Udemy

The 2D Game Artist: Design Simple Pixel Art From Scratch

Make 2D art for games. From icons to animations. Using GIMP - the free Photoshop alternative.
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Length 1 to 3 months
Effort 4-5 hours per week
Price $ 15
Subject Art, Design
Level Beginner
Languages English
Video Transcripts English

This course is continually being updated, with additional new content being added every week.

GIMP is a super powerful, free, 2D art package. It's also 'open source' which means it's owned by the community, and constantly updated. Most of the features of the much more expensive Photoshop are available, giving you the power to create industry strength 2D art.

The challenge with this package is it can be intimidating for beginners, especially those who don't have much confidence in art or drawing. We make learning from scratch easy with our simple step-by-step process.

Even if you have no prior experience in drawing, or computer art, we'll take you from the very basics. By investing in a structured course like this you'll learn faster and more effectively than on your own, just check-out our latest reviews.

We provide challenges in every video to cement your knowledge, an active community of students and instructors to help you if you get stuck, and continuous updates to the course to improve the learning journey.

How is the course structured?

  1. We start by helping you master GIMP's interface

  2. Then we constrain you to just 8x8 pixels, to get you started

  3. Moving on we add colour, contrast and more to bring your images alive

  4. In section 2 we increase our canvas to 32x2 and beyond

  5. By the end of the course you'll be able to create great looking 2D icons.

Looking for 3D art, Blender, Unity or more? Check out our other courses, let the green leaf logo be your guide :-)

Also included with the course...

  • Access to our thriving community forum, and live chat server

  • Use of our custom built texture sharing service

  • Daily responses to your Q&A.

2D artwork is in demand, and now's a great time to get into GIMP.

What you'll learn

  • Master GIMP's powerful interface

  • Convey meaning through shape and colour

  • Use GIMPs fundamental drawing tools

  • Work with layers for complex images

  • Create gradients, drop shadows and reflections

  • Organise and professionally export your work.

  • Work to a specification like a pro

  • Create pixel art assets for your games

  • Create your own character

  • Becoming a digital artist

Course syllabus

Emotion Icons - Get Creative At 8x8 Pixels Game Icons - Creating 32x32 Pixel Art Animated Sprites Character Sketch Bonus: Tiling Textures Continuing Your GameDev Journey

Meet the instructors

Ben Tristem

GameDev.tv Founder :: Entrepreneur :: Passionate Teacher

Hi, I'm Ben. I have a degree in computing from Imperial College London, and a physics diploma from the Open University.

I started working for myself at the age of 15, and never looked back. I explored careers as varied as being a commercial pilot, stunt-man, rock climbing instructor, and more. None of these provided a continued challenge, and stable income in the same way technology does.

After building and selling a home computer support business, I became an angel investor and business mentor here in Cambridge UK. I fell in love with teaching game development through one of my investments, and I now spend all of my time sharing my passion with people like you.

I can't wait to help you experience the fulfilment, and financial freedom, that having a deep understanding of technology brings.

So why not start learning to make games with me and my team now?

Michael Bridges

Technology Teacher

I am a self-confessed technology geek and love teaching people new things.

I think it is a real shame that so many people carry around such wonderfully capable devices yet do nothing but the basics on them. Computers, laptops, tablets and smartphones can do much more than most people know. I would like to guide, reassure and educate people about using their technology to add to their lives

I have been playing, yes playing, with technology for as long as I can remember and I still do that today! Admittedly these days with other commitments I do have to watch what I spend as technology can burn a very deep hole and quickly.

As my parents will testify, I have always been inquisitive! even if it meant taking something apart to see how it worked. Of course not knowing how to put it back together again. To this day I love learning new things and developing myself as a person.

Despite my tech background I remain firmly grounded and talk to people using everyday language, unnecessary techno-babble drives me bonkers. This allows me to chat with people with limited knowledge on a subject and help them understand more.


GameDev.tv by Ben Tristem

Learn to Make and Sell Games

GameDev tv was created by best-selling Udemy instructor Ben Tristem to help anyone learn how to develop, design, and sell indie games. Our team supports Ben in making and maintaining high quality courses that are engaging and entertaining for our students.

GameDev tv offers comprehensive courses on Unity, Blender, Unreal and coding in C#, C++ and more. Looking to learn about a topic that we don't cover? Visit our community page and let us know.