Hi! Today is the first time I looked into the actual mechanics of pixel art and gave my first tries. My very first tutorials are [here] and [here].

The tutorials mention but don't explain AA very well, so I had to research online on my own, and I came across this [explanation]. I read this explanation after I my first attempts:





Because I haven't exactly figured out how to tailor Photoshop settings for pixel art, I ended up entirely relying on the automatic AA function Photoshop provides. I feel fairly lukewarm about how it turned out because some parts are overly AA'd while other parts are not AA'd at all due to my unfamiliarity with the software functions and my lack of understanding regarding the technicalities of AA. So here are my questions: How can I practice manual AA and exactly how do I do it? Had I done manual AA, how would the aesthetic change? How can I improve this generally?


Thank you for reading and more exercises to come!