Pixel Art Class - The Importance of Character Scale

[@BUBBLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE]

What the heck I was literally struggling with character sizes and this video comes out best timing

[@PixlMoon]

I love that when he talked about his game you could see him smiling like he was either proud or embarrassed to show his game in progress 🤣

[@retrocademedia-announcements]

YEAAAAA PIXEL ART CLASS IS BACK!!! Genuinely, there's no series I've watched that has helped me improve my pixel art ability nearly as quickly as this. Adopting the more painterly style (throwing down big blobs and refining them later) and beginning to create my own palettes almost immediately improved my pixel art, and for that I am immensely grateful.

[@pixeldesireblnr]

can anyone tell me what are the scale for character and map for Blasphemous II? i want to create the detailed character look that fit perfectly in canvas. is the character 128x128 and the map is more than 154px ?

[@CockumBubi]

Hey, I'm also an Indie Dev (just a small own-funded studio with 5 other folks) and while our first game is actually a puzzle mobile game with a different art style, your videos help me a lot to learn more about pixel art for our next project. Just wanted to say thanks for that! Keep it going!

[@VectoRaith]

Thank you sir, this tutorial is very important. For a game dev artist, this is probably the MOST important of tutorials. Failure in art scaling will affect gameplay, and in extreme cases, it will end your project straight away. I learned this in a hard way back then when I must redraw about 120 different character sprites - all animated.

[@KreeTerry]

Adam I can’t think you enough for the all learning and knowledge you have shared. I have learned so much from all your videos, seriously thanks so much 🙏

[@Voidsworn]

I was just thinking about this the other day, relating to games like Metroid II for the Game Boy and an early demake of Castlevania:SotN. Given the resolution on the GB/GBC is only 160x144, as much as the large sprites looks nice, it makes it feel cramped on both exploration games.

[@crazyallstars]

Stardew Valley - Concerned Ape. What.

[@Voidsworn]

@@crazyallstars ??

[@pureatheistic]

You're BY FAR the best pixel art education youtuber. Your explanations are perfect for someone with and without an artistic background really well. And you cover soooo many topics most others take for granted the viewers already know.

[@SgtBrutalisk]

Your tutorials changed my life for the better. I was mortified of drawing but Aseprite helped me overcome the analysis paralysis.

[@jademonass2954]

that point you made about sonics size, YES!! it makes so much sense why i always thought sonic was a bit too fast at times it should have been more zoomed out, honestly

[@Ravisherrr]

You always come around and teach me something. I respect how humble you are considering your skill as a dev. That seems hard to come by. 👍

[@RealRelaxHappyMind]

i will draw pixel any pixel art do you want my service

[@RealRelaxHappyMind]

i will draw pixel any pixel art do you want my service

[@psyboyo]

What a wonderful channel! You take time, explaining and sketching, dedicating your time to the viewer and not youtube metrics. Well done, instant sub, thank you.

[@apoxfox]

This is perfect timing because I have been workshopping my characters over the last month, love your vids pal!

[@RealRelaxHappyMind]

i will draw pixel any pixel art do you want my service

[@spindash64]

To be fair to Sonic's "zoomed in" style, the game is designed to be FAR more forgiving regarding oncoming enemies and hazards than in other core platformers: -his Jump attack is omnidirectional, so it will still hit enemies whether he's below or above or to the side -his roll and spindash allow both very high speed and to be in a damage dealing state. These are ALSO the states with the highest speed caps -the Ring based life system mean that sonic can theoretically survive an _infinite_ number of attacks with a finite amount of resources, making enemy attacks more of an embarrassment than a run ender. Contrast this with Mario, where Mushrooms are hidden in certain blocks rather than there being at least one onscreen at all times Long Story Short, "Blinding Speed" is less of a problem when your character is able to bump into things without quickly dying

[@AdamCYounis]

I still think sonic games suffer immensely whenever the player's velocity goes from 100 to 0 in an instant due to a wall or spikes, which is super frequently in the original 2d games during a first playthrough. You either have to practice levels or go slowly, which is the opposite of what sonic is about.

[@spindash64]

@@AdamCYounis Practicing levels is actually pretty on par with what people were expected to do for games prior to save files being a default for every genre You're not wrong that it's a weakness Sonic Games have to deal with, and in the FIRST game specifically, I agree with your assessment. I just argue that with Sonic 2 onwards, there's enough forgiveness for being caught off guard to _mostly_ offset this. They also make very good use of that canvas space for animation, so it's not all for nothing

[@amrlynch]

Man you are such a great teacher. Tons of design wisdom in this video. Watching your design process makes me realize how much I'm getting lost in the pixels, rather than giving real thought to the character, their motivations, and the actual physics of motion

[@hiiambarney4489]

Thinking about character size compared to screen based on which genre of game we are talking about is simply a stroke of genius. This is why you are my (sort of) Mentor.

[@Daco812]

Loving the sketch-work for Quick Knight - also, the revamped sprite design looked awesome. Great content as always - cheers, fam.

[@brendanhannum5904]

Been watching your videos for years. Excellent content!!

[@piekz96]

Awesome, questions about best practices, conceptual guiding and covering do's and dont's well reasoned are so worth gold to a beginner. Thanks for the video, Adam!

[@forestsavior]

I really liked that you talked about fighting games (my favorite genre). Whether we're talking Smash-style fighters or "traditional" fighters, they definitely seem like some of the hardest games to ANIMATE for, especially in 2D. For big-sprite fighters (SF3:3S, Darkstalkers), that means a LOT of relatively high-res character sprites -- lots of iteration, lots of visible detail, construction is absolutely critical cause flaws will show very quickly over longer animations. (I learned that lesson face-first when I drew my own MUGEN character years ago. I copied Iori's dropkick from KOF and my character had almost doubled in size by the recovery frames. This took me weeks to draw...and redraw.) The prevalence of 16:9 in modern displays is also very awkward for "traditional" fighters because if you use the whole width of the display as play area, characters can get MUCH farther apart and appear much smaller than in the 4:3 days. For Smash-style games with smaller characters fighting farther apart (Rivals of Aether), they're slightly easier to draw simply because of the smaller pixel space, but you still have the challenge of reconciling their size with the vast horizontal space of 16:9 res. The 3D Smash games solve this problem simply by zooming in when the characters are close together, but obviously in pure 2D that could get extremely ugly unless you design your assets to be zoom-friendly -- which means drawing them in a higher native resolution, which obviously means more work. In Rivals' case, I think the lack of zoom is the big thing that makes it a bit less visually impactful than Smash -- the fight always seems kinda "abstracted away" even when a character lands a very big hit or is up close doing a cool combo.

[@PchipsPresents]

Greetings Adam! I have watched nearly all your pixel art class videos now, just a few left. Super inspiring and helpful, I feel like I'm ready to put thousands of hours into pixel art now for my games. Anyhow, I wanted to suggest a video class you might be able to have a crack at: CUTSCENES. The way you approach topics is great, focusing on the history, mechanics, practical use, and overall level of involvement to make a game-opening or game-ending extended cutscene would be a really exciting topic to watch you dissect. Cheers and much love from Colorado!

[@AdamCYounis]

Cut-scenes are really tough, even for me. There's a lot of variety in the definition of what constitutes a cutscene, from in-game characters walking around between dialogue boxes, to full AMV's being played with an in-game video player. It's something I spend a lot of time figuring out what fits best for my game, and I've got a lot of thoughts on it (even today, considering breaking up a lot of Insignia's cutscenes to provide more interactivity). I'd love to make a video discussing what I've learned when I feel confident enough with my understanding of how they're best used and constructed, but I don't know if I'm there yet.

[@PchipsPresents]

@@AdamCYounis Thank you so much for your response, it's an honor to share a conversation with you. I completely understand your choice to solidify your understanding of the topic that is cutscenes before engaging in your dissertation-like tutorial approach that is always so enlightening. I will be super stoked if you do one. Cheers!

[@ZebulonsPi]

Doh! I was hoping for a top-down ratio as well! :D Great work, love your stuff!

[@BangingThings]

Every video you release is just such high quality content, especially for a click-bait filled platform like youtube. Can't thank you enough for the hours of enjoyment and interesting ideas and lessons.

[@abhijeets]

Was waiting for this kind of video

[@Yipper64]

33:28 she had a strong barbarian warrior feel before, but to emphasize the way that she's light and can fly you made her have more of an elven foresty look.

[@LongestYardstick]

if it weren't for your youtube commentaries i don't know what I would do -- this makes SO MUCH SENSE -- thank you, sincerely

[@alejmc]

This video is a game design, art design, art executing and a bunch of other useful things all in one. The outcome feels nothing short of magic to me man, especially when the older design makes a comeback to compare sizes, character and efficient space usage.

[@MarkKaterberg]

This was amazing. Wanted to let you know someone found it helpful a year later :)

[@AmarisSkye]

I know this is a year old & while I have no intention of doing game design (at this time) this was invaluable as far as understanding creating readable characters in pixel art & characters that fit the scale. Thanks!

[@dustybloo3019]

This is exactly what I was looking for. I think something worth mentioning would be the aspect ratio of the project when you begin. I found the most challenging learning curve for me is when drawing tiles/backgrounds you need to determine what can be a tile, and what's a painted background due to the restraints of pixel art.

[@bilalinci4981]

I missed your videos so much. POG

[@DcTurner]

Really nice + thorough. 👏 It's such an important lesson to learn that a more naive silhouette is better. It's always tempting to show off your illustration chops instead of fulfilling the design brief.

[@jamesdaus]

Thanks for another great video! Helped me in choosing my character size for a game I'm starting work on

[@ThreeSixNine_exe]

Excellent video, thank you for sharing your knowledge!

[@DaShikuXI]

I think it would be interesting to see how you would reshade/recolor the taller lanky knight. Getting rid of the bandings and outlines, and trying to create a much more readable look with that same model.

[@RealRelaxHappyMind]

i will draw pixel any pixel art do you want my service

[@dr.pepito1183]

Love your work fr fr

[@torrated]

you are the Bob Ross of Pixel Art. It is mesmerizing seeing you work.

[@rotraven]

thank you for breaking down scaling, I took gesture drawing classes but I had trouble drawing pixel characters , legs are very tricky

[@actuallyAdonis]

perfect timing with this video adam i was just struggling on how large to make my player and tiles, thanks a lot

[@RealRelaxHappyMind]

i will draw pixel any pixel art do you want my service

[@actuallyAdonis]

@@RealRelaxHappyMind you saying you wanna help me with my game??

[@RealRelaxHappyMind]

@@actuallyAdonis i can help you give me a any social media link

[@RealRelaxHappyMind]

@@actuallyAdonis give me your email

[@CanalDojogames]

One of my most challenges was, draw same pixel art model sheet character from 16x16 to 8x8 and 48x64 of same 6 characters with same amount of 4 cloths, that was very very hard because the tiny it is the little you can detail so you need to be very precise to build character rich and beautiful to watch. To be honest i did it because i was unsure of what i wanted to build so i choose about 3 sizes. i share this beause it can be an great exercise to those who want to build characters in pixel art but it also means you can build tiny 8x8 or 16x16 to focus more on design,the richer the desing the more aceitable it can be and later scale up

[@stevehowson599]

Thanks man, this is one of the most useful videos I've seen on sizing for games!

[@lionart5230]

Hey Adam, always glad to see more of your videos to increase my knowledge about gamedev/design. Thank you for your contribution, I am happy that you got over 100k subscribers, you definitely deserve it. I appreciate every single video you published as this is really great, high quality, well put and thought learning material. Great job and once again, thank you :)

[@matthiasklostermeier6799]

Nice to see you again! Always love the parts when you analyse things and talk more about concepts, ideas, decisions...

[@jamescomer8701]

This is really really good info that I havent seen anywhere else. Thanks!

[@jonteguy]

As usual you provide the most insanely helpful stuff I can find regarding this stuff, thank you again!

[@toowiggly]

I wish this video discussed top down games more. I feel like it's a common perspective that was largely glossed over. Some more isometric examples would have also been nice.

[@AdamCYounis]

I think overall I was able to express the point with the examples used, which will apply to any perspective. That said, I agree that it would have been useful to discuss top-down, for any unique characteristics relating to the subject. My bias toward side-scrolling and isometric perspectives is showing a little bit here.

[@pixeldesireblnr]

can anyone tell me what are the scale for character and map for Blasphemous II? i want to create the detailed character look that fit perfectly in canvas. is the character 128x128 and the map is more than 154px ?@@AdamCYounis

[@marianocaudevila]

just the video i needed! thank you very much bro

[@goldenpotato392]

Dude I love your content! It's so helpful! By far the best tutorials I've seen for this stuff, thanks!

[@drewg3765]

Love the videos man wish you uploaded more often thanks for the content!

[@DaElfer]

kinda feel dumb when i asked what whiteboard software you use when in all of your videos its clearly written on the screen hehehe. Love this video. I always preach to my students about character size on the screen

[@ogarga666]

your content is gold. Thanks Adam!

[@dirkpuhlmann7321]

Its like magic! So cool, thanks for those insights.

[@whatwhat2573]

Adam you the best. Your videos are always so intriguing to watch!

[@someonegames6311]

Thank you Adam! You videos are always helpful. Really nice content =)

[@gidrar5372]

I waited so long and finally waited.

[@lordfondragon]

Ahah, I'm working on a small vania game, and I just realized, that my screen and character height is exactly like in your art class!!!

[@mrCetus]

I think this character needs to make a cameo in Insignia. Build that lore bro!

[@BrainSlugs83]

Regarding going fast and the screen size / scale -- I really liked what they did in GTA 1 and 2 -- where they had the overhead camera view -- it was usually pretty zoomed in -- but then as your velocity increases, the camera slowly zooms out -- most players probably didn't even notice because it was so subtle -- but it gave you so much more "look ahead", and it's what made "going fast" doable in those games. -- I think this model works well in a 2D genre, and your test for if you're doing it right or not should be: Do players notice it? -- I think that if the causal player notices the camera movement/zoom effect, then you're doing it wrong. -- If you're doing it right, it will enable the gameplay, but be so subtle that it's not distracting or noticable. -- And I think GTA 1/2 nailed it in this regard.

[@swar666]

Awesome as always!

[@5minutemovies977]

What ? This video was literally put online today ?! Funny thing that I was looking for that kind of stuff then :D My 32x32 characters always seem to not have enough details, or not in the right place.

[@chekote]

More amazing content. You’re killing it 👏🏻

[@rafaelalmeidasantos3419]

You make pixel art look so easy

[@Yazelyy]

Really intersting, thanks.

[@astridpinel2789]

fantastic tutorial this was so insightful!!!

[@HolyKaeros]

That's not Momodora 3 at 5:50 btw, it's Momodora: Reverie under the moonlight, amazing game.

[@Shadowthevampire]

I want a guide for sprite scales just like this one but about RPG/topdown/farming sims instead. You should make one. I have such a trouble deciding what angle to use and how many pixel my player should be I'm new to this.

[@YamotoGaming9]

Dude, you're a god.

[@bjmgraphics617]

I am amazed that today's game designers are still using low resolution screens to make their 2D platform games. I thought 1080P would be used. I guess the reason comes in real estate is the same as in back then even though the resolutions are hundreds of times greater. So, where or when in the game does high res graphics comes into the scene? I think background and graphic elements can be gorgeous and the character, npc, and villains can be just big enough to convey their purpose and the rest of the details are infers into the player's mind. The gist of it so to speak for the characters and China Town and crazy cursed dungeons can be super gorgeous. I like Solid Snake in NES Metal Gear that you can tell he's special ops and the enemy's base is highly detailed. I also like Mr Smith of Code Name Viper where the character is tall and shoots and jumps realistically but the screen elements are all narrowly centered like the TMNT game. thanks. Your video makes sense and it helps me to refocus design and not afraid to go small. Less is more.

[@michaelsimon9550]

Again, a very cool video! Thank you so much! I would have loved if you'd reviewed something more in regards of perspective. Something like Children of Morta or Hyperlight Drifter

[@LongestYardstick]

Thanks!

[@lbp_chessguy5640]

The thumbnail made me think it was Jak and Daxter for some reason 😂 great video

[@ilianrabhi6762]

awesome stardew backround!!

[@cdel1270]

awesome tutorial

[@Gleamiarts]

Two games that i can think of where the characters are quite big are sims urbz (handheld) and sims busting out (handheld) and i'd say that they are roughly about 70-80

[@ScilexGuitar]

seeing your first character looking like that inspires us all

[@EnchoMoskov]

Fantastic! Man, thank you!

[@synchaoz]

Love your videos and your chill style. I'm tempted to show you some footage from my 2D pixel art combat platformer... with high framerate character sizes up to 128x96 pixels in a 32x32 pixel tileset. Errr, yeah, I might have rethought that had I seen your video sooner. Every frame takes days to animate, fml.

[@frankiecastelo9257]

this is good for comic book design too

[@Marcos-cp4ry]

Hey I loved your two characters, the one with red hair and the one with green hair. Both sizes are great as well, I would say they are partners. Grafically, both have the same head size, so my impression is that of the first being older than the later. You should not bother with the proportion to the screen size here. As you have show, the bigger the character is, more inclined the game is toward fights, and more dramatic are these fights, right? For the number of adversaries in screen, not every one need to be very clear in their posicioning, I refer to some Megaman games where enemies, like flying ones, as you have show, their are either smaller and predictable, thus worthing more the experience of defeating them in time. I liked very much your sense design !!

[@RaendyLeBeau]

great !!!!!! thank you ! 😊

[@jonotico]

Hey, great channel! Thanks for sharing so much knowledge. I have a quick question, what software you use to capture the screen recordings and display yourself in the corner? Thanks for the help

[@AdamCYounis]

OBS is free, open source, and very powerful for streaming and recording. I've been using it for my channel since the beginning.

[@jonotico]

@@AdamCYounis Awesome, thanks!

[@madmaster3d]

i rememeber ur video or anotherone told us ur canavas size is important cuz when u set higher resolution . screen dont gget strech so 270 or 180 &... is ok cuz 270 x 4 = 1080 ( 1920x1080) but 240 for sonic mania? 1080 / 240 = 4.5 guess screen will be have problem now?

[@chikupachi]

Thank you. I learned a lot

[@gidrar5372]

I really like your videos, keep up the good work.

[@RealRelaxHappyMind]

i will draw pixel any pixel art do you want my service

[@marciwyrd8905]

Comparing the original design to the new design the original knight character definitely looks like something that would be used in a Tim Burton-esque game. To me it looks almost to much like a corpse bride character. Could be really cool in a creepy-cute style metroidvania game. The remade character looks really good but i cant picture a background or game style in my head. Maybe a darker nature setting, like an original Grimm fairy tale where the fairies want to kill you and leprechauns eat people. Maybe my imagination is just morbid.

[@Kyle-qn9ci]

I really love your videos -- could you consider showing on screen the keystrokes you make so it's easier to follow along? I get lost pretty easily when you do something I don't know how to do

[@AdamCYounis]

I can look into it, for sure. Especially when I'm working in Aseprite, I can see that being really handy.

[@phorchybug3286]

I try to scale my art by a certain thing of tiles or sprites kinda like NES limitations.

[@psyche349]

Maaan what an awesome character i went to bathroom and when i came back i have just loose so much ahhaha

[@saqvobase4301]

How would you scale and silhouette for top-down games?

[@SmashAdams]

great stuff

[@JonToons0208]

Cool pixel game

[@NicholasLashway]

The character would look really good in a fighting game. Maybe like smash bros

[@uchihasasuk3]

Mother of God! You are a genie! I'm spanish but whit your correct diction and youtube translate I can understand more of the 75% of words, and it´s a great tutorial, that one what I search for to understand the scales... just a question, can you say me, for example, the proportions of the game blasphemous? I can't understand how many details can be introduced in a... 640 screen? thanks, thanks a lot for your time, effort and dedication. Regards! 🙏🏻🙏🏻

[@AdamCYounis]

My recommendation is always look at references to games you like that have the same art style and compare them. Don't forget to consider how the sprite size affects the gameplay. It's not just about fitting the character on the screen, it's about giving them enough space for the design to feel good.

[@uchihasasuk3]

My dream is create a metroidvania, so... wish me luck 😂

[@nonstandard5492]

I think sonic being big compared to the screen is intentional? like, it's hard to avoid stuff when you're going really fast ya know?

[@smellslikemeltingplastic]

Hey! Love the videos. I'm new to all this and have been drawing with a mouse. What type of tablet do you use?

[@nold4912]

👍

[@triumphoverdeath]

ty

[@Mangeurdemouton]

At 22:15 you could scale down your character instead of scrapping it?

[@victormendes956]

Hello! Thank you for your video. Which tool are you using for the sprites? It looks cool. Is there an android version?

[@KANJICODER]

@4:00 , this is why I say all mega man x games after x1,x2,x3 SUUUUUUCK . If you've ever wondered why x4,x5,x6,x7,x8 all feel clunky , this is why . They also take away "gameplay space" by trying to make all the platforms look 3d .