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	{"cogitum":{"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
sys.path.insert(0, "~/.config/cogitum/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 ~/.config/cogitum/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 — Cogitum 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.