A cute idea for homes without small children, the Magnetic Pixels box comes with 1400 10mmx10mm colored magnetic "pixels" from Kikkerland for $30 (or buy directly from the creator). In the right hands, we can imagine some inspired 8-bit art covering those blank white canvasses known as refrigerators.
Here's actually where we could use your help: Is there a repository of 8-bit character design? Like, you see that piece of graph paper in the picture? Is there something like that on a website somewhere for people to easily fill in cubes with colors and save for easy reference? There's Favicon.cc, which works well and has a search, but isn't ideal. We're talking something super simple, please don't mention complex apps. Otherwise, we'll have to come up with our own idea on how to fix this inspiration issue, cause lord knows -- especially by looking at our photochops -- we don't have an artistic bone in our barely literate bodies.
[Via OhGizmo]
Reader Comments (16)
Posted: Apr 8th 2009 12:39AM (Unverified) said
I found a collection online years ago that had most of the popular characters such as Mega Man, Black Mage, Kirby, Mario, etc. So, it definitely exists and I should've bookmarked it.
Posted: Apr 8th 2009 12:40AM (Unverified) said
I want this but not for $30....damn economy.
Posted: Apr 8th 2009 12:43AM ScoobyMaroon said
I've seen some pretty cool video game sprite art made out of perler beads (aka: fuse beads) I imagine you could buy a small magnet and glue it to the perler beads. This would probably be cheaper and give you more versatility in your designs.
Posted: Apr 8th 2009 12:49AM monkeyhole said
Something like this?
http://spriters-resource.com/
http://spriters-resource.com/
Posted: Apr 8th 2009 1:02AM wilef said
Posted: Apr 8th 2009 1:29AM (Unverified) said
We over at Sprite Stitch (http://www.spritestitch.com) have several good resources linked easy on the right hand side, and everyone seems to be great to answer to requests in the forums as well!
Posted: Apr 8th 2009 2:14AM Alexisonfire said
A piece of graph paper and some pencil crayons.
Posted: Apr 8th 2009 2:22AM Roto13 said
I just blow sprites up and draw lines through them.
Posted: Apr 8th 2009 2:28AM Sega Uranus said
8-bit consoles are the only platforms to support pixels, apparently.
Posted: Apr 8th 2009 4:42AM Cyantre said
Posted: Apr 8th 2009 6:54AM soop said
I'd do Final Fantasy 1
Posted: Apr 8th 2009 8:22AM BurritoBushido said
Im surprised everyone here has neglected the simplest solution. Ctrl + G in Microsoft Paint. That puts in gridlines. You can also zoom in on the picture too if you need to, and the corner will display the coordinates you are pointing to (remember that computer coordinates are funky and start from top left.
Posted: Apr 8th 2009 10:34AM (Unverified) said
Mario Paint for the SNES had a whole bunch of guides for drawing things on a pixel grid.
http://mariopaintguide.webs.com/
http://mariopaintguide.webs.com/
Posted: Apr 8th 2009 11:08AM (Unverified) said
There was a pretty good Mac application called Pixen I used to use to blow the images up and look at them pixel by pixel.
As for the actual pixel images, I got them from here:
http://www.gsarchives.net/index2.php
This was when I was making pixel art using perler beads.
As for the actual pixel images, I got them from here:
http://www.gsarchives.net/index2.php
This was when I was making pixel art using perler beads.
Posted: Apr 8th 2009 12:44PM HydrophobicFish PSN ID Hydrophob said
There are lots of websites out there that have sprite sheets listed on them.
You could then open up those sprite sheets in MS Paint, and increase their size by a bit, and should be able to infer which colour goes where.
Photoshop (which I know all the joystiqers have... I saw those Resident Evil 5 images!) also has the ability to add a grid. But, the grid isn't pixel by pixel, or at least, I haven't checked to see if there's a way to make it that.
You could then open up those sprite sheets in MS Paint, and increase their size by a bit, and should be able to infer which colour goes where.
Photoshop (which I know all the joystiqers have... I saw those Resident Evil 5 images!) also has the ability to add a grid. But, the grid isn't pixel by pixel, or at least, I haven't checked to see if there's a way to make it that.
Posted: Apr 8th 2009 4:54PM (Unverified) said
I bought something similar to this a few years ago called Magnetic Mosaics. They're actually foam squares backed by (weak) magnets (not sure if the Magnetic Pixel ones are foam or not). If you don't mind getting a different color pallette, you get 2000 pieces instead of 1400, and its only $19.
http://www.wonderbrains.com/magnetic-mosaics.html
http://www.wonderbrains.com/magnetic-mosaics.html



