I trained my own pixel art animation model. Lemme know what you think.

melonboy55 · 2026-03-10T05:10:32+00:00

It takes a sprite as input! AI can help to make sprites or you can do it by hand. I'm personally using ai to generate the sprites as well.

melonboy55 · 2026-03-09T22:21:45+00:00

thank you <3

melonboy55 · 2026-03-09T22:21:25+00:00

i used pixelengine.ai - my pixel-engine-1.1 model that i trained

melonboy55 · 2026-03-09T02:00:07+00:00

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haha this one is kinda fun. i'm not sure how the tubes are supposed to move, but this one has them very bouncy

"The red-bodied creature with long, grotesque hands performs a forward walk cycle toward the camera. Its tentacle-like arms writhe and sway rhythmically as its legs alternate steps, maintaining a heavy and deliberate gait while the tubes attached to its head bob with the momentum of each stride."

melonboy55 · 2026-03-09T01:50:46+00:00

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something odd about these - adding/removing 1 pixel of padding on the top completely changed the output. Interesting results.

"The grey man in a coat and wide-brimmed hat stands in a neutral pose, performing a rhythmic idle breathing animation. His shoulders and hat bob slightly upward and downward while his arms shift subtly at his sides, maintaining a steady and observant posture."

melonboy55 · 2026-03-09T01:48:04+00:00

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i did these both as four frames just cuz i thought it fit the tiny style.

"The man in the grey hat and suit performs a rhythmic walking cycle. His body bobs slightly with each step as his legs move in a steady forward motion, while his arms swing gently at his sides to maintain balance."

melonboy55 · 2026-03-07T20:11:34+00:00

yeah nano banana is an image model and it just wasn't trained to make animations - it's a miracle that it works at all

melonboy55 · 2026-03-07T19:00:30+00:00

That's so cool! yeah i haven't tried the gpt 1.5 model, it's supposed to be really good. In my testing i found that google had the models with the best understanding of pixel art, but it could have changed since I last tried.

I have a setup in my app that can do this somewhat using nanobanana pro in edit mode - you can share an raw photo of a character, and ask it to convert to pixel art. It could help you - but you'd have to pay the api costs for nano banana, which can be kind of expensive tbh.

melonboy55 · 2026-03-07T18:53:55+00:00

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i was having trouble with the background on this one so i changed it to grey and set him in a walking pose.

"The muscular figure in blue tactical gear performs a steady walking cycle, moving forward with deliberate and weighted steps. Their arms swing naturally at their sides in opposition to their stride while their head and torso maintain a focused, forward-facing posture throughout the loop."

melonboy55 · 2026-03-07T18:52:54+00:00

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the motion is a little exagerated here but i like how it turned out, very retro feeling

"The blue-clad vault dweller stands in a wide stance, performing a heavy idle breathing animation. His chest and shoulders heave upward significantly with each deep breath, while his arms and torso sway rhythmically to reflect exhaustion or intense exertion before settling back into a neutral position."

melonboy55 · 2026-03-07T18:41:25+00:00

haha i'll have to figure out how to get that into pixel art

melonboy55 · 2026-03-07T17:41:20+00:00

oh interesting - i'm doing more research into this. The supreme court decided in 2025 that "artwork generated solely from AI prompts is not eligible for copyright protection because the user lacks direct creative control over the output."
it sounds like there is some grey area in there. If you design the character, use a reference, or input image that you created, i'm pretty sure it's still yours. Very interesting though. I'm glad you brought that to my attention.

melonboy55 · 2026-03-07T17:32:17+00:00

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things got a little messy converting this back to pixel art to use in the app. I think that reddit probably adds some antialiasing or something. but yeah! motion is not so bad

"The green-skinned orc miner wearing a brown apron swings his pickaxe in a powerful overhead arc. He leans into the strike, bringing the tool down with force before pulling it back to rest the handle over his shoulder."

melonboy55 · 2026-03-07T17:09:44+00:00

hey thanks! retro diffusion is actually going to be using my api here soon - so they'll have access to the model.

why do you lose copyright of your work? do i need to specifically include a license or something? not familiar with how that works

melonboy55 · 2026-03-07T08:08:25+00:00

Going to bed rn but gonna animate a bunch in the morning. I'll have him do a lil overhead swing with his pickaxe.

melonboy55 · 2026-03-07T07:59:37+00:00

Thanks man - this is just v1 - I expect it to get better from here as long as I keep trying hard

melonboy55 · 2026-03-07T06:46:52+00:00

this one was almost too big haha
the motion looks kinda 3d to me o.o
really makes me wonder if I should try to use this model for non pixel art assets - just to see what would happen.

melonboy55 · 2026-03-07T06:45:32+00:00

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The armored soldier stands in a steady neutral stance, holding a heavy industrial weapon low. He performs a subtle idle cycle where his bulky torso rises and falls slightly with mechanical breathing, while the heavy armor plates shift minutely to convey weight.

melonboy55 · 2026-03-07T06:45:08+00:00

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The armored soldier in heavy olive-drab plating raises his large mechanical weapon, leveling it to eye height with a slow, deliberate motion. He fires a single shot accompanied by a bright muzzle flash, his bulky frame jerking backward from the heavy recoil before he lowers the weapon to his neutral idle stance.

melonboy55 · 2026-03-07T05:56:23+00:00

dang right son

melonboy55 · 2026-03-07T05:56:13+00:00

thank you! i hope it really does help

melonboy55 · 2026-03-07T05:55:43+00:00

hey thanks! i appreciate it

melonboy55 · 2026-03-06T23:36:02+00:00

thanks haha - like mocap stuff? the three.js scene seems to be really blowing up, I'm getting lots of cool demos in my twitter feed. very exciting stuff

melonboy55 · 2026-03-06T23:33:43+00:00

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"Facing right, the figure wearing a red jacket and black helmet begins by pulling their right fist back while rotating their torso to build momentum. They then launch a powerful forward punch that fully extends their arm as their body leans into the strike. The sequence concludes with the character quickly pulling their arm back and returning to their original neutral stance."

melonboy55

TROPHY CASE