An Aseprite pixel workflow: a set of defaults you can copy as-is
I recently read a very long, in-depth Aseprite guide that breaks down the workflow for pixel-art games in detail. I've noted the parts most useful to me, especially the default setup that's hard to go wrong with if you just copy it.
Canvas: start characters at 32×32, enemies, items and icons at 16×16, and go up to 64×64 for the hero when needed. You can set the default zoom to 800% while editing, but keep 1:1 rendering in the game; don't let the zoomed canvas in the editor fool you.
Palette: start from DB32 on Lospec, expand to 48–64 colours as needed once the main colour scheme is set, but keep the colours actually used in a single frame to 16 or fewer. A palette is "colours you can choose", not "colours you must use up". Ideally the whole project shares one main palette; swapping it out mid-development leaves older assets mismatched.
Animation: idle at 8 FPS, attacks at 12 FPS, special moves at 24 FPS. Within one file you can give individual frames different lengths with Frame Duration.
Export: sprite sheets laid out by rows with JSON Hash data, and files named "character_action" as PNG + JSON pairs.
The most common trap once in the engine is filtering: Filter Mode must be Point, not Bilinear, and pixel art doesn't need texture compression. In Unity, the official Aseprite Importer lets you import .aseprite files directly, saving the manual export step.
One more piece of advice I strongly agree with: find an action you repeat more than ten times a day and write a small 20–30 line Lua script for it, one a week. After a few months, the time saved is far more than you'd expect.
A good place to start choosing palettes: https://lospec.com/palette-list
Source: Xmohe 独游魔盒
Canvas: start characters at 32×32, enemies, items and icons at 16×16, and go up to 64×64 for the hero when needed. You can set the default zoom to 800% while editing, but keep 1:1 rendering in the game; don't let the zoomed canvas in the editor fool you.
Palette: start from DB32 on Lospec, expand to 48–64 colours as needed once the main colour scheme is set, but keep the colours actually used in a single frame to 16 or fewer. A palette is "colours you can choose", not "colours you must use up". Ideally the whole project shares one main palette; swapping it out mid-development leaves older assets mismatched.
Animation: idle at 8 FPS, attacks at 12 FPS, special moves at 24 FPS. Within one file you can give individual frames different lengths with Frame Duration.
Export: sprite sheets laid out by rows with JSON Hash data, and files named "character_action" as PNG + JSON pairs.
The most common trap once in the engine is filtering: Filter Mode must be Point, not Bilinear, and pixel art doesn't need texture compression. In Unity, the official Aseprite Importer lets you import .aseprite files directly, saving the manual export step.
One more piece of advice I strongly agree with: find an action you repeat more than ten times a day and write a small 20–30 line Lua script for it, one a week. After a few months, the time saved is far more than you'd expect.
A good place to start choosing palettes: https://lospec.com/palette-list
Source: Xmohe 独游魔盒
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