Hands-on workshopBeginner6 min

Generate concepts with AI

Turn a sentence into several pixel concepts, then refine the good ones instead of drawing from scratch.

You finish with

One refined, game-ready asset built from an AI concept.

01What you will learn

Write a focused prompt with one subject.
Judge generated concepts by their silhouette and palette.
Refine a concept into a usable, transparent sprite.

Start with: One subject to explore, and access to the AI concept tool. Generation uses a remote service; the drawing lessons and editor work locally.

02See the technique

What gets in the way

A prompt describing many objects and tiny details produces a busy concept that may not read on a small grid.

The useful change

Describe one subject and a palette mood, choose a practical grid, and refine only the clearest concept in the editor before exporting it.

03Follow the steps

1
Describe one subject, one mood
“A stone torch for a dungeon wall” beats “a fantasy torch with magical fire effects, highly detailed”. Extra objects blur at 32×32, so name the silhouette and the palette mood and stop there.
Open the generator
2
Choose the grid before generating
The concept is resampled to the size you pick — 16² for icons, 32² for sprites, 64² for detailed tiles — and the height follows the source aspect ratio, so nothing gets stretched.
3
Send only the good ones to the editor
AI output is a starting point, not an asset. Hit Refine on the concept closest to what you wanted; it lands in the editor as an editable document with the palette taken from the image itself.
Lower color counts read as more pixel art — 16 to 32 is usually right.
4
Clean the edges the model smudged
Expect stray anti-aliased pixels around the silhouette. Erase them, restore hard outlines, then export. Generated pixels are cheap; cleaned ones are what ship.
Open the editor

04Practice in Pikanim

Open a tool, follow the steps with your own asset, and come back when your result is ready.

Pixel Art Generator Pixel Art Editor

05Check your result

Compare your own work with these checkpoints. Check each one when your result is ready.

My concept has one clear subject that reads at its final size.I fixed unwanted edge pixels and background paint in the editor.I saved the refined project and exported a transparent PNG.

0 of 3 checked

Progress saves in this browser. No account needed.

06Continue learning

Next workshop

Clean edges, alpha and palettes

The editor habits that separate an asset from a drawing: hard edges, honest alpha, and a palette you control.

Your saved projects

Pick up the asset you made and keep building.

03Follow the steps

Describe one subject, one mood

“A stone torch for a dungeon wall” beats “a fantasy torch with magical fire effects, highly detailed”. Extra objects blur at 32×32, so name the silhouette and the palette mood and stop there.

Open the generator

Choose the grid before generating

The concept is resampled to the size you pick — 16² for icons, 32² for sprites, 64² for detailed tiles — and the height follows the source aspect ratio, so nothing gets stretched.

Send only the good ones to the editor

AI output is a starting point, not an asset. Hit Refine on the concept closest to what you wanted; it lands in the editor as an editable document with the palette taken from the image itself.

Lower color counts read as more pixel art — 16 to 32 is usually right.

Clean the edges the model smudged

Expect stray anti-aliased pixels around the silhouette. Erase them, restore hard outlines, then export. Generated pixels are cheap; cleaned ones are what ship.

Open the editor