Animated Loop's latest weekly challenge (ending 23 March) is all about pixel art.
If you would like to participate, visit their Twitter page.
The following pixel artists produced Pixel Joint's top rated pixel art for April 2016. Many thanks go out to this month's top pixel artists and all the members who took time to rate.
The following pixel artists produced Pixel Joint's top rated pixel art for June 2016. Many thanks go out to this month's top pixel artists and all the members who took time to rate.
The following pixel artists produced Pixel Joint's top rated pixel art for July 2016. Many thanks go out to this month's top pixel artists and all the members who took time to rate.
The following pixel artists produced Pixel Joint's top rated pixel art for August 2016. Many thanks go out to this month's top pixel artists and all the members who took time to rate.
The following pixel artists produced Pixel Joint's top rated pixel art for September 2016. Many thanks go out to this month's top pixel artists and all the members who took time to rate.
The following pixel artists produced Pixel Joint's top rated pixel art for October 2016. Many thanks go out to this month's top pixel artists and all the members who took time to rate.
The following pixel artists produced Pixel Joint's top rated pixel art for November 2016. Many thanks go out to this month's top pixel artists and all the members who took time to rate.
The following pixel artists produced Pixel Joint's top rated pixel art for December 2016. Many thanks go out to this month's top pixel artists and all the members who took time to rate.
We are all familiar with the World's smallest violin, but what about the tiniest guitar or piano?
Now it's your turn to pixel such an instrument.
Canvas Size - Max 64 (width) x 64 (height).
Colours - Max 12.
Transparency - Required.
Animation - Optional.
In celebration of the Spring festival (Chinese New Year), this week, PJ user yahkehbu wants you to create an image in the dimensions of a Chinese 100rmb bill. Money is the preferred gift for Chinese New Year.
The preview should be of a red envelope (hong bao) which is a traditional way of gifting money. Use one of the red envelopes below, or pixel your own!
Canvas Size - Exactly 155x77. (horizontal or vertical)
Colours - Max 17. (because its 2017!)
Transparency - No.
Animation - Optional.
The challenge thread will have all the challenge updates. The thread is also a great place to post your WIPs.
PJer and weekly challenge winner NoeleGrosie wants you to pixel food.
Any kind of food is good enough, junk food, fruits, vegetables, meats, drinks, anything so long as the actual food product is displayed.
Canvas Size - Max. 64 x 64.
Colours - Max. 24.
Transparency - Optional.
Animation - Optional.
Draw the good version of a normally evil character. It can be a sprite or portrait.
Canvas Size - Max 100 x 100.
Colours - Max 16.
Transparency - Optional.
Animation - Optional.
Create a sand-dwelling creature with the palette posted below.
Canvas Size - Max 200 x 200.
Colours - Exactly 4.
Transparency - No.
Animation - Optional.
Depict an animal that has at least one feature of two different animals. Gorilla-rat, pig-eagle, shark-spider. It's up to you.
Canvas Size - Max 150 x 150.
Colours - Max 16.
Transparency - Optional.
Animation - Optional.
Challenge winner and PJer yahkehbu wants you to pixel a person flying a kite with a background/landscape or scenery that is representative of your home town.
Canvas Size - Exactly. 96 x 160.
Colours - Max 20.
Transparency - No.
Animation - Optional.
You've just received a wooden crate full of unknown content. You open it and take a look at what's inside. All you find is sawdust. Digging deeper you discover a pretty old photograph all in black and white.
Pixel that photo.
Canvas Size - Exactly. 100 x 80 or 80 x 100
Colours - Max. 12. (greyscale)
Transparency - No.
Animation - No.
The challenge thread will have all the challenge updates. The thread is also a great place to post your WIPs.
The world has turned into a paradise full of alpha, beta and gamma rays. No life form has been spared and there are mutated versions of everything you can think of. However, society hasn't broken down and people live their normal lifes as nothing happened.
Depict an every-day scene in this not so twisted world.
Canvas Size - Max. 350 x 350.
Colours - Max. 32.
Transparency - No.
Animation - Optional.
The challenge thread will have all the challenge updates. The thread is also a great place to post your WIPs.
British music group "Gorillaz" have announced a new album called "Humanz" and it's shaping up to be great. In honor of their almost 20-year-long carrier pixel a piece that is related to one of their songs or members.
Canvas Size - Max. 300 x 300.
Colours - Max. 20.
Transparency - Optional.
Animation - Optional.
The challenge thread will have all the challenge updates. The thread is also a great place to post your WIPs.
Without question Shoot 'em Ups are fun to play. However, the common space theme sometimes just doesn't cut it. Time to be more creative!
Pixel a player "ship" that isn't your generic spaceraft. A plant with guns, an animal that poops rockits, anything goes! You can choose between a top-down and side-scrolling perspective.
Canvas Size - Max. 150 x 150.
Colours - Max. 16.
Transparency - Required.
Animation - Optional.
Depict an object that's got complementary colours to its real-life counterpart with the backround being in the colour that this object normally has.
What are complementary colours?
Canvas Size - Max. 100 x 100.
Colours - Max. 16.
Transparency - No.
Animation - Optional.
The challenge thread will have all the challenge updates. The thread is also a great place to post your WIPs.
It's 1-bit time this week!
Your task is to create a piece that only consists of #ffffff (white) and #000000 (black). There is no overall topic given which means you can pixel anything you like. Just make sure that your palette solely has the 2 above mentioned colours.
Canvas Size - Unrestricted.
Colours - 2.
Transparency - No.
Animation - Optional.
The challenge thread will have all the challenge updates. The thread is also a great place to post your WIPs.
Have you ever asked yourself what your spirit animal is?
Now you have the chance to pixel even three of them! Create a RPG party with the different members being humanoid animals. Try to work in the stereotypical traits of the animals you pixel. For example, the strong bear as the tank or the wise owl casting spells.
Typical characters are:
The warrior
The healer
The engineer
The sorcerer
The thief
The hunter
However, you can make up your own classes.
Canvas Size - Max. 350x350
Colours - 32.
Transparency - Optional.
Animation - Optional.
What makes a winning smile?
A nice set of teeth? A cute nose? The perfect chin? No, it's none of that! Create the portrait of an extraterrestrial being smiling at the camera. You can go crazy on the facial features. The more eyes the better.
Canvas Size - Exactly. 100x100
Colours - Max. 16
Transparency - No.
Animation - No.
The challenge thread will have all the challenge updates. The thread is also a great place to post your WIPs.
Foreign cultures and their take on mythology have always had a huge impact on art over the centuries. But once in a while there is a creature that goes over the top!
Challenge winner skamocore wants you to draw a kaso-obake - a one-eyed, one-legged umbrella demon.
Canvas Size - Max 160 (width) x 200 (height).
Colours - Max 12.
Transparency - Optional.
Animation - Optional.
The challenge thread will have all the challenge updates. The thread is also a great place to post your WIPs.
In memory of Chris Cornell, PJer and fan of alternative rock Gecimen wants you to pixel an avatar-sized portrait of your favourite musician.
Optional bonus challenge: Use the portrait as your avatar through the week.
Canvas Size - Max 64 x 64.
Colors - Max 7.
Transparency - No.
Animation - Optional.
The challenge thread will have all the challenge updates. The thread is also a great place to post your WIPs.
You are about to enter the fight of your life and can only pick one weapon. What will you use? Make sure to pixel a full sprite with a character wielding the weapon.
Anything is allowed, ranging from sticks to nukes, real or fictitious, practical or not.
Canvas Size - Max 100 x 100.
Colours - Max 16.
Transparency - Required (sprite background).
Animation - Optional.
Summer is approaching and the temperatures outside finally allow to wear shorts and t-shirts again.
Depict a typical summer-themed scene with the palette below. Eating ice cream, going for a swim or spending some time with friends in the park, it's up to you.
Canvas Size - Unrestricted
Colors - Exactly 4.
Transparency - No.
Animation - No.
The challenge thread will have all the challenge updates. The thread is also a great place to post your WIPs.
Having a bad time? Feeling down? Or are you merely living in the southern hemisphere and have to deal with the approaching winter? Just change your perspective, they say, and everything will be fine again.
No overall theme given. Pixel anything of your choice (scene, object, person, etc) using 3 point perspective!
Canvas Size - Max. 333x333.
Colors - Max. 16.
Transparency - No.
Animation - No.
It's strong, it's sturdy and it's deep within our bodies. No, I'm not talking about your soul or self-confidence! It's bones. 206 hard-as-hell structures that keep your adult body upright and mobile.
This week, pixel one or more bones. It doesn't have to be human bones. You can even depict a full bovine skeleton if that's your thing. Just make sure that there is no tissue.
Canvas Size - Max. 150x150.
Colors - Max. 13.
Transparency - Optional.
Animation - Optional.
What was back in the days looked down upon has now become a world-wide phenomenon. Boosting the need for good illustrators and artists all over the globe.
Comics are on the rise!
Former challenge winner and well-respected PJer, fan of comics and good illustrations Arcade Hero wants you to create either a page or cover of a comic.
You can make up your own story or take a hero from an existing universe.
Canvas Size - Max. 300x350.
Colors - Max. 32.
Transparency - No.
Animation - No.
The challenge thread will have all the challenge updates. The thread is also a great place to post your WIPs.
1. e4 g5 2. d4 f6?? 3. Qh5#
Haha, fools mate!
Challenge your friends with your very own custom designed chess set! All 6 classic chess pieces must be featured: pawn, rook, knight, bishop, queen, and king.
Canvas Size - Each piece must be no larger than 32 x 128. Size does not include optional labels and background decorations. Total canvas size unrestricted.
Colors - Max 16.
Transparency - Optional.
Animation - Optional.
No doubt, we all have a favourite movie. Whether it's Ash defeating the Army Of Darkness or Doctor Zhivago (1965, of course) finally being alone with Lara in the Taiga. There is always one scene or character that really strikes us.
Take such a character or iconic shot from you favourite movie and pixel it. How you depict it is up to you. A portrait, sprite or whole scene, everything goes.
Canvas Size - Unrestricted.
Colors - Max. 32.
Transparency - Optional.
Animation - Optional.
The challenge thread will have all the challenge updates. The thread is also a great place to post your WIPs.
When flesh turns into steel the term "cyborg" is not that far away. However, this week we are not talking about hybrids. We want you to go full machine!
Play god and create mechanical life. Just make sure that there is or was a real-life counter part in existence. No dragons or monsters allowed.
Canvas Size - Max. 350x350.
Colors - Max. 16.
Transparency - Optional.
Animation - Optional.
The challenge thread will have all the challenge updates. The thread is also a great place to post your WIPs.
After 32 years of duty Microsoft is planning to kill off MS Paint with this year's Autumn/Fall Creators Update. I think we can all relate to Paint in a way, whether good or bad.
There is a good chance that your first piece of pixel art was done with the help of MS Paint. For this week's challenge we want you to go back to one of your first pixels and recreate it with all your now acquired knowledge about rendering, colours and AA.
Make sure to put a link to the original artwork in the description.
Canvas Size - Unrestricted.
Colors - Max. 32.
Transparency - Optional.
Animation - Optional.
With George A. Romero passing away recently we have not only lost a man who wore scuba goggles as glasses, but also one of the inventors of the zombie genre. His first 3 films featuring "Of The Dead" in the title are considered to be horror classics.
In order to pay some tribute reimagine one of your favourite characters from a movie, series or game as a drooling zombie.
Canvas Size - Max. 150x150.
Colors - Max. 16.
Transparency - Optional.
Animation - Optional.
Create an idle animation of a sprite; but exaggerate it a little. Breathing, shaking limbs, dust from the ground, anything you can think of. Organic, spiritual, mechanical, anything goes.
Canvas Size - Max 100 x 100.
Colours - Max 18.
Transparency - Required (sprite background).
Animation - Required.
There is a fine line between genius and insanity. I have erased this line.
- Oscar Levant
You look at his palette:
You ask yourself what to do with it. You contemplate and are still unable to find an answer. You follow your daily routine but can only think of these 4 hues. You feel strange looking at anything green or brown. You wake up in sweat every morning living through a night of nightmares. You can't eat, relax or sleep. You slowly lose the ability to see other colours. You suddenly notice that you are being driven insane!!!
And then it hits you! This is the solution to it all! You just have to........
Canvas Size - Max. 350x350.
Colors - Exactly 4.
Transparency - No.
Animation - Optional.
The challenge thread will have all the challenge updates. The thread is also a great place to post your WIPs.
Your favourite music playing, lowered windows and sunny weather. Driving can be such an enjoyable thing. We all have something to reminisce about when it comes to cars.
This week it's all about our beloved 4-wheeled vehicles! I want you to choose and pixel one of the following things.
The way you depict the car is up to you. You can create a sprite, a scene, a mock up or more of an technical drawing etc.
Canvas Size - Unrestricted.
Colors - Max. 32.
Transparency - Optional.
Animation - Optional.
Crush your enemies. See them driven before you. And to hear the lamentations of their women.
- Conan
As much as we've learned to live in peace and have more or less respect for other human beings you can't deny that there's a lingering thirst for fighting & competition in every single one of us.
Rather than knocking on your neighbour's door and putting your recently acquired Kung-Fu skills to test and maybe loosing some teeth in the process, just sit down and pixel a tiny, tiny warrior.
You don't have to stick to swords and bows, mere fists or even guns are allowed as well.
Canvas Size - Max. 32x32.
Colors - Max. 12.
Transparency - Optional.
Animation - Optional.
The challenge thread will have all the challenge updates. The thread is also a great place to post your WIPs.
 |  |  |  |
 | Ash Wednesday 46 days before Easter Sunday (February or March) |
 | Chinese New Year January or February |
 | Groundhog Day February 2nd |
 | Mardi Gras / Shrove Tuesday / Carnaval / Carnival Tuesday before Ash Wednesday (February or March) |
 | President's Day (USA) Third Monday of February (February 22nd) |
 | Valentine's Day February 14th |
| More holidays | |
