Exercise 14: Tracing Existing Images

Is there something in particular you want to make into pixel art? I usually do some searching online and find images to work from or use as reference. When in doubt, look at existing photographs and illustrations, or the real thing. I spend a lot of time doing research and grabbing existing imagery online or elsewhere before embarking on some projects. I don't only grab images for tracing either. Most of what I find is more for reference, but sometimes it's just easier to use something that already exists as a guide for what I want. If you recall that Bee I demonstrated with in Part One of this tutorial, one of these was traced from a shrunk-down photograph. It's not an exact science, and get more difficult the smaller you go, but sometimes it works out great.

The basics of this are to copy/paste the image into your document. Shrink the image to the size you want your pixel object to be using the Transform controls. Then decrease its opacity to 25 percent, or 50 percent, or whatever you feel most comfortable tracing over. Next make a New Layer on top of it and choose a color to do your tracing with. You can most easily use the Pencil or the Lasso tool to do your tracing. Use the Eliptical Marquee Tool or a larger brush size for tracing circles and spheres. In the below example, I'll show you the steps in a tracing process:

I found the image of the Parasaurolophus online and shrunk it down to the size on the left. Then I decreased the opacity of it in the Layers palette, traced the shape as best I could using the Pencil, then filled it with color. I also added my own areas of a lighter shade of color, just to give him a little depth. Here's one more. I've even made a step by step animation for you:

I found an illustration of an Anklyosaurus, brought it into Photoshop, shrunk the image down to the size I wanted my own pixel Anklyosaurus to be (you may want to set your Resampling preference to "Bicubic" when resizing photos and illustrations like this), and proceeded to trace. Some creative license was taken with the colors and the spiky spots on his back. The shapes I trace are more like guides, and then I work with my own interests regarding color and detail.

It's a good option, this tracing technique. It sometimes works just as well to have a source image visible and draw your own next to it, instead of on top of it.

Exercise #15: Saving Images as GIFs