Pixel art guides

Pixel artists say AI output "isn't real pixel art" and they're mostly right. What the conventions actually are, why models miss them, and the pipeline that closes most of the gap. Plus an honest list of what AI still can't do.

Animation strips, multi-sprite asset packs and 4-direction rotation sheets. The workflow for each, why single-call grids are the best trick for style consistency, and an engine-side checklist before anything ships.

Working colour counts per asset type, the classic palettes worth knowing (Game Boy, PICO-8, Sweetie 16, Endesga, Apollo), hue shifting in one paragraph, and the honest rules for dithering.

The four-slot prompt structure that works, why concrete game references beat adjectives, the classic failure modes (background eats subject, accidental scenes), and when to retune instead of re-roll.

The import settings that actually matter (Point filtering, no compression, PPU), slicing sprite sheets, building animation clips, and fixes for edge bleeding and fringing.

Nearest filtering, viewport stretch with integer scaling, AnimatedSprite2D from a sprite sheet, and the reimport gotcha that catches everyone.

An honest comparison with the biggest name in AI pixel art: where they're strong, and where our cleanup pipeline and free retuning pull ahead.

Pretty interface, serious animation. How we differ on output cleanup, iteration cost and quality at the cheap end.