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Description

No other part of the human body contains more information about a character's identity and person-hood than that character's head. This is is why in pixel art, when space is extremely limited, unnaturally large portions of sprites are often devoted to the depiction of characters' heads. This is also why these giant-headed characters are accepted when the reverse would not be.

This study examines the usage of different-sized heads in pixel art, using real-world examples as well as archetypal heads of my own creation. Some resolutions are extremely versatile and acceptable for use with a variety of body proportions, while others are used almost exclusively by certain genres of gaming. When creating sprites of your own, these are important points to consider.

For the purposes of this study, the term "head" may exclude ears, noses, chins, hair and other protuberances. In essence, it's the size of a character's cranium that is being measured.

While both outlined and non-outlined sprites are presented below, the dimensions given in this study refer to the the height and width of a head in pixels excluding any outline.

When the width and height of a character's head differ, the width is given precedence in my categorization, with commonly-occurring variations noted on the left side.

If you have any suggested additions, let me know. I can update this study in the future.

[Patreon ] [itch.io ] [Twitter ] [Tumblr ] [YouTube ]

Description

No other part of the human body contains more information about a character's identity and person-hood than that character's head. This is is why in pixel art, when space is extremely limited, unnaturally large portions of sprites are often devoted to the depiction of characters' heads. This is also why these giant-headed characters are accepted when the reverse would not be.

This study examines the usage of different-sized heads in pixel art, using real-world examples as well as archetypal heads of my own creation. Some resolutions are extremely versatile and acceptable for use with a variety of body proportions, while others are used almost exclusively by certain genres of gaming. When creating sprites of your own, these are important points to consider.

For the purposes of this study, the term "head" may exclude ears, noses, chins, hair and other protuberances. In essence, it's the size of a character's cranium that is being measured.

While both outlined and non-outlined sprites are presented below, the dimensions given in this study refer to the the height and width of a head in pixels excluding any outline.

When the width and height of a character's head differ, the width is given precedence in my categorization, with commonly-occurring variations noted on the left side.

If you have any suggested additions, let me know. I can update this study in the future.

[Patreon ] [itch.io ] [Twitter ] [Tumblr ] [YouTube ]