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A Pixel Artist Renounces Pixel Art

dinofarmgames.com

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Re: A Pixel Artist Renounces Pixel Art

#71

Post by soup10 »

zeidrich wrote: post #60

A big thing about pixel art and it's issues today is that what he mentions as pixel art, isn't so. I mean, he argues about the way the devices scale his art up and change aspect ratio etc. But on the other hand, he compares a picture of Yoshi at the end to an algorithmically smoothed version. However, Yoshi was never intended to look like the leftmost image. The thing is, pixels aren't square. In fact, when we played…

I agree with your sentiment, I think the author makes some decent points but is pretty biased towards an aesthetic he prefers and the art tools he's most familiar with. The sf4 example is particularly demonstrating of that, people that do 3d modeling know that it's not as easy to get the arbitrary distortion effects you can do with frame by frame animation, that doesn't make it lower quality animation, it's a trade off of the medium. And art is about the overall impression it leaves on the viewer, not the technical specifics about how the pants look odd on 2 frames of a 100 frame motion

Re: A Pixel Artist Renounces Pixel Art

#72

Post by jamesdelaneyie »

pan69 wrote: post #53
Goronmon wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And it may well be the case that you don't have the luxury to make this choice. Which, unfortunately, is usually the case when it comes to game development.

Or any sort of development for that matter. I've never worked with a client who said; "Yeah, sure. What ever you think is best". When someone else pays the bills, you're either used as extension to Photoshop or used as a glorified typist.

Odd comment. Clients in my work consistently pay us to do 'What we think is best' because that's what they're paying us for. Sometimes we do production work, but more often than not we're directing and advising the client toward their goal, then creating the things that get them there. They don't know how to get there, we do. But probably we're in different industries.

Re: A Pixel Artist Renounces Pixel Art

#73

Post by emsy »

zeidrich wrote: post #60

A big thing about pixel art and it's issues today is that what he mentions as pixel art, isn't so. I mean, he argues about the way the devices scale his art up and change aspect ratio etc. But on the other hand, he compares a picture of Yoshi at the end to an algorithmically smoothed version. However, Yoshi was never intended to look like the leftmost image. The thing is, pixels aren't square. In fact, when we played…

For anyone interested in the topic, here is an article written with dedication about it http://gamasutra.com/blogs/KylePittman/20150420/241442/CRT_S...

Re: A Pixel Artist Renounces Pixel Art

#74

Post by the_af »

zeidrich wrote: post #60

A big thing about pixel art and it's issues today is that what he mentions as pixel art, isn't so. I mean, he argues about the way the devices scale his art up and change aspect ratio etc. But on the other hand, he compares a picture of Yoshi at the end to an algorithmically smoothed version. However, Yoshi was never intended to look like the leftmost image. The thing is, pixels aren't square. In fact, when we played…

> It's one thing to represent things in a symbolic, simplistic or minimalistic style. It's another thing to feign technological disadvantage.

Different in what ways? It's a perfectly valid and common artistic resource to "feign disadvantage", limiting the colors, the subject, the perspective or, yes, the resolution.

If I understood the article, the author acknowledges the historical limitations of the "pixelated look", states he and an "insular" community of artists like it by choice, and at the same time he also acknowledges to the general public, the pixelated look is bizarre (what he calls the "pixel tax"), and therefore he understands he must change with the times. And in the end, he more or less concludes that good art is good art, regardless of the specific style.

Re: A Pixel Artist Renounces Pixel Art

#75

Post by the_af »

soup10 wrote: post #71
zeidrich wrote: post #60

A big thing about pixel art and it's issues today is that what he mentions as pixel art, isn't so. I mean, he argues about the way the devices scale his art up and change aspect ratio etc. But on the other hand, he compares a picture of Yoshi at the end to an algorithmically smoothed version. However, Yoshi was never intended to look like the leftmost image. The thing is, pixels aren't square. In fact, when we played…

I agree with your sentiment, I think the author makes some decent points but is pretty biased towards an aesthetic he prefers and the art tools he's most familiar with. The sf4 example is particularly demonstrating of that, people that do 3d modeling know that it's not as easy to get the arbitrary distortion effects you can do with frame by frame animation, that doesn't make it lower quality animation, it's a trade o…

How can he be biased, beyond his love of pixel art? He more or less concludes pixel art is not the best choice, and he sides with the public's opinion on this issue. Read the comments. He is not blaming anyone for this "pixel tax".

To my eyes, the SF4 Chun Li is infinitely inferior to SF3, and I'm not even an animator. And haven't played either game, so I truly have no preconceptions at all in this case.

Re: A Pixel Artist Renounces Pixel Art

#76

Post by the_af »

jimminy wrote: post #61
Mithaldu wrote: post #25

It's a little weird that he spends so much time criticizing others and doesn't even once acknowledge that his art style (proportions, anatomy) look definitely weird. (Downright ugly and off-putting to me.) Part of the reason his art gets put down by others might be that they also feel it's ugly, but don't quite know how to express it and pin it on the pixels. Further, as someone who works on games, the decision as to…

I agree, that he fails to acknowledge the issues with his own art. I agreed with him through most of the article, but when it came time for him to get to his stuff, the forced dithering was immediately off-putting, and is actually something that causes older games to feel dated to me. Pixel-art is great, when it is crisp. Most of his examples are crisp and well animated, until you get to his. The characters are oddly…

I didn't like his art style either, but I don't think it invalidates the rest of the article.

Re: A Pixel Artist Renounces Pixel Art

#77

Post by guelo »

nyolfen wrote: post #68

“Whatever you now find weird, ugly, uncomfortable and nasty about a new medium will surely become its signature. CD distortion, the jitteriness of digital video, the crap sound of 8-bit - all of these will be cherished and emulated as soon as they can be avoided. It’s the sound of failure: so much modern art is the sound of things going out of control, of a medium pushing to its limits and breaking apart. The distort…

Great quote. "Too momentous for the medium" reminded me of the intensity created by Sleigh Bell's purposefully overblown beats: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSHJjYwGJNA

Re: A Pixel Artist Renounces Pixel Art

#78

Post by rodgerd »

EdSharkey wrote: post #20

I think pixel art by itself is rad and has an audience that appreciates it. For games though, even beyond the problem of the audience not getting the point, in the age of retina displays there are many technical roadblocks with getting the pixels to stay blocky and render the way you want. If one was so inclined to stick with blocky pixel art, one could always render the bitmaps' pixels as filled vector rectangles an…

> ...there are many technical roadblocks with getting the pixels to stay blocky and render the way you want.

"These days, thought, you have to be pretty technical before you can even aspire to crudeness"

Re: A Pixel Artist Renounces Pixel Art

#79

Post by [deleted] »

nyolfen wrote: post #68

“Whatever you now find weird, ugly, uncomfortable and nasty about a new medium will surely become its signature. CD distortion, the jitteriness of digital video, the crap sound of 8-bit - all of these will be cherished and emulated as soon as they can be avoided. It’s the sound of failure: so much modern art is the sound of things going out of control, of a medium pushing to its limits and breaking apart. The distort…

[deleted]

Re: A Pixel Artist Renounces Pixel Art

#80

Post by the_af »

gavanwoolery wrote: post #17

It is the duty of an artist to fulfill their vision, not someone else's. For this reason, many prominent artists go unknown in their lifetime. The masses are attracted to "bad" art like Thomas Kinkade (I use quotes because the art is not actually bad, just lacks the originality that art connoisseurs seek). I would actually argue that you will have to make a choice between being a popular artist and being good artist…

> For me personally, I think that good pixel art is timeless (emphasis on "good")

Agreed about the timelessness. I find good pixel art more timeless than other forms of good videogame art. I thought about it and I think it's actually a case of abstractness, not pixelation. Pixel art is often more abstract. Another example of good non-pixelated game art that has this same quality is Another World's, which I find awesome.

I believe slightly more abstract game art -- slightly abstract, I'm not talking cubism here! -- is more appealing to me because of something related to Scott McCloud's concept of "closure", as explained in his book "Understanding Comics". This concept for me was the main takeaway of the book. When something is more abstract, having elided some aspects -- be it character details, animation frames, whatever -- your brain "fills in the gaps". And I think when my brain "fills in the gaps", the art itself ages better. The less my brain has to imagine the details not explicitly put there by the artist, the worse the art ages for me.

Not sure if this applies to other forms of art, but for me it definitely applies to videogame art, and is part of why I tend to like pixel art.

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