How to Create Free Pixel Art Animation

Animate pixel art with a free animation program.

Creating pixel animations is a hobby to start if you enjoy drawing and want to bring your illustrations to life. You don't need an expensive animation program either, as there are free ones available for anyone to legally download from the Internet. Drawing a pixel animation takes time and patience because you are working with individual pixels to get the animation to move, so make sure you have plenty of free time. If you follow the directions, you will be on your way to creating the animations in your head, all for free.

Things You'll Need

• Computer
• Animation program

Instructions

1. Open up your animation program and create new document. Download a free animation software such as GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) if you don't already have one. Size the document's width and height by pixels. Pixel animations are usually pretty small (no more than 70 by 70 pixels) because making a large one would be much harder.

2. Select the "Pencil" tool to draw a rough outline of your pixel animation. Zoom in so you can see what you are doing a little better. This first layer will be the first frame of your animation. Clean up the outline with your "Eraser" tool and make the lines nice and neat. Usually the outline is just one pixel wide.

3. Fill in the animation with color and do some shading to give it a three-dimensional look (this is optional). Shade by choosing a color that is a few shades darker than the color you filled. Determine in which direction the "imaginary light" would be shining and line the inside of the outline with the darker color on the "Pencil" tool. Save your work.

4. Duplicate the first layer when you are finished with it by selecting "Layers, Duplicate" layer in the top menu. This will make another layer on top of your first one and you can switch back and forth between layers in the window on the right. On the new layer, use your "Eraser" and "Pencil" tools to edit and change the positioning so that the pixel drawing is in the next phase of the movement. Make sure you make the new positions gradual so the animation will look more realistic. Click on "Filters, Animation, Playback" in the menu to preview the animation as you work.

5. Repeat step four until you have finished and are satisfied with your pixel animation. Change the speed of the frame transition if desired by clicking on the layers in the window to the right and entering this in the comments for that layer: (1500ms). "MS" stands for milliseconds. Change the number until the animation moves at the speed you want. Save your animation when you are finished.

References

• GIMP: Simple Animations
• Pixel Joint: Pixel Art Tutorials
• Tinka-Bell on Deviant Art: How to Animate Pixel Art