Pixel art is art created on the computer through the use of a raster graphics software that allow images to be edited on the pixel level. Graphics in most old computer games or even in Game Boy games are considered pixel art.

Cross-stitch patterns resemble some aspects of pixel art.

Constraints

The aspiring pixel artist must remember to keep the color count low; the art is often to be used on systems where the number of available colors is limited, such as older video game consoles or mobile phones. The color constraint is also part of the genre.

Generally, "pure" pixel art must be created by manual pixel-level editing, without the use of any automatic filters. In the pure form, it is generally said that "each pixel was placed carefully". Purists within the pixel art scene say that pixel artists should only use tools that place individual pixels (usually the pencil tool), and no tools that automatically creates shapes for you (like circle, square and line tools). Others say that the line tools and the bucket fill are acceptable, as they do nothing more than speed up the work without impacting on how the work looks. The use of automatic filters such as anti-aliasing, on the other hand, is generally considered not valid in a "true" pixel art, since the filters will add new pixels automatically, eliminating the careful placement.

Also, a common mistake is to think that any drawing or doodle done using the pencil tool is pixel art. This is not true, since pixel art is categorized by the method of drawing (pixel by pixel), not the results (therefore, special renders and automated filters do not apply either). Such drawings are actually called oekakis.

But, it is possible to have a photorealistic pixel art piece, as long as it was done by the pixel by pixel method (frequently called "pixel pushing").

Techniques of drawing

Pixel artist use hand-made anti-aliasing and dithering.

Saving and compression

Pixel art is preferably stored losslessly, that is, in a format that can save each pixel of the image without loss of precision. Because of the often-limited color space, using a color palette can be very efficient. PNG and GIF are two examples of formats that can do this space-efficiently. Run-length encoding is a possible tradeoff when memory or computational power is limited. Pixel arts shouldn't be saved as JPGs because their quality is far too low for such detailed images as pixel art.

Categories

Isometric

Not isometric

Pixel art is commonly divided in two subcategories: isometric and non-isometric. The isometric kind is drawn from an isometric perspective. This is commonly seen in games to provide a three-dimensional view without using any real three-dimensional processing. Technically, an isometric angle would be of 30 degrees, but this does not produce a good result since the pixels in these lines do not follow a pattern. To fix this, a ratio of 1:2 is picked, leading to an angle of, aproximately, 26.565 degrees (arctan 0.5).

The non-isometric is basically any pixel art that does not fall in the isometric category, such as views from the top, side, front, or bottom.

Uses

Pixel art was very often used in old computer and video console games. With the increasing use of 3D graphics in games, pixel art lost some of its use. Despite that, this is still a very active professional area, since mobile phones and other portable devices still have low resolution and then require a skillful use of space and memory.

Icons for operating systems with limited graphics abilities are also pixel art. The limited number of colors and resolution presents a challenge when attempting to convey complicated concepts and ideas in an efficient way. On the Microsoft Windows desktop icons are raster images of various sizes, the smaller of which are not necessarily direct scalings of the larger ones and could be considered pixel art. On the GNOME and KDE desktops, icons are represented primarily by scalable SVG images, but with hand-optimised, pixel art PNGs for smaller sizes such as 16x16 and 24x24. Another use of pixel art on modern desktop computers is favicons.

External links

• So you wanna be a pixel artist?
• Pixelerate: Digital Art Forum with a heart for pixel art. Build for the experienced artist.
• SpriteArt.com sprite collection, tutorials
• Visual:PixelArt - Visual wiki page on Pixel art
• The Complete Guide to Isometric Pixel Art
• GFXZone 8-bit Gallery - Huge gallery of photorealistic pixel art
• Tutorial on drawing a hut by pixelfreak
• PixelJoint - Pixel art community.
• Pixel Banter - A new pixel art community that was started on Jan 1st 2005
• Pixelation - Forum dedicated to pixel art
• deviantART pixel art galleries
• Pix.art.pl - Polish pixel art community