Same Sprite Remade Every Year | 2021 Edition!

[@KyleSzklenski]

I love the little shimmering effect on the lightsaber - such a tiny detail, and so awesome.

[@BJGpixel]

Thanks, that actually had to be placed pretty carefully so it didn't look too jagged! :D Thought about flickering the opacity also, though that may have only worked best when standing still

[@RegalPixelKing]

I didn't even notice that until you pointed it out, but yeah after I noticed it it was a really cool touch to see.

[@CKTDanny]

That animation timeline visualization at 6:10 was such a good way to show where you saw yourself in the progression of this animation! The initial choppier animation there totally seemed like something I would expect from something along the lines of an old Star Wars game on the Gameboy 👾 Very cool result this year! It's neat seeing yet another style here - animated too! Looks like we're starting to see another progression timeline here; one that follows your animation & style 😎 I feel like I must've said this last time as well but it really feels like it wasn't long ago when I was watching the 2020 version, haha! I often have to remind myself of all the events (however small they may be) that happened throughout the year. Then, I feel better about the time after that! 😁

[@BJGpixel]

Thanks! That's a great way to think about it; we're entering into the animation evolution as well - it brings a lot more to the exercise itself :D And yeah it does seem to fly by pretty fast; in fact even last year I got the sprite in under the wire to qualify for 2020 lol, so this year I made sure to have ample time before the year's end 😅

[@toochmcgooch4678]

Chopping off the legs and force pushing the torso away before it can hit the ground! Brutal!

[@angrypotato_fz]

Whoa, great! I really like this dark/realistic approach - and with the outline it looks quite stylish (epic action comic). The final animated result is amazing - it was very smart to add these cape-bounce frames! It's a good idea to color code and animate the "skeleton" first (and rendering one part at a time). At this point I always hesitate about losing the already rendered and shaded parts ("I already shaded this arm, all these cloth folds... maybe I can just nudge it here and there...") - and I usually regret that I didn't redo every part :D

[@BJGpixel]

Thanks! Yeah I totally get what you mean; it feels like working backwards to regress the rendering, but trying to keep it in the fully rendered state can sometimes lead to a mess (for me anyway) - so it takes a bit of pressure off to simplify things. Gonna have to keep exploring an animation workflow like this and see where it goes! :D

[@fryingpanda9103]

Damn until I started animation, I never realized how massive of a project something like this is. Even just a single animation requires a lot of patience, planning, and time. Good work!

[@Taku.l]

I love how it startes from basic and went to really detailed to go back to simpler but still detailed, really like the 2021 version

[@ryanlockhart5328]

the outline looked like vader until you carved out the face

[@miprichan]

This is amazing Luke looks real moddy. The smear frames of the animation are so cool and elevate it to a much higher level The cloak fluttering also is real nice touch

[@Mad3011]

You've become so good at pixel art that I'd love to see a complete game made with your sprites!

[@ImusNoxa]

Man, this is "oops, my hand slipped" levels of fast. And it looks so good, too! It's really impressive just seeing how much confidence you have in knowing where you want everything to go

[@HemlockHedge]

Wonderful, I have to say the "swooshing" effect that you gave the saber in order to convey motion really nails this down, keep up the good work.

[@AlexisRoyce]

Absolutely beautiful quality of movement in the animation this year. Reminds me of Cabanela's fluid steps in Ghost Trick.

[@Blorfus4394]

next year's is going to go crazy

[@roastingnerd8545]

I just recently played SMT: devil survivor and SMT: Strange journey in my ds. And oh boy is the pixel art there outstanding, the monter designs in all of SMT (Shin Megami Tensei) are very detailed (just look at the Persona 2 duology monsters), and they delivered it, somehow. Idk, it shakes my head how they even Pixelate it but still makes it recognizable, it might be a really cool topic to discuss, it's like a sequel to one of your videos tackling recognizability of sprites.

[@helloblocks.4310]

I was Just recently playing SMT 1 and 2 and the post apocalyptic theme and some designs made me think it Might be something Brandon Would enjoy. I also agree and wish they would do another SMT/Persona in Pixel Art style like those

[@DrCrazyEvil]

Its a great game I recommend the ps2 version of devil summoner the shin megami tensei series gets overshadowed by persona sadly even though they're great as well, but set always have a place in my heart.

[@DrCrazyEvil]

Need to get some Nocturne in never played it before so its gonna be a fun ride!

[@49yoppy]

I love Devil Survivor!

[@catboywizard]

This one is awesome, nice work! Also as an artist I can definitely relate to doing poses and movements myself to gain a better understanding of them, often I'll make really weird facial expressions without even noticing while I'm drawing them and it helps a lot even if bystanders think I'm having a stroke or something lol

[@paperboy1790]

Just a little constructive criticism: In the swing, the lightsaber is tilted a little more down than it should be, this gives the appearance of Luke swiping at something on the floor rather than deflecting a blaster beam, though this a simple mistake that happens often, so it isnt a big deal. The beginning of the animation, when Luke readies the swing, it feels a little choppy, and i feel this fails to convey the speed of the swing (readying a swing should have more frames than the swing itself), adding one or two frames in there would help the animation as a whole flow a lot better. Overall this is nothing to be disappointed in, it is very well done and its great to see your progression over the years.

[@BlackIce0]

We should all make luke a tradition

[@fenvinetwist]

the way that the little detail of the hood moving and the light saber shining is absolutely amazing. it must take ages to figure out where every single pixel has to be placed so that it looks good. i've been doing pixel art for a few months now, and im slowly starting to learn all of these techniques from watching your videos. i'm trying to establish more of a cartoon-ish style, but the tips that you share help with other art styles, and that is so kind. :D

[@AdfasSSBM]

well im happy to have stumbled upon this series once again after seeing it last year, hope to do the same next time!

[@hidden_characters]

I really can't believe it's been a year already. Love the addition of the hood. This is really a great exercise and tradition and I'm sure you've seen areas of improvement year in and out.

[@robertpenway]

I could never do what you can do but it's always quite interesting to watch your videos.

[@saultoons]

Amazing man, love the design this year, especially how you did the lightsaber, the AA and sub pixel animation (?) makes the glow look awesome... Also, no need to hide it, we all know you were spinning around in the coffee shop :'D

[@SuperJxl]

with the different steps of drawing the sprite it really looks like its coming to life when it starts to move

[@kinoko6096]

Dang I can’t believe I’ve been watching you for over a year! It feels like your 2020 sprite was released just a few months ago. This year has gone by so fast!

[@Arachnid-Man]

1 year has already passed!! Time flies.

[@WillieArenasRojas]

Amazing, as usual! I love how the lightsabre smear really adds to the flow, and how that little bit of noise on the blade in the final pose makes it feel like a stream instead of a stick. It would have been really cool to see something being actually being pushed by the force-push action, some bit of debree on the floor or so, but I guess it can wait till 2022. :)

[@mauvepicard9979]

Amazing video as always! I love your work, and you inspire me to continue working on my pixelart by showing me an end goal to strive towards. I just have a few comments regarding the animation for this year, that i hope you don't take badly (since literally everything else that i don't mention is perfect). One of the 12 great principles of animation is anticipation, a moment of emphasis to show that an action has power built into it. The problem is that there isn't anticipation before the main slash of the lightsaber, just 1 or 2 in between frames, so the actual swoosh doesn't look like it has that much power. The last thing is the way the cloak falls at the end of the animation. It looks like it's made of a very very heavy fabric, considering the speed at which it falls back into place. Please keep it up! I've been following your channel from pretty much the start, and i absolutely love the vibe!

[@woahcool7030]

Man couldnt wait for 2022?

[@LukePlaysGames]

The way that I nicely finished my Mac & Cheese and my Tea just as CRT Time was ending made for one of the most soothing moments of my life

[@midshipman8654]

Ive always been a fan of relitively low pixel count, but still mostly proportional designs. its that nice balance between the implied abstractions of more exaggerated designs, while still alluding to some kind of realism.

[@pasqdll]

Oh my god, Brandon you grow so fast! I'm really enjoying witnessing your artistic journey, it makes me feel like I'm a part of this, and fills me with determination.

[@bigjulian9006]

You've improved so much over the years, looking forward to see where you go next!

[@TonyTylerDraws]

I always enjoyed the lightsaber smears from Super Star Wars and I feel you nailed it here.

[@billraab9086]

Amazing as always!

[@Stolkmen]

You are an inspiration to a beginner like me. I love your style and your work. I watch all your videos to learn as much as I can. Pixel Art is so much fun :D

[@Substitute_Zero]

man, so sweet the only thing I could think to change is cant help but feeling like there was a missed opportunity having the lightsaber light creating some sort of awesome hard rimlight- especially in that final force-push pose!

[@angelmunoz2365]

Dude, i have to say... your channel is pure gold.

[@phrogggo]

7:10 ngl this looks exactly like a green blaze rod xD

[@NSeaBear]

I'd love to have you dive into more on how you use tools like layers when doing things. I was animating and the arms and legs were getting complicated because they were on the same layer. other tools/shortcuts like increase "brush" size and animating tips

[@brendenchee16]

Love the detail of his metal hand

[@270jonp]

Fantastic as ever. The stomp on the animation I think definitely deserves a shoutout for coming together so well.

[@h-man1371]

I've always struggled with drawing and animating large sprites, but the techniques you used in this video look like they would help me a lot.

[@rebelmachine88]

Wow, this was dope. I liked your explanation about where to add the in between frames, it made a lot of sense to me!

[@bee8193]

I think this is one of my favourite videos of yours to date; this piece is gorgeous and seeing your approach to animating this (with the colour-coding! genius!) was really helpful :)

[@lastgunsl1nger102]

God, it feels like yesterday you made the 2020 sprite... How time flies.

[@Cryptozoology]

Probably my favorite animation of yours so far! Looks so smooth! Incredible work

[@josh__jimison]

Dang, I can't believe it has been two years since you stared making videos. I remember back when you only had just under 800 subscribers. Its been really cool to see you grow and improve on your video making. Every video is so informative and entertaining. Keep up the great work Brandon!

[@BJGpixel]

Thanks so much dude! Appreciate your support this whole time! :D

[@ARDIZsq]

The flow of the cloak is incredibly smooth. Even for a pixel art piece, it felt much smoother than even some high quality hand drawn animations. The swoosh on the lightsaber was definetly needed, and I'm glad you pulled it off so perfectly. My only complaint, more of a nitpick really, is that the lightsaber isn't casting any light on Luke. It would have been nice to see a slight greenish tint to the areas that would have been lit up by the lightsaber, but I understand the amount of time and work you already put into this, and I wouldn't want that compromised for a silly little detail like that. Amazing work as always Brandon. Keep it up! (also you should TOTALLY try to make more manga pages as pixel art. I have a personal bias towards Evangelion)

[@Utrilus]

The lighting effect could probably be added easily with just another layer to slightly tint the pixels behind the saber. Tho that flourish isn't really needed.

[@Booskop.]

Wow, you really upped the ante this year. You got yourself a challenge in 2022!

[@cbubs_art]

I love seeing how your skill level has improved over the years! I also enjoyed seeing this process breakdown. Very clean and efficient work!

[@ryanmartinson8405]

Dang that animation is so fun! Nice work on that and thanks for sharing!! (Can’t stop watching the cloak… hahaha)

[@Ridlay_]

Cool. Nice improvement!

[@nicolasambrosiosportfolio8337]

Amazing work again, only criticism I'd say is that there isn't enough anticipation at the start of the animation. He feels like he jumps into the swing without putting any force behind it and by the end of the animation the lightsaber is slightly shorter. But then again, I can't draw or animate if my life depended on it so take all of that w a grain of salt. Great work again!

[@roshibomb4247]

Yeah, that's what I was thinking myself. The pixel art itself is great but I feel like there needs just a touch more windup (maybe even just one frame, or changing an already existing frame) because it looks like the swing starts a bit too quickly. The smear definitely helped with that though

[@yourMoonstone]

THIS IS SO GOOD! Your improvement over the years is inspiring

[@CrafterPrime203]

It’s nice to know that there’s a Star Wars fan who makes pixel art.

[@stalkerukcg]

Incredible work

[@RansburgMakesArt]

Man I remember when last year's video was new! It's been great watching you develop and I'm looking forward to seeing what else you make! Also, I didn't realize how much cloaked Luke looks like Darth Vader until now. Thanks for that!

[@criixt]

CS6 in 2021!! what a rebel!! great work as always

[@forkify908]

Great video to start the day with

[@אופקאברהם-ק1צ]

Did you notice that the entire fabric setteling is worth half of the animation beat I feel lime should be shorter as un shaerper to give the amimation a good flow

[@rpvarela]

It's that time of the year again huh? time really flies!

[@noahstalcup155]

Dude! This is is on another level. It is so cool! Maybe next year you could revisit some of your early sprites and do animation for them.

[@protopixelart]

man i follow you since 2019 and every time you outdo yourself, its amazing the evolution of your work ^^ big fan here

[@SethKotta]

I like it a lot. That animation is so smooth

[@kubixdaboi424]

Oh, i remember seeing the 2020 version last year! Really cool sprite!

[@digitalunity]

Only a few more months until 2022 luke... Excited to see it!!!

[@khulgarulfsson8067]

It’s really cool. I think you could improve the animation further by moving him more to the right with the push and maybe delete a frame from the push, to add more snap. I think it’s definitely fine, better even, if you allow him to slide right, i.e. don’t correct the feet or anything, simply move the entire sprite further to the right. ❤️👍

[@littlemau1360]

you made that luke!?!?! I remember seeing it everywhere on perler bead related boards! very cool to see.

[@legosbyjacob]

I could listen to this guy talk about sprite animation all day.

[@haileywarner5109]

this literally blows my mind so cool

[@oetaurqo1133]

this was extremely satisfying to watch!

[@Wild_Legend]

This means I've been subscribed for a year now.

[@cattudoggu]

The improvement is amazing! Love the final result so much 💯💯

[@TetsuDeinonychus]

Nice work. You're a very talented animator!

[@isaacmanahan8047]

man i just got deja vu from when I just found your channel in 2020 and watched that one lol

[@braveitor]

It's fantastic, as always. I think that there could be just a minor improvement and it's the left foot when he starts to spin. It's too static, as nailed to the ground and then turns a bit awkward for a frame.

[@kixano]

All your Videos are *AWESOME* !!!

[@JoSephGD]

This design feels like Celeste: minimalist, but uses shading and colors effectively to make something really nice.

[@randomkidontheinternet5893]

I'm working on drawing with pixel art, so i'm gonna try to make this myself so that i can actually improve. It's probably gonna be more choppy, as i do it on an ipad without an apple pen or anything like that, but hey, might as well try to do it. Also yeah, you're awesome. There's a reason i'm gonna try to make this, afterall.

[@laurelindon]

Hey man, I love your channel! It's so fun, and such quality content too! :) I wanted to ask if you take into consideration any suggestions about possible new series of videos for the channel? If so, i would love to see your take on some Pokemon content - like, maybe making your own animated sprites for certain favorite pokemon, and maybe even animate some special attacks. Somehing on the line of your previous "reworks" of old game art. :) Cheers!

[@eboatwright_]

THIS IS SO GOOD :O I love the cloth animation! :D

[@itsjoshdance5565]

This is memorizing skill.

[@kevin-bf4ww]

damn in 2015 you were making megaman edits you def had good practice and good self study to be where you’re at in six years

[@Austinitic_steel]

Amazing work as always!

[@_raffi]

I am very excited about this year's Luke 👀

[@WuchtaArt]

great stuff, probably gonna have to make a new row next year

[@XZaneLP]

Two things I have in mind watching this: 1. Are there draw/animation programs that let you change colours through multiple images (animation), e.g. changing the brown robe into white or green to multiply the outcomes? Let's say for indie studios that want to reproduce animations rather "quickly". 2. Are you in a christmas/self-challenging mood? We fellow Germans have a New Years Eve tradition in TV for decades, a short sketch called Dinner for one" you can find on wiki and youtube ;) Would you consider doing that as Pixel art? See it as a challenge of your (albeit high) skills and how to set up your style with that rather humorous topic and perhaps goofy animation... :D Anyhow, have a nice year and stay healthy, Brandon!

[@angrypotato_fz]

Hey, I think I can answer your first question. Yes, sure. In Photoshop (which Brandon is usually using) there are several ways to swap the colors of your animation, you may also open finished gif files and adjust them. You can use adjustment layers to replace specific colors. It might be easier when you have a whole sprite sheet in one layer - Brandon usually has different frames as separate layers, but you can also spread them in one layer (like in 6:27) and animate movement of this layer instead of visibility - then you may use masks and color selections or even have separate color layers for quick recoloring. When exporting the animation, you can swap specific colors of the palette to different ones - it's not complicated when you have a tight color palette (and in pixelart you often have). I'd add, that you should prepare beforehand if you want to easily swap colors of some parts (for example: coat) by having separate colors in different areas. For example: let's say you have a red coat, and you use a dark red color for shade, but you also used this red as part of character's face. If you simply swapped red tones to blue, you'd end with weird blue pixels on the face :)

[@XZaneLP]

@@angrypotato_fz Perhaps my lack of knowledge (and ownership) of PS is my disadvantage, but does that mean I can - literally spoken - click a few menu-items and change a brown robe to a specific orange or take four shades of brown and set up an individual orange tone to replace them with? (Of course I assume that the artist wanting to use such a feature is aware of the mentioned face-issue) Oh and thanks for the elaborate answer!

[@angrypotato_fz]

@@XZaneLP You're welcome. Yes, you could. It might be a bit more sliders dragging than just a few clicks (depends how specific result you want to achieve) but certainly you can target and modify all the pixels of the same color at once - no need to recolor every pixels by hand, if that's what you mean. Photoshop is a huge (and expensive) program, used for much more complicated things. KZbin won't allow me to paste any links here, but you can search for video examples by "replace color" and see how it works with hue/saturation adjustments - and if it's possible for a detailed photo, it's also possible for pixelart :) Of course it's easier to modify one static image than an animation, as you have more ways to achieve the same result, but generally if you can do something with an adjustment layer (that affects everything below it) then you can modify multiple frames (or whole animation) at once, with no big effort. If you're interested in pixelart, you might want to look at a program called Aseprite which is quite affordable, built for pixelart and has animation tools as well. And you can find a video called "How to Quickly Change a Specific Color Everywhere in Aseprite" on YT, which - I guess - is a good example of color swapping (albeit on a static image).

[@XZaneLP]

@@angrypotato_fz Oh, I am aware of aseprite, how could one not watching channels like these. ^^ I was curious, since some free software allows individual editing, so I was wondering if the likes of PS (the expensive one) actually has a function for full animations. Especially, since Indie devs and professionals would probably take advantage of this, e.g. for indie devs that change character design by layers, colors, gear etc. As for myself, If I ever become a hobby-dev, I will push the pixel art to the side and start with coding. Those are the two areas to learn, the rest I developed over the years, thankfully or through interest. Thank you anyway, that was an elaborate answer :D

[@subiugetur]

Easily my favourite year

[@daometh]

you manage to make me subscribe in a matter of minutes, bravo

[@TuffLeader1]

Omg I love this channel holy crap

[@NicholasLashway]

Wow!! I can't wait to see next year's version :)

[@VeganShpegan]

really good work, man! love your videos so much)

[@chimklee]

I haven’t finished the video yet. I’m still happy though. Great video, keep the good work up!

[@cukcan]

I came here from Saultoons' video, he mentioned about you. It's really a great channel!

[@motionhokage]

this animation is amazing

[@lonkster]

Dude this was epic! If you could also go over the sprite work in blasphemous that would be awesome.

[@JesceeC]

great video as always! tho couldn't believe it's actually been a year since the last one

[@brendenchee16]

Nice! I love star wars and Luke is my favourite character.

[@DadVader]

Another Awesome production! 😁

[@BJGpixel]

✌️☺️✨

[@Davybackdead]

Holup is that the corridor digital thumb nail in the reference images