Intro
With Japan’s prolific export of creative media over the decades, anime aesthetics have become commonplace all around the world. Considering the seminal contributions made by Japan in the gaming industry, it should be no surprise to find anime influence especially prevalent within video games. Needless to say, these charming doll faces with sparkling eyes are no stranger to the pixel form. Despite this prevalence, pixel art is not very conducive to capturing the fine line work of hand drawn anime. Like any pixel art translation, It requires careful analysis, simplification through abstraction, and precise pixel placement. But no worries, in this lesson I clearly break down each facial feature one at a time with guidelines for placement and proportions. Further allowing one to ease into the subject, this lesson focuses only on faces and hair, presented with neutral expressions and mechanical viewpoints.
“Like any pixel art translation, It requires careful analysis, simplification through abstraction, and precise pixel placement.”
While there are a diverse range of styles within the anime aesthetic, they are all unified by some common characteristics. I would say the most notable feature is big brilliant eyes, followed closely by the wild shiny hairdos that can be any color. Anime characters can appear quite outlandish, but it’s all inspired by real life. Ultimately, the aesthetic is an idealization of reality to effectively illicit emotion from pure form. What I present here is a general form based upon my studies and personal pixel inclinations.
“Ultimately, the aesthetic is an idealization of reality to effectively illicit emotion from pure form.”
Front View
First, let’s start with the straight on front view to get a clear sense of the proportioning and placement of the features.
Think of seeing a face through a subtle fisheye lens. Big eyes, little pouty lips, and an almost non existent nose mark the common traits here. Some features are exaggerated and some are subdued, but positioning of features follows accurate anatomy.
“Think of seeing a face through a subtle fisheye lens.”
Side View
Now let’s round the corner and look at that profile.
The nose is much more prominent from the side view, but the high and long types are less traditional, than the little swooped button noses which is natural considering the origins of anime. The features presented in the chart are supposed to mirror the features from the front view tutorial, however, there combination examples vary.
Hair
Bout time we get some lettuce on those shiners.
As I mentioned in the intro, hair is one of the top defining characteristics to an anime personality. This is a trade off for downplaying the mouth and facial movement, but it’s also just a clever way to easily distinguish characters. I like to imagine flow lines of the main locks, which usually stem from a cowlick towards the back of the head. Then I blob in the hair with a single color. Next I refine the shape as I work in shadows, and highlights to finish.
“hair is one of the top defining characteristics to an anime personality”
FINAL THOUGHTS
Anime was just starting to boom in the west when I was a young boy. I spent many allowance bucks on VHS tapes at the music shop in the mall. When I first got into it there was only a single row of tapes on a shelf to choose from, but only a few years later anime had its own dedicated aisle. I’d like to think me and my brother’s avid patronage was the main stimulus for the boom. Obviously, I grew up with the stuff and once even dreamed of creating my own anime. I’m excited to bring this style into my pixel toolbelt and intend to expand on the topic in upcoming features.
RESOURCES
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This month I’m sharing Anime Faces and Hair Asset Pack, which includes all the assets presented in this lesson. Have fun creating your own face and hair combinations!
My top patrons can also download the Anime Faces and Hair Source Files. Gain insight from this original psd file.
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-By Raymond Schlitter