Boring to 8-bit

March 2, 2012 7:38 AM

How can I take an image in Illustrator and turn it into an 8-bit-looking image?

Was inspired by this design to create something that's quite different.

I want to be able to be able to create a red circle in Illustrator, then turn that circle into a circle that looks like something out of Super Mario Bros.

I also want to be able to change the color of the circle once I'm done with the "normal-to-8-bit" transformation.

I'm no Illustrator wizzard, but I've been using it on and off for a few years.

I have CS4 on a Dell laptop.

posted by bamassippi to Computers & Internet (5 answers total)

Seems like a raster program like Photoshop would be better for this. I'd just shrink the image down with a really pixel resolution then scale it back up.
posted by nathancaswell at 7:44 AM on March 2, 2012

* really low pixel resolution
posted by nathancaswell at 7:45 AM on March 2, 2012

Only way I've ever made pixelated images using Illustrator was by making a grid and individually colouring every pixel square.

You can try Photoshop and resizing the image, but it'll look quite blurry.
posted by Trexsock at 7:46 AM on March 2, 2012

Best answer: - Create your circle in Illustrator
- Place that file in Photoshop as a Smart Object layer
- Fitlers -> Pixellate -> Mosaic

That will add the mosaic filter as a smart filter, and let you still edit your circle (double click the smart object to open it in illustrator. when you save it will update in photoshop and reapply all filters)

http://sht.tl/G1Rh
posted by CharlesV42 at 7:51 AM on March 2, 2012 [2 favorites]

Response by poster: Awesome. Thanks y'all.
posted by bamassippi at 8:25 AM on March 2, 2012