How to Make Google Sheets Into a Pixel Art Grid

Growing up with video games in the 70's and eighty'southward, I was well enlightened of pixels. When video games first started out, the screen resolution was then low that all your game characters and items were made of large blocky squares called pixels. With some imagination we could come across a jumping plumber or a flying spaceship in those 8x8 or 16x16 grids of colored dots.

Today video games are then hyper-realistic that you lot tin't tell if you are watching a real-life video or a figurer simulation. However, everything former is new again, so at that place has been a resurgence of love for retro-games and their nostalgic pixelated manner.

And and so we have "Pixel Art" which is making images out of a small grid with limited number of colors. Equally with any creative activity, pixel art can have many applications for educational activity. Lots of educators take created pixel art templates and activities including Alice Keeler here and here and hither and Patrick Johnson here.

In this weblog postal service you can get a copy of a costless 26-color pixel art template I take created for Google Sheets which includes several built-in activities. We will also look at directions for how to use and modify the template as needed for a diverseness of activities.

26-Color Pixel Art Template

Below is a link to go your own copy of my gratis 26-Color Pixel Art Template. It was created with Google Sheets. Simply click the link below to make your own copy that you can edit or use however you need.

• 26-Colour Pixel Art Template - Google Sheets link

The template is made of several Google Sheets tabs. Hither are the different tabs you will discover in the template:

• Directions - Brief instructions for how to use the template. Be sure to gyre all the way downwards to meet all the directions.
• Draw - This is a 60 column past thirty row canvass where yous can create your pixel fine art drawing.
• Fractions 8x8 - This tab allows you lot to make a pixel art drawing inside of an 8x8 grid, and and so you decide the fractions represented past each color you used.
• Fractions 10x10 - Same as higher up but with a bigger 10x10 grid.
• Fractions 12x12 - Same as in a higher place but with a bigger 12x12 grid.
• Expanse - This tab allows yous to make a pixel art drawing and so make up one's mind the area in foursquare units represented by each color you used.

Conditional Formatting

In that location are many means yous tin prepare a Google Sail for creating pixel fine art. You could use the "Fill color" tool to choose a colour for a cell, or you could use the "Paint format" button or the copy and paste choice to copy a color into other cells.

However, for this template I used "Provisional Formatting" to make the process as easy equally possible for the end user. Provisional formatting is when you fix rules for the Sheet to format cells based upon what you blazon into them. For this template I have created provisional formatting rules that will fill up in the cells with specific colors based on the lower-case letter you blazon in from "a" to "s".

The color cardinal for the template is:

Directions for Creating Pixel Fine art

Here are the directions for creating pixel fine art with the template:

• Click on the tab in the template titled "Draw".
• For your easy reference, the color key will be displayed at the superlative with each colour in the column with its corresponding letter of the alphabet.
• To color in the cells merely type in whatsoever lower-case letter of the alphabet from "a" to "z" and the corresponding color will be applied to the prison cell.
• If yous want white, just leave the jail cell blank. Birthday this gives you lot 26 colors to choose from.

• To alter the color in a jail cell, just blazon in a new letter.
• To remove the color from a phone call, merely delete the letter from the cell.
• To motility around to other cells, apply the arrows keys or your mouse.
• To save time, y'all can select a agglomeration of cells and and then copy and paste them into other sections of the sail.
• As well, yous can click in a cell, so click and drag the piffling square handle in the bottom right corner to elevate that cell's color into other cells.
• Since this is a Google Sail, don't forget that you tin can share the Sheet with other people to collaboratively piece of work on the pixel art.

Changing the Colour Template

Although I have provided a various range of 26 common colors to utilize, you may discover that you want or need to change some of the colors for the particular fine art you are working on. Yous can change the conditional formatting rules to change the colors as needed.

• Click "Format" in the top menu bar.
• Cull "Conditional formatting" from the drop-down carte du jour.
• This will open the "Conditional formatting" console on the right side of the screen.
• Scroll downwards through the rules to find the color you want to change.
• Click on that rule to go into edit mode.
• Click the "Text color" button and the "Fill up color" button to choose the new colour y'all desire to correspond to the letter for that rule.
• Click "Done" when finished.
• Any cells with that letter volition now exist updated with the new color you chose.

Other Activities

Pixel art can exist used for many educational activities. The "Draw" tab is a for open up-ended drawing of whatsoever pixel art you would like to make. This could be used for many activities including:

• General inventiveness - Accept students be creative and brand whatsoever they like.
• Art - Have students create their ain creative works, or pixel versions of existing art.
• Tech Skills - Groovy for younger students to practise typing, using the arrow keys, using the mouse, clicking and dragging, and more.
• Characters - Making characters from a story read in course or for a story the students are writing.
• Concepts - Illustrate a science concept they are learning.
• Retelling - Show an issue from history or from a story.
• Mapping - Create a map of your neighborhood, land, country, famous battle, country forms, or such.

In addition to the open-ended activities you can do on the "Depict" tab, the template also contains a few pre-made activity tabs. These lend themselves specifically to math concepts.

Fraction activities

• There are three "Fractions" tabs. Each tab provides a grid for the student to draw in. The grids are 8x8, 10x10, and 12x12.
• Subsequently creating their drawing inside of the given filigree, the educatee them counts up how many squares of each color they used.
• These numbers are typed into the boxes on the correct of the Sheet to show the fractions each color represents.
• Adjacent the pupil can simplify the fractions (if possible) past typing in the reduced version of each fraction to the right of the original fractions.

Area activeness

• There is one "Area" tab. The student can create their drawing anywhere in the tab.
• Afterwards creating their cartoon, the educatee them counts upwardly how many squares of each color they used.
• These numbers represent the area in square units that colour covers.
• These numbers are typed into the boxes on the left of the Canvass to show the areas for each color.

When Finished

Later on completing whatever of the drawings or activities, in that location are some options for cleaning up and exporting the results.

• You tin delete the color key at the top of the canvas if yous would like.
• You tin delete any extra rows or columns if y'all want. Click on the row or column heading, then click "Edit" and choose "Delete row" or "Delete column".
• Y'all tin remove the gridlines if you want by clicking "View" and unchecking "Gridlines".
• You tin can impress you art by clicking "File" and "Print".
• You lot can download your fine art past clicking "File" and then "Download every bit" then "PDF document".
• Y'all can have a screenshot of your pixel art by using whatsoever one of the many screenshot tools such as Nimbus Screenshot.

Conclusion

Spreadsheets tin be used for much more than just crunching numbers. Pixel art is one example that can be fun, creative, and educational. If you accept other ideas for how pixel art can be used in school, or if y'all take examples of pixel art your students accept created, please consider sharing in the comments beneath.

If you lot would like to learn more aboutartistic uses of Google Sheets in all subject areas, including a free 1-hour recorded webinar, check out my postal service on "Spreadsheet Activities for all Subjects".

Post by Eric Curts. Bring me to your schoolhouse, organisation, or conference with over 50 PD sessions to choose from. Connect with me on Twitter at twitter.com/ericcurts and on Google+ at plus.google.com/+EricCurts1

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Source: https://www.controlaltachieve.com/2017/02/sheets-pixelart.html

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