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MacPaint Art from the Mid-80s Still Looks Great Today

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191–200 of 210 posts

Re: MacPaint Art from the Mid-80s Still Looks Great Today

#191
Btw what is current MacPaint successor? Is there any? Do I understand correctly it used to be shipped with the Mac?

Preview is great to some extent and does a lot of useful things for me but it's designed to modify existing images, and I'm still missing a software to draw a square, circle, some text etc.

Re: MacPaint Art from the Mid-80s Still Looks Great Today

#192
post #3

Awesome! You can also find great art made with Deluxe Paint for the Amiga. The limitations from early computers in resolution and, most importantly, palette, create unique art styles: https://amiga.lychesis.net/applications/DeluxePaint.html

The colour palette of Amiga is really appealing to me. I used to love watching game screenshots printed in games magazines available in my country.

That's how I fell in love with Monkey Island and Flashback

Re: MacPaint Art from the Mid-80s Still Looks Great Today

#193
post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Switched on Bach is one of my favorite albums of all time.

You should take a listen to Tomita as well then! There is so much beautiful music in the world

Oh wow! I have not heard that name in a while! ( and yes, I know I still haven't heard it outside my own head, but that is just a nit to pick..)

Mars. That track is so great! All of them are, but that one shows off so many great synth techniques. One passage is noise that ramps. The spectral distribution changes, from emphasis on low notes to emphasis on high notes while the overall energy remains close to the same.

I remember it because I have never heard anyone else do that in a composition.

Recommendation seconded!

Re: MacPaint Art from the Mid-80s Still Looks Great Today

#194
post #97
post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Switched on Bach is one of my favorite albums of all time.

Switched-on Bach is a revelation in part because the synth bass tones are more focused, distinct, and identifiable than when the same notes are played on acoustic instruments — allowing you to hear harmonic interplay which I believe is closer to what Bach heard in his head. But here are lots of Bach synth albums and only Wendy Carlos’ work has the taste and obsessive fidelity to the original compositions to allow tho…

I really like the 2 Bach synth albums by Marco Rosano.

Re: MacPaint Art from the Mid-80s Still Looks Great Today

#195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Update: Wendy Carlos is still with us at 85 years of age, but apparently hasn’t been able to press CDs for two decades, and hasn’t licensed her music for streaming. Her site links to CDs on Amazon, w/o new copies available. She sounds dope, even being an “accomplished solar eclipse photographer” per Wiki. If anyone knows her I’m curious if someone could help her preserve/distribute these beautiful sounds. (Maybe they…

Well, it’s either mental issues, or this is the way she wants it. I assume the latter. She had connections. There are people even today who would throw themselves at her feet to make it happen. She was instrumental in helping Bob Moog make the synthesizer workable for musicians, according to Bob Moog. She did the original Tron soundtrack.

Awesome.

& I’m going with your assumption! Thanks for the positive perspective & background.

Re: MacPaint Art from the Mid-80s Still Looks Great Today

#196

Btw what is current MacPaint successor? Is there any? Do I understand correctly it used to be shipped with the Mac? Preview is great to some extent and does a lot of useful things for me but it's designed to modify existing images, and I'm still missing a software to draw a square, circle, some text etc.

Try Paintbrush (open-source MacPaint-inspired app), Pixelmator Pro (more advanced), Acorn, or even Apple's built-in Preview has basic drawing tools under the markup icon when viewing images.

Re: MacPaint Art from the Mid-80s Still Looks Great Today

#197

There's a term I read about a long time ago, I think it was "aesthetic completeness" or something like that. It was used in the context of video games whose art direction was fully realized in the game, i.e. increases in graphics hardware or capabilities wouldn't add anything to the game in an artistic sense. The original Homeworld games were held up as examples. Anyway, this reminded me of that. Making these picture…

The same holds true for everything from cave paintings to Roman frescos. It's part of human expression. The tools of that expression shape it. For example, Bach's music was shaped by the fact that the harpsichord had no sustain. The piano changed that, but "upscaling" Bach's work to take advantage of this new technology would destroy them. You use the new technology to play them as they were written for the old. The…

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Re: MacPaint Art from the Mid-80s Still Looks Great Today

#198
post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have this same ontological debate with myself, I settle it by having a rather stricter definition of classical music. Classical music is popular music that has remained popular for longer than two generations of listeners. Music that follows that certain large scale form is orchestral music.(or whatever sub genre it is) This annoying behavior does not win me any friends but remember that the great classical compose…

> remember that the great classical composers were the rock stars of their day. I don't have a source for this but I hear it a lot and I strongly suspect it is a historiographical myth. Pretty much only a very small minority urban (relative) elite had access to live professionally performed classical music during most periods when it was being composed. This is also the group whose writings form most of our current k…

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Re: MacPaint Art from the Mid-80s Still Looks Great Today

#199

There's a term I read about a long time ago, I think it was "aesthetic completeness" or something like that. It was used in the context of video games whose art direction was fully realized in the game, i.e. increases in graphics hardware or capabilities wouldn't add anything to the game in an artistic sense. The original Homeworld games were held up as examples. Anyway, this reminded me of that. Making these picture…

I am not a game purist and modern games are just fine, but I do not see the point of AAA games employing 300 artists to model blades of grass that have no gameplay effect. Sure, the screen shots lot great but unless you are making GrassSimulator2000 it would have been better to use those resources for something else.

When id was pushing the envelope of technology (mid to late 90s) and creating more and more startling games, I remember thinking that none of them really had the appeal of many of the earlier games. And apparently Carmack thought that the story etc. of the game wasn't important. Reading masters of DOOM and watching my 8 year old play DOOM on an emulator made me reconsider. He had a jumpscare in a way that would have been impossible unless the game was so immersive and that is a technological feat. I do agree with you that one can go too far but it's not wholly a pointless side quest.
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