Aseprite Animation Tutorial (Pixel Art)

Easy Aseprite tutorial for beginners. Learn aseprite animation tutorial tools, tips, and workflow for making pixel art animation for any project.
In this tutorial, learn how aseprite animation works for pixel art. First, we start with the basic pixel art animation tools that all aseprite pixel art beginners and game dev artists should know, before advancing onto a simple animation process for creating pixel art animation easily. We finish off with a workflow showcase of how to do pixel art animation in aseprite using my daily methods as a professional artist. This aseprite animation tutorial for beginners can also be used by experienced pixel artists to brush up on your skills and attempt any of the challenges I set during the video. Hopefully, in this easy tutorial, you can learn some nice pixel art animation and aseprite tips.
#aseprite #pixelart #tutorial
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PRINTS --- Coming Soon ---
TIMESTAMPS:
00:00 Intro
00:33 Animation Frames
02:47 Simple Animation
05:04 Onion Skinning
06:56 Example Walkthrough
09:46 Exporting Animations
10:59 Super Special Thank You

[@babasheep2828]

Now I can animate my super extremely creative game where you play as this plumber that has to go through tubes and squeeze mushrooms to save the princess! I think it’s ingenious

[@saultoons]

Wow I think this is a genius idea, I think maybe having little turtles as enemies would bring it to the next level!!!!

[@babasheep2828]

@@saultoons oh wow! come to think of it!

[@netherbrine5902]

Supa Mario!

[@TheDarkchum1]

Sounds like a mega man ripoff

[@Josuh]

dude that's just zelda

[@saultoons]

We are Aseprite pro's now 😎 Thanks for watching, friends! I really appreciate all the love and support. Big love to all the Patrons who are supporting the channel too Minipxl (sorry for the typo in the video BIG YIKES!!!) xSigilWizardx KatieRodante RD Gaming Rezrimax Check out the Patreon if you want to help keep the channel alive!!! - patreon.com/saultoons

[@pauladeensbuttbutter]

You’re a really good and entertaining teacher for someone like me with adhd, I feel like you could teach anything if you wanted to

[@saultoons]

Thanks for the kind words :D Im glad that I can help out!

[@saultoons]

@Douglas Wayne MINDREADER

[@johnnylambda6043]

@@saultoons seriously bro, this is one of the best tutorials I've ever seen

[@donotgothroughlittledoor7734]

I feel the same way! I can usually lose focus really easily in these tutorial videos, or if they start to mention too many commands I zone out - I even tend to set the videos to a higher speed so they go by faster -, but this creator is great at keeping people with ADHD engaged by being witty, having an expressive voice and face, speaking with passion and throwing in a couple animations here and there to pull you back into what he's saying. I love it!

[@coprophagichobo2377]

I agree, tutorials are hard to watch with ADHD without some entertainment aspect. This guy does it perfectly.

[@algorithm5570]

The way he teaches does really show how professional he is as a teacher putting challenges in every part he teaches , thanks man , me andy friend are gonna make a game , he do the codes i do the art , this will help infinitly

[@saultoons]

You're very welcome! Thanks for the love

[@WilliamMelton617]

Dude your teaching style is amazing! I seriously look forward to learning more from you. Seriously good work man ☺️

[@saultoons]

Thanks William, glad you like the videos :)

[@abreathingcoffin8089]

So glad I can say I was subscribed before your channel takes off. The amount of effort you put into these and the production value is so nice. Thanks for the awesome vid!

[@saultoons]

I’m glad you like the videos! 😁 thanks for the kind words

[@wigglebot765]

Very nice, I feel like the animation aspect was definitely something I needed help in since there's a lot of little things that make the whole process easier. Great vid!

[@saultoons]

Yeah I know what you mean, it is actually very similar to Adobe Flash which I was used to animating in before I got Aseprite, that's why I like Aseprite animation tools so much I think! :D I'm glad the video could help! :)

[@erinh4823]

Thank you so much for getting me started on my pixel art journey. You’re a great teacher and I look forward to more videos 🙂

[@saultoons]

No problem at all, best of luck with your journey :D

[@TheDarkchum1]

I’m just getting into making pixel art and these videos are extremely helpful. Thank you so much for what you are doing. Please keep it up!

[@saultoons]

No problem at all I'm glad you found them helpful :)

[@nmrzk27]

thankyou so much for explaining this❤❤❤ really helpful and you're teaching way is easy to understand!

[@saftigerkeks5212]

I really like how he explains things. I normally feel the need to click off a Tutorial Video, even if I really want to learn whats in the Video, but I dont have that in his Videos. The Challenges are also a very nice touch, as it keeps you from just sitting back and watching, cause you learn way better when you do stuff yourself. Very good Videos, I wish I could learn programming etc. form this guy as well 💀

[@marctoumicomos4443]

I'm from spain and i'm very happy with this tutorial thanks (sorry for my english)

[@PMantis013]

This video helped immensely! Thanks mate, love your videos, and your beard. Have a great one, can't wait for the next video.

[@saultoons]

Thanks PMantis I appreciate the support! Working on the next one, will get it out when I can :D

[@coprophagichobo2377]

Nice detail to show Lumbah slowly waltzing along with the time thing.

[@saultoons]

Glad you liked it! :D

[@EsEf125]

I love this. Thank you for being clear and helpful!

[@saultoons]

Glad I could help :)

[@Cdied]

TYSM, took me only an hour to make a clean dog breathing + tail wagging animation and im happy about it!! and I used this tutorial to help me

[@saultoons]

Great job! Thanks for watching :D

[@royafarrokhzadeh5242]

Thanks a lot for these videos, great work you are a really good teacher and your videos are awesome.

[@pixspaces4777]

Wow really cool and helpful tutorial! I'll needed some brush up for some concepts as I'm planning to get back to 2D after creating a few 3D projects. It's always great to see such nice and interesting tutorials for help! keep it up :)

[@saultoons]

Awesome, I'm glad the videos can help, feel free to tag me in your works or share them on discord :D

[@inediblemangoes7797]

the animation was so cute!

[@sousa5484]

Thank You for your hard work, this is the greatest YT channel.

[@saultoons]

Glad you enjoy it!

[@Becon032]

I just bought aseprite and im so happy that i found you. Your pixel art videos are awesome. Now i need to create my donut army and try to draw that daily animal month challenge. That would be great after looking at code and simple ascii graphic of my game all day long. Thanks for that ;D

[@saultoons]

Woohoo, thanks for the kind words! Hope your pixel adventure goes well :D

[@marjiqueen8877]

I love the lil guy walking on the bottom of your video! Thank you for the tutorial!

[@saultoons]

Thanks for watching :D

[@federicofries4767]

Wow, this looks Amazing! Especially the shiny effect in the end. I just did a Kyogre on paper and then made it as pixel art. I might do it on the computer and see how it turns out!

[@saultoons]

I'm glad you think so! Good luck with your work :D

[@Victor-lo6dg]

Man , I really think you worth more than just 23k subs. Your vids and tutorials are so good and entertaining

[@saultoons]

Glad you like them Victor :D

[@aplusgamesstudio]

Thank you man really apricating all the effort you are putting to teach people

[@saultoons]

No worries at all, glad I could help!

[@bububu__]

very useful video from a very charismatic fellow, thanks for the help!

[@katarinaclaes3071]

Amazing tutorial. Thank you very much!

[@saultoons]

No problemo!

[@seazonegranec]

This is a really great tutorial!

[@paypercutts]

This is great! I thought I had all the animation tools down pat, after my last bunch of hours I put in animating my characters. So many things I didn't know that'll help me alot in the future! Thanks again maaaaaate! Plus CONGRATS on 15K. I swear the last time I had a look, it was around 8K? Well done! you deserve it!

[@saultoons]

Yeah there's little sneaky things I also forgot to mention too. SO MUCH TO LEARN!!! No worries at all, glad it could help. Woohooooo thanks, yeah it's mental innit! Thanks for always showing love on the videos paypercutts :D

[@paypercutts]

@@saultoons 🥳

[@Aesthetic.__.Senpai]

Thank you for this great and entertaining tutorial

[@unicornwithstripes]

you da best! done and done! onto the next one! thank you again!

[@saultoons]

Glad I could help! Best of luck with your learning journey :)

[@SGBD8933]

This is peak content! 👏

Yeah, i like your teaching style as well as what i learnt from this video. :v Hope you can do more tutorial videos like this. You deserve to have more subs.

[@saultoons]

More tutorials on the way and also some fun videos planned too :)

[@duckyshitatmc7103]

Awesome video. One hundreth and first like :)

[@saultoons]

Thanks Beaver! Appreciate the love 😄 ❤️

[@dexterwong7028]

Thanks for sharing, I learned a lot from your videos. Lots of love for you.🥰🥰🥰

[@saultoons]

Good luck with your learning :D

[@o3ovan]

i've never been able to make a real animation on any other animating software, but today i did, and i love it thx so much!!!

[@saultoons]

You did it!!!!! :D Thanks for watching

[@prizmwizard]

Wow, great tutorial. Thanks!

[@saultoons]

Glad it was helpful, thanks for watching :)

[@kejaris949]

Keep the asprite videos coming!

[@saultoons]

Glad you like them! :D

[@brandonjacksoon]

Thanks for the tutorial! Animation tutorials = cool content!

[@saultoons]

Hey Brandon, no problem at all, thanks for watching :D

[@ReddmarQuevedoCarrasquero]

Great video, i haven't had chance to comment!, It doesn't matter how much you master something, it is really great to keep the basics fresh. Plus, you learn some new stuff when you are looking back. Thanks for the video!

[@saultoons]

Thanks for leaving a comment Reddmar I really appreciate it! Yeah, making these videos helps me strengthen those basics and fundamentals, as well as helping others out who may be new to them, so it's a real win win :D

[@ReddmarQuevedoCarrasquero]

@@saultoons No worries, it is the least i can do to support you, also sharing it. Thanks for your hard work.

[@saultoons]

@@ReddmarQuevedoCarrasquero I appreciate that a lot!!!! :D

[@suokmen3116]

Such an underrated channel. Subscribed!

[@saultoons]

Thhanks so much Elif! Hope it could help!

[@pixel_mochi]

This donut wiggles reminds me of hatching egg in tamagotchi 😂🥰

[@saultoons]

Yeeees! Exactly 😄 I want a virtual pet donut now 🤣

[@ALIWindMaster]

Yay an animation tutorial! :D

[@saultoons]

Yay an ALIWindMaster comment 😄

[@dwolfyj5641]

Thank you so much for this easy to follow and cute animation tutorial!! I'm really enjoying making it! Will post and at you on instagram!! ^^ hopefully can make new animation soon!

[@saultoons]

No problem at all! Best of luck with your animating 😁

[@TacoMan578]

I miss lumba... You should bring him back in a pixel art animation effect tutorial! Great vid!!!!

[@RestorAsik]

this is what im looking for ..thanks brad

[@saultoons]

Np

[@bane5807]

This is really useful! I have subscribed!

[@saultoons]

Glad it could help 😄

[@kiki-ug9qz]

Thank you so much, really. You are a great teacher.

[@saultoons]

No worries at all thanks for the kind words :D

[@hartlessforever]

THANK YOU

[@pureaut1sm]

instructions unclear : my donut got out of the monitor and now it's building a donut army to take over the world

[@mauriciokiyama]

Dude, good job on this... Seriously. May mother earth bless you abundantly...

[@saultoons]

No worries at all Mauricio, thanks for your kind words :)

[@pachozrastafar]

Thank you for good guideline 💚

[@saultoons]

No problem glad it could help!

[@animationsbelike]

Thank you for the great Tutorial

[@saultoons]

No worries hope it can help!

[@lagimsatakipsilim6230]

this is just sooooo amazing and informative 🙂👍 thank you i am a newbie and find your vids very helpful 🙂

[@saultoons]

Glad it was helpful! Thanks for watching :D

[@code9680]

OHHHHH YOU DID IT!!! 😭😭😭😭 Thankssss !!! Can I suggest other content? I asked for this animation content in the last video Thank you again!!!!

[@saultoons]

No problem at all! I always take suggestions and add them to my list. I can't promise it will be the NEXT video but if it's a decent idea I usually get around to doing it :) Thanks for the love, hope it can help!

[@Organico0]

🔥🔥🔥

[@czesionyo]

Hell yeah!!! I am a head donuts maker... Boy, oh boy. Wait till my mum finds out... She will be so happy :D. Awesome videos *thumbs up*. And that little guy on the bottom of the video. Looks very cool :D.

[@saultoons]

Haha yes Lumbah, the little guy at the bottom, is a character from other tutorial videos hehe :D Thanks for watching head donut maker :'D

[@thomasbryans6547]

This is like... after effects or Ableton but for images. Sooo cool!

[@saultoons]

Haha yeah its pretty cool!

[@tomyyoung2624]

YES!

[@user-wl8ke6qd9z]

Благодарю за урок! Всё коротко и по делу.

[@saultoons]

Нет проблем, спасибо за просмотр!

[@mr.maestro3454]

These are fantastic tutorials and I appreciate them very much :) I saved your whole Aseprite Tutorial playlist, because I'm taking the investment pretty seriously. Buying such a professional software comes with millions of possibilities to use it for, and you make beginners open the gates of all those possibilities. Thank you for helping out!

[@saultoons]

Glad you like them! Thanks for watching

[@MKW-cg7xs]

Really helpful

[@saultoons]

Glad it helped thanks for watching :D

[@CharleswoodSpudzyofficial]

Oh this is so fun

[@saultoons]

Thanks Charles :D

[@heraldsda7580]

this channel deserve 10M subcribers

[@saultoons]

haha thanks for the love, maybe one day

[@jarofjuice]

Thank you so much for the tutorial! I did not know about the fact that you can change the timing on each individual frame! I used to just add more frames with no animation to give the feeling of no movement. That said, if you have multiple layers that are animated but you want to hold down the movement of one of the layer, then I guess the frame timer doesn't work, right? Need to add in more frames instead. SO MUCH TO LEARN! And thank you for the tutorial!

[@saultoons]

Yes, I actually prefer your method of adding more frames for timing because of the issue with multiple layers, as you say! :) Best of luck with your learning :D

[@toffeehazel]

it's alive, it's moving, it's aliveeeeeeeeeeeee!

[@saultoons]

MWUH HA HA HAAAA!

[@Cobrass67]

this was great, i made an arm pop out and give a thumbs up

[@saultoons]

ahaha awesome!

[@netspacearts3301]

This looks brilliant! Currenty on sale at Humble so might grab a copy.

[@saultoons]

Yes do it!

[@thenooby7801]

Come on bro you is the one good in youtube pixel art 🔥🔥🔥

[@saultoons]

Appreciate the love Nooby!!! :D Thanks so much :)

[@thenooby7801]

@saultoons Please put 16 x 16 grid animation platform game urgent please😭

[@sudhansubalasahoo]

Very Noice Tutorial

[@saultoons]

Thanks a lot

[@shinewgamedev1525]

thank you ❤️

[@saultoons]

No problem, thanks for watching! :D

[@artnainai]

Hi I love your animations! I would like to know your rates or if you take on aid projects. Thanks!

[@saultoons]

Thanks, any business enquiries to [e-mail] please :)

[@wills10001]

Handy tips in your vids

[@saultoons]

Glad I could help! Thanks for the love

[@LorixDev]

I love your videos

[@saultoons]

Thank you Lorenzo, I love you!!!

[@EinRevolvermann]

Simpel and fun :)

[@saultoons]

Glad you think so!

[@myrriad]

great vido

[@saultoons]

Thanks a lot!

[@mrpzak]

Is there any duration constraint with using asprite? I was wanting to work on a music video for a song I made, and was looking to animate like, 3-4min worth. Would the method be the same, just on a much larger scale? thanks!

[@readypanda5116]

nice video

[@saultoons]

Thanks!

[@Manojpawara]

flying donut lets gooo

[@saultoons]

OH YEH!!!!

[@nyby3842]

Hi. Thank you for your videos. I have a question! What is the outlook for pixel art in the United States or any other europe contries? ? And I wonder if it is a good environment for foreigners to get a job with related skills.

[@saultoons]

Hi Gom, Employment outlook I'm not sure to be honest, but from my experience, the opportunities for specific pixel-art based roles IN studio is very very low, there are large studios which may be open but very few, smaller studios may require pixel specialists but these are more likely through freelance-based roles, which are a lot more common as far as I can see, these are mostly remote and non-office based, so it wouldn't matter where you are from. I personally think it would be wise to build a solid 2D art foundation and/or animation experience, etc, as this would help increase your potential value to any studio based employer. The amount of information out there these days is incredible so there's really no reason not to, perhaps I'll make a video on getting work as an artist in the future.

[@PzForLife]

thanks now i can make a tf2 pixelated animation

[@saultoons]

Awesome, good luck!

[@teunslokker960]

Thank you for this really clear and to the point tutorial!! I only have still 1 question. Is it possible to have multiple animations in one file. For example a animation of idle and walking? And if yes how? I hope anyone can react!

[@saultoons]

Yes of course, use the tags system that Aseprite has as shown in the video, you can tag multiple animations on the same layers

[@HauntedTS13]

why does my previous drawing not disappear when I draw on a new animation layer

[@blackandwhite-is4dq]

i have a problem when i want to make my pixel art move i have like a shadow behind it where it was before please help me

[@hdkingize]

one day i what try Aseprite

[@saultoons]

You got this!

[@Brain_With_Glasses]

How do I see future frames for onion skinning? Whenever I click on frame 1 it doesn't let me see the rest.

[@saultoons]

Sometimes you have to drag the bar on the top of the timeline :D

[@yongzeyao1337]

Which format should I export in if I wanna use it in Unity?

[@saultoons]

Probably a sprite sheet if it’s an animation or an individual png if it’s just an image

[@TotalMaggotz]

Why wont it let me export my animation the only option there is export sprite sheet it skips right over the normal export option

[@djmaayanbergman]

i'm trying to figure out how can i make my character also move from the left screen to the right screen and also move her legs , do i need do to everying frame by frame ? also the legs and also move the charecter ? or there is a simpler way to do that ? in my case its 40 frames from side to side :(

[@saultoons]

You could create a very simple walk cycle (check out my walk cycle video on this) and then just copy paste the frames to move from left to right :)

[@fanyang7744]

Great and fun video. Only I couldn't export the animation as a gif in Aseprite like you (it says only support .ase) and didn't find any solution online. Would you help me get through this? Thank you! Really love your teaching

[@saultoons]

Hm, perhaps try sharing in our community Discord channel, we can walk you through it if you ask for help there :)

[@fanyang7744]

@@saultoons Thanks! Will do!

[@yourheart5770]

thanks, btw where can i see the file exported?

[@saultoons]

there's a little selection thing when you're in the export menu you can click on to see where the files go :D

[@yourheart5770]

@@saultoons ok thanks. I check it out later. 📁

[@tuco2k]

Noob question but can you have different cells within frames have different timings?

[@saultoons]

You can’t change the timing of individual layer just the shared frames, so their timing would be shared among all layers on that frame. Though you can always duplicate and ‘hold’ a frame if you need to elongate an action.

[@tuco2k]

@@saultoons Thank you, I didn't think of that!

[@yopibram]

Is it can be saved as ai or svg (editable vector) ?? Wow

[@saultoons]

Can be saved as svg though not sure if it's actually vector

[@omniclause4986]

Does anybody know what you would call the pixel art style used for the title slides like the one at 0:34 ? The kind of neon looking outlines. I've been seeing it a lot lately on pixel art and find it extremely aesthetically pleasing. Almost gives the illusion of it being rendered on a CRT or something. I'd love to be able to look more into it.

[@saultoons]

It's called Chromatic Aberration :)

[@omniclause4986]

@@saultoons thanks I’m gonna look into out now! Love your content btw!

[@MarcusPlayUwU]

Hi, I have a question. Let's say I have rain painted on the first layer and moths on the second. how to make it so that the rain has a faster speed and the moths are slower. With different speed? so that it rains in the background and moths fly under the lamp, and these objects at different speeds

[@saultoons]

You will have to hold certain frames for longer, for example the slower stuff may animate on ‘twos’ or ‘threes’ which means every main action occurs every two/three frames, and the faster things can occur on ‘ones’ or every frame! That’s typically how they do it on frame based animators like this :)

[@MarcusPlayUwU]

@@saultoons thank you very much, i will try it, good luck to you

[@xtratoothpaste]

If I'm animating a character in Aseprite to use in Unity, do I still save the animation as a gif? So far my Unity animations have all been done using sprite sheets.

[@saultoons]

No you would most likely export as a sprite sheet :) There's an option for this in Aseprite

[@xtratoothpaste]

@@saultoons Thought so, Thanks man just subbed. I suck at art but hopefully through your tutorials I can whip up enough stuff to make my own game with all of my own art!

[@saultoons]

@@xtratoothpaste No worries at all, you got this!!! :D

[@arianpena4012]

How can I export a Gif, it continuously is saving as separate images.

[@saultoons]

You have to select the gif extension on export, and make sure the name of the file is ending with .gif, any further issues or questions please ask in the community discord where people can easily help you out :D

[@TheXxsuperxxchickxx]

PLEASE TEACHER I NEED YOUR HELP, WHAT IF I HAVE MULTIPLE ANIMATIONS THAT NEED TO BE A DIFFERENT SPEED IN THE SAME FRAME?? (ex. star twinkling slower than the smoke coming out in chimney) idk how to fix the issue where every animation has to play at the same speed in a scene :(

[@saultoons]

So for different duration animations usually you can animate everything on 2 frames, then reduce action over frames to 1 frame for one layer or you can hold certain frames if they need to be longer/slower!

[@varol5884]

👋👍

[@saultoons]

Howdy :D

[@SFoX-On-Air]

If I use the 1000ms option for the keyframe and export it later as sequence to use it in a game engine. Will Aseprite litteraly export 1000 PNG files?

[@saultoons]

No as it's still 1 frame, it will only export the number of frames you have.

[@SFoX-On-Air]

@@saultoons thanks for that information!