Photoshop tutorial

How to Make This ASCII Pixel Effect in Photoshop

Turn a subject inside a painting into layered ASCII pixel art using BitMachine. You stack two BitMachine renders on top of each other, a coarse Block Shade pass and a fine Punct 12 pass, then tint the coarse layer so the two patterns read as one texture.

5 steps
BitMachine

How to Make This ASCII Pixel Effect in Photoshop

Photoshop document: 16 in x 20 in, 300 dpi, 8-bit.

Settings

Size 16 in x 20 in (4800 px x 6000 px)
Resolution 300 dpi
Color mode RGB, 8-bit

Mask out your subject, then apply a white Color Overlay.

Duplicate your subject layer and hide the Color Overlay Layer Style.

With the duplicated subject layer selected, open BitMachine and click Render. Choose the Block Shade pattern, adjust the settings, and click Finish. Here are the settings I used.

Use the Magic Wand tool to delete the white pixels of the 'BitMachine 1' layer.

Effect

Pattern Block Shade
Background White
Full Color Off
Solid Color Off
Cell Size 35px
Cell Width 1.00
Spacing 0px
Smooth 0

Image

Input Levels 28 / 1.70 / 139
Output Levels / 255
Brightness 0
Contrast 0
Blur 0

Selected your duplicated subject layer again and create another BitMachine layer. Choose the Punct 12 pattern, keep the other Effect settings the same.

Click Finish and delete the white pixels of the 'BitMachine 2' layer.