Modern People

Top-down 16x16 pixel art people in modern clothes, made to mix and match: 243 layer sheets and 20 ready-made characters. For modern RPGs, life sims, office and city games, detective and school games.

Licence in one line: use it in your commercial games; do not resell the files. No credit required.

What you get

• 20 ready-made characters: Office Worker, Business Woman, Student, Jogger, Barista, Builder, Security Guard, Doctor, Gamer, Grandma, Grandpa, Teen, Hipster, Tourist, Courier, Punk, Winter Walker, Artist, Vlogger, Manager.
• 243 layer sheets that stack into your own characters: 5 skin tones, 8 hair styles (short, long, ponytail, spiky, bob, bun, curly, buzz) in 8 colours, 8 tops (T-shirt, tank, hoodie, sweater, shirt & tie, blazer, dress, coat) in 12 colours, 3 bottoms (pants, shorts, skirt) in 7 colours, shoes and boots in 6 colours, beards and moustaches, glasses, sunglasses, caps, beanies, hard hats, headphones and backpacks.
• Every character and every layer: 4 directions x 10 frames: idle (2), walk (4), sit (2) for chairs, sofas and desks, and phone (2).
• A "tint" version of every coloured layer (light greys) to recolour in your engine.
• compose.py: a short Python script that stacks layer sheets into one character sheet. Our ready-made characters were made with the same layers, and the build checks that compose.py gives the same pixels.

Files

• One sheet per character and per layer, all with the same layout: 10 columns (idle 1-2, walk 1-4, sit 1-2, phone 1-2) x 4 rows (down, left, right, up), 160x64 at 1x.
• Every frame of the ready-made characters as its own PNG; JSON maps with the frame rectangles and suggested speeds; layers.json with the slots and the stacking order.
• 1x, 2x and 3x (the 2x and 3x are scaled copies). Palette files (.hex, .gpl). README and LICENSE.

Why this pack

• Layers that always fit: each pose is a map of body parts and each layer paints parts, so every hair style, top and hat fits every frame. Layers outline only what sticks out of the body, so a stack never gets dark lines across it.
• A strict 16x16 grid, the same as Gridwright Modern Town, Modern Office & Home and our other top-down packs.
• Sit and phone animations in all four directions, not only walking.
• A free sample on this page: 2 characters and 12 layers, so you can test the layering in your engine first.

Good to know

• The town and office in the screenshots are Gridwright Modern Town and Gridwright Modern Office & Home, sold separately. They are not in this pack.
• Not included: run or attack animations, children, RPG Maker format sheets, engine project files. Left is the right-facing frames mirrored.

How it was made

Every frame is drawn by code (Python): no image generator, no third-party art. The drawing code was written with AI-assisted tools, which is why the page is tagged AI Assisted.

Missing an outfit, a hair style or an animation? Tell us in the comments: the pack gets updates.