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Pixx Suite

Enhance · Lighting & shadow studio · Intermediate

Pixxado — Intermediate

Light like a pro in Pixxado: several lights, form and self-shadowing, painted height, palette-locked shading, shadow layers per frame, saved setups and lit levels.

Open Pixxado

#What you'll learn

  • How to combine a sun with point lights, and how light height and direction shape the shadow.
  • How the shading shape, self-shadowing and painted height work together.
  • How to keep every shaded pixel inside your palette.
  • How to plan the canvas so every animation frame and its shadow line up.
  • How to save setups, make turn variants and light a level in Scene mode.

#Before you start

  • Read the Pixxado beginner guide first: picking a look, moving the light and exporting are assumed.
  • Have a sprite or animation from your game, and its palette if you use one.

#How-tos

#How to combine several lights

  1. Start with Sun / moon for the main light.
  2. Click + Point light under Lights for each torch, lamp or glowing item. Drag each one on the stage.
  3. Select a light in Lights to edit it: Intensity, Colour, z (height), Radius and Flicker for point lights; Direction and Height for the sun.
  4. Each light casts its own shadow. Lower the Intensity of side lights so the main shadow stays readable.
  5. Ambient sets how bright the shadows are overall; raise it for daylight, lower it for caves.

#How to control the shading form

  1. In Shading, choose Shape: Rounded (inflate), Bevelled, From brightness or Flat.
  2. Tick Shape each colour region to round each colour area on its own (arms, belts, gems).
  3. Tune Bumpiness (surface detail), Form gradient (how much light falls off across the form), Self-shadowing (raised parts shade the parts behind them), Ambient occlusion (darker creases) and Rim light.
  4. Use Strength to blend the lighting with the original art, and Keep dark outlines so outlines stay crisp.

#How to paint height by hand

  1. Click Paint height above the stage.
  2. Drag to raise the surface; Shift-drag or right-drag to lower it. Set the Brush size first.
  3. Switch the View to Height to see what you painted, or Normals to see the surface Pixxado lights.
  4. Painted height belongs to the current frame. For animations, paint the key frames that need it.
  5. Already have a normal map from another tool? Use Use a normal map… instead. It applies to the first frame.

#How to lock shading to your palette

  1. In Shading → Colours, choose Palette and pick it from Choose a palette…, or send a palette from Pixxulo: a received palette locks the shading automatically.
  2. Set Steps to how many shades up and down each colour may move.
  3. Set Band edges to Hard bands, Clean bands or a Dither size to control how shade bands meet.
  4. With a palette lock, the light colour no longer tints pixels: Pixxado never invents colours outside your palette.

#How to make room for shadows across an animation

  1. Open Canvas. Room for shadows is Automatic (fit every frame) by default: Pixxado plans one canvas for all frames, so long shadows fit and every frame has the same size and ground line.
  2. Choose Keep the sprite size (clip) when the output must match the original size exactly, or a fixed margin (8, 16 or 32 px on each side).
  3. The note under it shows the output size, where the sprite sits and the ground line's y. Your game uses these to place the sprite and shadow.
  4. If the sprite came with hitboxes and pivots from Pixxeta, the ground line follows the pivot.

#How to save setups and make turn variants

  1. Get a light you like, then Save setup in Looks with a name. It appears under Your setups.
  2. Apply a saved setup to any sprite with one click; use Export JSON / Import JSON to share it.
  3. For characters that face different ways, click Turn variants… under Lights to light the same sprite from the left, top and right in one go.

#How to light a level in Scene mode

  1. Click Scene in the View bar and open a level image (up to 1024 × 1024), or a tile map sent from Pixxori.
  2. Pixxado adds a lamp if the level has none. Add more with + Point light and drag them into place.
  3. Set Darkness and Darkness tint for unlit areas, and Light steps plus a dither for how light bands are drawn.
  4. Under What blocks light, pick Wall colours (click each wall colour), Opaque pixels (for a props layer on transparency) or, for a tile map, Level tiles.
  5. With a sun light, Prop height sets how long walls and props cast shadows.

#Workflows

#A lit, shadowed walk cycle for a game

  1. Animate in Pixxani or Pixxivi; add pivots in Pixxeta if you have them.
  2. Send it to Pixxado, pick a look, keep Room for shadows on automatic.
  3. Export → All three as Sprite sheet + JSON: lit art, shadow layer and composite, all on the same canvas.
  4. In your game, draw the shadow layer under the character so it can fade or stretch on its own.

#Shadows that follow into the game package

  1. Send to App → Pixxizi with Shadow layer only, and send the lit art separately.
  2. Pixxizi pairs them and exports the shadow as a child sprite under the character.
  3. Avoid sending Lit art with shadows and a shadow layer for the same sprite: the shadow would be drawn twice.

#A lit dungeon from a tile map

  1. Build the level in Pixxori with a collision layer and a height layer.
  2. Send it as a tile map to Pixxado. It opens in Scene mode with Level tiles blocking light.
  3. Place lamps, then Export the Darkness overlay and Light overlay to layer over the level in your engine.

#Tips and shortcuts

  • Ctrl+Z / Ctrl+Y undo and redo; Ctrl+O opens; Ctrl+S exports.
  • B flips Before / After; 0 fits; + / - zoom; Space plays; arrow keys step frames.
  • Shadows, Lit only, Normals and Height in the View bar show each ingredient on its own.
  • Point-light ground shadows stretch at most 4×, so a lamp just above a sprite doesn't throw an endless shadow.
  • Light direction: 0° is from the right, 90° from above, 180° from the left. Light height runs from 2° (grazing, long shadows) to 88° (overhead, short shadows).

#Troubleshooting

  • Shading ignores my palette. Check Colours is set to Palette, and that the palette has enough shades per colour for your Steps.
  • The animation's shadow jumps between frames. Use Automatic (fit every frame) and Ground line from the feet, or set the ground line once by hand.
  • Painted height only shows on one frame. Height is painted per frame. Paint the other frames too.
  • Light leaks through a wall in Scene mode. Wall colours must match exactly; click the exact wall colour, or use Opaque pixels with a separate props layer.
  • "Turn variants are for sprites". Turn variants don't work in Scene mode; switch back to sprite mode.