What is pixel art?
Pixel art is a style of digital art in which images are created and edited one pixel at a time, usually at low resolution with a limited color palette, so each individual pixel is visible and placed on purpose.
Pixel art grew out of early computers and video game consoles in the 1970s and 1980s, when low screen resolutions and few available colors forced artists to design every pixel by hand. Today, artists and game studios choose the style on purpose for its clarity and retro look.
What are the key techniques in pixel art?
Technique
Limited palette
What it means
Working with a small, fixed set of colors
Why it’s used
Keeps the image consistent and readable
Dithering
What it means
Alternating two colors in a pattern, such as a checkerboard
Why it’s used
Suggests extra shades or texture without new colors
Manual anti-aliasing
What it means
Placing in-between colors by hand along edges
Why it’s used
Smooths curves and diagonals without blur
Clean outlines
What it means
One-pixel lines with no stray or doubled pixels
Why it’s used
Makes shapes read clearly at small sizes
Clusters
What it means
Grouping connected pixels into intentional shapes or patterns
Why it’s used
Creates clear forms, shading, and texture while avoiding scattered pixels
Technique
What it means
Why it’s used
Limited palette
Working with a small, fixed set of colors
Keeps the image consistent and readable
Dithering
Alternating two colors in a pattern, such as a checkerboard
Suggests extra shades or texture without new colors
Manual anti-aliasing
Placing in-between colors by hand along edges
Smooths curves and diagonals without blur
Clean outlines
One-pixel lines with no stray or doubled pixels
Makes shapes read clearly at small sizes
Clusters
Grouping connected pixels into intentional shapes or patterns
Creates clear forms, shading, and texture while avoiding scattered pixels
What are the common styles of pixel art?
- 8-bit style: Pixel art inspired by early consoles such as the NES, often featuring small sprites, limited palettes, and simple shading.
- 16-bit style: Pixel art inspired by consoles such as the Super NES and Sega Genesis, often featuring more detailed sprites, richer palettes, and more complex shading.
- 1-bit: Pixel art created using only two colors, often black and white, with patterns such as dithering used to suggest tone and texture.
- Isometric: Pixel art drawn on an angled grid to create the appearance of three-dimensional objects or environments viewed from above.
- High-resolution pixel art: Pixel art created on larger canvases with more pixels and potentially richer color palettes, while retaining deliberate pixel placement and defined pixel clusters.
How do you make pixel art?
Most pixel art follows six basic steps:
- Pick a small canvas, such as 16 by 16 or 32 by 32 pixels for a game character.
- Choose a limited palette of a few colors before you start.
- Draw the outline with a one-pixel pencil tool, with smoothing and anti-aliasing turned off.
- Fill in base colors, then add shading and highlights from one light direction.
- Refine edges with manual anti-aliasing where needed, and use dithering to add texture or suggest shading.
- Export at the original size, and scale it up only by whole numbers, such as 2x or 4x, so pixels stay square.
Pixel art can be made in dedicated editors such as Aseprite or Piskel, or in general image editors with a pencil tool and a visible grid.
How is pixel art used in games?
Games use pixel art for sprites, tilesets, backgrounds, and frame-by-frame animation. Many indie studios choose it for its distinctive visual style and the ability to create expressive graphics with relatively small assets. Pixel art is one of several visual styles developers can choose for a game, and consistency across assets helps create a cohesive look. Unity's guide to video game art styles explores common styles and offers tips for maintaining visual consistency.
Unity also provides tools to bring pixel art into a project and render it clearly. The 2D Aseprite Importer imports Aseprite files as sprites and animations, while the Pixel Perfect Camera helps maintain crisp rendering across screen resolutions in URP. Developers can also use Unity's 2D Lighting for Pixel Art course to learn how to add lights, shadows, and normal maps to pixel art scenes.
What are the benefits of pixel art?
- Clear readability: Strong shapes and limited colors read well at small sizes.
- Distinctive style: A recognizable retro look that helps a game stand out.
- Small assets: Low-resolution sprites can use less memory and storage than higher-resolution artwork.
- Consistent art direction: Fixed palettes and pixel sizes keep many assets looking unified.
What are the challenges of pixel art?
- Hard to master: Showing detail with very few pixels takes practice in simplifying shapes.
- Time-consuming animation: Frame-by-frame animation often requires artists to create and refine multiple individual frames.
- Scaling problems: Uneven scaling, rotation, or smoothing filters distort or blur pixels.
- Limited detail: Complex subjects and text are hard to show at low resolution.