An Aseprite Crash Course In 30 Minutes

Heya Pals,
In this video, I thought I'd put together a mix of tips for making pixel art in aseprite, from beginner to advanced features. Hopefully I've packed enough in here to answer most of your burning questions but if not, pop them in the comments below ;)
Chapters:
0:00 - Introduction
0:45 - What Is Aseprite?
2:02 - The Workspace
5:07 - The Workflow
7:11 - (B) Pencil
8:27 - (E) Eraser
9:22 - (Alt) Eye Dropper
10:18 - Shade Mode
12:07 - (Z) Magnify Tool
12:57 - (Space) Hand Tool
13:27 - (M, Q, W) Selection Tools
14:17 - (V) Move Tool
15:32 - Hardware & Technique
19:35 - Advanced Features
19:53 - Hiding the UI
20:50 - Snapping to Grid
21:18 - The Preview WIndow
22:00 - Tile Mode
22:50 - Operations Across a Selection
25:50 - Replacing Colours & Outlines
26:56 - Exporting Your Work
----
This video features clips from my stream. Catch it live: Mon, Tues, Thurs and Fri 1-6pm AEST.
Twitch: / adamcyounis
Twitter: / adamcyounis
Discord: / discord
Become a Patron at / adamcyounis
Check out my game Insignia at uppon-hill.itch.io/insignia
Later, pals!

[@xelmenguyzxlt5571]

I didn't even feel the 30 minutes pass by. Great video !

[@Galaxy_World]

Yep

[@ArawnFR]

But I really did

[@satanm8c40]

Really? It's been 2 minutes and it feels really slow for me

[@ehad1753]

I have more than 280 hours on aseprite and I didn't knew about the shading tool I watched you using on another video and I knew I had to see if you had a video on how to use aseprite propperly and you posted it today!, such a coincidence, I'll try to use a lot more of the tool aseprite has to offer, thanks a lot!

[@tippitytop]

didn't know

[@tomyyoung2624]

Yes.. End of discussion.

[@deepfriedpaper]

@@tomyyoung2624 ???

[@tomyyoung2624]

@@deepfriedpaper Yes I wanna see 'Richard as the PRINCIPAL!

[@capsey_]

"And as you can see you easily can reach all important key on your keyboard" Me, lefty: Oh no, not again

[@zedmanul7472]

you can always change the keybinds to be on the right side of the keyboard! :)

[@pixelup-art]

Hello! I'll help ya! You only need to change 2 buttons and you'll be alright! The brush can still being on B. Change the eraser to J key. And the Zoom to O key.

[@jonteguy]

@@pixelup-art The distance from B and O is pretty big in comparison to the right-side he was talking about, it's also angled which makes it more annoying. It's definitely doable but for me I'd rather change most of the keybinds to the numpad.

[@pixelup-art]

@@jonteguy Do you have baby hands or something?

[@pixelup-art]

@@jonteguy It's B for brush and J for eraser. Zoom on O.. c'mon.

[@NomichReal]

I didn't even know that I wanted to get into Pixel Art...

[@MythicBeanProductions]

I didn't either until I bought aseprite on steam because I thought it was a game.

[@Nemesis0529]

​@@MythicBeanProductions😂 loved this

[@Narwhal12]

@@MythicBeanProductionsLMAO How’s it going?

[@mmmMindo]

@@MythicBeanProductions If Mario Paint is a game so is aseprite :D

[@E_Proxy]

I've bought aseprite on sale and i cannot even use paint 🤷🏻‍♂️

[@metashrew]

What i like to do is use the shading mode with the spray tool. Combine that with the tiled mode and you've got pixel art textures/tiles in no time.

[@libiroli]

HOLY SH*T!!! I just created the most beautiful cloud in 30 seconds that would normally take me 30 minutes. Thank you kind internet stranger

[@nwut]

yeah but it's really random and doesn't work for a lot of materials

[@gdog8170]

spray tool?

[@gdog8170]

OOH YOU FIND THE SPRAY TOOL BY CLICKING ON THE PENCIL TOOL IN THE TOOLBAR

[@nwut]

@@gdog8170 bruh

[@AlcreedFlores]

Always appreciate this types of content creator that gives their free time for free learning course for beginners. If it wasn't for them I would've no clue where to search for. Thanks bro. Love your contents.

[@nonstandard5492]

don't get me wrong the video is very helpful and homie seems like a chill cool dude but pretty weird to frame making a tutorial to put on youtube and make a bunch of money off of it as "giving free time"

[@ToffeeBun]

You've been a great help in helping me get started. I know it can be hard to process it with the amount of comments you get, but you really are making people's lives an easier and smoother time. Thanks!

[@msnerdytoastx8412]

I have loved pixel art my whole life and finally bought Aseprite and this video helped me not feel so overwhelmed, thank you so much!!

[@karakaz]

Bought Aseprite yesterday! This is perfect! Thanks a bunch 😊

[@fadelrahmadhan5737]

i bought it 2020 when the price is good

[@anthonycarro5294]

I compiled the code, almost made me wish I bought it

[@penguinlim]

@@anthonycarro5294 same. it was *such* a pain to get it compiled.

[@kzltilki6716]

This is a perfect start to Aseprite. Everything is clearer than before now. Thanks. I mean it. Thank you. We need teachers like you, man. I'm all tears.

[@edlodude]

If you're watching this in or after 2024, the change brush size hotkey got added: hold ctrl+alt and drag your brush

[@lordsergio]

Man, your tutorials on pixel art are the BEST on youtube by far, (and I have watched a lot of them). The clarity of your explanations put them on a different league! thanks a lot.

[@pixelflash3996]

I found your videos a few days ago and they are very helpful. I am training pixelart for many years now and i am always struggling with some technics/aspects of pixelart. Your tutorials are the perfect help to improve my work. Love your art style. Keep up the good work!

[@UltiemeHack]

Your videos have inspired me to make my own art for my game. Long way to go but I look forward to practicing drawing and such. Keep doing what you do. Really appreciate it!

[@ManEaterBrainBug]

I have watched a bunch of pixel art learning channels and i have to say, your channel is the best. Thanks for sharing that knowledge!

[@anthonycarro5294]

After painfully figuring out how to compile the code for Aseprite, I'm finally ready to learn how to use it. This is a great video btw.

[@dookcurruff9047]

lol i gave up and just bought it

[@brianzhamilton]

I was literally just thinking the other day about how nice it would be if you released a video like this! Thanks!

[@JhonatanMorais]

This was Amazing! I'm a Web Developer and this was my first time watching how a pixel artist work. Thank you for share it. You did Great!.

[@derbiervampir3516]

Thanks for another great tutorial. I really like the way you are doing your tutorials. You are giving so much information presented in a compact but yet not to short way. And you are explaining all those things in a very calm fashion. Thank you! :)

[@WallysaurRex]

Great videos, this channel has helped me understand aesprite and pixel art so much. Keep up the good work!

[@rcookie5128]

Love all the resources you provide! Already used Aseprite for about 100h, but still there's always something small I learn (love the Ctrl+F shortcut!). Thanks!

[@alekseyklimets6589]

This is crazy useful, thank you so much! Best 30 min course ever!

[@russellpenn375]

This was brilliant, bought Aesprite and a tablet after watching! Thanks for the video

[@Inconnue760]

which one did you get?

[@philipsheard624]

Thank you for this video Adam very informative and easy to put into practice. I found your channel yesterday and looking forward to watching more videos and getting stuck into pixel art.

[@randomrandom450]

Awesome ! Thank you ! I watched the tileset and paralax video in which you use the shading tool and I was like "I want that power !!!" I'm glad you covered it here + a couple of cool tips. Thank you.

[@neennaps2144]

Love the shading mode and the outline tool!! thank you for your tutorial ❤❤

[@estevaoyt]

Best Crash Course I 've seen in my life, thank you!

[@JasonValentineFL]

Thanks! It's been several years since I've used Aseprite and this was a great re-introduction.

[@IlTuboDiLowen]

found this channel during GMTK Game Jam and it made me buy aseprite for my project, I'm super happy of my result, thank you very very much!!

[@tobiasware]

Thank you, this tutorial was totally worth watching especially because you answered my exporting fuzzy problem in your last section.

[@tonyg1296]

Thank you so much for this! It really helps man, I appreciate your work and I hope you have a beautiful day!

[@chourando]

Thanks for layer switching trick, definitely implement in my forkflow👍

[@johnwright5126]

Best intro to Aseprite ever! THANK YOU!!!

[@ConclusiveConfusion]

It's always fun watching right handed people enjoy tech and devices laid out in convenience. I get to imagine for a moment what it must be like to not have to constantly switch things around/reach across something awkwardly/ put what ever was in my left hand down so I can reach over for the keyboard shortcuts before picking it back up again. Yes I will die mad on this hill, why do you ask? Unrelated complaining aside. Thanks for the tips and videos, tremendously useful stuff across this whole channel.

[@BobbyCharlz]

Thank you for this awesome tutorial. It served as a proper intro for me.

[@felipebdc4316]

almost 1.500 hours on aseprite and you just showed me some stuff i didn't even know about! tysm!

[@Aesthetic.__.Senpai]

Great crash course Adam

[@BloodBathFenix]

You should make an updated version your tutorials ROCK!

[@rhymewave6777]

Nice, simple, effective presentation. I'm going down the rabbithole and as Bill Withers sang ' Before you put your plan into operation, you gotta take it all in and check it all out'. Your videos are a large part of that :)

[@koes007]

Excellent video my dude, thank you for introducing me to the basics of how to navigate this marvelous software efficiently. Thanks!

[@Sandpiper_04]

That's my favorite programm now, thanks a lot!

[@Master13346]

Great channel and I’m so glad I found it. You explain things so well.

[@ghogu14]

Awesome videos all round, mate. Thanks so much :)

[@miguellavariel1348]

You do some of the most professional Pixel art tutorials on youtube, imo.

[@Talluff]

Wow yeah an extremely well presented and set up video, thanks!

[@merendine1452]

there's something therapeutic about seeing you work!

[@polter5195]

Nice crash course! I always wondered how you managed to switch the brush size so quickly! Really hope that gets added to Aseprite as an official feature. Another option is to just hover the size box and use the scroll wheel on your mouse, but it'd still be nice to hold down a key and move your mouse.

[@UndeadArchitect45]

This is a great resource for new people, thanks!

[@carlosbrito6396]

I hope you know the tremend value this video has!! Thanks for the great information.

[@GrizzliusMaximus]

I'm weird. I read the title as "How to crash Aseprite in 30 minutes". But regardless, this is the tutorial I need! I've been using aseprite for a while but seeing how efficiently you use it blows my mind! Great tutorial!

[@sporent]

Thankyou so much for this tutorial! It helped me a lot with understanding the software :D

[@deathnutz]

Wow man. Thank you so much for making this. I was surprised to see you using the keyboard over the tablet shortcuts. It makes total sense. I was hoping to see you show everything you did, including how you change brush size... I hope it becomes standard as well.

[@benjaminlehmann]

Excellent video. Thanks for your help and insight. Great job.

[@BeingFriends]

Incredibly useful information! Always so excited to watch you work!

[@Nori_Plays]

thank the heavens i watched this, i was about to start exporting each sprite into photoshop and making my own sprite sheet from there. again THANK YOU.

[@joeplain3133]

Thanks for teaching us dude! Great tutorial!

[@slosh5411]

Super useful! Many thanks!

[@kevinyee9550]

Great intro video! Excited to get into pixel art more

[@mefcalols4446]

This is some masterclass level tutorial and its just... Free on KZbin. Cheers mate. My friends and i are doing a game jam and im trying to learn pixel art as we go. This is goong to help a ton.

[@playMOTU]

This is awesome! thank you for this, I always wondered how you worked the app, great learning for sure :)

[@adiwijayakusuma2288]

That's really cool Aseprite introduction video, I can clearly see the potential and going to use it, Thought I'd watch your Pixel Art Class playlist, thanks

[@NoldoWalker]

Very complex and usful guide, thx!

[@amouramarie]

Awesome overview! Thanks. :)

[@MartinPurathur]

Though I don't watch every video day by day, it's super useful when I want to learn a new topic

[@TheCryptoMasters]

You intro animation is epic!!! Hoping to start making indie games here really soon once I get better at the artistic aspect!

[@karthikadvani9730]

this video was VERY HELPFUL THX ADAM

[@AshcanComicsPub]

Way Cool!! I'm new to pixel art. Very glad I found your video. Thank you for posting:)

[@conorgardiner2476]

Been waiting for this for a while soo helpful 💖, don't think you mentioned it but I prefer to use ctrl to switch between layers, it shows a nice box around whatever pixels are in the layer which is

[@AstraAnime]

I'd definately love to see a more indepth tutorial how you created that rotating background. I can't even begin to imagine how'd i'd do it even with your workflow. Supercool!

[@idrawpictures9140]

ASEPRITE IS AMAZING Edit: I saw your video on color palettes and now I'm using your Apollo palette for my game which I plan to release on steam. I'm finally happy with my pixel art now

[@xentox5016]

Hey, can u tell me how u got the palette?

[@jonathancossette6252]

I would really love if you could talk about Isometric pixel art either in relation to Aseprite or just your own opinions and knowledge about it. I find that it is a style/perspective that isn’t often used in games or talked about these days and I’m extremely interested in it, thank you I absolutely love your channel, it’s fantastic!

[@AdamCYounis]

I actually have a video in the works about isometric. It's one of my favourite looks, and there are interesting reasons for using it that I'll be talking about in the video.

[@doctorzoidberg3000]

Great video, as always.^^ Thank you so much.

[@TrevorGomes]

Is that a total banger rendition of "Jolly Old King Wenceslaus" playing in the background? 🤔 Loving your videos, man. Thank you so much!

[@mazthelion]

this is awesome and really helpful! Thank you very much =)

[@LawlFrank]

This has some great tips! Thanks man :)

[@andreaujensen6007]

Such a useful video!

[@overbyte]

Lovely tutorial. Thanks dude

[@DestroyingBombNL]

Great crash course, I've learned a lot. Keep it going ^--^

[@yorkipudd1728]

Legendary video. Many thanks!

[@Its_just_me_again]

awesome vid - thx dude!

[@Feelou]

after two years of aseprite utilisation, i discover just now the outline tool ... i put outline everywhere in my 'art', i'm a outline lover, and i do this manualy everytime, every frrames hahaha this is crazy ... sometimes i wonder why am i so dumb, thanks for your vids, i discovered you few days ago, very great content.

[@TheFRealBoggieMan]

Asesprite crash course: Make canvas way too big Press every button Hopefully asesprite crashes

[@SpringySpring04]

Nice pun XD

[@salvatore2119]

If you need literal crash course then use aseprite while driving in high speed

[@nyzss]

if you want to go deeper, go on aseprite github repository, click on the ‘issue’ tab and see if there is any open issue about a bug that makes aseprite crash, proceed to replicate the bug and done!

[@ganglians]

@@salvatore2119 that's so literal it gave me whiplash

[@heebs]

@@ganglians im mad

[@mehmetihsanacabay1918]

Great work. This helped me a lot thank you.

[@Holdsworthands]

really helpful, ive been using aseprite every day for 2 years now, lots of hours but i still found somethings useful here, i will try to avoid the pixelperfect feature from now on. This is the best program ive ever used and i keep finding new things, for me it is almost perfect, i have just some really minor things but they told me they will improve them in the near future, like exporting animations in some video format, improving the text tool and adding the resize thing like you have (although when they introduced the pen pressure i didnt find myself resizing too much since i have a lot of sizes with just pen pressure but it would be nice to have)

[@MrKingJavo]

Great video! Very helpful stuff here!

[@JasonOakley]

Very useful tutorial! Thanks! :)

[@101touchapps]

i fainted after i saw the background. damn! i even clicked the subscribe button and then realised i was already subscribed lol

[@ozzie7034]

Thanks for captioning for Korean. Its really helpful!

[@pranty2815]

Thanks, lots of tool what help me so much

[@nouvelAbstrait]

I really like what you do. amazing. thanx.

[@pablo17349]

Awesome video!

[@eeliastv]

your videos are great! thanks

[@lpodev]

Hey, thanks for the tutorial, it helped me pretty much !

[@nokillnina]

I keep returning to this video of yours. If I should get into a new project, I will go for Asepirte!

[@AppieBing]

amazing and clear video, didn't even feel like 30 mins. btw which tablet is that you are using in the video?

[@NFT2]

Very instructive Adam, super helpful as an Aseprite noob.

[@kejaris949]

Thanks, I really needed this...

[@StoryTeller796]

I'm watching this because I don't really know 1000% how to move my character's arms. Maybe I should look at something else, like an Idle Animation tutorial or something but meh, I'll watch this first and then get over there if this doesn't help. So, first things first. New Sprite window is basically the setting for how the entire Aseprite model will be set out as. Canvas, Toolbar, two things that I constantly make good use of. I don't really use the context bar that much, maybe it'll help make the Arm editing easier. Oh nvm, it's basically something that works with the Toolbar, yeah, I use it to size up and down my toolbrush. And of course I use my palette a ton, I constantly have to swap between colors, I like to think that everyone who ever took an art class knows how to swap colors and has swapped colors before. Oh, maybe RGB would be much more helpful for my character than the stock option. Then again, yeah, the palette helping to keep a pre-selected color in your toolkit there is honestly pretty nice. Oh, so that's how Layers work. Maybe it'll be helpful if I want to layer over gLiTcH expressions and if I want to create a subtle effect where one emotion is hiding anoother emotion and I want to reference it or something like that. Meh, I think I can scrap shading altogether and do the job myself, but it is an interesting option to keep in the backpocket.

[@Carloskursh]

perrrrrfect tutorial!