The PxR Spriting Encyclopedia

[SassySnivy]

.:*~Pixel Art Terminology and Jargon~*:.

1.) Anti-Aliasing | v., n. | "a technique used to add greater realism to a digital image by smoothing jagged edges on curved lines and diagonals." --Dictionary.com

2.) Banding | v., n. | When pixels line up together, or "hug" each other. Banding is frequentlly used with deliberately shaded sprites.

3.) Color Ramp | n. | A group of colors that can be used together; a palette. Typically arranged according to the lightness and darkness of the colors, also by the hues.

4.) Contrast | n. | The difference between the bright or darkness of two colors, and how large or small this difference is.

5.) Custom | adj. | A sprite or pixel art made completely on your own. Is very commonly referred to as "scratching" or "scratch spriting" in most Pokemon communities. ((opinion: That term makes me die a little on the inside, it sounds a little amateurish)) Said terminology originates from the saying to make something "from scratch."

6.) Dithering | v., n. | The process of placing pixels in a deliberate, repetitive manner--commonly in a checkerboard pattern--to create a certain texture effect and/or to smooth the space between two colors. This is relatable to cross-hatching or stippling in more traditional art media.

7.) Edit | v., n. | A sprite or a pixel art piece that has been edited from something made by a different party.

8.) Gradient | n. | A gradual change from one color to another. Usually refers to color ramps that have too many colors, little contrast, and/or lack of hue-shifting.

9.) Hue | n. | The actual color on the color spectrum. For example, red, orange, green, blue, yellow, and the like are classified as hues.

10.) Hue-Shifting | v., n. | The process of shifting over the hue, saturation, AND luminosity as you go up or down in your color ramp.

11.) Isometric | adj. | A perspective "in which a three-dimensional object is represented by a drawing (i·somet·ric draw·ing) having the horizontal edges of the object drawn usually at a 30° angle and all verticals projected perpendicularly from a horizontal base, all lines being drawn to scale." --Dictionary.com
See the image below:

It is coming from a very uniform perspective. Specifically, 2 across and 1 down.

12.) Jaggies | n. | Jargon that refers to the jagged lines in a sprite.

13.) Light Source | n. | The location, or "source" from which light originates from. This can also include the size of the source of light as well, and much more rarely, the color.

14.) Luminescence | n. | Commonly referred to as a color's "value" or "brightness." It describes how dark or light a color is. The lower the luminescence, the darker the color; on the other hand, colors with a higher luminescence are closer to white.

15.) Non-Isometric | adj. | A non-uniform perspective that is basically most commonly used in pixel art. You will typically see non-isometric pixel art much more often than isometric pixel art.

16.) Pillow Shading | v., n. | A shading process in which all of the light is focused in the very middle. Heavily frowned upon because it is incorrect and fails to show three-dimensional depth.

17.) Pixel Cluster | n. | The connected grouping of a certain color of pixels.

18.) Pixel-Over | v., n. | Tracing in the pixel art world, essentially. Tracing over an image while taking the elements of pixel art into consideration. Traces can be from either your own or another party's work.

19.) Readability | adj. | How well a sprite or pixel art can be "read" without basically squinting. Something with a good readability has the least problems with representing an object.

Both images are the same, but the one on the left has a lower readability.

20.) Recolor | v., n. | The process of changing the colors of a pixel art piece; mainly spriting in particular.

21.) Saturation | n. | How concentrated or "watered down" a color is. A color with a high saturation is very vivid and sometimes bright (for instance, take a look at the old MS Paint's default color palette); a color with a low saturation, on the other hand, looks more grayish.
High Saturation:

Low Saturation:

22.) Scratch | v., n. | (See "custom.")

23.) Selective Outlining | v., n. | The process of "shading" lineart; coloring certain areas of line art appropriately based on how far or close it is to the lightsource.

24.) Shading | v., n. | Without it, pixel art is almost nothing. Without it, art is almost nothing. Shading is typically referred to as being the process one uses to add depth to an image, by adding lighter and darker colors, or "shades" where appropriate.

25.) Texture | n. | To give an image the illusion of texture is giving it the appearance of having some type of feel / consistency.

.:*~Common Terms in Pokemon Spriting Communities~*:.

While I originally did not intend on adding these, this is a Pokemon forum that can be catgorized under a "typical Pokemon spriting community;" thus this is intended to inform those who are unfamiliar with the jargon used.

Please take note that while these are associated with the Pokemon spriting community, they do not have to refer to the practice of SPRITING them, specifically. Fusions, for instance, are common in the entire Pokemon fan art community. Mainly sprites, however.

1.) Advanced Recolor | n. | Recoloring in a sense that demands more time spent and effort. For example, recoloring something not only to have a specific color, but specific pattern(s) as well.

2.) Devamp | n. | In subject of the goal, devamps are exact opposites to revamps. The method, however, is debatable. Devamps tend to be more effective when made entirely custom, or very, very heavily edited from an existing sprite.

3.) Disguise | n. | By common definition, a type of advanced recolor in which the artist recolors one Pokemon to have the color scheme of another.

4.) Fakemon | n. | A fan-made monster based off of the Pokemon franchise.

5.) Fusion | n. | A term commonly associated the creation of a new Pokemon by combining two existing ones.

6.) Retype | v., n. | Redesigning a Pokemon so that it fits a different typing / type combination.

7.) Revamp | n. | Whether by editing or making from scratch, this typically refers to making an older version of a Pokemon sprite look new and with the updated proportions and changes. For instance, by taking the sprite from Gold and editing, tweaking, and reshading (or just entirely remaking it as is) it to give it the appearance of having came from Ruby and Sapphire would count as a valid revamp.

8.) Splice | n. | (See "Fusion"). Synonymous to fusions. Tends to have a very, very slightly different connotations, however. Splicing refers mostly to the act of copying and pasting parts from one sprite onto another.