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Pixel art w/ era palettes (NES, Game Boy, PICO-8).
npx skills add https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent --skill pixel-artCopy and paste this command into Claude Code to install the skill
Pixel art w/ era palettes (NES, Game Boy, PICO-8).
npx skills add https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent --skill pixel-artCopy and paste this command into Claude Code to install the skill
| 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"]}} |
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.
Before generating, confirm the style with the user. Different presets produce very different outputs and regenerating is costly.
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.
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.
Run pixel_art() first; if animation was requested, chain into
pixel_art_video() on the result.
| 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 | 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 |
import sys
sys.path.insert(0, "/home/teknium/.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,
)
cd /home/teknium/.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
Pixel conversion:
block with Image.NEAREST (hard pixels, no interpolation)Image.NEARESTQuantizing AFTER downscale keeps dithering aligned with the final pixel grid. Quantizing before would waste error-diffusion on detail that disappears.
Video overlay:
libx264 -pix_fmt yuv420p -crf 18palettegen + paletteusepip install Pillow)"NES", "PICO_8", "GAMEBOY_ORIGINAL").block or palette will break quantization — keep them positive ints.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.Image.open(p).getcolors())ffprobe can open it) with non-zero sizeNamed 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.
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