pixel-art

name pixel-art description Pixel art w/ era palettes (NES, Game Boy, PICO-8). version 2.0.0 author dodo-reach license MIT platforms ["linux","macos","windows"] metadata {"hermes":{"tags":["creative","pixel-art","arcade","snes","nes","gameboy","retro","image","video"],"category":"creative","credits":["Hardware palettes and animation loops ported from Synero/pixel-art-studio (MIT) — https://github.com/Synero/pixel-art-studio"]}} Pixel Art Convert any image into retro pixel art, then optionally animate it into a short MP4 or GIF with era-appropriate effects (rain, fireflies, snow, embers). Two scripts ship with this skill: scripts/pixel_art.py — photo → pixel-art PNG (Floyd-Steinberg dithering) scripts/pixel_art_video.py — pixel-art PNG → animated MP4 (+ optional GIF) Each is importable or runnable directly. Presets snap to hardware palettes when you want era-accurate colors (NES, Game Boy, PICO-8, etc.), or use adaptive N-color quantization for arcade/SNES-style looks. When to Use User wants retro pixel art from a source image User asks for NES / Game Boy / PICO-8 / C64 / arcade / SNES styling User wants a short looping animation (rain scene, night sky, snow, etc.) Posters, album covers, social posts, sprites, characters, avatars Workflow Before generating, confirm the style with the user. Different presets produce very different outputs and regenerating is costly. Step 1 — Offer a style Call clarify with 4 representative presets. Pick the set based on what the user asked for — don't just dump all 14. Default menu when the user's intent is unclear: clarify( question= "Which pixel-art style do you want?" , choices=[ "arcade — bold, chunky 80s cabinet feel (16 colors, 8px)" , "nes — Nintendo 8-bit hardware palette (54 colors, 8px)" , "gameboy — 4-shade green Game Boy DMG" , "snes — cleaner 16-bit look (32 colors, 4px)" , ], ) When the user already named an era (e.g. "80s arcade", "Gameboy"), skip clarify and use the matching preset directly. Step 2 — Offer animation (optional) If the user asked for a video/GIF, or the output might benefit from motion, ask which scene: clarify( question= "Want to animate it? Pick a scene or skip." , choices=[ "night — stars + fireflies + leaves" , "urban — rain + neon pulse" , "snow — falling snowflakes" , "skip — just the image" , ], ) Do NOT call clarify more than twice in a row. One for style, one for scene if animation is on the table. If the user explicitly asked for a specific style and scene in their message, skip clarify entirely. Step 3 — Generate Run pixel_art() first; if animation was requested, chain into pixel_art_video() on the result. Preset Catalog Preset Era Palette Block Best for arcade 80s arcade adaptive 16 8px Bold posters, hero art snes 16-bit adaptive 32 4px Characters, detailed scenes nes 8-bit NES (54) 8px True NES look gameboy DMG handheld 4 green shades 8px Monochrome Game Boy gameboy_pocket Pocket handheld 4 grey shades 8px Mono GB Pocket pico8 PICO-8 16 fixed 6px Fantasy-console look c64 Commodore 64 16 fixed 8px 8-bit home computer apple2 Apple II hi-res 6 fixed 10px Extreme retro, 6 colors teletext BBC Teletext 8 pure 10px Chunky primary colors mspaint Windows MS Paint 24 fixed 8px Nostalgic desktop mono_green CRT phosphor 2 green 6px Terminal/CRT aesthetic mono_amber CRT amber 2 amber 6px Amber monitor look neon Cyberpunk 10 neons 6px Vaporwave/cyber pastel Soft pastel 10 pastels 6px Kawaii / gentle Named palettes live in scripts/palettes.py (see references/palettes.md for the complete list — 28 named palettes total). Any preset can be overridden: pixel_art( "in.png" , "out.png" , preset= "snes" , palette= "PICO_8" , block= 6 ) Scene Catalog (for video) Scene Effects night Twinkling stars + fireflies + drifting leaves dusk Fireflies + sparkles tavern Dust motes + warm sparkles indoor Dust motes urban Rain + neon pulse nature Leaves + fireflies magic Sparkles + fireflies storm Rain + lightning underwater Bubbles + light sparkles fire Embers + sparkles snow Snowflakes + sparkles desert Heat shimmer + dust Invocation Patterns Python (import) import sys import os sys.path.insert( 0 , os.path.expanduser( "~/.hermes/skills/creative/pixel-art/scripts" )) from pixel_art import pixel_art from pixel_art_video import pixel_art_video # 1. Convert to pixel art pixel_art( "/path/to/photo.jpg" , "/tmp/pixel.png" , preset= "nes" ) # 2. Animate (optional) pixel_art_video( "/tmp/pixel.png" , "/tmp/pixel.mp4" , scene= "night" , duration= 6 , fps= 15 , seed= 42 , export_gif= True , ) CLI cd ~/.hermes/skills/creative/pixel-art/scripts python pixel_art.py in.jpg out.png --preset gameboy python pixel_art.py in.jpg out.png --preset snes --palette PICO_8 --block 6 python pixel_art_video.py out.png out.mp4 --scene night --duration 6 --gif Pipeline Rationale Pixel conversion: Boost contrast/color/sharpness (stronger for smaller palettes) Posterize to simplify tonal regions before quantization Downscale by block with Image.NEAREST (hard pixels, no interpolation) Quantize with Floyd-Steinberg dithering — against either an adaptive N-color palette OR a named hardware palette Upscale back with Image.NEAREST Quantizing AFTER downscale keeps dithering aligned with the final pixel grid. Quantizing before would waste error-diffusion on detail that disappears. Video overlay: Copies the base frame each tick (static background) Overlays stateless-per-frame particle draws (one function per effect) Encodes via ffmpeg libx264 -pix_fmt yuv420p -crf 18 Optional GIF via palettegen + paletteuse Dependencies Python 3.9+ Pillow ( pip install Pillow ) ffmpeg on PATH (only needed for video — Hermes installs package this) Pitfalls Pallet keys are case-sensitive ( "NES" , "PICO_8" , "GAMEBOY_ORIGINAL" ). Very small sources (<100px wide) collapse under 8-10px blocks. Upscale the source first if it's tiny. Fractional block or palette will break quantization — keep them positive ints. Animation particle counts are tuned for ~640x480 canvases. On very large images you may want a second pass with a different seed for density. mono_green / mono_amber force color=0.0 (desaturate). If you override and keep chroma, the 2-color palette can produce stripes on smooth regions. clarify loop: call it at most twice per turn (style, then scene). Don't pepper the user with more picks. Verification PNG is created at the output path Clear square pixel blocks visible at the preset's block size Color count matches preset (eyeball the image or run Image.open(p).getcolors() ) Video is a valid MP4 ( ffprobe can open it) with non-zero size Attribution Named hardware palettes and the procedural animation loops in pixel_art_video.py are ported from pixel-art-studio (MIT). See ATTRIBUTION.md in this skill directory for details.