The PDF archives
chapter 1: linearts
Introduction
Earthbound+ Mother 3 (1994-2006)
Tekken Card Challenge (WonderSwan, 1999)
Line art is the base of your sprite regardless of
whether you start with shapes, loose sketches or
no line art at all! It will often be applied at some
point in the process.
Consistency is essential.
Natural brushstrokes don’t
look great in pixels!
Keep the same line thickness throughout the whole sprite!
It makes sprites more readable and appealing.
Prefer thicker lines? Make sure to keep the line-
art clean and easy to follow. Some lines however
can be thinner than the rest of the drawing if
the style requires it
Thin lines are better
for small areas.
Bottom Row:
SNK vs Capcom tMotM, Pokémon Pinball (R+S)
Sprites are often small graphics! As a result, you will notice that in games …
Most pixelart has 1px lineart.
Lines and curves
Ever noticed when drawing a pixel line or curve in 1 stroke, it doesn’t look as smooth as you want?
That is because of jaggies. These are jagged parts of a line or curve.
So how do you fix your lines
with jaggies? Easy!
There is a process that works
for every type of line!
Oh no! Much
better!
The key thing to remember with jaggies?
Don’t surround a row of pixels with bigger ones.
Important note!
You do NOT need to draw curves pixel by
pixel. That’s too much work!
Draw rough lines and chisel away parts you
don’t need. While some programs offer bet-
ter pixel brushes that can avoid thicker parts,
jaggies are UNAVOIDABLE. So fix them!
This will happen ALL the time!
Pixelart loves lines that have the same “stairs”,
staircases with the same number of pixels on each step… It just looks smoother!
Metal Slug 3 (Neo Geo)
The steeper the line, the bigger the ‘step’!
DON’T MIX STAIRCASES. If you have stairs of TWO, don’t include a ONE. Keep your
staircase equal and avoid jaggies.
No need to redraw the lines or CTRL+Z every time.
Remember that you can always use the selection
tool. You can also chisel away pixels.
Chip away or add pixels so that you obtain nice
lines!
Pixel-Logic bonus #1
Still unsure of how to clean up jaggies? No Problem!
Throughout the guide I’ll provide extra tips, starting here!
As I’ve described, chiseling away at your lines is much more natural than being a perfectionist.
This works for every issue, and you can see below some examples I did to emphasise that!
Another way to see jaggies is to imagine your pixelart like vector lines!
Jagged...
Fixed!
So if you’re not sure, draw over it and you’ll see the mistakes.
Outlines
The outline is a major attribute that defines a sprite’s style.
You may have noticed that pixelart comes in many shapes and forms. Like any art!
Here are the types of outlines I identify:
No outline
Super Mario Brothers (NES), Metroid (NES), Sonic 3 and Knuckles (Genesis),
Castlevania SotN (PS1), Cave Story + (PC), Mario & Luigi: Dream Team (3DS), Streets of Rage (Genesis)
No outline sprites are pixels
with vector shaped graphics.
They are usually solid colours
and occasionally have shading
and broken outlines.
Don’t be fooled; even without
lines, you still need to clean
jaggies! (sorry...)
Black inline
Shatterhand (NES), LoZ: Link to the Past (SNES) , Yoshi’s Island (SNES),
Warioware Twisted (GBA), Shonen Jump: Jump Ultimate Stars (DS) , Mother 3 (GBA), Scott Pilgrim (Xbox 360)
Black inline pixels are sprites with black
lineart that goes inside the sprites too.
This was very effective in the NES era as a
way to circumvent the limitations. Today, It
makes sprites rather muddy.
Well, not ALL sprites...!
Shovel knight (various)
Black contour
WarioLand 4 (GBA), Kirby Superstar Ultra (DS), Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story (DS),
Magical Taruruuto-Kun (Genesis), Chrono Trigger (SNES), Kirby Squeek Squad (DS), Boktai 3 (GBA),
Riviera: The Promised Land (GBA)
With black contouring, only the contour has a black out-
line, but the inside is completely coloured with little to
no black. It helps your sprite stand out from backgrounds
and look clean!
It’s the style that is used commonly today
with sprites, and is very popular with modern
handheld games.
Note: Your outline can be thick or thin, it
is a stylistic choice! The thicker the out-
line, the more Anti-Aliasing it will require
Mario & Luigi: Bowsers Inside Story (DS)
Coloured
Adventures of Batman and Robin (SNES), Enchanted (GBA), Congo’s Caper (SNES),
Mario All Stars (SNES), Hamelin No Violin Damaki (SNES) Metroid Fusion (GBA), DK King of Swing (GBA),
Castlevania: AoS (GBA), Monster World IV (Genesis)
The outline is coloured according to the colour
it surrounds. Every part of an object has its own
coloured outline.
The outline of a block will be the darkest shade
of the inner block.
Above: Slime Mori Mori DQ (GBA)
Right: Sam and Max Hit the Road (PC)
Selective outline
Selective outline is lineart that is shaded with a lightsource! It’’s the most
common type of outline in pixel art, and works great with backgrounds.
Ristar (Genesis), Pulseman (Genesis), Alundra (PS1), Parodius Da (SNES), LoZ: Minish Cap (GBA),
Super Pocket Fighter (Saturn), Shantae: Risky’s Revenge (DSi)
Metroid: Zero Mission (GBA)
It blends perfectly with the environment.
Light or dark background, it doesn’t matter!
Case example: Pokémon sprites
Pokémon sprites from the Gameboy
Advance up to the Nintendo DS
feature selective outline. They’re
timeless. The colourful outline
makes them so great.
Pokémon sprites are a prime
example of selective outline.
Go study them.
Generation IV sprites (DS)
It may be hard to see the outline
fully without zooming in or with
inner colour. Let’s remove
everything but the outline.
It’s super effective!
It’s now obvious that:
1) The lineart is clearly shaded.
2) The light source is visible.
Namco x Capcom (PS2)
Streetfighter III: 3rd Strike (Arcade), Marvel vs Capcom II (Arcade)
Conclusion
Here’s a summary of the different types of outlines. As you can see, different outlines can
completely change the style of a sprite! It’s an important step, regardless of what
technique you use.
Lineart will be applied at any stage of the process, so it’s vital that you experiment
and practice with lines.
Outlines will be mentioned again in future chapters. Selective outlines can vary and the topic
will be expanded upon in the anti-aliasing section.
