The Amiga is quite another beast, especially showing photos in HAM mode, giving 4096 colors.
MacPaint Art from the Mid-80s Still Looks Great Today
51–60 of 210 posts
Re: MacPaint Art from the Mid-80s Still Looks Great Today
#52There'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 beauty comes through despite the change.
Re: MacPaint Art from the Mid-80s Still Looks Great Today
#53There'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 have to imagine that fully realizing a vision can only truly take place when the artists are not working at the limits of the present day tools. I’m thinking of something like games today that choose an art style and run with it, rather than trying to push the hardware as hard as possible. Was this the artist’s vision, or were they simply making the best of the tools they had?
Pixel art is very much still around today, even though it's far from "pushing" the limits of current hardware. It's pursuing a rather consistent "vision" of maximizing quality while staying within the bounds of a predefined level of detail (i.e. resolution) and color depth.
Re: MacPaint Art from the Mid-80s Still Looks Great Today
#54Meh. It was nothing compared with PLATO systems at the university. And the CAD setups dad and his engineering team used for work then (Silicon Graphics?) also looked much better.
So maybe for some values of "great." Maybe.
Re: MacPaint Art from the Mid-80s Still Looks Great Today
#55Earlier quoted context omitted.
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"Press button for YOUR instant demoscene imitat". Sad.
Re: MacPaint Art from the Mid-80s Still Looks Great Today
#56Earlier quoted context omitted.
I have to imagine that fully realizing a vision can only truly take place when the artists are not working at the limits of the present day tools. I’m thinking of something like games today that choose an art style and run with it, rather than trying to push the hardware as hard as possible. Was this the artist’s vision, or were they simply making the best of the tools they had?
Pixel art is very much still around today, even though it's far from "pushing" the limits of current hardware. It's pursuing a rather consistent "vision" of maximizing quality while staying within the bounds of a predefined level of detail (i.e. resolution) and color depth.
Right. This is kind of what I’m talking about. Someone choosing pixel art today is making a choice; they have a vision. 40 years ago, they were limited by the system. The choice was largely made for them.
Old video games come to mind. The box art would be drastically different than the look of the game. The box art was the vision, the game was what they ended up with after compromises due to the hardware of the day. I think it’s only been in the last decade or so that some game makers have truly been able to realize the visions they had 40 years ago.
Re: MacPaint Art from the Mid-80s Still Looks Great Today
#57Really interesting. I’m wondering if there’s any LLM or image model on Hugging Face that has been trained specifically on low-res black-and-white images like MacPaint. Has anyone come across something similar or seen a fine-tuned model in this specific retro visual style?
Not sure why you're being downvoted. I'd like to see this, too. Just for fun.
I think it is downvoted because it would potentially harm the creative value of the original works.
Re: MacPaint Art from the Mid-80s Still Looks Great Today
#58I was born in ‘83 and a good chunk of my formative years were spent imagining the world through dithered pixels — playing games, creating art, writing, and exploring. Seeing these images evokes a rush of nostalgia, simply because they’re dithered.
Re: MacPaint Art from the Mid-80s Still Looks Great Today
#59There'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…
Hm, are you sure that there is not some nostalgia at play here? To me they look horribly pixelated and at least some would improve aesthetically a lot for me with a higher resolution.
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Re: MacPaint Art from the Mid-80s Still Looks Great Today
#60"Design is about constraints" - Charles Eames
The constraints of the original Mac and MacPaint have resulted in an art form specific to the time and place.