General info

• Where can I learn how to make pixel art?
  We have links to many helpful tutorials in our tutorials section, appropriately.
  
  The forum is also a great resource for learning from your peers. They often have relevant and useful information to help you along you pixel education.


• What do I need to create pixel art?
  You only need two things: a graphics program and lot of patience. We can't help with the latter, but for the former see the links section or the forum resources section.


• Why do people criticize my art?
  PixelJoint is an art gallery and forum full of artists who are serious about about improving and helping their fellow artists improve. As such, users will often point out flaws in your art and hopefully give you advice on how to improve it. We refer to this as C&C, or comments and critique, and it's not just accepted but strongly encouraged. If you come from other art communities where the focus is not on improvement, you may find such comments hurtful or offensive, but please understand they are never meant as an insult, or to be taken personally. In fact, it should be taken as a great compliment that someone took the time to critically analyze your art and offer suggestions for improvement.
  
  That said, on very rare occasions users will be found to make rude and completely unacceptable posts that are only meant to stir up trouble. If you feel certain this is the case after reading the above, please DO NOT RESPOND! Report it and let the mods take care of them.


• How do I hire a pixel artist for a project/job?
  The best way to find the perfect match is to contact the artist directly. If an artist is interested in work, they will usually have contact info on their profile.
  
  If you'd like to post a job offering you can do so in the job forum. You must read the job posting rules before posting an advertisement.
  
  If you still can't find what you are looking for try digging around the gallery and finding a pixel artist that suits you. Good luck!

Edited by Hatch - 08 November 2009 at 9:00pm

The forum

• How do I post an image?
  Upload your image to an image host, like ImageShack or TinyPic, copy the direct link they give you, and paste that link into the image tool window on the posting form. Step-by-step instructions for doing this are coming soon.

Edited by Hatch - 08 November 2009 at 9:01pm

Technical stuff

• What is RSS?
  PixelJoint now has an RSS feed for the news section and chatterbox, but just what is RSS? Check out BBC's user friendly description of RSS and you'll see what RSS is and how useful it can be.


• What is IRC and how do I connect to the PixelJoint channel?
  You will need an irc program like XChat for Windows and Linux or X-Chat Aqua for Mac OS X. Firefox has an extension called Chatzilla that works very well too. Once you have this installed just hit the link for the IRC channel under the 'Community' menu above every page. IRC behavior rules are similar to those on the gallery and the forum.


• What file format should I use for pixel art?
  GIF or PNG. Most modern graphics programs can save in these formats.


• How do I know if my pixel is being saved as a png8 or png24?
  Coming soon!


• How do I make my GIF transparent?
  Many modern graphics editors support transparency natively, so you can just erase your solid background. Consult your program's documentation for specifics. If your graphics program does not, you can use an online service like Iaza to do it.
  
  
  1. First, make sure your image uses a unique color for the background —for example, if you use white for the background and also for the eyes, you'll need to change it or else you'll make the eyes transparent too.
  2. Go to iaza.com and load your image.
  3. In the main iaza menu, select Transparent—it's in the top-right corner, next to Transform.
  4. On the page it takes you to, click on any part of your image's background. Nothing obvious will happen. This is OK.
  5. Click the Convert button.
  6. Now back on the main page, right-click (or control-click if you're on a Mac and still have a one-button mouse) your image and select Save Image as...
  
  For Windows users, there's a free program called Giffy which you can use to easily make your images transparent. Download it here.


• When I zoom images in the gallery, they get all blurry. Help!
  Many browsers do this, unfortunately. There is no fix for most of them. Your best bet is to use Firefox and follow the directions in this post to see zoomed pixels in all their crisp glory. Note that this is fixed in recent versions of Firefox. Consider upgrading if this is still a problem for you.


• How can I see the specs of an image, such as color count, frames, etc.?
  You can view most specs of an image here. To step through each frame of an animation, check out this great tool made by our very own 1ucas.

Edited by Hatch - 25 April 2010 at 8:01pm

How can I search for pixel-art in the gallery?

There are two search engines: the PJ search engine (click search at the bottom of each page) and Google (use the search box at the top of each page).

The PJ search engine works well with one keyword only, and returns images in the form of a gallery: most useful to find previous images of the subject you have in mind, let's say a dragon. You can refine your search using criteria such as dimensions, color number, isometric, etc.

However if you want to search for pieces featuring a dragon and knight, and use those keywords, you'll only get pieces where those words appear in that specific order: little or nothing.

Using Google is better in this case, although the results appear as a list without images.