Pixel Art Character Animation | Tips, Tricks, and Workflow

Pixel art animation can be difficult, but it’s also so cool to see characters made out of tiny squares brought to life with a little effort. In this video, I’ll take you through my start-to-finish workflow of the creation of a dynamic attack animation for 'Cyborg Superman', and discuss all my tips, tricks, challenges, and nitty-gritty nuances along the way!
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0:00 Intro
0:06 Sprite Design
1:44 Tidying up Pixel Clusters
3:23 Simple Silhouette for Animation
6:02 Refining the Body Language
8:25 Rendering the Poses
11:39 Particle Effects
13:18 Recoil and Recovery
13:55 Bringing it all together
15:01 FINAL ANIMATION
15:34 HIGHLIGHT: Fabric Animation
16:17 CRT Time
16:49 VID OVER
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Check out my art here:
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/ bjgpixel
INPRNT Shop: www.inprnt.com/gallery/bjgpixel/
Redbubble Shop: rdbl.co/bjgpixel
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Software used: Adobe Photoshop 2022
Need help picking a pixel art program? Watch this: • What Program to use fo...
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Title sequence theme music by Failpositive:
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Background music obtained through Royalty Free Planet:
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Internet Girl by MONIN
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Digital Sunlight by Raven
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[@BlocPanda]

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

[@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!! 😂

[@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 🥱

[@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?

[@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

[@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

[@CalvinArt]

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

[@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 😄

[@AltKaxREAL]

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

[@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!

[@akiraishin7141]

Great work 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!

[@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

[@UTJK.]

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

[@deluxeedition4639]

I ADORE this!!!

[@weynonpriory]

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

[@Skeffles]

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

[@TimConceivable]

this is so rad! well done.

[@nittayoshifumi8252]

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

[@longdongsilver3267]

Delightful as always, my dude.

[@DadVader]

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

[@ViniSocramSaint]

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

[@MDSSoul]

Very good tutorial, thanks 👍

[@foldupgames]

Wow! Class is in session with this one!

[@IYANMATYAME]

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

[@MarioGonzalezTejada]

Excelente amigo, estás en un nivel inalcanzable, éxitos 👍

[@kickalion8456]

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

[@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.

[@rjsiii3]

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

[@PirataGalactico]

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

[@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.

[@mynameisgryphon1007]

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

[@bobsterhak714]

Awesome!

[@brandonjacksoon]

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

[@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

[@Snot.Factory]

so cool

[@ModelZGolden]

Incrível! Espero algum dia chegar nesse nível!

[@tomas23058]

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

[@You_reply_to_a_dumbass]

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

[@socksandsandalsstudios]

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

[@lanceanthony198]

The animation is beautiful

[@samueljuarez2052]

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

[@darunius6886]

you are the pixel goat!

[@DragmoraProductions]

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

[@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.

[@staddybot]

how does this only have 76 comments this is fire

[@brcn3217]

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

[@sinistarman]

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

[@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!

[@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

[@mikaelded7438]

Yes

[@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!

[@Parzival031]

How do you choose your color palettes?

[@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 🤔

[@pixaak]

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

[@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

[@BluShiGuy]

Art

[@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!).

[@Ediphyz]

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

[@AlekCzarnodziej]

Pixel Art Clark Kent?! Sign me up!

[@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!

[@pbarrosramon]

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

[@bad-people6510]

Legs are my bane.

[@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. 🐲✨🐲✨🐲✨

[@alexbossgcity8883]

Lite

[@Gr8GooseYouTube]

25th veiwer