What Size is Pixel Art? (Intro to Sprite and Canvas Size)

Ok sure, a pixel is one square…but how many of them should you use to make pixel art? In this video, we walk through a few different sizing options based on retro video games to give you an idea of where to start!
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[@gilla2092]

“I make pictures of the tiny squares for fun” say no more, subbed

[@MelanieWebb112]

Ikr? 🥰😂

[@Edengar86]

when he said that i paused because i wanted to quote it, because it's an amazing quote xD thank you for doing it already lol

[@nursegilbey]

"out of tiny squares," but yes :)

[@lusr2923]

Hendecimal Squares 4: Grrrrr 9: Grrrrr 15: Grrrrr 23: Grrrrr 33: Grrrrr 45: Grrrrr 59: Grrrrr 74: Grrrrr 91: Grrrrr 100: Grrrrr 121: Grrrrr

[@richardspillers6282]

Same. Sold on the spot.

[@t3hr00tb33r]

*turns down to 144p to save on data* > genius.

[@Joseph-do9ue]

its mandatory ! i couldn´t even change the px !! lol!

[@thedudethatneveruploads2617]

I’m okay with down to 360p

[@JustJory]

if its 240p im fine its just 144p is to low for me to even see

[@artist_vlogg7163]

great idea, this will definitely help save some hard drive space, I can also fit a lot more in my floppy disks ^^

[@officersoulknight6321]

You genius

[@BJGpixel]

Yup, dropped a couple "merry-o"s in this vid. I thought I hid my Canadian well but it creeps out on occasion 😅

[@VivaMidnight]

It sounded about right, I think people over-do it on the aarr because he has a silly voice :P Great vid!

[@tehshingen]

I thought you were talking about Mary O from Super Mario Maker /s

[@clcsqueejy04]

You're just displaying your Canadian-ness ;)

[@pintaridergaming]

I love that you knew we would comment about this. I was going to say who the hell is Merio lol but I like Merry-o better 😂you got my sub mate 👍🏼

[@clcsqueejy04]

@@tristunalekzander5608 The name changes pronunciation across regions. Italians will pronounce the name Mario differently than those from the USA. Additionally, Canadian raising is a thing that has been discussed a lot in linguistics and could probably account for the raise from /a/ to /Ɛ/. You say it's "literally never pronounced merry-o" but a *lot* of Canadians or others with northern accents pronounce it that way.

[@alex_mula]

I have that exact comic! He even signed it with my name on it. That was probably my most memorable stampede experience.

[@ahmednasser8214]

As someone who's working on their first game ever (pixel are of course) I couldn't thank you enough for all these great videos! Seriously I started off painting literal stick figures and now I can actually put some meat on them lol

[@daelsan1909]

I feel the same. I have been leaning the basics around all the things involve with making a game and this channel got to my life as a gift sent by heaven.

[@theravenmonarch9441]

"it has a mouse with a left and right click on it" Apple: Is it possible to learn this power

[@AtraxaApologist]

Pokemon devs made a 2 click mouse with 5x5 pixels and Apple still can't do it irl Sadge

[@FiveFingerOutfit]

@@AtraxaApologist I'm sure they're not incapable of doing it, apple just gets off on their proprietary differences and closed-source bullshit even if it's stupid as shit.

[@ericpratt984]

Of course you would make this awful joke

[@thekingscrown8931]

@@ericpratt984 Figures, who else would get mad at a joke

[@ericpratt984]

@@thekingscrown8931 Of course you would get mad at my true comment

[@philvan5191]

This is awesome dude! It’s so evident that you live for this kind of stuff and are genuinely passionate about your craft. Thanks a lot for making this channel, it’s awesome to hear you talk about it. I’ve been following some other animation and art channels so it’s great to be able to add this one to the list :)

[@BJGpixel]

Thanks so much, I'm glad that comes across! Thanks for your support and I hope you enjoy! :D

[@Flowtail]

@@BJGpixel these videos have legit inspired me to try and make pixel art on my own! (after school is done, of course) ive already posted this question on some of your other things, but i'd be interested to know if you've heard of an art program that can be controlled using the keyboard? my fine motor skills aren't very good, and i've found that my wrist ends up hurting if i end up sitting down and drawing for extended periods (which, given the minutia of pixel art, tends to happen ^_^;), so a program that lets me make pictures with tiny squares using the arrow keys instead of my crappy trackpad would be a huge help

[@chrism7067]

@@Flowtail Windows already has this feature. If you have a number pad you can go to ease of access and enable it, the arrow keys on the 2,4,6,8 are used for down, left, right and up and can move your curser around for you. it may not snap to the squares on an art program, but it will let you hold the button down and move the cursor along the axis with out having to keep pressing it.

[@rafaelbordoni516]

This thing about size and resolution is also very important on the game design department as well. The small characters usually leave a lot of space on the screen to show more stuff, like enemies and obstacles. These are very good for platformers, where you want to see where you're jumping to, or for exploration games like the 2D Zeldas. The big ones were very good for fighting games, where animation and details are very important, and the only things that matter on the screen are you and your opponent. Artists and game designers have to work together for these details.

[@elizabethgall5327]

This is such a good insight! Thank you for sharing.

[@Lone.Willow]

"Is his name the Pokéman?" Red: "....... ........"

[@tintinaytung]

Well he is kind of right tho

[@GooberThe4th]

Not trying to be rude but he also says “mayrio”

[@trizyurx]

YES. PREACH

[@joaolira3384]

but hes actually green

[@Blaineworld]

Every time I hear Maerio, I want to mama my mia outta the window.

[@nixel1324]

Merio and Looigi

[@SpinkleBope]

Tod

[@tannerq8900]

I saw this comment and was dreading hearing it. Fuuuejdhwbdhsj ahahaa he keeps saying it! Ahhhhh no! It's not! It's Mario! It just doesn't sound right. I feel bad for getting mad about how he says something but he says it wrong!

[@Crustydusty8937]

*meroo*

[@powerofthec5908]

Same

[@Solesteam]

3:40 I prefer 256, it's in the 8x multiplier thingy and so it makes it if you decide to use tiles to make the scenery you won't have to cut any off halfway if you don't want to.

[@CrimOudin]

Very entertaining. Love the bit where you talk about 0 or 1 pixel sprite size. So funny.

[@russeldelgado9550]

This video of yours, is by far the greatest resource, for pixel art I've ever come across, i revisit it regularly, whenever i need to re-familiarize myself, with the fundamentals.

[@dquinnster47]

This was exactly what I need right now in pre-production. I use to push pixels in the 90s, so it's fun to see the craft evolving. Thanks again!

[@paranoidpumpkin98]

The day my saviour was born , your videos have been really helpful for my pixel art journey

[@nathan_sketches6999]

It has been around 3 years since this video came out, and now it stands as one of my most favorite for revision. I have been a pixel artist, ever since early May 2020, and has followed BJG ever since Brandon James Greer knew what he was doing when he started, but all he knew was how to start! Never once did he ever say he wasn't "expertised" enough in one thing to do another, and I know he had done a Graphics class before so he might have atleast done one or two things before. However, to end this comment, I want to thank Brandon, for all the videos, the posts, animation, tutorials, and especially. How to take care and keep it square 🎉🎉🎉

[@riiprafa]

Bro, this were a beutiful study about pixel art. Damn. I don't usually make any comment on tutorial videos but yours really deserves everty gratitude posible.

[@Ashurion-Neonix]

Having worked with sprites ranging from around 16-200 I love how each resolution category comes with it's own things you need to think about and it's own processes. After learning how to work with 60-100 this has now become one of my favourite things about pixel art

[@Ivyplaygamez]

Game art student here, thank you so much the detailed explanation, the module I'm studying now is pixel art and I'm loving it, probably one of the few because everyone is interested on 3D, but I love the classics ^^

[@vjm3]

I want to create a pixel based RPG like early Final Fantasy/Undertale, but I was having a hard time deciding on the size of my character when not in combat (I want to use high quality pixel art for in combat animation, and hand drawn art for dialogue portrayal/combat specials). This actually helped out a lot. Related: One of the things I enjoy the most is hand drawing a character with however much detail I want, then redrawing it to a pixel art equivalent. The results is always a simpler, more effective, and unique looking character. Good for general character designing.

[@LootGoblinPenny]

I love how Concise this is. No waffling, aside from, you know... Pong...

[@IKARIking67]

I've watchedother explainers, but this video was the most helpful for me. Especially the sizing categories to explain the challenges and restrictions with each. THANK you!

[@danieldelewis2448]

I've watched a lot of videos trying to learn how to turn my character design art into pixel art and I have to say none of the videos I have watched has given me close to the understanding of what needs to be done as this video has

[@alan.icg203]

Que grande Brandon, veo tus vídeos con diccionario y traductor en mano, ahora aprendo inglés y pixel art al mismo tiempo jajajaja

[@daelsan1909]

Todos los hacemos bro. Saludos.

[@thatboredinternetwanderer140]

This channel is definitely underrated. More people need to know about this channel than just 8 k

[@nithen8179]

Now it’s 94k

[@batatasa6960]

We really have to make you bigger on youtube... Your work is awesome!

[@negativelevels2459]

Thank you. For several weeks, despite every iteration of google & yt query, THIS is exactly the video I've been looking for.

[@thomaspeisel]

Dude, your videos are so professional and your personality is so accessible. Thanks so much for all this.

[@Lambda_Ovine]

You know, I always wondered what resolution should one go for... never in my life did I ever think about taking the resolution of older consoles... It makes so much sense, why didn't I think about that.

[@rm709]

I don’t even make pixel art, but the way you explain it, I’m fascinated!

[@Psionetics]

Ristar was my jam back in the day! I'd completely forgotten about it until I saw this, thx

[@AG-ur1lj]

This is exactly the video I was searching for-and I greatly appreciated being able to know that just by looking at the thumbnail. Thanks for the upload 🙏🏻 btw, sometimes paying attention to the prime factorizations of your canvas can be a nice convenience. I really like being able to evenly divide by 2, 3, and 5.

[@leonoliveira8652]

The size differences and canvas size thing at the end were REALLY enlightening!

[@tristanwegner]

I just started creating pixelart for the Divoom devices, which is a lot of fun. I only have 16x16 to work with, but at least millions of color to choose from, and each pixel can have different one. Your video is a nice start.

[@albyx]

I just started looking into pixel art for a game project I want to work on; this was super informative and fantastic!

[@tardiscommand1812]

The Star Wars puns that you've snuck in there are awesome. Like the Unlimited Pixels part

[@Azure_Flame]

Thank you! I've been looking for a tutorial/video/reference, anything! referring to character sprite sizes for ages!

[@Solesteam]

7:56 I usually map out chunks of the body with an outline and a random internal colour (any colour that isn't white so I can tell if I put stray lines anywhere against the transparency background), then I shape the body part I'm working on and add simple colour it and move onto the next part, I separate the body parts by Left arm, right arm, head, and torso+legs, if I'm imitating someone elses style I separate each leg and the torso, after each part is made I tweak the colours and add detail and as I go along adjust the sizes and proportions and sometimes reshape the lines and whatnot. and then after all that I do some finishing touches and like that, the base is completed, if the character has a hat or a tail or an extra limb I do that after the last step by repeating the process from step one with the extra pieces I plan to add.

[@dynamicsketch]

That stick figure tricked helped me a lot with constructing my very first character sprite two years ago. I really like your videos. I tried something simple with a four color palette, but I'm not sure if I'm getting it right.

[@fabiolapaonessa1791]

hi! I just started pixel art for work, and oh my GOD THANK YOU!!! I've just been winging it!

[@pollplace1]

this video is extremely important as it shows what you can build with each screen resolution..thank you

[@Solesteam]

When I first got into Pixel art I had no idea what kind of heck I would suffer through until I remembered tutorials of everything exist, and by then It was too late for I already knew how to do things pretty decently, except for shading, a simple tutorial on how to make rock textures actually teaches you how to do everything you can't already do.

[@racheltadeu1692]

Going to show this to my video game design class! Thank you for making this!

[@albertoandresrojas6863]

Best explanation video ever to understand size and resolution in pixel art 👏

[@sarnav94]

omg I am sooo glad that I found your channel. explanation, colours, video editing, contribution to the video with your own works, language and humour... bro I was looking for a channel like that for pixel art apparently! please keep making videos. seems that there are much to learn from you for me :)

[@oneflowman]

It's a me! Mayrio! Amazing video with which to begin my pixel art journey.

[@joseroman120]

really nice video. i feel really impressed knowing that characters as original pokemon guy were only a few pixels detailed

[@meowmeowmeow-7040]

You're so awesome I love how you're so passionate about an amazing form of art that has impacted my childhood in an amazing way, thank you good sir!!!

[@HelloMrPerezTv]

THANK YOU! I've never seen this explained so simply. 🙌🏽

[@rhysmuir]

Quality content! I'm not even trying to learn how to make pixel art, but still watched the whole thing

[@jonahabenhaim1223]

That makes no sense

[@Oxmond]

Wow! Great pixel art tutorial. Love the historic approach. Cool soundtrack too! 👍🤓

[@ghostguppy]

Your videos are incredible. Just discovered pixel art and it’s your style of art/enthusiasm that makes me wanna really go for it 👍

[@ROBINHUOOD]

Man...that class was AMAZING. i'm surelly your brand new pupil. Thanks a lot

[@GameArts1]

This was a cool introduction to pixel art :) I love Seiken densetsu 3, Chrono trigger, Tales and star ocean sprites, especially SD3 is so full of character.

[@highenough18]

Man, your channel looks great. I checked out your video titles, and they look good too. I'm going to watch all your videos, starting with first one

[@Mcguy215]

Thank you so much for commissioning off me for this project, these videos look so great! Great job :D

[@BJGpixel]

Oh hey it's you, thanks again for the awesome music! :D

[@QPRdazza]

Subbed, because you mentioned the Super Mario sprite from Super Mario World. Probably my favourite game ever. SNES games looked great too. So much colour!

[@marcoscruzherran7385]

THIS is the kind of tutorial i was looking for, thank you so much

[@Teabone3]

I used to edit NES (Nintendo) sprites directly into the ROMs. They were 8x8 sprites and the games usually had those 8x8 pixels be a quarter of a whole tile which would be 16x16 (total of 32 pixels). You were very limited with colors per every 8x8 box of pixels. While I like the retro look of some games, there are a few where I have no idea why they are putting their visuals less than what Nintendo was outputting. Its almost like they are trying to replicate Atari graphics or something. I'm not too fond of those types of retro game styles. Shovel Knight did a great job of looking like a NES game. Even with some of the palette restrictions.

[@EliseWongCreations]

really great intro to pixel art sizes. Thank you so much for sharing!

[@cryptosfool]

ok. I have now studied this video 2 times....excellent info for new beginners.

[@tantan7392]

This just saved my whole project, thanks bro

[@proxy90909]

Thanks I have started making Pixel art trying to aproach the style of castlevania games, but I havent found a video about it, they are usually on the "small" scale or art on the bigger scale, when I am trying to nail the medium one

[@ryangmackeen]

Very well done here, a lot of levels of details, and a fun video. Thank you so much, I am getting back into pixel art for the first time in 15 years haha, this is a great re intro for me.

[@andregraca6532]

I just love how many times I just come back to this video :) It really, really is helpful

[@ClemmyGames]

Hey! Really enjoyed this video! Thanks!

[@tiberiusfdaapproved5350]

This is a very helpful video, you just made pixel art really understandable, only in the first 2 minutes. what a genius

[@maynk7096]

I'm glad KZbin Recommended me this channel

[@ehm182_9]

Wow, someone actually mentioned Ristar in 2019!

[@ElPabloHoney]

Wow! I used to do a lot of pixel art a while ago but stopped due to my job and other stuff. I'm a graphic designer and I've been wanting to try new stuff like a bit more realistic approach to character illustration and maybe 3D. But seeing your videos just gave me this big urge to start creating pixel art again, I love your work man, and its really inspiring and helpful. Even if you think it was an information blast it is a gooood information blast.

[@cocodevs]

"Is his name the... Pokeman" Red and Green: (angry silence noises)

[@tintinaytung]

LOL

[@demp11]

Red and blue

[@cocodevs]

You play as red and green in the pokemon games, blue is your rival

[@formerlycringe]

I wasn't interested in pixel art before. You made me interested.

[@andreschamat]

I work making Music and Sound Design, just subbed watching this video, great work!

[@Alvagame]

Your face isn't made up of tiny squares, completely distraught 😭

[@neoncobalt1779]

Look *closer*

[@lav-kitty]

literally my reaction when I started the video + how dare him not be a monkey however, tbf, he kind of IS made of tiny squares in our screens and WAS a monkey at some point ig

[@vegetarobertson]

This Channel is amazing. The Slick Presentation and beautiful art work. Thanks! I've learned alot.

[@jwuluvsyou]

Thanks for this video, it was super informative! I wish I had found this a few months ago when I poured hours into experimenting with pixel art in animal crossing hahaha

[@ruthpol]

Very cool video, and no unnecessary fluff, straight to the point. Perfect :)

[@yokaipinata1416]

And then there's the PC-98 (best known for _Touhou_ 1 through 5) with its 640x400 resolution. Just in case anyone felt the Genesis wasn't big enough, lol. I just discovered this place, and the contents here should be just right for me, being a combination of concise and comprehensive. I'm deciding to turn to pixel art because I don't think I have the patience to develop the fine motor skills demanded by conventional drawing, and while those motor skills would help here too, I'm willing to put in the time to instead compensate by working pixel by pixel when I must. Essentially, I'll take time working and learning over time conditioning before I get to the learning part. In such circumstances, I'm probably best served by a smaller scope like that of the GB. I never took the time before to appreciate how little space you can get away with for a lot of things. ❤ I guess there's also nothing preventing me from making up my own canvas sizes if, for instance, I require more vertical than horizontal space for a given project.

[@Dereliction2]

Absolutely fantastic breakdown.

[@IDEKaaaaaaaagh]

This is amazing, thank you. I could never figure out where and how to start because of canvas and sprite size.

[@ghostlack]

usefullll! I enjoyed your video and jotted down some notes. Thanks.

[@cubalib]

Excellent video as always! They are becoming an inspiration and an important source of information, thank you!

[@BJGpixel]

Glad to hear, thanks for continuing to watch through a lot of them! :D

[@mirza2840]

thanks sir , you make me feel more motivate to make a pixelart

[@Harrison42]

I just stumbled on to your page, because recently I’ve gotten the urge to finally make a game that I’ve wanted to create and I just wanted to say your work is incredible!

[@w-dad4040]

I remember being a kid in the 80s and 90s and being mesmerized by the pixels that made up games. I'd get really close to the screen and stare into the character or object and realize it was just a bunch of dots making a picture. I would back away and the mess of colored dots would become a picture. Monet oil paintings are amazing for this effect. too close and it's a mess of brush strokes and paint. Stand at the right distance and it is an amazingly detailed picture.

[@ragewireloki6213]

Right…Marry-o(mitchels reference,watch that movie by the way its super good). Also thanks for introducing me to pixel art,I struggle alot with pixel art but the result is great if it comes of well.

[@freya-r4904]

This is quite useful info and great reference what detail of pixels I would go for

[@haru-4444]

Might be late in this video but this is exactly what i need rn, thanks so much!!

[@-Blender]

Really useful information. Thank you !!!

[@IONATVS]

Because binary-numbered sizes are so essential to how sprites worked mechanically in older games running on original hardware-like how much of the game’s sprite table needs to be taken up by a single character or whether a single sprite could even be internally treated by the system as a single sprite or had to be frankensteined together from multiple-I would personally put the cuttoffs between small, medium, and large sprites at even binary numbers. While not really a concern unless actually trying to run them as actual sprites on actual legacy hardware, if you stepped over the default sprite size (usually a binary threshold) even a little bit, you frequently had to pay the same price in memory as if you had doubled the size of the sprite’s canvas...so you either worked hard and pulled every trick you could to stay under that limit or you decided you couldn’t and since you now were paying for the bigger sprite anyway, you might as well use it to get a bit more detail out. 32 being set as the max size for “small” sprites and 33-64 as the “medium” range and 65+ for large keeps the same sprites from your “lineup” in the episode in the same categories, while keeping that restriction in mind.

[@pocketrip]

wow, i was just about to search for a video about this topic, and this video was in my recommendation right when youtube opened.

[@puixel]

Amazing video Brandon! thx for sharing the word!

[@yuhikochan1952]

thank you so much Brandon! I love your enthusiasm btw.

[@MattJonesTech]

Just finished my first game jam a few months back and I've been looking for this information. Amazing video, fantastic information, and exactly what I was looking for. Instant sub.

[@melo-7904]

I used to just wing it back when I used ms paint but then my pc broke and I had to learn how to make pixel art on a iPad so now I have a set 128 by 128

[@basteagui]

i love the monkey at the end :3 so cute

[@phen-themoogle7651]

Very very nice reference point for me, thank you so much 😊 loved this video xD

[@spindash64]

Something interesting to note about NES, SNES, and Genesis art is that these systems were designed for CRTs, which would try to "fit" the gamescreen to the full TV view, stretching or squashing as necessary This is most noticeable for NES and SNES, as the mostly square proportions were streched to fill a 4:3 window. Some games were designed with "skinny" art to account for this, others werent The Genesis actually has 2 resolutions: European systems (PAL) ran exactly 4:3 with 320x240p, but at a lower refresh rate of 50Hz. US and Japanese systems (NTSC) ran the 224 height shown in the video, at 60Hz. This puts the NTSC Aspect Ratio at around 16:11, slightly wider than 4:3 (16:12), but not quite widescreen (16:9) used on modern systems If you want to adjust your canvas size to modern widescreen while still keeping the same "scale" as old console arr, 400x225 is a great balance

[@VoiceHole]

Oh man i forgot I have that Calgary Stampede Comic too in your back ground. When they gave them out that year here when I was a kid.

[@Luminousplayer]

this is one of the best videos youtube randomly suggested me, excellent editing man!