Pixel Art Class - What's The Right Canvas Size?

[@dindotjs]

The thumbnail is amazing - the idea of using quantum mechanics to work out the canvas size is brilliant

[@AdamCYounis]

That's a very sneaky but deserved flex recognisng them on sight like that!

[@jaredjones6570]

@@AdamCYounis It wasn't supposed to be obvious?

[@alexsterckel2511]

@@jaredjones6570 well to see the formulas is the point of the thumbnail to know that those formulas are related to quantum mechanics is quite the flex.

[@fernmiranda]

Dang it! Now I have to learn quantum mechanics too?!

[@ravinwong4654]

The fact that this content is free, I'm finding my love for KZbin again. Reminds me of learning how to design years ago.

[@C1Nuke]

KZbin, in fact, is a huge LIBRARY of various knowledge. Personally, I use KZbin exclusively for self-development👌 This platform has almost *all the knowledge.* You just need to use the local search engine effectively, then any skill can be developed.

[@DaShikuXI]

This is quite literally the question I had on my mind today. I've been working on game assets and size has had me stumped. Your timing is impeccable.

[@hunkerdown2344]

me too

[@ShinoSarna]

Also note that in sidescrollers, your character sprite's width (horizontal size) is much more important than height (vertical size) since in sidescrollers you typically move more to the side than upwards. (Notice that in games where you do primarily move up and down - like Downwell or Jump King - character sprites are more square-ish in proportions). Also notice that the super-wide games shown (Blasphemous and Rogue Legacy) have your character have really a narrow hitbox, while most of the sprite visible does not actually affect gameplay - for example in Rogue Legacy, the giant sword held by your character is purely cosmetic, and so is a part of the pointy hat in Blasphemous.

[@boerbol9422]

This tutorial should be shown to every new baby being born. That's how important it is. Very, very good video!! Thanks!

[@joepeaden1661]

As a beginner artist, made the art for my game about 100% better. I guess I just needed some frame to work within. Thank so much, and keep up the good work.

[@DavidBrocekArt]

I've been doing professional pixel art for about five years, and yet I still come to your videos and always learn something new. Thank you!

[@Hobbytea]

I really love that you break everything down into its smallest parts and explain the way rather than just saying the answer. This has helped me so much! Thank you

[@nicomarcelino9439]

Honestly, before this video, I couldn't wrap my head around how tiny 16 x 16 pngs could ever scale up to modern resolutions. I know pixel games literally do it, but I couldn't wrap my head around the how. Literally somethin that kept me up at night and paralyzed my in making pixel art. Thanks for finally setting my head straight!

[@NickVanLoon]

You have been single handedly the most useful youtuber I have come across. Have a degree in game development, and after 4 years of thinking about my game, I am now on path to creating it! Just so happens to be pixel art! The whole sizing, canvas, and doubling the resolution to fit 720p, 1080p, etc is so useful. Will be watching a lot of your videos over the next year haha. Thanks for being so helpful.

[@LimePharmacy2012]

Pixel art is legendary. in the future still can't be replaced

[@МихаилБлагов-г3н]

Love this guy! English is foreign for me and don't speak well, but Adam explain so easy, that and I can understand. Good luck with your plans!

[@The_Crucifix]

You're the best, buddy. In a world where so little is said about pixel art, you literally solve questions for people like me who want to start, but don't know how

[@HunterProduction]

Man this was so clarifying. You are a really talented teacher.

[@Snak10]

Adam, you are creating the next generation of Pixel artists that will become AMAZINGLY GOOD, and for free!!!!! You knowledge is amazing! I'm going to buy the game for me and all my friends

[@zezekuzeku7323]

I have watched a lot of your videos to improve. And I can honestly say, this has been by far the most useful. Just having a starting point and explanation answers so many questions and ultimately helps make everything beforehand fit into place!

[@mrjuicejar_yvk]

This genuinely helped me today, despite me needing this info for making 2D vector art

[@matthewsmith9162]

I've come back to the videos so many times. thank you Adam.

[@hiiambarney4489]

Jeeeeez. When you wanna ask Adam a simple question but he is several parallel universes ahead of you. STELLAR WORK mate!

I've been watching all of your content this past month, probably, and this one is by far the most useful of all (at this point). Makes me a little sad because the assets I've already created won't be compatible with the project I'm starting now. Anyway, thank you so much for the great content.

[@wednesdaysmith922]

There is no "right answer" in every case-across every game obviously. It all comes down to the creator's style and intent. I think you did an excellent job conveying that and most of the things one should consider when deciding these variables. Thanks you really helped me out here.

[@Kalengo_Gaming]

That tower has brilliant rendering! This video has been so helpful.

[@rapasdecoeur7017]

Thank you so much ! I looked for these answers for a long time and was only abole to find infos on Reddit until now. Everything is well explained, I'll come back to that video often.

[@JaromTV]

Yet another excellent addition to the Adam Master Class series. Thanks for the time, prep and energy to breakdown this common question! Thoughtful and thorough as always. Btw, today I have officially, mentally "wishlisted" Insignia. Haha

[@1KOLYANOS1]

Thank you Adam for explaining all this now I'm more confident in my attempt to make a pixel-art themed game

[@Spudmay]

Man, this was so helpful! I've been tending to overthink and not understand, and you broke down SO much! Thank you!!

[@overratedprogrammer]

Nice, I never realized before how important even integer scaling is. I will forever use 320x180!

[@toongloong]

Man, I love so much how much thought you put into your decisions. It really appreciate!

[@drewg3765]

I don't know how many times I've watched your content over and over. In other words... thank you.

[@SolantisA]

It might be just me, but i'm in love with the 640x360 resolution. It's small enough to be pixel art and big enough to have detail.

[@byucknahthered3914]

320x180, huh. Yeah, I flubbed and did the divide by half thing and never thought about how 720p might look. Very insightful video.

[@markvador6667]

Good advices from a pure pixel art artist, thanks you to share your knowledge Adam

[@subbu6572]

who else keeps getting distracted by the awesome music in the background. I had so much trouble in beginning because of the sick zelda cover.

[@Ninjujitsu]

This is maybe the best pixel art video I've ever seen

[@alioth2021]

I just got Aseprite yesterday, so I'm looking forward to following along with this video series you've created.

[@sanstheelumbu]

Thanks talking about it adam Still having problems with right canvas

[@definitelynotnick2454]

For some reason I couldn't get my head around this myself, I think my OCD for keeping the same cell sizes was messing me up. Thanks for this explanation.

[@kamm3021]

*Thanks, this had all my questions answered* 👍🏻

[@3echelon3]

I was searching everywhere for a tutorial just like this. Perfectly helpful and concise information. Insignia looks incredible btw

[@ZachDames]

This channel supplies so much valuable information that can be really difficult to find. Thank you so much for these tutorials! Subbed.

[@bliiblaablue]

This answers so many critical questions that I've had in my head, thank you! Now, off to the jam..

[@iria9755]

These videos about theory that you are doing lately are awesome. I still find them very interesting and enlightening, but I wish they were around when I started with pixel art.

[@risingstar4948]

Excellent information, competently delivered. I am in the initial stages of vaguely considering designing game assets, and this gives me the confidence to try and create a mock-up, now that I know a good canvas size that scales properly for modern hardware.

[@mr_ekshun]

Huuuuge video for me as somebody trying to figure this all out. Thanks for all you do!

[@SeaForest]

This video just saved my whole 🍑 dude, seriously thank you for helping us get started off on the right foot!!

[@tonyg_fgc8152]

Thanks so much for the analysis! You explain things very nicely and with variety of ways and examples, you are amazing at this. You save me from huge trouble with some of those tips so I highly appreciate it!

[@EverBardo]

Hey pal, it was fun recognizing the Links Awakening cover song at the end [36:00]. Years ago when I found it on KZbin, I bait-clicked on the fiery digital painting of link dueling ganondorf (same cover song but it’s started halfway in, here in this video).

[@carlosiagobueno672]

Awesome content.

[@dabunnisher29]

You really are the best for peeps like me. Thank you for all you do.

[@MythicBeanProductions]

Thank you so much for this. I was struggling so hard to figure out the proper aspect ratio for the scenes where I'm not using tiles

[@SilentKnight1337]

This is exactly what we need, thank you! We're working on developing pixel art skills for our game coming after the one I'm currently making, and the screen resolution thing was the one thing that i couldn't figure out.

[@leonardoxavier1481]

Man... You cleared my mind about all my doubts!! Thank you so much!!

[@happyonherjourney]

Thank you for making this video, really save me from lots of headache. I started to draw some assets and got really confused

[@javier2560]

Such a jewel of video! Didn't realize this was the thing that most intimidated me from doing pixel art, thank youu!

[@Andre-e9e9r]

Thank you very much! You helped me a lot to understand proportions in pixel games. Great lesson!

[@lucgagnon7169]

Great video! An other way to view that is 640x360 is the GCD of the 720p and 1080p. GCD("1920×1080", "1280x720") = "640x360". You should have talk about 2k screen also, but it's only 2 times the 720p, so it's a multiple of 720p. Many computer user loves 2k screen for the middle ground between budget and pixel density. I'm one of thoses.

[@vinigmoura]

One of the best video lessosn ive ever seen about anything!

[@diesertortex]

I watched a lot of yt videos the last days searching for a video like this. I wanted a deeper understanding why 320x180 is kinda the sweet spot right now. I make my first real unity game (all others are like...toys with few lvls) and honest thank you for this video. i got a way better understanding now how to make some retro pixel art games

[@XGMPinachet]

The only extra thing i'd like to be explored/explained - tiny pixel art (8px or sub-8px characters e.g. The Cork, Environmental Station Alpha), which is an uncommon case, but still an interesting style

[@spindash64]

Another tiny bonus for 640x360 is that it can be made backwards compatible with 4:3 by Letterboxing, with the horizontal scale fitting perfectly Similarly, 320x180 can be made to snugly fit onto the Sega Genesis, if you are working on one of those backporting projects

[@BeeMythical]

Im in the process of developing my own RPG at the moment and your videos have been a blessing! love how you go into detail about everything! subbed and now going to binge all your videos! keep it up!

[@reelo7931]

sometimes i really struggle with the zoom in level with my platformer game, like how big should the player be on the screen etc

[@keplerfinn]

minor inconvenience of 320x180: 180 isn't divisable by 16 or 32 (the most common tile sizes) which means that vertically you will have either 4 or 20 pixels in spare. Could be resolved by using tiles of 20px instead.

[@TT21_96]

By far one of the best channels on youtube, incredible information and very well done explanations, and is all for free, awesome

[@hafsahhh1054]

I was literally just trying to figure this out for my own game! Thank you! I love your videos they’re very informative

[@paperbag9235]

oh this video is the BEST!!! thank you so so so much man i ve been looking for this information everywhere great video

[@Tokanya]

I ... I have been reverse engineering and deconstructing people arts for almost a week to find a size that fits my project. If next one is about character proportion (number of heads to body scale) and camera angle. I'll suspect that you might bug my Aseprite.

[@failprone]

This answered all of my questions, amazing video

[@michaelpeloquin6336]

Super informative! Currently going through your library of videos for my board game project :D

[@Ankh.of.Gaming]

Thank you for the great knowledge you lay down in this video! Any quick insights for developers targeting the Steam Deck (1280x800 or 16:10) concurrently with 16:9 for PC? Easiest would be to just black out those 80 pixels and pretend it's a regular HD, but wondering if you have other ideas?

[@jordana2267]

I'm just delving into this medium and this video (your videos) are so extremely helpful! And inspiring! Thank you so much!

[@noahstalcup155]

This is so cool. I'd love to see a video where you just take us through a lot of art from insignia and give a little commentary. I love seeing anything you make for it.

[@Psych6vzz]

This video was everything i needed omg, i was bashing my head against my PC thinking on how i should approach the sizes of my character, scenery in general, and now i have all the answers i needed! Amazing content as always, i've learned a lot with your videos, i'll be looking forward to catch up your twitch streams!

[@boerbol9422]

Same here! Amazing video!

[@Elduque40]

I’ve always wondered about this specific question. Thanks so much

[@x364]

Brilliantly informative! Thank you very much for this!

[@idle.observer]

That was a really informative video. Thank you for sharing. I'm enlightened!

[@zhangjiaqi_1213]

Very good content. Solve so many confusion of me! Thank you!

[@BluesInSeattle]

You really provide some useful information, dude. I appreciate everything you do.

[@lalfada9637]

If someone is interested about all the "good" screen resoulutions for your game, I've ran the math. The gcd of 720, 1280, 1080 and 1920 is 40 so all it's divisor (40, 20, 10, 8, 5, 4, 2) should produce a good scalable resolution when we use it to divide the 720p ratio. So here are those resolutions: 32 x 18 64 x 36 128 x 72 160 x 90 320 x 180 640 x 360 256 x 144 (720p / 5) doesnt works because it doesnt divide by 2, which make it impossible to scale to 1080p. Some if these might be usefull for a lower resolution stlye like the one used for pico 8.

[@xmoreno3366]

This channel is GOLD

[@PixelPotato]

Awesome teacher!!

[@alif-fgd]

Really helpful video! It's by far the best i've seen in this subject.

[@cem_sanci]

Adam, we like your art style and tutorials. Is it possible that you record a video about design and draw a top down space ship with asprite, and with your tips, of course. Thank you : )

[@thebutcher1412]

Simplified this so much for me, thank you

[@lukasbrglum9607]

This was extremely helpful as someone trying out pixelart :)

[@zarodgaming1844]

this man: > makes a transparent 600x600 image of a tower in pixel art form unable to be compressed >"no performance impact whatsoever" GPU: *" BRUH"*

[@LuanaSantos-rl4sb]

me laughing nervously in 1280x720 with half of a project done hahah

[@gemmaconnolly276]

I can't thank you enough for making these videos, I'm in my first year at uni and am a complete noob to any type of Game Art so your videos have been really helpful! Big respect for you giving up some of your basic knowledge so that beginners have a chance in such a fast paced and competitive industry :)

[@deepnineforty5646]

Confused on this. Trying to start my own game. 64x64 tiles are HUGE on 640x360 Only 10 across. Just trying to decide on a tile size and screen size so i can get going .

[@victor4899]

amazing work adam! can you please do some more environment tutorials please

[@kaleschuetzeberg5865]

Thank you for this great breakdown.

[@yorkipudd1728]

EXTREMELY HELPFUL! It's one thing that really stumped me as a beginner. Many thanks.

[@krumpits]

idk if its a stupid idea or not. but i just have my canvas size set at whatever pixel count my game is. that way everything is just the size its going to be and i always have a reference of how big it should/needs to be

[@virtualnk5825]

Dude thanks so much for the video, this was amazing.

[@madebyPure]

Great stuff, much appreciated! One piece of feedback: I feel like the music is a bit too loud in contrast your voice. Turning it down a few dB would make it less distracting. Cheers!

[@highpriestessmoon]

This took me so long to understand in 2019! Your video is so helpful! You explain things very well

[@eboatwright_]

These videos are so informative! Also, 90k subs! YAY

[@Toconok]

Thanks a lot for the video. Amazing info!

[@RichardTomson]

thanks. you answered everything i was trying to figure out. Great to find other nerds in their own field. =)

[@overratedprogrammer]

Ok now I need a channel like yours but for music and sfx ;)