When making game sprites, the first thing I do is decide on a style or palette to work in.

For these sprites, I tried a ‘GameBoy Color’ style with a limited colour palette, so each sprite would only use up to 4 colours each.

I start with a sketch, just like a normal illustration, using a graphics tablet or mouse. If these were in a game, the sprites would need to be tileable, so we use a unifrom 64x64 pixel canvas size for each one.

Make adjustments to size where necessary. You may notice that I’ve resized the arm on the SM01, which made it fuzzy. These sketches don't need to be perfect. They just need to work as a guide. Don't be shy to draw up to the borders of the canvas.

For taller characters, like the SM03, we can use a foreshortening method, such as making it crouch, pounce, or lunge to fit within the 64x64 pixel canvas.

After the sketches are done, I move onto the lineart. I did the lines in black first, but some lines will change a bit later. This step is simply to get some definition to work with.

You may notice that some of the lines have gaps in them. This was done because I plan for those gaps to be a lighter colour to help the lines look softer and more gradual.

A thing to note with pixel art is the smaller the scale you’re working with, the more of a luxury outlines become, so much so that your sprite might not be able to have an outline!

I think this scale (64x64) is a good introduction to pixel art, because there’s familiar ground if you’re transitioning from lined illustration… or maybe I’m biased, since I started making pixel art by working on 64x64 Minecraft texture packs haha!

They have colour now! It’s a limited four colour palette; broken down, the colours are white, black and two shades of a colour (one lighter, the other darker).

The big difference between the three mechs is the colour of the number markings. This is the due to the primary shade used. Mechs 2 and 3’s primary colour is the lighter shade, so if the numbers were white it may be harder to see and you wouldn’t be able to effectively use a gradient to improve its form. So, sorry ‘Super Mega Mecha Ninja’ fans, but two of the sprites aren’t canonically accurate!

Adjusting colours used on each sprite is an example of a creative liberty you may have to take when adapting existing characters into pixel art. The obvious fix is to expand the colour palette, but that defeats the challenge of using a limited pallete. Another solution is to find a more versatile colour to introduce into the pallete, like using a burgundy instead of a black.

Some colours that fall outside of the 4-colour pallete for each sprite may need to be substituted for a contrasting shade (like the fins on SM03, or the eye of SM02).

Sprite - A 2D graphic for video games.

Limited Colour Palette - A small selection of colours to be used.

Tileable - When a texture is repeatable so that it can be used to make a seamless pattern.

Pixel - The smallest unit of measurement for a digital image, being a single tone of colour.

Canvas size - The size allocated to an image, sometimes measured in pixels.

Resize - A tool used to enlarge or reduce a selected area in digital art software.

Foreshorten - use perspective drawing to make an oject extend toward the viewer.

Lineart - Lines used to define an image.

Super Mega Mecha Ninja - Check out our comics tab to see them in action!