Photorealistic Beadsprite Tutorial Part One: Dimensions
Making a photorealistic perler is an incredible time sink, and it can end up extraordinarily expensive to boot. Ā However, once you get it right, it looks fucking amazing. Ā But you canāt just throw beads at a board and see what sticks. Ā There are a number of things you need to consider BEFORE even choosing the source image for your beadsprite.
The dimensions you choose for the sprite is extremely important. Ā The bigger the sprite, the more photorealistic you can make it and, thus, the nicer it looks.Ā
Letās take a moment to look at how scaling affects the prettiness of the sprite.
This is the source image I used to make the Winter Soldier sprite:
Looks pretty nice, right? But if I were to do this to its original dimensions, it would use roughly 44,000 beads, and measure 14.5ā by 30ā. That is HUGE.
So I cropped the image and resized it to 150 beads by 124 beads (roughly 18,000 beads)
And this is the finished product:
If I had tried to make it with less beads (75 by 62, roughly 4,500 beads), this is what you end up with:
You can still tell who it is, and itās kinda photorealistic if you squint, but some parts of the image look pretty wonky - especially above his eyes.
But keep in mind that even though this looks sorta okay at this resolution, YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO MATCH THE SHADES OF EVERY SINGLE PIXEL. YOU CANNOT GET THE SMOOTH SHADING YOU SEE HERE. Ā Itās simply not possible with the limited palette of colors youāre restricted to. The bigger the sprite is, the more room you have for dithering and shading, which in my opinion, are NECESSARY to get it photorealistic. Iāll go into this more in a later part.
If you go even smaller (50 by 41 beads, roughly 2,000 beads), you get this:
OH GOD WHAT IS WITH HIS FACE KILL IT WITH FIRE
So. Ā Ahem. Ā InĀ general, bigger is prettier. Ā However, obviously, the bigger you make the sprite, the more beads you need, the more expensive it is, and the longer it takes to finish.
For instance, the Black Widow beadsprite Iām currently working on measures 14ā by 16ā (131 beads by 150 beads). Ā A sprite that big requires 30 (yes THIRTY) boards, and uses almost 20,000 beads. Ā If you do 10 beads a minute, a sprite that size will take you, bare minimum, 33 hours. Ā And thatās if you do everything perfectly the first time. Ā I typically end up redoing a significant amount of beads for sections of the sprite Iām not happy with (for my Winter Soldier sprite, I redid the arm EIGHT times before I was satisfied).
Another thing to consider is ādo I have the space to dedicate to the sprite board?ā A photorealistic sprite is going to take time. You need to be willing to sacrifice some desk or table space for a significant amount of time, or else risk catastrophe when you try to move it.
So in summary ā figure out your dimensions first. Ā How big you make it will determine how pretty it is, and how much time, money, and space you need to do it.
Note ā this tutorial uses the new mini perler beads, but it can be adapted to the normal size perlers. Just keep in mind that the dimensions I list will end up FUCKING HUGE if you do so.
To be continued in part two - choosing the sprite!
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