How To Make An 8-Bit Twitter Avatar

It’s a great story, inspired by an 8-bitted Dribbble post by UK artist and designer Harry Harrison, San Francisco interactive designers Addison Kowalski, Amadeus Demarzi and Courtney Guertin took the idea to the next level by 8 bit-ing their Twitter avatars, which inevitably went viral among the tech set, finally consuming MG Siegler and myself in a blaze of pixelated glory about a day ago.

I'm not valley enough to know these 8bit avatar guys so I just made my own. Wouldn't trust them to get the hair right anywho.—
Sean Percival (@Percival) January 12, 2011

While Addison, Kowalski and Demarzi are actually planning to launch an EightBit social gaming app based on the characters soon, we just thought they looked cool in and of themselves as avatars.

warning: I am quietly judging all of you based on your decision to 8-bit your avatar. except for @alexia.—
Andy Brett (@andrewpbrett) January 13, 2011

Kowalski has made the above “How-To” video in case you’re interested in making your own. Overcome by mad 80s nostalgia I tried it out earlier, to much success.

Here’s the breakdown (You need Photoshop):

1. Open Photoshop.

2. Press Command + K for “Preferences.”

3. Select “Guides, Grids and Slices” and enter “Every 50 pixels” for “Gridline” and “5″ for “Subdivisions.”

4. Create a new document 100 px by 100 px.

5. Use “Option + Delete” to fill in the background.

6. Use the Shape tool to make a 4 X 4 square for a face.

7. Use the same tool to draw in hair, neck shading, etc.

8. Click on “Filter,” “Add Noise” and set noise to 1%, “Gaussian” and “Monochromatic.”

9. Use the Burn tool and artistic license for the rest.

Image: Addison Kowalski

Crunchbase

• EIGHTBIT.ME

Company: Eightbit.me

Website: eightbit.me

Launch Date: 2011

Eightbit.me will be a service to help people create 8-bit avatars. The first idea was to use images with very few selections and to use pure HTML / JS to create the characters. Inspired by an 8-bitted Dribbble post by UK artist and designer Harry Harrison, San Francisco interactive designers Addison Kowalski, Amadeus Demarzi and Courtney Guertin took the idea to the next level by 8 bit-ing their Twitter avatars, which inevitably went viral among the tech set. Eightbit.me is...

→ Learn more