Resources and Support: How do I get bigger pixels?

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How do I get bigger pixels?

Printed From: Pixel Joint
Category: The Lounge
Forum Name: Resources and Support
Forum Discription: Help your fellow pixel artists out with links to good tutorials, other forums, software, fonts, etc. Bugs and support issues should go here as well.
URL: https://pixeljoint.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=11925
Printed Date: 13 September 2025 at 3:55am

Topic: How do I get bigger pixels?

Posted By: Berzerkin' Ape
Subject: How do I get bigger pixels?
Date Posted: 02 April 2011 at 2:34pm

Hi everyone!

I have a quick question concerning the size of say a sprite for a game.

I found out most people use a 32 x 32 frame for sprites, which suits me fine. But there is one thing I can't seem to work out.

When I use GraphicsGale and draw a sprite of 32 x 32, the lines are thin. VERY thin. I would like to get the pixels to show more. So instead of a straight line, I'd like to see the squares better.

How do I get this effect?

Many thanks in advance,

Berzerkin' Ape

Replies:

Posted By: ellie-is
Date Posted: 02 April 2011 at 4:31pm

...use more squares?
I'm not sure if I get your question.

Posted By: cure
Date Posted: 02 April 2011 at 5:05pm

firstly, I dunno what you mean by 'most people use 32x32 for sprites'. people use all sorts of different sizes, depending on the platform or personal preference, or what the games calls for, or what sort of sprite it is.

by very thin, I assume you mean 1 pixel thin. that's how pixel art is made. one pixel at a time. ergo, it's gonna be small. if you want 'bigger' sprites (that is, larger sprites but not a larger resolution) then just... enlarge whatever your draw. make the pixelart, then resize it by a whole number (x2, x3, etc) so the pixels don't turn into rectangles or anything.

Posted By: Berzerkin' Ape
Date Posted: 03 April 2011 at 2:24am

Excuse me for my vague question.

I have exactly 0,0% experience with pixel art, maybe that's why.

Alright, let's try it this way.

Take a look at these pictures. There's a huge difference. I'd like to have the sprites look somewhat like the first picture, but I don't want my sprites to end up 200 x 200 or bigger. I want my sprites around 32 x 32, maybe somewhat bigger, but with the effect of the first picture.

The second picture has the thin lines I was talking about.

Did this make it any more clear?

Thanks in advance,

Berzerkin' Ape

Posted By: jeremy
Date Posted: 03 April 2011 at 2:41am

It's literally just changing the scale of an image. The pixels are the same size in each, but the fishing one is composed of 2x2 pixel blocks.

they could easily look like this:

another example:

Posted By: Berzerkin' Ape
Date Posted: 03 April 2011 at 2:54am

@ Jeremy

Thanks for your reply.

So if I understand you correctly:

If I want to have this effect, I could just stay in the 32 x 32 frame, but just take my drawing and enlarge it? This way I'll keep the 32 x 32 but have it enlarged anyway?

Thanks!

Posted By: jeremy
Date Posted: 03 April 2011 at 3:38am

If you wanted the end result to be 32x32, you'd have to pixel something 16x16 in size.

If you want it to be 64x64 or 96x96, yeah you can pixel something 32x32 and enlarge by 2 or 3 times respectively.

Posted By: Berzerkin' Ape
Date Posted: 03 April 2011 at 4:15am

Ah!

Thanks for that! I think that is the answer I'm looking for.

How would you suggest doing that? I'm currently using GraphicsGale. When I start working in a 32 x 32 frame, I can't change it to 64 x 64.

Besides that, I'm using Multimedia Fusion 2 for creating a game. When I enlarge my 32 x 32 sprite to 64 x 64 it becomes vague.

Any other methods?

Posted By: Blueberry_pie
Date Posted: 03 April 2011 at 6:18am

Besides that, I'm using Multimedia Fusion 2 for creating a game. When I enlarge my 32 x 32 sprite to 64 x 64 it becomes vague.

If you're enlarging in the image editor, untick the 'Resample' checkbox before resizing. If you're enlarging in the frame editor, go to Tools -> Preferences and untick 'Resample images when resizing active and backdrop objects' under the Frame Editor tab.

Also, if this is for a game, it might be a better idea to leave your sprites at normal size and render the entire game at 2x or 3x the size instead. Otherwise, you could end up having objects that move across the screen at 1 pixel increments, when the actual graphics are made up of larger pixels (if that makes sense). That always looks kinda weird, in my opinion. If you want, I can upload an example .mfa file to show you how to enlarge the rendered game size.

Fellow MMF2 user here, if you hadn't noticed :)

Posted By: Berzerkin' Ape
Date Posted: 03 April 2011 at 7:29am

Originally posted by Blueberry_pie

Besides that, I'm using Multimedia Fusion 2 for creating a game. When I enlarge my 32 x 32 sprite to 64 x 64 it becomes vague.

Thanks for your reply Blueberry!

Awesome to see that I'm not the only one using MMF! I'm using MMFD2 though, so the developer version. I hope this does not change the enlarging process?

I would like to try out enlarging the whole game, so the .mfa file would be very appreciated!

Thanks in advance :)

Posted By: Blueberry_pie
Date Posted: 03 April 2011 at 9:27am

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/21757911/windowscaling.mfa - Alright, here you go :) There are some comments in the event editor that explain how it's done. Feel free to PM me if you have any questions. And no, using the Standard or Developer version doesn't make a difference in this case.

Posted By: Berzerkin' Ape
Date Posted: 03 April 2011 at 9:35am

Originally posted by Blueberry_pie

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/21757911/windowscaling.mfa - Alright, here you go :) There are some comments in the event editor that explain how it's done. Feel free to PM me if you have any questions. And no, using the Standard or Developer version doesn't make a difference in this case.

Great! Thanks alot!

I'll be gone now, looking at the .mfa!

I'll be sure to PM you, thanks for the help :)

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