris 😎
@@pro_gramer9392 The ultimate square-based game 😎
As a person that is fucking lazy but dreaming of being an pixel artist this is so motivating, the changes you applied showed, what can be achieved if you stick with the process and keep learing. Much respect.
It's actually kind of interesting that you use Megaman as an example because there's kind of another hidden lesson out of using Megaman as a direct sprite reference, and it's that a lot of characters in Megaman don't actually have the same silhouette as Megaman.
Like, knowing *how* Megaman's style works will go much farther than just blindly copying over his sprite
Thanks Brandon! I teach character design at university and always manage to fit in a class or two on making pixel art. But it's always a struggle how to convey something practical in only 2 or 3 hours. This exercise is PERFECT. I'll be using it for sure. You make extremely educational content. Thank you again!
EDITED: Where the word "educational" is a the very end I had originally used the word "didactic" unknowing of the negative connotation of talking down it has in English. Foreigners mistake I'm afraid! :D
I don’t find his content to be extremely didactic at all. To me, he comes off as humble and generously facilitating his audience’s learning.
How is this didactic? Did you mean to use a different word?
@@crazyinsanepenguinNo way of knowing. Seems like a mistake _I'd_ make while looking for english words that'd fit my first language's wording.
@@crazyinsanepenguin I think he meant "didáctico" which is a fancy way to say to teach in Spanish
@@Chloroplastspectrum I'm afraid @fabiosonhandogrande1697 is right. English is not my first language, it's Spanish. And in Spain "didáctico" just means good for learning, without any negative connotation. Thank you for pointing this out to me because it seems like a mistake I could easily make in the future. Cheers!
I tried to do a thirty-day pixel art “challenge” (using only 16x16 / 1 bit), but I quickly got discouraged because with a limited screen size it was very hard to make an animal that looked correct to me.
I will try this method you used.
Thanks 😊
I tried doing the same, I think it's the animal one called septembit you're referring to. Making animals from scratch from the getgo was hell. I'm completely new to visual art as a whole, and making something with just 2 colours in such a small frame without any experience to reference it to is super hard.
Defo gonna try this as well, I think it has more potential!
@@mattreichmann8118 Agreed 👍
Good luck to you.
I think the last septembit may be a bit more accessible. Bit bigger of a canvas, few more colors and a nice sizable end result.
Challenges are a great way to learn
@@Wimpiethe3 This MM approach seems to be working for me, because I have already made three SF2 characters (EH, G, and R), with no frustration whatsoever. 👍
@@cheerwhiner7829 Thats awesome! Gaining experience, keep it up :)
Thanks Brandon! It's very important to have a chance to hear advise from a true professional!
Brandon learns from Brandon
Thanks Brandon! Always appreciate the support as well, thanks for watching! :D
When I transferred into another college for game development a couple of years ago, I had virtually no experience with game development whatsoever. I couldn't program and I could barely do art. The only thing I had going for me were fundamentals gathered from doing cinematography, which surprisingly helped since at least I knew how to stage and animate. I started with pixel art since for many, me included, it seemed like the easiest place to start, and ultimately lead me to this channel.
Honestly, these videos helped me a lot, since I could see the workflow and gather fundamentals for structuring pixel art, and frankly drawing on a fixed brush size and canvas made it really easy to fix details and not worry about consistency (since it was always consistent), and it's great seeing how clean my art came along compared with my other classmates. It's really something when I could examine and understand someone else's work and comfortably think to myself "yeah, I could make something like that" and actually be able to put money where my mouth was.
I hadn't been so passionate about art and animation in a long time, and although I've since used pixel art way less and moved on to 3d art and animation, I still come back to watch these videos and learn something new.
The second iteration of Guile give me vibes of the River City Ransom on NES models, so much charm and personality on those. 😊
I was thinking the same! Kinda fell into that one; it's funny how well Guile fits into that style 😆
These sprite transformations really remind me of the front sprite updates through Pokemon gen 1 (Red/Green -> Red/Blue -> Yellow)
They were all from essentially the same game but each iteration added so much more character to the sprites.
between playing the megaman games as a kid, and reading a lot of sprite comics growing up, I've always been fascinated by pixel art.
I haven't done any pixel art in years, but I always enjoy your content.
I also started with the good ol' megaman edits, though I actually started with MM7 sprites before switching to the smaller ones. I did a whole TF2 pixel art spray pack back when that was a thing, and one of my sprites was featured in a brentalfloss video (though it was without my permision, and it wasn't even a very good sprite for that matter....)
I think it's crazy how I also started out pixel art making Mega Man inspired sprites before I even started watching your stuff. This video was a blast from the past, really great work in coming a long way
Great stuff Brandon! I think a lot of beginners out there are stuck in the "unsure where to start" phase and this really breaks it down into a simple action plan to ease them into pixel art. It's awesome to see how much you care about helping out future pixel artists!
Great video!! I love pixel art because I grew up playing Atari, Sega genesis, and Nes, so seeing how the style is still alive and interesting after all the updates the gaming world has made, it truly is a awesome genre that keeps delivering!!
Thanks! And yeah same, I got interested in it from the nostalgia for retro games, and it's fascinating to see new artists discovering and appreciating the style for other reasons as well!
Hi hello. I recently fell into a hyper-fixation surrounding pixel art and you are by far the best person I've seen covering the topic. And it stems from the fact that you don't exactly give tutorials (which for me are a one way ticket to not retaining anything). This exact video is a prime example. I watched it once, thought about the general idea and not the steps, decided I can do that and came back only to see how you set it up. And BAM in less than an hour I was able to make megaman sprites of Deku and Bakugo from my hero academia!
I feel absolutely ecstatic. I've never done pixel art, but this singlehandedly has lit a fire that (hopefully) won't go out soon. Thank you!
I was literally just thinking about starting my own pixel art journey, so this was perfectly timed! Your videos continue to be fascinating and inspirational, so thanks!
That was insane ! Thanks a lot !
I loved how the volume for the kind of "balls" on chun-li's head works so much by simply adding another semi-circle behind her head ! And i loved how you recreated the facial expression of Ken on the 2nd sprite. :D
I tripped over this video after I'd already started doing this a week or two ago. I'm currently working on a "base model" sprite, just some simple colors and shading to give a vague idea to use as a starting point or stand-in for something else as I work on my game. I almost cried when I saw your spritework evolve too... it's amazing to know that not only did I start off on a pretty common path, but that it can very easily turn into something amazing if I just keep at it!
The limited colours versions look a lot like Neo Geo Pocket Color sprites, you nailed that look
This is the best starting point I've found online for pixel art.
I would love more templates like this.
thank you so much for making this!! i always link your beginner playlist whenever people ask me for advice. this will def help people understand how to do pixel art as a beginner!!
Ooh thanks, much appreciated! I've added this video into that playlist also! ✌️😊
Tracing and edits is one of the easiest ways to build an eye for different qualities like proportion and weight and perspective and shape imo. Not the fastest, but the easiest. In other forms of art too, tracing and edits is my go-to for doing just a bit of skill building and practice
This (along with all your other videos) is amazing, I'm planning to finally make a game idea that's been bumping around my head for over a decade now & I'll need to be e-learning how to do pixel art.
Always been an inspiration since I found your channel.
Well-crafted video, explanations are clear, concise and we can really see how this could be applied to any new artist's learning process. Great work!
Awesome!! You've created some of the most interesting and expressive pixel art characters I have ever seen! Lotsa great posing choices too!
Keep it up; you've taught me a lot!
really lovely video, you have a natural ability to explain and educate that i haven't seen before. cant wait for the next one!
I feel like a little kid watching this type of videos thank you
Incredibly helpful video, the side by side comparison of each step was amazing to highlight the importance of each detail
Wow these tips are actually so eye opening, its such a good tip to start with the megaman template and colors
Wow interesting video! I'm not a visual artist myself, but I love pixel art, it has such a unique charm to it. Thanks for explaining everything so clearly. As a musician, I also like how 8-bit music perfectly fits with 8-bit visual in the old days especially, you don't have that 1 to 1 ratio often in art.
This is exactly how I imagined my progress would be a few days ago -- starting from simple then upscaling it so I can add more details until it reaches some complexity to the design.
I respect you as an artist and this video confirms my own thoughts which brings confidence in me to pursue pixel art even more.
Thanks for this, Brandon!
honestly, i have been struggling to get into visual art in general for literally years now, and I think this is partly because I had no frame of reference for what my foundation was... I think I realize now that I really need* structure to the act before I can start progressing. i want that foundation to be visualizing the subject [and each of its faces] in my head... which is hard. it took me literally years to finally break into programming [started reading Mozilla's js documentation] so i think you just need to be persistent and keep practicing as much as possible everyday. it just scares me how little progress i've made on the art front
Dude truthfully. This was so great. From just the art to how you're smoothly going from one topic to the next. I appreciate this.
Awesome video. Super cool seeing your iterative process. The results are great!
Been pixelarting for years, but still found this both informative and inspiring. Great vid! Keep up the great work!
Dang! This video is really well edited and the points you make come out so clearly. Really a pleasure to watch.
you have such a positive outlook on the almost-tired megaman sprite tracing and also megaman sprite tracing criticism dichotomy
really interesting approach to developing it as a learning tool from someone who actually started there
Very nice. Pixel art edits are definitely a common starting point for people, it's good to see where to go from there. It's not intimidating and you can see what you want to change, which can be easier than looking at a blank canvas and deciding what to start with. Like the famous "You're the man now, dog!" scene from Finding Forrester where he gets a pre-made text to type out, and when he feels his own words he should type them.
I got to the end of this playlist far too quickly! I've been hopping around between different artists' tutorials, and your method of teaching has been, by FAR, the most helpful. Looking forward to any future content as I start my journey.
Man you make it look so easy. I just made my first "character" yesterday and it was an amazing feeling. I will continue to run through your videos they are amazing and a great help and inspiration. thank you for making them
I'm so glad I found you here. This is a fantastic video that doesn't just say the same as everyone else! Thank you so much!
Ive been wanting to get back to making pixel art and start from scratch again and this video gave me a great starting point again. Thanks alot my dood! Keep up the great work!
Thank you so much! It warms my heart to see such a clean explanaton. Gonna try right now
Great video! It's funny that you started your pixel art journey by making characters in a megaman style, because that's exactly how i was introduced to pixel art as well. I'm still a newbie, so this video is a great foundation for me to start improving
This is incredible! Loved watching this
every pixel artist canon event: start with megaman NES sprite edits
I was looking for sooo long for this holy grail! thank youuuu that video helped soo much ♥
this was very helpful, thanks mate
Thanks for the template man, coming from a skillful person like you really helps others!
I always come back to your videos ❤
This is absolutely beautiful. Thanks for all the hard work:)
Incredible video! Thanks for sharing your journey and thought process
I'm a digital painting/ vector artist learning pixel art and your videos have been amazing. Thank you.
this video really hit me hard.
I started doing pixel art more than 16 years ago on MS Paint doing edits, recolors and even tried to post some on my Deviantart, but I got hit by harsh critics and had issues learning how to use photoshop or other programs.
Seeing this showed me that if I didn't give up at the time, I could've evolved a lot and maybe even learn about you way before in the past.
I think I'll try to give another chance on Pixel art one day, even if I have to return to the basics....
Thanks man, never give up on your dreams, you are an inspiration to a lot of people out there.
Thank you SO MUCH for the template, that's going to help tremendously
you are a legend sir, thank you so much
This video is so amazing and for some reason made me emotional. I really appreciate you.
Fantastic art work. So talented!!! Thank you for the template at the end!
you are awesome bro!
This was such a fun video. Amazing work!
Absolutely mind blowing content here! Thx Brandon and you got a new sub here 👌
Love ur vids, glad to be here great work
Thank u so much pal
I love ur pixel arts!!! ur arts are truly amazing!!! I can always learn a lot from u!!
This is amazing!!
This is brilliant! I'm just starting up so this video was hugely helpful! Just subscribed. Thank you.
Great results and compelling explanation for the methods used.
So charming video that is kind of tutorial. I love how you created gameboy-style sprites out of just megaman sprite and reference pictures
Thanks for the tips !
Thank you so much for the template. I will definitely use it.
Bro. You are so good. Omg. This is so helpful!!!
I first got into spriting by editing fire emblem GBA sprites! I didnt know at the time, but it was great practice due to how small they are. They are also so fluidly animated! the more elaborate animations are pure poetry to look at. Im currently binge watching your videos and i want to thank you for your insight and advice!
Best channel ;) thanks for the Tutorials and other content!
This really helped more than any other tutorial.
this is probably the best advice i've seen for beginners getting into pixel art! very nicely done!
you're really good in this, man! few pixels come alive in "your hands") it's just magic how generic template gets so much personality! love your channel and your works)
thats the best pixel art beginner guide i watched so far! thank you
It's kinda funny, the fact that every single video you upload always is very inspirational for me. Thanks for the content and inspirations.
This was really cool thanks for sharing
what a fantastic video. loving it
Good stuff, keep it up! 🔥
This is so phenomenal
It may be a bit late compared to the upload date, but I myself learned by watching your videos, and using your techniques
You explain everything in a thorough and easy to understand way, and it's always a blast to watch your videos, and it inspired me to pick up pixel art, and make my own channel (true it's empty for now until I begin making stuff for it, but baby steps)
So thanks for inspiring me and giving me the opportunity to become a pixel artist myself 😁
WOW! You’re a whole savage my dude. I’m gonna utilize all of your techniques. You’re a true educator.
This is really fantastic. My earliest pixel art involved having my gameboy on the desk under a light and copying the sprites pixel-by-pixel into MacPaint! X) It was painstaking, but it also taught me many of the concepts you covered here. Thanks for a great video! Definitely subscibing now. ^^
Thanks! I appreciate the video.
Those sprite went from cool to awesome to amazing!
Thank you Brandon.
It's nice, hearing the perspective of someone who got their start making fan edits. As someone who got theirs from pokemon fusions back in 2009, right at the peak of that fad, it's really great seeing an earnest look both how useful, and how eventually limiting, it is as an early tool for learning.
this is exactly what i did when i was starting out !!! lots of recolouring naruto screenshots to match my ocs, tracing mlp and anime bases onto paper so i could stick em on my wall, making pokemon fusions from their sprites and learning to blend parts together !! i almost miss feeling proud of those works despite how amateurish i think they are now ^^;
It might be a little thing but I loved the tidbit at 8:05 where he says he "found" this thing with the foot. That little detail shows that a large part of pixel art is very much a puzzle to be solved in a lot of ways. This video was incredibly helpful as a beginner looking for specific exercises to practice, so thank you!
Hey, thanks for video. Really great idea for learning
My gosh, the change in details are so simple, yet so powerful... I hope I can learn such thing one day :']
I've been stuck for a while on game designs because despite being pretty solid at backgrounds, i have trouble with characters and organic shapes. But I have in the past done some megaman recolor/rework, so those lil details you showed really helped, and i should try to do this!!
Awesome dude, well paced and informative! I found this really helpful getting started myself, got a new subscriber too
Thank you very much, this was really helpful
Dude you are awesome, I hope you're able to make a living from doing this. I appreciate your artistry man, keep on keeping on!
You make it look so easy
I "kitbashed" pokemon sprites together when I was a boy and that helped me a lot with pixel art down the line