The conventional technique could be using a file image, such as a png file. Here, we are going to create sprite animations with CSS as source by using box-shadow property.

The current example shows how to create a sprite for a character, that can be controlled by the arrow keys. This sprite is composed by different CSS classes that contain a box-shadow pixel art drawing. Switch between frames is managed with JavaScript.

The art has been created with Pixel Art to CSS tool, giving us the CSS code ready to use.

(Demo sprite: Ninja Gaiden)