Tutorial

PixelArt Border

Alrighty. What we'll be doing here is creating a PixelArt style border in photoshop, simultaneously making an action to automate the entire process in future for us at the press of a button. :D

As the name implies, its mainly for pixelart, but you can use it on pretty much anything you like, if you're after a rough anti-aliased look.

Before you ask, yes, a 1px "stroke" blending style will not suffice. Photoshop does not allow you to disable anti-aliasing on the stroke style, causing it to add extra pixel information and colours to your work, which is the bane of pixel art. Below is a comparison (at 200% zoom).

fig. 1: Our starting image. fig. 2: The image with a 1px stroke blending style. 3. The image with a correct 1px Pixel Art style border

In case you don't already have a file you want to apply this technique to, you can download the PSD I used from here.

Firstly, make sure the object you want to give a border to is on a seperate layer from everything else in your image. Select the layer with the object you want to add a border to.

On the Actions tab, hit the "Create New Action" button (the one which looks like a piece of paper), give the action a name, and assign a key to it, if you like.

Now click "Record" The new action is now recording, memorising your actions so that they can all be replayed whenever you like, to any other image. Be careful now, and try not to record any unneccessary functions!

With the layer you want to use still selected, go to the Layer Menu, and click "Duplicate Layer"

Right-click on this new layer, and go to "Blending Options". Turn on colour overlay and choose the colour you want for the border. I chose black. Don't forget to make sure the Blend Mode for the Colour Overlay is set to "Normal", and its opacity set to 100%.

Hit "OK" to close the Blending Options box. Turn on the move took (hotkey: V)

Press the up arrow key exactly once, to nudge the color overlay'd layer up one pixel above the original layer

Duplicate the color overlay'd layer and hit the down arrow key twice, in order to position this new duplicate one pixel below the original image

Duplicate the newest layer and use the arrow keys to position it one pixel to the right of the original image (hit up, then right)

Duplicate for the last time, and position this last layer one pixel to the left of the original image (hit left twice)

If everything has gone right so far, your image should now look something like this:

I know! Its a bit wonky! Don't panic! With the last layer duplicate still selected, Merge Down (Hotkey: Ctrl-E). Merge down again, and once more, so that all the border-colour layers are merged into one.

Finally, re-order this merged layer down below the original layer you wanted to put the border onto (on the layer stack, not on the actual image). Now on the Actions tab hit the stop button.

Horray! A pixel art border! And now whenever you need a new border, you can simply select the action you have recorded and hit play! :D

If you have any trouble with any part of this tutorial, please, PLEASE email me at aocias (AT) optusnet (DOT) com (DOT) au.