I feel the need to step up and clarify several points for the internet record….
A single illustration is not the same thing as an animation.
“AI” image generators don’t work without a training dataset. The vast majority of those sets are full of stolen images and secret movement tracking.
If you used AI in your project, you used AI in your project. Gamedevs who are purposefully using AI can be somewhat honest and click the Yes button. That disclosure a very simple task on this site.
Balaclavas are worn the vast majority of times for warmth or for fire protection. That’s what the article of clothing is made to do. That’s why it’s sold in camping supply and sporting good stores (where handknitting for someone close by isn’t the norm).
The same groups trying to push the message that face coverings as criminal are also using abusive AI systems to take away codified civil rights.
A better analogy for the core discussion: You have a right to take a photo of your own face, but sharing your photo is not the same as Photoshopping it into a video clip of someone who had no consent.
By the way, pixel art doesn’t all look the same. I would suggest you go look at specific collections of different artists, who agreed to participate in the collections, so you might see how different the art styles can be for snakes smaller than 48x48-pixels. I would suggest that if what I could believe you understand it’s not okay to copy the images and try to pretend they’re yours. Additionally: some of us put hours into small art pieces to the style how we want. It’s annoying how AI users refuse to acknowledge there are techniques, personality, and human experience that go into real artwork. The same goes for animation styles– it’s not all the same.