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Make a sketch of a character with a distinct silhouette, and try not to overload it with many details.
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Now that everything is set up, we can start creating the sprite. Go to Preferences > Units & Rulers and choose Pixels in the drop-down menu near Rulers to see all measurements in pixels. This will ensure that the edges of the objects you work with always stay sharp. Go to Preferences > General ( Control-K) and set up Image Interpolation to Nearest Neighbor. Note: The grid will be seen only on a newly created canvas with zoom level 600% and above. If you don't see this item in the menu, go to Preferences > Performance and turn on the graphic acceleration. Turn on the Pixel Grid ( View > Show > Pixel Grid). Set up Pencil Mode for the Eraser Tool and use the same brush settings as below. Your aim is to make the line absolutely sharp. Select a Hard Round brush in the Brush settings and apply the settings shown below.
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Select the Pencil Tool from the Toolbar, it will be your primary instrument for this tutorial. There's plenty of pixel art available too. If you want a quick way to find sprites or other game assets for your projects, check out the collection of sprites on Envato Market. In the process, I will cover all of the basic rules that you can apply to your future pixel art illustrations.
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In this tutorial, I will show you how to create and animate a pixel art sprite using just a few simple tools in Adobe Photoshop.
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