Sub-pixel animation

1. Use it for motion under 1 px: easing in-betweens, breathing and idle (rules://41-idle-and-breathing), vibration (shiver, flinch, laugh, stun, wobble, flicker), wind on cloth, and keeping a static part alive on a canvas ≤ 32 px. Large moves stay on whole pixels; big sprites use full-pixel in-betweens and sub-pixels only on subtle motion.
2. The test: hide the colour and keep the line art. If the motion disappears, it was sub-pixel motion. The silhouette may not move at all, and the outline MAY stay frozen while tones swim inside.
3. It needs shades to trade. At least 3 per material at 16 px (move the shade boundary by a pixel, not the outline), 4–5 at 64 px. At 8 px or with ≤ 5 colours per sprite there is no room: use a 1 px bob instead.
4. Mid-tones come from the sprite's own ramp. A half-step is the colour roughly between the two it sits between, not necessarily 50 %. draw snaps to the palette: read the ramp with palette, reuse a neighbour, and ask before widening the palette (rules://20-color-for-pixel-art). 1–2 shades are enough; more blurs.
5. Split the pixel. A 1 px line shifted by half becomes two pixels at half tone; a 2 px block becomes half, full, half. Line weight is the same thing: widths 1, 2, 3, 4 px at full tone ≙ 0.5, 1, 1.5, 2 px (half-tone ÷ 2).
6. Direction follows the shape's angle, not the heading. A horizontal edge shifts tone vertically, a vertical edge horizontally, a diagonal both. A cape curved horizontally swims sideways while the body moves up and down. A thin diagonal moving down looks like it slides sideways; that is the illusion working, not a bug.
7. Not every pixel moves. Shift one part first, then another; whole-shape shifting bands and melts. Move the interior before or after the outline, never everything on the same frame. Move light areas, avoid moving shapes.
8. A row that pops needs 2–3 px. When a new row of an edge appears, give it a run of at least 2–3 pixels; a single pixel reads as noise. Extend an existing run rather than adding a lone pixel.
9. The background decides the tone. On light grounds lighter = thinner; on dark grounds lighter = thicker. A selective outline's half-tones must change with what is behind them, so on varied backgrounds use a solid outline (derived).
10. Keep the face on whole pixels. Shift a face by a full pixel on key poses and let blurry in-betweens pass (they show 1–2 ticks). Chest and shoulders may move half a pixel while the head holds.
11. In-betweens favour the keys. The half-step sits near A or B in time and in look. Show it 50–83 ms; the keys hold. Fast in-betweens that look odd must not linger (rules://40-timing-and-spacing).
12. No pixel flash. A pixel that appears or vanishes instead of travelling reads as a flash. Move an existing pixel one step; keep silhouette transitions smooth; do not dither or texture a sub-pixel area.
13. Few, small steps. One half-step per pixel of travel (A, ½, B); two at most (A, ¼, ¾, B) for a hero ease. Many tiny steps make the object look bent.
14. Work straight ahead. Duplicate the frame, nudge the boundary, flip between them; sub-pixel is easier that way than pose to pose. Onion skin shows nothing useful through fills; look op diff does.
15. Do not generate it. The recipe "resize 200 %, move 1 px, resize 50 % with blur" is unreliable and off-palette; no tool here does it. Edit the border pixels by hand.
16. Circular wobble (head bob, orbiting light) fits in a 3×2 px area over about 6 frames; a hover is a sub-pixel shift paired with a 1 px vertical move.

Source examples: Owlboy's idle is two keys 1 px apart plus in-betweens that favour the keys (a nose changes shape); Metal Slug and Castlevania cloaks move far less in silhouette than they seem; Shovel Knight keeps ≤ 5 colours and so animates with 1 px bobs; Saint11's sub-pixel sheet is 17 frames at 100 ms (breathing slime, rippling liquid, a tank barrel's recoil).

Panels read left to right; every panel is one frame. Light grounds are drawn so the half-tone is visible.

Split pixel. Panels A · M · C: a 1 px line moves 1 px; the half-step is two pixels at about 50 % tone. Hold A and C long, M for 1–2 ticks.

b = background   #e8e0d0
# = line         #2b1d2e
m = half-tone    #8a8190
---
bb#bbbb.bbmmbbb.bbb#bbb
bb#bbbb.bbmmbbb.bbb#bbb
bb#bbbb.bbmmbbb.bbb#bbb
bb#bbbb.bbmmbbb.bbb#bbb
bb#bbbb.bbmmbbb.bbb#bbb
bb#bbbb.bbmmbbb.bbb#bbb

2 px block, same trick. A · M · C: the block's coverage becomes half, full, half (m # m), then lands one pixel on.

b = background   #e8e0d0
# = block        #2b1d2e
m = half-tone    #8a8190
---
bbbbbb.bbbbbb.bbbbbb
b##bbb.bm#mbb.bb##bb
b##bbb.bm#mbb.bb##bb
bbbbbb.bbbbbb.bbbbbb

Swimming pixels. A · M · C: outline never moves, the highlight travels 1 px through light–mid–body tones. The silhouette is frozen; all motion is inside.

O = outline      #2b1d2e
L = light        #bdf2a8
M = light-mid    #8fdc84
F = body-mid     #5fbf6a
D = body-shade   #2f8f5a
---
..OOOOOO.....OOOOOO.....OOOOOO..
.OLLFFFFO...OMLMFFFO...OFLLFFFO.
OLLFFFFFFO.OMLMFFFFFO.OFLLFFFFFO
OFFFFFFFFO.OFFFFFFFFO.OFFFFFFFFO
OFFFFFFFFO.OFFFFFFFFO.OFFFFFFFFO
.ODDDDDDO...ODDDDDDO...ODDDDDDO.
..OOOOOO.....OOOOOO.....OOOOOO..

Easing in-between (idle). A · M · B: the top edge rises 1 px; M adds a faint 4 px run above A instead of a full row. 4 px, not 1: a lone pixel would pop.

O = outline      #2b1d2e
m = outline-mid  #6b4f5c
H = light        #f2b48a
F = mid          #c47a5a
---
...........mmmm.....OOOO..
..OOOO.....OOOO....OHHFFO.
.OHHFFO...OHHFFO..OHHFFFFO
OHHFFFFO.OHHFFFFO.OHFFFFFO
OHFFFFFO.OHFFFFFO.OFFFFFFO
OFFFFFFO.OFFFFFFO.OFFFFFFO
OFFFFFFO.OFFFFFFO.OFFFFFFO

Line weight is tone. Widths 0.5 · 1 · 1.5 · 2 px on a light background (lighter = thinner). On a dark background the same line reads thicker as it lightens.

b = background   #e8e0d0
# = line         #2b1d2e
m = half-tone    #8a8190
---
bbmbbbb#bbbb#mbbb##bb
bbmbbbb#bbbb#mbbb##bb
bbmbbbb#bbbb#mbbb##bb
bbmbbbb#bbbb#mbbb##bb
bbmbbbb#bbbb#mbbb##bb
bbmbbbb#bbbb#mbbb##bb

Lean without moving the outline. Same shape three times; lighter outline pixels at opposite corners push the tube to lean one way or the other. Use for wobble and wind.

O = outline      #2b1d2e
m = outline-mid  #7d6a8a
F = fill         #5a8fd0
---
.OOm...OOO...mOO.
OFFFm.OFFFO.mFFFO
OFFFO.OFFFO.OFFFO
OFFFO.OFFFO.OFFFO
OFFFO.OFFFO.OFFFO
OFFFO.OFFFO.OFFFO
mFFFO.OFFFO.OFFFm
.mOO...OOO...OOm.

1. Name the boundary that moves and its direction (rule 6). Draw keys A and B a full pixel apart with draw op grid.
2. frame op duplicate A to make the half-step M. look op ascii on the region, then edit only the boundary pixels: A's trailing pixel → the ramp neighbour, B's leading pixel → its neighbour. Runs ≥ 2–3 px.
3. look op diff A → M and M → B: only boundary pixels may differ; a large diff means you moved a shape.
4. Colours: palette op to read the ramp; use existing neighbours only.
5. frame op set_duration: keys long, M 50–83 ms. For breathing, keys 200–400 ms.
6. Review at viewing size: look op filmstrip with scale: 2, then show only the outline layer (layer): if the motion survives there it is not sub-pixel.
7. validate with checks: ["antialiasing","animation"]: deliberate half-tones will be reported; every one must be a ramp neighbour on a moving edge in at least two frames. Anything else is a stray.

• Melting jelly → every boundary moves every frame. Freeze the outline; move one area.
• Banding → a whole region shifted tone together. Shift a cluster, leave neighbours.
• Shimmer → a new in-between colour on every frame. Reuse the same two half-tones.
• Ghost trail → light half-tones left behind a moving outline. Clean them; outlines do not keep AA.
• Popping noise → a new row of 1 px. Make the run 2–3 px.
• Wobbling face → eyes and mouth half-shifted. Whole pixels or nothing.
• Illegible at 8 px → no shades to trade. Use a 1 px bob.
• Lingering in-between → ≥ 3 ticks on screen shows the blur. 50–83 ms.

• The motion survives the colour-hidden test only if it is meant to be sub-pixel; otherwise it is a normal move.
• Every half-tone is a ramp neighbour; no new colours per frame; ≤ 2 AA shades.
• New rows have runs ≥ 2–3 px; no lone pixels; the outline is frozen or moves a full pixel.
• Faces are on whole pixels; in-betweens are held ≤ 83 ms.

• Pixel Logic (Michael Azzi), ch. 8 Sub-pixeling pp. 187–212 (cups of water, split pixels, line weight, direction rule, parabola pop, Owlboy idle, quick-and-cheap method) and ch. 9 (ease, delayed and stretchy pixels).
• Silber, Pixel Art for Game Developers, ch. 8 (pixel flash); Saint11, Subpixel tutorial and Character Idle; 2D Will Never Die, "Give your sprites depth with sub-pixel animation" (Metal Slug, Castlevania); Shovel Knight sprite blog.