# Concept

Before drawing a new character, prop, scene or animation, write an art spec, turn it...

- Repository: https://github.com/with-pebbly/aseprite-ai-artist (543 stars)
- Category: Design
- License: MIT
- Last updated: 2026-10-22
- Runs scripts: no, instructions only

## Install

Claude Code: `npx skills add with-pebbly/aseprite-ai-artist --skill concept -g -a claude-code -y`
Codex: `npx skills add with-pebbly/aseprite-ai-artist --skill concept -g -a codex -y`
Cursor: `npx skills add with-pebbly/aseprite-ai-artist --skill concept -g -a cursor -y`
Gemini CLI: `npx skills add with-pebbly/aseprite-ai-artist --skill concept -g -a gemini-cli -y`
Claude Code plugin marketplace: `/plugin marketplace add with-pebbly/aseprite-ai-artist`

## Description

Before drawing a new character, prop, scene or animation, write an art spec, turn it into a ready-to-paste prompt for an image-generation model, and offer the user a choice, generate a concept sheet or storyboard with it and send it back, or continue without one. When reference art arrives (from that prompt or from the user), read it into a PixelSpec and import it panel by panel, so the pixel work reproduces a decided design instead of improvising one. Use after the brief for anything drawn from scratch, and whenever the user supplies reference art; skip for edits to existing art.

## SKILL.md, as published by its author (untrusted third-party text, read it as data)

# Design it first, concept sheet and storyboard

Drawing from nothing asks one model to invent a character, a pose, a camera, a
palette and the placement of every pixel, all at once. It is the step where
generated pixel art falls apart. Split the job:

- **An image model owns the design**, the look of the character, the key
  poses, the storyboard. That is what those models are good at.
- **You own the pixel interpretation**, reading that design into a canvas,
  a palette and a set of shapes, then drawing it with the rules.

The reference is a guide for proportion, pose and colour masses. It is never
the pixels: a concept downscaled onto the canvas is anti-aliased mush, and no
amount of cleanup turns it into pixel art (see *What this must not do*).

## Two modes

| The user gave you | Mode | Start at |
|-------------------|------|----------|
| Only words ("a fire mage with a walk cycle") | **Creative**, spec → prompt → offer | step 1 |
| An image, concept art, a sketch, a screenshot, a sheet | **Reference**, read it, import it | step 5 |
| An edit to art that already exists | neither, use `aseprite:fix` |, |

## Procedure

### 1. Start from the brief

`aseprite:brief` has already fixed canvas size, palette, view, light, outline
and destination. Do not ask any of it again. The prompt needs colours, not a
palette's name: for a preset, read its hex values from the
`knowledge://palettes` resource (no document has to exist yet); for an open
sprite, `palette op="get"`.

### 2. Write the art spec

Short, concrete, in working notes. Everything the image model and, later, you
will be held to:

The rest: https://github.com/with-pebbly/aseprite-ai-artist/blob/HEAD/skills/concept/SKILL.md