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Boris Vallejo and the pixel art of the demoscene

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Re: Boris Vallejo and the pixel art of the demoscene

#81

Post by predictsoft »

actionfromafar wrote: post #70
shiroiushi wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Sadly, the video capabilities that made it so special eventually became its Achilles heel. How weird: I was browsing YouTube last night (with the SmartTube app) and somehow stumbled on a video that discussed this exact thing, basically making the case that Wolfenstein 3D killed the Amiga and discussing how the unique video capabilities it had which were great for 2D side-scrollers made it so difficult to make a FPS…

It didn't exactly kill it. Wolfenstein being feasible on the PC and not the Amiga, was just a symptom of stagnation. The Amiga (as a promising commercial venture!) had doom (pun intended) written all over it even before Wolfenstein. Commodore ignored the Amiga for years and years. Edit: I just recalled something - the Amiga recquired either a TV or increasingly rare monitors with PAL/NTSC frequencies. You couldn't ju…

I used a VGA monitor with my Amiga 1200 (with an adapter). It was not flickery at all and was full resolution.

Re: Boris Vallejo and the pixel art of the demoscene

#82

Post by badpun »

actionfromafar wrote: post #70
shiroiushi wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Sadly, the video capabilities that made it so special eventually became its Achilles heel. How weird: I was browsing YouTube last night (with the SmartTube app) and somehow stumbled on a video that discussed this exact thing, basically making the case that Wolfenstein 3D killed the Amiga and discussing how the unique video capabilities it had which were great for 2D side-scrollers made it so difficult to make a FPS…

It didn't exactly kill it. Wolfenstein being feasible on the PC and not the Amiga, was just a symptom of stagnation. The Amiga (as a promising commercial venture!) had doom (pun intended) written all over it even before Wolfenstein. Commodore ignored the Amiga for years and years. Edit: I just recalled something - the Amiga recquired either a TV or increasingly rare monitors with PAL/NTSC frequencies. You couldn't ju…

A1200 and A4000 could be hooked into a VGA monitor for the flickerless experience. The caveat was that the flicker-free display modes were added on top of old ones, which meant that, while you could run Workbench and most applications on the VGA monitor, all games ran in the obsolete PAL modes your VGA display couldn’t handle. This created a market for niche dual-mode displays, which solved the problem, but were a bit pricey.

Re: Boris Vallejo and the pixel art of the demoscene

#83

Post by actionfromafar »

predictsoft wrote: post #81
actionfromafar wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It didn't exactly kill it. Wolfenstein being feasible on the PC and not the Amiga, was just a symptom of stagnation. The Amiga (as a promising commercial venture!) had doom (pun intended) written all over it even before Wolfenstein. Commodore ignored the Amiga for years and years. Edit: I just recalled something - the Amiga recquired either a TV or increasingly rare monitors with PAL/NTSC frequencies. You couldn't ju…

I used a VGA monitor with my Amiga 1200 (with an adapter). It was not flickery at all and was full resolution.

Yes, I know. I had that setup myself. :)

I posit though, that by the time Amiga 1200 was out, Amiga as a commercial venture was already dead in the water. The 1200 was a last ditch effort. Still loved it, of course.

Re: Boris Vallejo and the pixel art of the demoscene

#84

Post by Symbiote »

Symbiote wrote: post #41
Dalewyn wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not making any commentary on the art thereof. This is a forum hosted by venture capitalist investors and frequented primarily by IT professionals ("hackers"), unwittingly opening some NSFW material probably won't fly well in that kind of environment.

If this counts as NSFW, then browse with images enabled. The National Gallery (of the UK) has this page one click from the homepage, "Our most famous paintings" https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/must-sees

^ I missed the negation. I meant to write "If this counts as NSFW, browse with images disabled".

Re: Boris Vallejo and the pixel art of the demoscene

#85

Post by skrebbel »

royjacobs wrote: post #67
pavlov wrote: post #59

I used to be a teenage demoscene graphics artist back in the waning days of the Amiga and earliest days of Windows-based demos. Vallejo was definitely a popular source and influence. But demoscene graphics were really more of a technical competition than expressive art. The participants were teenagers — it was pretty obvious that most 16-year-old boys don't paint like Frazetta while also having mastered the skills fo…

The demoscene needs you back, Saffron!

Yeah it's about time y'all make a Contour final

Re: Boris Vallejo and the pixel art of the demoscene

#86

Post by spookie »

pavlov wrote: post #59

I used to be a teenage demoscene graphics artist back in the waning days of the Amiga and earliest days of Windows-based demos. Vallejo was definitely a popular source and influence. But demoscene graphics were really more of a technical competition than expressive art. The participants were teenagers — it was pretty obvious that most 16-year-old boys don't paint like Frazetta while also having mastered the skills fo…

I wasnt alive when you did this but those are incredible!

There is something to be said about all these little tricks. I think your comment about scans highlights this, meaning you do loose character when the artist isn't in total control.

I suppose one could, at the time, have a more personal technical style. Not sure how to word this and not even on a good level on the topic to draw proper conclusions. I do draw (mostly concept art, I'm good with humanoids though!), but its not what I do for a living, just to help the team understanding ideas for levels and such. I'm a programmer first and foremost.

Re: Boris Vallejo and the pixel art of the demoscene

#88

Post by YeGoblynQueenne »

armitron wrote: post #44
shermantanktop wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know these types of images take hold in a 13-year-old boy’s mind and make him a lifelong fan, and for anyone who lived through that particular time and place, I understand the appeal. But for most everyone else, this is some cheesy artwork. I say that as someone who read more than my share of Edgar Rice Burroughs. The article author himself realizes that the image he is copying has no narrative. Many of the images…

Compare Vallejo to Frank Frazetta and it's immediately obvious why the latter is considered a master of fantastic art while the former is drifting towards obscurity. Frazetta's art is full of tension [1] and energy [2] whilst Vallejo is simply drawing his circle of bodybuilders in various poses. The environments he paints have absolutely no effect on his posed subjects and the end-result is disconnected and comes acr…

You might as well be comparing Slayer and Cannibal Corpse. Both styles have their place and they can be enjoyed in their own right.

I prefer Frazetta too, but Vallejo is rightly recognised as one of the greats. He does his own thing. Not everyone can, or should try to, be Frazetta. That'd be pretty boring.

Or, like I once told a friend: you gotta stop comparing everyone to Bugs (Bunny).

Re: Boris Vallejo and the pixel art of the demoscene

#89

Post by ogurechny »

lcrz wrote: post #51
voidUpdate wrote: post #48

> "featuring idealistically rendered warriors and princesses, muscular and scantily clad (but not indecent)" Picture a couple of lines later shows two completely naked women. Might be considered "indecent"

This comment exemplifies the puritanical view that nakedness is somehow bad or impure. Notice that the men in the paintings of Vallejo are also almost completely naked, hacking away at monsters with large weapons. Yet you did not point to them and say they were indecent. I really hope that the rest of the world doesn’t take over the sex/violence sensitivities as are prevalent in the US.

Attributing it all to puritans is misleading and even anachronistic. A direct link would be possible at the time when the phrase “puritanism sells” made sense, but a number of generations have alreafy been born into the “sex sells” world.

So there's a country with a giant porn industry, but at the same time newspapers are full of stories about “sexual predators” hiding under every bush, and someone's naked breast is considered worthy of being turned into a “national scandal”. Intuition hints that one is intertwined with another.

When people from elsewhere hear about gender neutral bathhouse (formerly “common village/family bathhouse”, or simply “a river”), they picture themselves asking a granny how's steam in the sauna. In certain countries, they immediately think of some kind of orgy instead (based on media descriptions and fantasies). And certain people of limited wit even try to reenact them in reality, with pathetic results.

Specific social convention makes people gasp, roll their eyes, and hide the children when they see someone without clothes, not their strict moral principles. It is highly unlikely that it will disappear by itself. On the contrary, there are forces that benefit from it. The aforementioned porn industry have successfully used commoners' fears to ban non-corporate-produced wanking materials from the biggest websites. Not even nature is allowed to compete with exclusive providers of images of sexual nature to the consumers.

Re: Boris Vallejo and the pixel art of the demoscene

#90

Post by lofaszvanitt »

maxwell wrote: post #87

Boris Vallejo vs. Frank Frazetta https://www.sequentialartistsworkshop.org/blog/2015/09/3388

Sigh... completely different styles, plus the guy nitpicked inferior BV images and compared them with FF's better works. BV also had several visceral and dirty fight scenes with Conan, yet the painter used some of BV's less detailed creations to prove his point.

You do not have to put a number on everything and determine who is "best" and why... This isn't a competition.

Everyone have different tastes. Both guys have unique style, nothing to discuss about this.

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