About

This is a very detailed tutorial on pixelling. I have been asked many times the same question : how do you make pixels of those cute images? There are many ways of pixelling, everyone makes them in a different way, this tutorial explains pixelling in the easiest way possible.
Note: I used Adobe photoshop 5 to make this tutorial, it will work fine for newer versions of adobe too, it works almost same way for paint shop pro too, you can use this tutorial as long as your graphic program supports layers.

Pixelling

In this tutorial, I am using a cute picture of Mashimaro that I found here. You can use the same image, click here to save it.

» Open the image in adobe photoshop. The image is too big so we will resize it. click the image option from top menu of the program, choose image size and put the size there that you want to work with.

[PS Tip: If the image is n .gif format, resizing it rightaway will make the image look ugly and uneven. To avoid this, click the image option from top menu, select mode and select RGB mode in it. Now resize the image.]

» Now, in the layer palette, right click the background layer [L1] and select duplicate layer [L2]. Make the [L2]'s opacity 75% for now. Click the layer option in top menu or program and select new layer [WL], it will be transparent by default, keep its opacity 100%.

» Make the background layer invisible/hidden. Please view this image to understand the abbreviations used for different layers in this tutorial.

» Select the pen tool fro mthe tool box and layer [WL] in the layer pallete so its active. In this tutorial, all the drawing will be done only on the top layer ie: [WL]. Select the dropper tool and click on the image to find just the right color you want the borders of the image to have.

» Zoom in and start drawing pixel by pixel on the WL tracing the lightly seen image of the underlying layers. I chose a dark gray color for the outline of the image, click here to see a screenshot.

» Keep tracing the outlines carefulley, if you can not see the background image properly, you may click on the L2 and increase its opacity from time to time, but remember to slect the WL whenever you draw, do not draw on L1 or L2.

» Now you are actually pixelling, this will be better understood with pictures:

Outlining finised


Started filling color inside


Finished filling color inside


When both L1 & L2 are hidden [step is optional]


Flatten the image [on top menu, click layers > flatten > click ok if something else appears.]


» If you see some color coming out of the outlines, the remains of background layers, use the same colro as your background (white here) and with pen tool, color the outside outlines so there are no ugly looking stains anywhere.

» The image above is your actual finished pixel. However, to make it look even better, you have to add shades to it. Save the image first [.jpg] as a backup so if you mess up while shading, you still have the pixel saved.

» Open the saved image, right click the background layer in layer pallete and make a new layer. Choose darker shades than you used to fill the image, soom in and start shading randomly from the corners.

» Zoom out to see if the image looks good, I suggest you make new layers everytime you are adding new shades so if anything goes wrong, you can delete the layer that went wrong.

» To see how I added shading to the image click here.

This is your final pixel, save it as .jpg or make it transparent and save as .gif .....it may not look very good, but remember practice makes the man perfect. Pixelling needs patience and practice. Hope, you like the tutorial. Oh by the way, if you are wondering how my pixel turned out , see below :)

Don't Steal!


Note: Questions regarding this tutorial should be asked here.


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