Blow Up Images Pixelated

[DillonFoulds]

Hey there, just wondering if anyone has any tips on pixelating images? I want to be able to take screenshots of mame characters, and blow them up, but keep the characters super blocky (retain pixels).

Some examples to help get my point across...

http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/9/2007/02/mario_divided_.jpg
http://media.photobucket.com/image/mario%20art%20pixels/rikhan_z/pixel-mario.gif

Even if it leaves small gaps between the pixels, that's fine!

[SavannahLion]

Most people don't want super pixelated images when they blow them up.

Have you just tried doing it and seeing how it results? As long as you don't "stretch" the image during the process, it should turn out the way you want. If there's an option, don't allow any feathering or other dithering calculations to occur either. Just set the calculations to none or whatever similar option you have.

[newmanfamilyvlogs]

The type of resampling you want is called "Nearest Neighbor" as opposed to something like "Bicubic". What they call this process is different in various programs. It might be labeled "Interpolation" or "Scaling Algorithm" for example.

What program are you using to work with the graphics?

[DillonFoulds]

Hoping to do it all in Photoshop CS3.

I'll play with it more today and see what I can get.

[AzureKnight]

Just a crazy thought, as a last resort if you can't seem to get them the way you want stretching them, you could always create one "pixel" template square and then just keep copying it and changing the color to redraw the character yourself "pixel" by "pixel".  It might be a bit tedious though depending on how many of these you are looking to create.

[newmanfamilyvlogs]

In Photoshop,
Image->Image Size->Check "Resample Image", select "Nearest Neighbor (preserve hard edges)"

Then just set the new size at the top of the box in either the Pixel Dimensions or the Document Size.

[DillonFoulds]

Yup, sorry I should have posted that I found that. That's what I did, and it worked... not sure I'm satisfied with it yet, but I'll play...

[opt2not]

In Photoshop,
Image->Image Size->Check "Resample Image", select "Nearest Neighbor (preserve hard edges)"

Then just set the new size at the top of the box in either the Pixel Dimensions or the Document Size.

This will get you what you want, and quick!

I find for sprite art prints, putting an outline around the blown-up sprite using the Outer Glow Layer Style helps. You can use Outer Glow to create outlines with a few parameters.



Clear the background, so you have the sprite by itself in the layer.
Right Click on your sprite layer and click Blending Options, this'll open the Layer Style window.
Click on Outer Glow, set the Blend Mode to Normal and the Opacity to 100%. Set the colour to Black (or whatever colour)...then Spread to 100%. You can then play with the Size to get the outline thickness you want.
This is a decent quick effect to get rounded outlines that will retain detail when you scale the image, makes sprite work easier on the eyes when at a larger scale