More Pixagram Experiments: When the Pixels Invent Their Own Landscape

The original

This is another older digital painting of mine. A lone figure stands at the base of a tall transmission tower, arms raised, while a strange hovering craft pins them in a beam of light. Everything is wrapped in fog and smoke, with dark ground and almost no detail in the background. I deliberately kept it murky. The mystery was the point: you can't quite tell what the craft is, where this is, or whether the figure is surrendering or signalling.

The pixel version

This time I also tried the Quantize option, which reduces the colour palette for a cleaner, more classic pixel art look. The finished file came out at around 222 KB.

What the pixels decided to add

This is where it got weird, in a good way. The tool clearly looked at all that fog and decided it needed filling in.

1. Mountains appeared. Snow-capped peaks now rise up behind the tower, where my original had nothing but haze.
2. Sand and rock showed up. The dark foreground became a dusty desert floor, with layered sandstone cliffs and ridges running off to the right.
3. The craft got an upgrade. My vague, lumpy flying shape turned into a detailed sci-fi ship with thrusters and panels. It looks like it's flown straight out of a video game.
4. Power lines were strung up. The tower now has cables running off into the distance, connecting it to a wider world.
5. Tiny extras were added. Little specks in the sky and small structures perched on the cliffs, details I certainly never painted.
6. The figure lowered their arms. The raised-arms pose is gone, replaced by a small standing figure, which changes the story quite a bit. Also moved to one side

What I'm learning

When you give the pixel tool empty space, it doesn't leave it empty. It fills it with its best guess.

With Follow the Pack, the original had a clear subject and a fairly simple background, so the tool mostly restyled what was already there. With this one, all the fog and ambiguity gave it room to invent. The result is a much more detailed scene, but also a much more literal one. The mystery of my original has been swapped for a clear sci-fi setting.

I don't think either is better. They're telling two different stories:

• The original is moody and uncertain. Is this a rescue, an abduction, a dream?
• The pixel version feels like a cutscene from a retro space game. Ship arrives, scans the survivor, mission begins.

Tips so far

• Busy, clearly defined images tend to stay faithful to the original.
• Soft, foggy or abstract images give the tool more freedom, so expect surprises.
• The Quantize option is worth trying for a crisper result.
• Use the before and after toggle to compare what's actually changed. It's easy to miss the smaller additions.

Next up

I've got plenty more old pieces to put through the machine. I'm tempted to try something really abstract next, just to see what the tool hallucinates out of pure colour and texture.

Has anyone else found Pixagram adding things to their images that were never there? I'd love to see your strangest results in the comments.

Thanks for reading!