I wanted to see characters I like rendered in a retro pixel-art style. Existing tools did not provide a level of quality I found satisfying, so I ended up building one myself.
This tool is currently under copyright registration application.
Dot Tool — Saegyeosaegyeo Image Conversion Process
Comparison: Pixelated Image / Original Image
- The image revealed by dragging is the pixelated version.
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[후]
16-bit / 8-bit Quality Comparison
- To preserve more of the character’s detail, I directly bound a PNG encoder into the tool, allowing users to choose between 16-bit and 8-bit quality depending on their preference.
[전]
[후]
Quality Comparison Map (1)
The gray image is a quality map that shows whether color regions are being held together stably, or whether they are breaking apart at the pixel level.
When it looks good
Large surfaces, such as walls, floors, or skin, remain relatively smooth and grouped as single masses.
This suggests that the colors have been organized stably, which means there is a lower chance of visible banding or noise.
When it looks bad
Even large surfaces appear speckled, with IDs mixed together in a noisy way.
This means that the same region is fluctuating at the pixel level instead of being organized into a stable color mass.
As a result, the image is more likely to develop a clay-like texture, grainy noise, or, in motion, visible flickering.
When red appears in good places (normal difference)
- If red appears mainly around outlines, highlights, or small details,
- it means the two methods are handling fine detail differently, which is a natural diff
For example:
skin highlights, hair edges, or folds in clothing
When red appears in bad places (quality risk)
- If red spreads broadly across the background or over large surfaces such as walls, floors, or sky,
- it means that the colors of those large areas have not been stably fixed.
This can lead to increased noise, and in video, it may cause flickering from frame to frame.