For three experiments, the author created pixel art characters and scenes in Photoshop to develop ideas for their video game project. In experiment 1, they made a pixel detective character. In experiment 2, they created a pixel city skyline with a monster. In experiment 3, they animated a character walking and faced challenges with resizing and speed that they overcame. They were pleased with the results but saw areas for improvement like adding more detail. Overall, the experiments provided inspiration for character and world design for their video game.

1. Experiments Reflection

2. Experiment 1: Pixel Character
For my first experiment, I wanted to try create a character. Because my main characters are
detectives, that is what I based my experiment off so I can gather ideas for how I may want my
characters to look. I didn’t follow a tutorial, I used Adobe Photoshop and used the design of
another image to help guide me as this was my first attempt.
I think the experiment went well and I am happy with the result, doing this has given me some
inspiration for my character design for my video game. To improve, next time I could add facial
features to the character, or even just more structure around the face in general.
Inspiration/
Guide Image
End Result/My
Image

3. Experiment 2: Pixel City Skyline
For my second experiment, I wanted to create a city skyline view. I based this experiment off of how I would like my
world to look for my own project. I also used photoshop to create this. I used a gradient of the grey colors to create this
city skyline and try and give it more dimension, rather than just one row of buildings. I followed this same pattern with the
sky to give it a gradient effect. At the end, I decided to add a ‘monster’ from my film concept to once again help me gather
ideas for my own project. This was created using the brush tool in Photoshop.
I’m happy with the end result and think the experiment went well, to improve next time I could add more shading to the
monster to give it more dimension and bring the character to life.
Inspiration/
Guide
Images
End
Result/My
Image

4. Experiment 3: Animation
For my third experiment, I wanted to animate a character walking. I had never done animation in Photoshop before
today and wanted to practice before animating my own project. For the background, I got a pixel image from google as
this was just for practice. I quickly made a new pixel character in Photoshop that looks like a character from a game
‘The Darkside Detective’. I created a ‘frame animation’ in Photoshop. It took lots of frames to animate. As I wanted to
animate them walking, I made each leg a separate layer so I could move them individually.
Overall I’m quite happy with the end result and think the experiment went well. I faced some challenges during the
process. One issue was that I wanted to enlarge my character on a separate frame but it would always copy onto all the
frames. To solve this I had to create several layers for anything I wanted to resize separately. Another was that the
animation was moving too quickly. To solve this I changed the speed at the bottom to 0.05 so it wasn’t too slow, but not
too fast where you can’t see the animation properly. To improve, next time I would maybe animate more of the
character like its arms, head etc. to help bring the character to life. I could also create my own background next time
and possibly animate the flicker of the lights, or the current weather.
*see screenshots in next slide

6. Experiment 3: Magazine Cover
For this experiment, I recreated a ‘Vogue’ magazine cover featuring Zendaya. I used different images that were from the
same shoot. I made this using Photoshop and the font used was downloaded from ‘dafont’ as I wanted it to match the
other covers. I had the colors of the text co-ordinate with her outfit and the background color so it is all cohesive, I
then used black and white for the rest of the text so it contrasts. I’m pleased with the end result and think it look similar
to other Vogue covers. To improve, next time I would change the color of the font, instead of using black so it doesn’t
look as harsh.
Original
Cover/
Image
My
Cover/
Image