There’s no denying that plenty of games have been keeping many of us company during the long quarantine stretch, especially Nintendo’s most recent smash hit Animal Crossing New Horizons. After unlocking the Pro design app located in the in-game NookPhone, try leveling up your island’s creativity by several notches with your own custom design creations. This costs you about 800 Nook Miles in game though, but it’s perfect for customizing your own patterns.
Want to use your own images or ready-made visuals out there for your in-game style? You can even bring in other game elements like Overwatch, Breath of the Wild, Pokemon and more into your custom island gear like face paint, furniture or clothes designs – but if you need some fresh inspiration, here are some unique pixel art visuals and customizable designs to spark the flames of your creativity.
Check out more from content creator Anna Chernova’s collection of pixel art.
Dmitrii Vlasov has a neat selection of pixel art that you can base your artistic designs off.
Perfect for patterns on your custom Animal Crossing gear! Explore more pixel visuals from Diana Johanna Velasquez’s collection.
Making Pixel Art From Any Image
A free, basic online tool like Pixlr X can help you with pixelating any image of your choice. It’s browser-based, so you don’t have to install a thing – the only download you need to make is your finished custom design masterpiece. To get started, all you have to do is drag and drop your photo into the Pixlr X interface to load it. Next, click on Filter in the left sidebar. Select Pixelate in the Filter tool, then adjust the slider accordingly to see how far you want to pixelate your photo. You can also adjust the colors and contrast before adding it into the game. Next, click on Save and your pixel art will be downloaded to your computer.
If you need a more in-depth tutorial on pixelating any image, check out my pixelation tutorial right here.
The following step would be to add it into your game. Now, you’ll probably need the Nook app installed on your phone for this, but there are plenty of guides that you could follow if you run a quick Google search. If you’re designing completely manually, and want to remove the pink grid guidelines in your Pro editor canvas… All you need to do before you start designing is using the Fill option to paint over your entire canvas in the color of your choice. That will basically be the base color of your canvas.
For customizing items like furniture in game, you’ll need to complete Tom Nook’s customization workshop if you haven’t already. Nook’s Cranny sells customization kits if you run out of the 50 kits Tom gives you after completing his workshop.
Can’t get enough of these, or are you looking for more specific custom designs? Explore more pixel art in 123RF’s library. All you need to do is add in the keywords “pixel art” and the keyword you want to the search bar and you’re good to go. Stretching your artistic abilities with pixel art has never been more fun!