Pixel Art Character Animation | Tips, Tricks, and Workflow

[@BlocPanda]

Sassy Cyborg Superman was not something I needed, but man is it something I enjoy. Thanks, Brandon.

[@theflameviper2154]

You're phenomenal when it comes to pixel art, your work is much appreciated! That tracking lighting effect tip is super clever.

[@E_Fig05]

Holy cow, dude you made a sprite so small have so much detail and basically all the principles of animation!

[@aztro.99]

bc he's the goat 🥱

[@hajicko]

Well done on this animation and all your other ones. It has been amazing seeing your art style slowly change over time. Been a fan of your work for a while keep up the good work 😊.

[@BJGpixel]

Thanks! I feel like character animation (particularly the art direction/style of a movement) is something I'd really like to invest more into; this one was nice for hitting several points of practice for that - thanks for your support! :D

[@liveingprincess]

Commenting here because its your newest video, but I've watched your tutorials in the past and now am rewatching and learning more as I just got hired for my first freelance pixel art gig! Thank you for the amazing content you continue to put out over the years

[@kamoroso94]

How did it turn out?

[@Thy_Vomp507]

How the HECK do you make everything easy?! There's definitely something wrong XD

[@TheScreamless]

Well i suppose he has more training and experience than most of us:))

[@SeydinaMouhamedMoukhtarDiallo]

​@@TheScreamlessnope. IT'S WITCHCRAFT

[@chaeyoungmitra3970]

Experience

[@artasky6093]

​@@TheScreamless*BLACK MAGIC*

[@midtown3221]

​@@chaeyoungmitra3970VOODOO!! 😂

[@jarodrodriguez6371]

Dude, I was looking for ANY type of video that showed a pixel art workflow that would work for me and this is it. Thank you so much!

[@johnniefinney3266]

I was looking at your videos for education and by sheer lick found this video a couple hours after you made it. Kudos for the video

[@P.Manoel]

Amazing as always. It must be the millionth time someone has asked you this, but have you ever made art for an actual game? It would be incredible.

[@BJGpixel]

Thank you! Haha nothing major yet, but hopefully one day! :D

[@Art_bor]

@@BJGpixel just wanted to ask do you use any kind of drawing tablet to make pixel art ? or is it solely by mouse ? thanks

[@BJGpixel]

@@Art_bor I actually use the trackpad on my MacBook 🙃

[@Art_bor]

@@BJGpixel holy smokes The truckpad must be good then

[@BJGpixel]

@@Art_bor The MacBook ones really are! But it's kinda peculiar to use a trackpad for art at all; really I'd just recommend whatever feels most natural for you. I only got used to it because I just like the mobility of a laptop rather than a static setup

[@CKTDanny]

That was a great watch, I really liked that we get to see different iterations of the animation through the various stages! I think beginners tend to get discouraged when they find themselves re-doing the same parts until it just "feels right", especially when tutorials don't show that step. I've certainly been there myself and that's why I love the breakdown of every step in this video! This will be an amazing resource for people learning how to animate pixel art 👾

[@BJGpixel]

Thanks dude, glad to hear! Yeah the even though the iteration can be a lot of work, it's actually one of my favourite things; I kinda love putting a few frames together and then testing the animation for the first time. The v1 -> v2 thing was a great example of that 'surprise' of seeing something start to come together a bit more 😄

[@ViniSocramSaint]

Just vibing to the music and ambience. The production level in just even more candy

[@nittayoshifumi8252]

your file names amuse me. the animated crt for robo-supes would look natural in an older game!

[@CalvinArt]

You are one of my favorite youtubers! Thanks for the tutorial :))

[@UTJK.]

It's so fascinating to watch you create...

[@PirataGalactico]

I was gonna say it was missing a glowing eye but there it was in the end. Cool stuff as always!

[@mart284]

You are so good at what you do! You've made me want to expand my art into pixel-art, i hope you can keep making videos for a long time because i enjoy them a lot!

[@shiwakao]

one of my favorite tips which im sure applies to pixel art animation as well is to do the movement irl if u can. it really helps u get a better idea of both the timing n the silhouette.

[@michaelfiber4324]

One of my earliest memories of loving pixel art is actually Cyborg Superman from Death and Return of Superman for SNES. I love that you made one that looks so different from that but still so awesome.

[@AltKaxREAL]

This is DEFINITELY what i needed! i'm going to really enjoy animating these techniques

[@weynonpriory]

Really making me want to get back into pixel art. Awesome work

[@deluxeedition4639]

I ADORE this!!!

[@kickalion8456]

He jumps from foot to foot like a little prima ballerina. Kidding. It turned out great :)

[@tomas23058]

man this is so helpful, i'm a begginer with pixelart and animation and this is so inspiring, thank you!

[@SampsonStudioSounds]

Bruh, you got me with the sassy part. Lol. Admittance was priceless. This was inspiring. Y.G.M.

[@MDSSoul]

Very good tutorial, thanks 👍

[@rjsiii3]

Love your stuff. Even the superman hips doing the Flanders "nothing at all" motion. Lol😂

[@TimConceivable]

this is so rad! well done.

[@Skeffles]

Wow. This animation is amazing! Really impressive to see how the cape works with this too.

[@akiraishin7141]

Great work as always!

[@SirCalalot]

Incredible video - as always - but this one, especially has to be your best yet. Clear, concise information on your techniques. Sharing workflow and thoughts. And a stunning piece to show off at the end. Truly wonderful work, thank you! Keep up the awesome!

[@BJGpixel]

Really happy to hear that - putting timelapse footage of animation work into a concise narrative video is always a bit trickier than a more typical piece of art, and I'm glad it came across so clear - thanks! :D

[@DragmoraProductions]

Awesome tutorial ❤ I have watched many pixel art tutorials, but no one explains it so clearly.

[@lanceanthony198]

The animation is beautiful

[@DadVader]

How I missed that awesome episode, I don' know. So many juicy details it this animation. Dope! 🤩🤩🤘🤘

[@foldupgames]

Wow! Class is in session with this one!

[@MarioGonzalezTejada]

Excelente amigo, estás en un nivel inalcanzable, éxitos 👍

[@mynameisgryphon1007]

Been following you since 2020... your content is so helpful. Thank you for all your hard work!

[@longdongsilver3267]

Delightful as always, my dude.

[@samueljuarez2052]

Wow, la explicacion esta muy bien hecha, es sencillo pero a la vez detallado. Muchas Gracias!!

[@socksandsandalsstudios]

10:09 I love how you named the window "Foot by the Frame" haha

[@ModelZGolden]

Incrível! Espero algum dia chegar nesse nível!

[@staddybot]

how does this only have 76 comments this is fire

[@brandonjacksoon]

You are the best! Thanks mate! Always best tutorials!))

[@davidwalker1652]

Great stuff! I do think he looks more like he's standing rather than hovering, though. You might want to check out the old Taito Superman arcade game for a better "hover" pose.

[@uniqueflowsnake]

If I had any idea of how to do any of this, I might have made him do a reloady motion (like pulling on a boat/truck horn) at the top that morphs the fist into the weapon and then come down to a lower pose, with legs more spread out to be ready for the recoil from his big gun hand. My version would be standing on solid ground ofc, not floating in air. xD

[@brcn3217]

Great video! (as always) Do you have any plans for one that you explore background movement? I always struggle with those

[@jrbytes]

I really like the sounds you chose to accompany the final animation. Are they home made or did you source them from somewhere?

[@BJGpixel]

Thanks! I picked up a bunch of sound packs on sale on Humble Bundle awhile back - there was an awesome "futuristic sci-fi weapon sfx" pack in there that was perfect for this!

[@darunius6886]

you are the pixel goat!

[@NIRGENDEO_HIER]

Thank you so much for those tips they realy helped❤❤

[@sinistarman]

remember that pixeling on superman's hips *SiniStarMan will remember that*

[@MoneyVideoClips]

so cool

[@vibechilli3680]

Have you heard of Ace Attorney? It’s game franchise made I 2001 and has a pretty cool looking pixel art style. It’d be pretty cool to see you do an analysis on the original sprites. Love your content and have a great day!

[@pixaak]

Man, cool! This is probably not the first time you've been asked, but how did you connect your Mac to a CRT?

[@bobsterhak714]

Awesome!

[@mikemel3459]

Question: Do you ever create sprite animations for games? And if so, what are some key differences between making pixel animations for fun versus making them for use in a game? Especially in regard to things like translating the character's position like you did here when Supe gets blasted backward by the force of the shot. I could see that complicating things in code when performing translations on the sprite based on it's pivot point. I don't know though. Any insight into that sort of use-case?

[@clonkex]

That's called "root motion" and yes, it's a real consideration! In 3D, you can design your characters to inherit the motion of the root bone so the animation can move the actual transform point of the character, but I'm not sure how you'd do it with regular 2D pixel animations because there are no bones. It's an interesting thought - I wonder if there are tools to help with that 🤔

[@mshikebkhan]

Photoshop vs Aesprite which one you recommend for pixel art and animation

[@mikaelded7438]

Yes

[@spideyosiris]

Hi, could you make a video about the differences between 1-bit, 2-bit, 8-bit, etc? c: I'm specifically interested in making something 2-bit and I just can't find any tutorial or video explaining it.

[@clonkex]

Not sure if you know this already, but 1-bit is 2-colour, 2-bit is 4-colour and 8-bit is 255-colour. I'm not an animator though so I can't elaborate any further :P

[@Ediphyz]

I was wondering if u can do 32x32 character portraits, example (miku hatsune/makima)there’s no tutorials on making them this small🥲

[@Parzival031]

How do you choose your color palettes?

[@Mel-mu8ox]

Do you have problems with Adobe Photoshop? I watched a vid by Noodle - how I made my first animation short I wondered if it was really that bad? (I use Aseprite, but sometimes wonder if I should switch?)

[@BJGpixel]

The Photoshop frame animation timeline tool can be a little unforgiving sometimes. if you play around with layer position or start cutting/pasting layers in the middle of an animation you can kinda throw everything off - but at this point I'm so used to working with it that I know how to keep those things in check. From what I can tell, Aseprite looks great for animation organization and control - but for someone that's not as familiar with it, all those circles on the animation tool layers look intimidating as well 😅 TLDR: You're not missing out on much, particularly if you're already using Aseprite!

[@Mel-mu8ox]

@@BJGpixel :) that's good to know :)

[@clonkex]

@@Mel-mu8ox I'd say for pixel art (especially for animations), Photoshop has very minimal advantages and some significant disadvantages... but for higher-res art, Photoshop's strengths really start to come through (though it's certainly not perfect and will definitely not magically make you better!).

[@ripdxrkygameplays]

What software can i use to do pixel animation?

[@ripdxrkygameplays]

Free, please 🥹

[@PabloMartinez-qf4yr]

Pixelorama could be a good option

[@loopit_3]

New video!

[@Thy_Vomp507]

Congrats your first!

[@AlekCzarnodziej]

Pixel Art Clark Kent?! Sign me up!

[@BluShiGuy]

Art

[@Novastar.SaberCombat]

I wish I could hire someone to do these. Paid work. But I have no idea how to contact (legitimate) people for these kinds of things. 🐲✨🐲✨🐲✨

[@pbarrosramon]

You make me want so bad to learn how to draw! HAHAHAHAHA

[@bad-people6510]

Legs are my bane.

[@alexbossgcity8883]

Lite

[@Gr8GooseYouTube]

25th veiwer