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Team Cherry made Hollow Knight’s art through a hand-drawn-to-digital workflow: artists drew in Photoshop, created traditional 2D animation, exported artwork as PNG files, and assembled those assets in Unity. Reporting also describes Ari Gibson’s hand-drawn sketches being scanned into the game engine. The documented sources do not identify a particular tablet, scanner, resolution, frame rate, or other hardware setting.
The documented art workflow
The clearest account comes from Team Cherry and Unity. Team Cherry’s official game description calls the visuals hand-drawn art combined with traditional 2D animation. Unity’s case study says the art and animation were made in Photoshop, saved as simple PNGs, and brought into a game built with Unity.
- Draw the artwork by hand. The studio describes the characters, creatures and environments as hand-drawn rather than generated from a 3D-first process.
- Animate it traditionally in 2D. The movement was produced through traditional animation, with Nintendo describing the cast as using frame-by-frame 2D animation.
- Digitize the drawings. Game Informer reports that Ari Gibson’s hand-drawn sketches were scanned directly into the game engine.
- Prepare digital assets in Photoshop. Team Cherry’s FAQ states: “All the art assets from our games, including animations, were drawn in Photoshop.”
- Export image files and integrate them in Unity. Unity’s account describes the resulting art and animation as PNG files used with Unity’s built-in development tools and Asset Store extensions.
What Photoshop did—and what it did not prove
Photoshop is the only specifically named art application in the studio’s own statement and in Unity’s case study. That establishes Photoshop as part of the production workflow, but not the exact brushes, layer structure, canvas size, color settings or export presets used for Hollow Knight.
Do these 3 things before closing this tab:
1Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errors2Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches3Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsThe phrase “drawn in Photoshop” also should not be read as proof that every mark began with a digital tablet. The separate report about Gibson’s sketches being scanned into the engine supports a mixed physical-and-digital process, while the available sources do not document the scanner model or the point at which scanning occurred.
#1 Best Overall
- Classic side-scrolling action, with all the modern trimmings. Dodge, dash and slash your way through even the most deadly adversaries.
- Tightly tuned 2D controls. Dodge, dash and slash your way through even the most deadly adversaries.
- Forge your own path! The world of Hallownest is expansive and open. Choose which paths you take, which enemies you face and find your own way forward.
- An enormous cast of cute and creepy characters all brought to life with traditional 2D frame-by-frame animation.
- Leap into minds with the Dream Nail. Uncover a whole other side to the characters you meet and the enemies you face.
How the traditional animation fits the game
Traditional 2D animation means the motion is represented through individually created drawings or poses rather than being generated solely by moving a 3D character rig. In Hollow Knight, those drawings became digital image assets that Unity could display and sequence during gameplay.
This explains why the game can combine strongly illustrated characters with responsive game actions: the hand-drawn frames supply the look, while Unity handles their placement, timing and interaction inside the running game. The sources establish that integration at a high level, but they do not publish the project’s exact animation settings.
Rank #2
![Hollow Knight - Nintendo Switch [Digital Code]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51nXCF+sf5L._SL160_.jpg)
- Classic side-scrolling action, with all the modern trimmings.
- Forge your own path! The world of Hallownest is expansive and open. Choose which paths you take, which enemies you face and find your own way forward.
- Evolve with powerful new skills and abilities! Gain spells, strength and speed. Leap to new heights on ethereal wings. Dash forward in a blazing flash. Blast foes with fiery Soul!
- Equip Charms! Ancient relics that offer bizarre new powers and abilities. Choose your favorites and make your journey unique!
- An enormous cast of cute and creepy characters all brought to life with traditional 2D frame-by-frame animation.
What is known about the tools and formats
| Stage | Documented detail | Not established by the cited sources |
|---|---|---|
| Drawing | Photoshop; Team Cherry says its game art assets were drawn there. | Tablet, stylus, brushes, layers or canvas dimensions. |
| Source artwork | Hand-drawn sketches are reported as being scanned into the engine. | Scanner model, scan resolution or whether every asset followed that route. |
| Animation | Traditional 2D, including frame-by-frame animation described by Nintendo. | Frame rate, number of drawings per action or timing rules. |
| Game integration | PNG assets used in Unity with built-in tools and Asset Store extensions. | Import settings, compression choices, sprite-sheet layout or custom pipeline scripts. |
Why the visual style feels hand-made
The style is a consequence of the whole chain, not of Photoshop alone. Hand-drawn linework and painted forms provide the source appearance; traditional 2D animation preserves that character from pose to pose; and PNG assets carry the finished images into Unity without requiring the game to redraw them as 3D models.
That combination also leaves room for deliberate design choices in readability. Game Informer’s retrospective discusses the challenge of making the map suggest enough information without becoming overwhelming. The same principle applies to the art: richly drawn environments still have to remain legible while the player moves through them.
Rank #3
![Hollow Knight: Silksong Standard - Nintendo Switch [Digital Code]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51mOgOC8xEL._SL160_.jpg)
- Discover the fallen insect kingdom of Pharloom! Explore mossy grottos, gilded cities and misted moors as you ascend to the shining citadel at the top of the world.
- Engage in lethal acrobatic action! Wield a huge suite of deadly moves as you dance between foes in swift, beautiful combat.
- Craft powerful tools! Master an ever-expanding arsenal of weapons, traps, and mechanisms to vanquish your enemies and explore new heights.
- Solve shocking quests! Hunt down rare beasts and solve ancient mysteries to grant the wishes of the downtrodden and restore the kingdom’s hope.
- Face over 200 ferocious foes! Beasts and hunters, monsters and knights. Defeat them all with bravery and skill!
What the public record cannot answer
No cited source names Team Cherry’s drawing hardware or supplies a complete asset-production specification. In particular, the available documentation does not establish:
- which drawing tablet, stylus or scanner the artists used;
- whether all sketches were physically drawn before being scanned;
- the exact Photoshop version, brushes, layer conventions or color workflow;
- the PNG dimensions, compression settings or Unity import options;
- the frame rate, frame counts or production time for individual animations.
Those details should not be filled in with assumptions based on the game’s appearance. The reliable answer is the documented sequence: hand-drawn artwork and traditional 2D animation, prepared in Photoshop, exported as PNG assets, and integrated into Unity, with scanned sketches reported as part of the process.
Quick Recap
Best Value
Rank #4
![HOLLOW KNIGHT [E10]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51gHoLA9kNL._SL160_.jpg)
- Includes four giant bonus content packs: Hidden Dreams, The Grimm Troupe, Lifeblood, and Godmaster
- Classic side-scrolling action, with all modern trimmings
- Tightly tuned 2D controls. Dodge, dash, and slash your way through even the most deadly adversaries
- Explore a vast interconnected world of forgotten highways, overgrown wilds, and ruined cities
- Forge your own path. The world of Hallownest is expansive and open. Choose which paths you take, which enemies you face, and find your own way forward
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