You can make pixel-perfect artwork on the fly with these strong pixel art apps on your phone. Pixel art was not only a type of digital art in the 1980s; it was fundamental. Asset creators had to be inventive because low-powered technology could only manage so many colors and pixels to effectively represent their ideas in-game.
But since then, times have changed. You may join the growing number of artists who are entering the realm of pixel art, even if you aren’t in front of a computer. To pick the best pixel art app for you, we suggest downloading and trying the following iOS and Android applications.
Table of Contents
1. Pixel Station
Your very first piece of pixel art is fantastic. The artwork will now be animated as we advance. If you’ve ever used a stop motion app, this one operates similarly. With the same settings, brushes, and tools as the prior program, the 8bit canvas editor is identical. To create a moving image, you can duplicate the frame and make adjustments in the animation tab.
You can add copy frames, change each frame’s position, and set the delay period. The animation tab’s most user-friendly feature is the transparent image of the previous frame that appears when you click it, making it simpler to make modifications to the current frame. If you want to experiment with pixel art animation, this free app on the Play Store is a terrific choice. However, Pixel is your best bet if you’re looking for an iOS comparable app.
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2. Pixilart
The Pixilart app introduced what is arguably the best method for producing pixel art on mobile. Before Pixilart, apps designed exclusively for making pixel art would immediately start drawing pixels on the canvas when your finger touched the screen. Unless you’re incredibly closely zoomed in, this can be challenging to control.
In contrast, tapping and dragging in Pixilart merely causes your cursor to move. A pixel is not added to the screen at the cursor’s location until you press the Draw button. Users were attracted by this unique take on the standard drawing feature, which gradually grew into one of the largest online communities for pixel artists in existence today.
In order to share your artwork with other users of the platform, you must first establish an account. There is no requirement to join up if you don’t want to share your artwork. Launch the application, then select the Start Drawing button.
You cannot upload adult material to Pixilart because it is a community for people of all ages. Filters for spam and profanity are automatically enabled, and all communications are seen by everyone. For those who prefer to use Pixilart on a desktop or laptop, there is also an in-browser editor.
3. Dotpict
Dotpict is a social media platform and pixel art software that was probably developed by pixel artists themselves. Pixel text and icons can be found throughout the in-app interface.
It performs similarly to Pixilart in terms of functionality. The same drawing style is used, the necessities are present, and a family-friendly neighborhood has been established. Although the editor supports up to three levels, the animation is not supported.
The autosave and time-lapse capabilities, however, are what make Dotpict stand out from the competition. Autosave makes sure that even if the app crashes for some reason, you won’t lose all of the artwork you were working on. You can save a GIF animation of your pixelling process from beginning to end if you enable the time-lapse feature before you begin creating.
4. Procreate
While it doesn’t appear that there is a specific iPad software for making pixel art, Procreate was created with the aim of maximizing the iPad’s artistic potential. This digital painting program, which is frequently recommended as a substitute for Adobe Photoshop, is also more than capable of producing pixel art.
With its lengthy list of options, you’ll probably need to fiddle with the brush settings panel. You should either disable anti-aliasing or stick to opaque brushes to make sure you’re just working with sharp edges.
Palette Capture is the most beneficial and distinctive feature that Procreate offers to pixel artists. You can import a picture from the Photos app rather than making your own color schemes. The colors in the image will then be turned into a unique palette by Procreate.
Procreate also boasts a sizable collection of textured brushes, fine-grained color adjustments, and a plethora of spectacular digital effects, though these aren’t functions you’ll frequently use for pixel art. The app costs one time and is compatible with the Apple Pen.
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5. Pix 2D
Pix 2D is the program you should start with if you want to make pixel art on Windows. With a square brush that precisely measures one pixel, you may begin coloring pixels in the app’s grid workspace. The software only has a few brushes, but you can easily get by without them.
To get the most out of the pixel art app, you also get the usual color wheel, eraser, selection tool, and fill bucket tool. Additionally, the tool allows you to animate your pixel art to produce universally usable sprites. You can get the app from the Microsoft Store for free. If you want more Windows-compatible drawing programs.
6. Pixaki
Pixaki is one of the top pixel art apps, and it has received excellent reviews. It has a customizable palette system and a multi-touch interface. The most common file kinds are supported, along with animation and up to 50 layers. Sprite sheets, or graphics that display the order of each frame of an animated sprite, are a fantastic feature for game makers.
Pixaki’s Reference Layers make it simple to turn a sketch into pixel art. When you resize your sketches to make pixel art on top of them, you frequently lose a lot of the original information. With Pixaki, you can resize, reposition, and import any image in full resolution from your photo library.
The app’s lite version is available for free, although it has fewer features. Only three regular layers and one reference layer are permitted, along with a maximum canvas size of 160 x 160 and up to eight frames of animation. You can have an infinite number of layers, references, and animation frames if you purchase the complete edition of the app (Pixaki 4 Pro). You can export to more complex file types, such as Photoshop’s PSD, and have a canvas size of up to two megapixels.
7. Pixel Paint
If you intend to animate a physical image in an 8-bit layout, all you have to do is take a picture of it with your smartphone’s camera and begin editing it with the editor that comes with the device. The app allows you to take pictures in four different vintage styles, including Gameboy, Dot Matrix, MSX, and C64. After taking the picture, you can edit it in the editor by opening the file.
Pixel paint is only available on iOS, but you can use 8Bit Photo Lab to take retro-style photos with your Android phone. However, this app does not include a pixel editor.
8. Piskel
Although you can create some impressive artwork on your phone, a computer makes more sense when you want to go all out. We’ve looked at both Android and iOS apps. Piskel is a skilled web editor for pixel art. In the online editor, you may produce still images and animated GIFs and switch between tools rapidly by using keyboard shortcuts. With the onion options and a preview of the final sprite on the side, animating frames is simple.
With specialized buttons, you may easily do transformations such as flipping, rotating, aligning, and cloning frames. You can export the project in common formats like PNG, GIF, Zip, etc., or store it locally in the proprietary format. With advertisements, Piskel is open-sourced and free.
9. Pixel Studio
Another straightforward yet functional pixel art tool made especially for macOS is called Pixel Studio. The user interface and controls are logically distributed all across the canvas, which you may zoom in and out of as needed. You can bookmark your most frequently used colors in the color palette on the left side.
All the instruments, including the magic wand, brush, pan, and bucket filler, are located on the right side. If you wish to animate your sprites, layers support in the program will be extremely useful. On the App Store, you can unlock the dark theme, cross-platform syncing, Google Drive syncing, and ad removal for free.
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Conclusion
Pixel art games have experienced a rebirth in the independent gaming market, which may be partially attributable to how simple it has gotten to get started. These pixel art apps only require your phone or tablet, unlike certain graphics programs that need relatively capable technology to function properly.
