Make an 8-Bit Pixel Art Data Visualization Poster

Open Lopsy. In the New Document dialog, set Width to 1920 and Height to 1280 and click Create.

1. Choose View → Show Grid. A Grid slider appears at the right end of the options bar. Drag it down to 8px.
2. Make sure the Snap checkbox next to it is ticked.

From now on the grid is your pixel. A bar that's "3 cells wide" is 24 px.

Select Background and rename it Sky (double-click its name in the Layers panel).

1. Set the foreground colour to navy #1D2B53 and choose Edit → Fill. With nothing selected, it fills the whole layer.
2. With the Rectangular Marquee, select the top of the canvas from the top-left corner down to 272. Fill it with black #000000.
3. Select a strip across the bottom, from 1240 to the bottom edge, and fill it with plum #7E2553.

Old consoles couldn't blend colours smoothly, so skies were drawn in flat bands like these.

To soften the jump between two bands, 8-bit artists used dithering, a checkerboard of the two colours. You'll make one checker tile and reuse it all through the poster.

1. Click Add Layer and name it Tile.
2. Zoom into the top-left corner. Select the first cell (0 to 8 px) and Shift-drag the diagonal cell below and to the right of it, so you have two cells touching at a corner. Fill with black.
3. Select the 16 × 16 square around both cells and choose Edit → Define Pattern. Lopsy saves it as Pattern 1.
4. Delete the Tile layer with the trash button.

1. Add a layer named Dither. Select a strip from 272 to 304 across the full width, choose Edit → Fill with Pattern…, pick Pattern 1 and click Apply. Deselect with Cmd+D.
2. Add a layer named Horizon Dither. Select the strip from 1208 to 1240, just above the plum band, and fill it with Pattern 1 the same way.
3. The checker is black, so it needs recolouring for the horizon. Open the layer's effects (the fx button on its row), turn on Color Overlay and set it to plum #7E2553.

Pattern fills line up with the canvas's top-left corner, and each 16 px tile holds exactly two cells, so the checks stay on the grid.

Stars come from noise, but noise is far too fine for an 8-bit sky. So you make it coarse, then clean it up.

1. Add a layer named Stars and fill it with black.
2. Choose Filter → Add Noise…, set Amount to 100, pick Mono and apply.
3. Filter → Threshold… at about 48 keeps only the brightest specks, about 2 in every 100 pixels.
4. Filter → Pixelate… with Block Size 8 averages the specks into grey grid cells.
5. Threshold again at about 17. Only cells that held several specks turn white, so you get roughly one star per hundred cells.
6. Set the layer's blend mode to Screen (in the effects drawer). Black disappears and only the stars stay.

Your stars will land in different places. That's fine, because noise is random every time.

The chart sits in a game-style window: a black panel with a white border.

1. Add a layer named Window. Select from 96, 304 to 1824, 1176 and fill with black.
2. Select from 104, 312 to 1816, 1168. Then hold Alt and drag from 112, 320 to 1808, 1160. Alt subtracts, which leaves a ring one cell wide.
3. Fill the ring with snow #FFF1E8 and deselect.

First delete the empty Layer 1 with the trash button; you've made your own layers. Then click Sky and Shift-click Window to select all five backdrop layers. Choose Layer → Group Layers and rename the group Backdrop. Collapse it with its arrow.

With Backdrop selected, click New Group and name it Chart. New layers you add while Chart is selected and expanded go inside it.

The scale is 20 px per million km², so 2.5 cells per million. The baseline (zero) is at 1064, which puts 10 at 864, 20 at 664 and 30 at 464. 25 works out to 564, half a cell off the grid, so round it to 568.

1. Add a layer named Gridlines inside Chart.
2. Select a strip one cell tall running from x 232 to 1768, with its top at 864. Shift-add the same strip at 664, 568 and 464.
3. Fill with Pattern 1. A one-cell strip of a checkerboard is a dotted line.
4. Deselect and give the layer a Color Overlay of slate #5F574F, so the lines sit back behind the data.

Add a layer named Bars. Each year gets a bar 3 cells (24 px) wide with a one-cell gap, so bars start every 32 px. 1979 starts at 256, 1980 at 288, and so on. Leave 1995's slot (768) empty, because there's no data for that year.

Every bar stands on the baseline at 1064. Its height in cells is the area times 2.5, rounded, and its top is 8 px per cell above the baseline. Here are the tops, year by year:

• 1979–1989: 1040, 1000, 1000, 848, 824, 768, 688, 776, 616, 792, 632
• 1990–1999: 640, 616, 568, 552, 560, (none), 528, 560, 504, 552
• 2000–2009: 464, 536, 624, 496, 608, 520, 472, 560, 520, 576
• 2010–2019: 616, 544, 640, 584, 584, 504, 608, 672, 568, 736
• 2020–2025: 568, 568, 536, 544, 616, 608

Drag the first bar with the Rectangular Marquee from its top-left corner down to the baseline, watching the Info panel for the top value. Hold Shift for every bar after it, so they add up into one selection. When all 46 are marked, fill them with snow #FFF1E8 and deselect.

Each bar gets the colour of the band it reaches, like a power meter. Green is under 10, yellow 10–20, orange 20–25 and red over 25.

For each band:

1. Cmd-click the Bars thumbnail to load all the bars as a selection.
2. Hold Shift+Alt and drag a rectangle across the whole chart covering just that band. For green, that's 864 to 1064. Shift+Alt intersects, so only the parts of bars inside the band stay selected.
3. Fill with the band colour: green #00E436, yellow #FFEC27 (664–864), orange #FFA300 (568–664) and red #FF004D (400–568).

The red rectangle starts above the tallest bar, so it catches every bar top over 25.

Pixel art fakes depth with a light edge and a dark edge.

1. Add a layer named Bevel. In the top-left corner, fill the first cell (0–8, one cell tall) white, and the third cell (16–24) black.
2. Select from 0, 0 to 32, 8 and Define Pattern. That's Pattern 2. Press Delete to clear the tile and deselect.
3. Cmd-click the Bars thumbnail, then Fill with Pattern with Pattern 2. The tile is 32 px wide, the same as the bar spacing, so every bar gets a light left column and a dark right column.
4. Set the layer to Overlay at 30% opacity. Any stronger and the orange starts to look red.

The level needs a floor.

1. Add a layer named Ground. In the top-left corner, select 0, 0 to 64, 48 and fill it sky blue #29ADFF.
2. Draw the mortar in navy #1D2B53 as one Shift-added selection. Add two horizontal rows across the tile, at y 8–16 and y 32–40. Then add the vertical joints, each one cell wide: x 56–64 in the brick strip between the rows (y 16–32), and x 24–32 in the strips above and below them (y 0–8 and y 40–48). Fill it.
3. Select the whole 64 × 48 tile and Define Pattern (Pattern 3). Delete the tile and deselect.
4. Select the floor from 112, 1072 to 1808, 1112 and fill it with Pattern 3. The rows of bricks are offset like a real wall.
5. Select the cell row along the top, 1064 to 1072, and fill it snow #FFF1E8.

1. Add a layer named No Data Block. Fill the 1995 slot from 768, 1032 to 792, 1064 silver #C2C3C7. Fill its right column and bottom row slate #5F574F for a shadow. It's grey on purpose, so nobody reads it as a data bar.
2. Add a layer named Ticks. Under the floor, Shift-select a one-cell tick (1112–1120) centred under 1980, 1990, 2000, 2010, 2020 and 2025. Those are the cells at 296, 616, 936, 1256, 1576 and 1736. Fill them silver.

Collapse the Chart group.

Pixelate keeps a shape's outline smooth: it only averages the colours inside it. To get the stair-stepped edge of real pixel art, use a throwaway stencil. You'll repeat this trick for every round sprite.

Select Chart, click New Group and name it Sprites. Add a layer named Earth Outline. Then make the stencil:

1. Add a layer named Stencil and fill it black.
2. With the Elliptical Marquee, draw a circle centred at 1696, 152 with a radius of 112 (from 1584, 40 to 1808, 264). Fill it white and deselect.
3. Pixelate at 8, then Threshold at 128. Every cell is now pure black or pure white.
4. Pick the Magic Wand, untick Contiguous, and click the white circle. You now have a stepped circle selection.
5. Delete the Stencil layer. The selection stays.

Select Earth Outline and fill the selection snow #FFF1E8. It will show as a one-cell rim once the Earth sits on top.

Add a layer named Earth and make another stencil the same way, a circle of radius 104 at the same centre. Fill it sky blue #29ADFF.

This is the Earth seen from below the South Pole. Antarctica sits in the middle, and the tips of the other continents peek in at the edge.

1. With the Lasso, draw three small blobs near the rim, at the upper left, upper right and lower right. Fill each green #00E436.
2. Lasso a rounded, slightly lumpy shape about 100 px across in the centre for Antarctica, and fill it snow.
3. Deselect.

Pixelate Earth at 8.

The edge was already stepped by the stencil. Now the inside is chunky too, and the continents become little clusters of cells. Cells along Antarctica's coast average into in-between blues. On a planet that reads as shallow ice, so leave them.

Add a layer named Earth Shade. Make a crescent stencil:

1. Add a black Stencil layer, and draw a white circle of radius 104 at 1696, 152, the same as the Earth.
2. Draw a second circle of the same size centred three cells up and three cells left, at 1672, 128, and fill it black. A white crescent is left at the lower right.
3. Pixelate 8, Threshold 128, Magic Wand the crescent, and delete the stencil.

Fill the crescent navy #1D2B53 on Earth Shade and set that layer to 70% opacity. Some of the land shows through the shadow.

The hole should look thin, not solid, so draw it with the checker.

1. Add a layer named Ozone Hole. Make a stencil of an oval over Antarctica, from about 1648, 104 to 1752, 208, and Magic Wand it.
2. Fill with Pattern using Pattern 1, the checker.
3. Deselect and add a Color Overlay in pink #FF77A8.

Half the cells are pink and half let Antarctica through. That's how 8-bit games drew see-through things.

Add a layer named Rays. Turn off Snap for this step. You want 10 px bars centred on the sun's axis, which the grid won't allow, and that thin source is what turns the diagonals into neat single-cell staircases later.

1. Add a black Stencil layer. Draw two thin white bars, about 10 px wide and 44 px long: one above the sun's centre at 1296, 136, running from 32 to 76, and one below it, from 196 to 240.
2. With the bars still selected, press Cmd+C, then Cmd+V. The copy pastes in place on a new layer, selected, with the Move tool active.
3. Drag the round rotate handle just outside the top-right corner. Hold Cmd to snap the angle, and stop at 45°. Deselect.
4. Paste twice more, rotating one copy to 90° and the other to 135°.
5. Choose Layer → Merge Down three times to merge the copies into the stencil.

Turn Snap back on.

Finish the stencil as usual: Pixelate 8, Threshold 128, then Magic Wand one ray with Contiguous off, so all eight are selected. Delete the stencil.

The straight rays come out two cells thick. The diagonals become single-cell staircases, the classic pixel-art 45° line. Fill the selection orange #FFA300 on Rays.

1. Add a layer named Sun. Stencil a circle of radius 40 at 1296, 136 and fill it orange. Then stencil a circle of radius 32 at the same centre and fill it yellow #FFEC27. This leaves an orange rim one cell wide.
2. Add a layer named UV and a black Stencil layer. Pick the Pencil at Size 10 in white. Click at 1408, 144, just past the sun's right ray. Then Shift-click 1440, 172, 1480, 132, 1520, 172, 1556, 136 and finally the Earth's rim at 1588, 152. Each Shift-click draws a straight line from the last point, so you get a zig-zag about 40 px tall.
3. Pixelate, Threshold and Magic Wand it. Delete the stencil, and fill the zig-zag pink.

Pink is saved for the bad things: the hole and the UV that gets through it.

The player character stands at the start of the level, on the floor just left of 1979. Add a layer named Penguin. It's 6 cells wide and 7 tall, with its top-left corner at 200, 1008, so its feet touch the snow at 1064.

Here's the sprite, row by row from the top. N is navy #1D2B53, W is snow, O is orange and . is empty:

1. .NNN..
2. NNNWOO
3. NNWWW.
4. NNWWW.
5. NNWWW.
6. .NWWN.
7. .OO.O.

Draw one colour at a time: Shift-select all of its cells, then fill. The single snow cell in row 2 is the eye.

The penguin faces right, toward the data.

Add each of these on its own layer inside Sprites:

1. Protocol Marker. A dotted leader in sky blue: Shift-select one cell every 16 px at 520, from 432 down to 600. Fill it. It runs from the dialog box down to the top of the 1987 bar.
2. Callout. A dialog box from 296, 336 to 744, 424. Fill it black, then make a one-cell ring inside its edge (select it, Alt-drag one cell in) and fill the ring sky blue.
3. Crown. On the 2000 record bar, a crown 5 cells wide starting at 920, 432. The top row is cells 1, 3 and 5, with two full rows under it. Fill it yellow. It sits one cell above the bar, clear of the 30 line.
4. Low Arrow. Over 2019's dip, a down arrow 5 cells wide at 1528, 688. The rows are .XXX., .XXX., XXXXX, .XXX., ..X... Add a dotted leader above it at 1544, from 552 to 680. Fill both green. Green means good news here.

Collapse Sprites.

Select Sprites, click New Group and name it Type. Turn Snap off for all the type steps, so the arrow keys nudge 1 px at a time.

Inside Type, add a layer named Legend. Draw four 16 px squares in a row at the top right of the window, with their tops at 344, in the four band colours. They start at x 1384, 1476, 1592 and 1708, which leaves room for each label and ends the row at 1768.

Create text from the bottom up, so a click never lands on an existing line. Click the Legend layer before each new text: if a text layer is selected, changing the font restyles that layer instead.

1. Text tool, Silkscreen, Size 24, sky blue. Click at the left margin about 240 down and type BIGGEST DAILY HOLE EACH YEAR, IN MILLION SQ KM. Its letters should start at y 240.
2. Silkscreen 32 in snow: THE ANTARCTIC OZONE HOLE, 1979-2025, with its top at 192.
3. Press Start 2P 88 in yellow: OZONE ZONE, with its top at 64.

Lopsy names each text layer after its text. Rename them (Units, Subtitle, Title and so on) to keep the panel readable.

Line up each line's left edge with the window's left edge at 96, using the arrow keys with the Move tool. Then give the title a Drop Shadow: colour red #FF004D, Offset X and Y 8, Blur 0, Opacity 100. One hard cell of shadow, like an arcade marquee.

A star touching a letter reads as punctuation. "SQ KM" can turn into "SQ.KM". Expand Backdrop and select Stars. Draw a marquee over the title block, then Shift-add rectangles over the subtitle lines, the sun-and-Earth area, and the strip under the window where the source line will go. Press Delete, deselect and collapse Backdrop.

Everything inside the window is Press Start 2P, at size 16 unless noted. Every letter is exactly as wide as the font size, which makes spacing easy to work out. Centre each label on whatever it describes, nudging it into place with the arrow keys.

• The dialog box, 16 px. Write CFC PHASE-OUT BEGINS in sky blue, and above it 1987 MONTREAL PROTOCOL in snow. Centre both on the box (x 520), with the same space above and below the pair.
• NEXT LEVEL: FULL RECOVERY ~2066 in pink, under the legend, with its right edge at 1768, where the gridlines end. Make the legend labels (<10, 10-20, 20-25, 25+) at size 12 in silver, each one cell after its square, ending at the same edge.
• HI-SCORE 29.9 in yellow over the crown, LOW 16.4 in green over its leader, and 1979: 1.1 in green over the first bar.
• Two lines over the 2025 bar: NOW and 22.9 in snow, centred on the bar.
• Axis numbers 10, 20, 25 and 30 in silver, right-aligned at 208 and centred on their gridlines, plus MILLION SQ KM at size 12 above the 30.
• The years in one line: 1980, 16 spaces, 1990, 16 spaces, 2000, 16 spaces, 2010, 16 spaces, 2020, 6 spaces, 2025. Start it at 268 under the floor. Because every character is 16 px, each year lands centred over its tick.
• A black ? centred on the grey block, and the source line centred under the window in snow at size 12: SOURCE: NASA OZONE WATCH / ? = NO DATA FOR 1995.

Size 12 is a compromise. It fits in tight spots but doesn't fall on whole font pixels, so keep it to these small notes.

The 25 line runs right through NOW. Expand Chart, select Gridlines, draw a marquee around the label and press Delete. Leaving a gap in a gridline for a label is normal practice in data viz.

Last, a nod to the CRT television these games ran on.

1. Select Type, click New Group and name it CRT. Add a layer named Scanlines.
2. With Snap off, fill a 2 px strip black at the bottom of an 8 × 8 tile in the top-left corner (0, 6 to 8, 8). Select the 8 × 8 square and Define Pattern, then delete the tile.
3. Select → All and fill with the new pattern.
4. Set the layer to Multiply at 12%.

Every pixel row now has a slightly darker bottom edge, like a TV's scanlines. At 12% the colours barely shift. A heavier setting, or a smooth radial vignette, would wash the whole poster in in-between colours, and it would stop looking 8-bit.

Turn off the grid with View → Show Grid, save the project with File → Save Project and export with File → Quick Export PNG.