Is pixel-art still cool, or is it all 3d these days?

[Fruity]

Hey!

I've been looking at pixel-art lately, and want to try to learn a bit of it. Apart from the fact that it's really hard to master, is it really any use in learning? Or should I just go 3d like "everybody else"?

Thing is, I like the look of a lot of this pixel-art.

I also like the thought of games with bigger tiles and more details. (f.ex. top-view "rpg-style" w/64x64px tiles.) But I guess that makes it even harder and I should start slow.. :) Ok I don't have more valuable stuff to add to this post so I'll stop now. :)

Edit: oh, by the way. I'm not just talking rpg-style games, but also games like elballo, point-n-click like sam'n'max and so on.. though that last style might be dead as a rock.. (I always loved those games, tho..)

[sealfin]

/sealfin slots Metal Slug 3 into his PS2.
/sealfin nods; pixel-art is still cool.

I'm of the opinion that there's no reason why pixel-art can't be used if the platform of the game, the target audience of the game, and the theme and the genre of the game, don't make pixel-art an obviously unsuitable choice; I've never thought "eww, 2D" as a reason for putting a game back-on the shelf, but maybe I'm in the minority...

[unknown]

Thing is, I like the look of a lot of this pixel-art.
Thats a more than good enough reason, go for it!

[Fruity]

well... thanks for your support. :) Hopefully learning this will come in handy..

Btw. do any of you know of some good tutorials on pixel-arts? I've searched the web and worked my way through one.. made cubes and spheres and a little man.. but it would be nice to get some more opinions on how to do this before going ahead and experimenting a lot..

[unknown]

Well experimenting is the number 1 way to learn, but why not zoom right in and see how some really good examples of pixel art are are done, like the bosses of dodonpachi for example.

[Fruity]

That's actually a very good idea.. :) Thanks.

I know from music that copying is the way to learn.. At least to a certain degree. Guess it's the same here. :)

[Rincewind]

Take a look at these screenshots from PoPoLoCrois.

http://www.konsolifin.net/ylli/upload/uutiset/gba/1132063306_popo9.jpg
http://www.konsolifin.net/ylli/upload/uutiset/gba/1132063286_popo7.jpg
http://www.konsolifin.net/ylli/upload/uutiset/gba/1132063276_popo5.jpg
http://www.konsolifin.net/ylli/upload/uutiset/gba/1132063251_popo10.jpg

Creating pixel art as pretty as in that game only makes me want to try it out more than if it were a more generic 3D-screenshot like:

http://img.gamespot.com/gamespot/images/2005/067/reviews/925740_20050309_screen002.jpg

[ERaZer]

Here's a rather nice community for pixel-artist: http://pixel-arts.org/pixelopolis/

[ThemsAllTook]

Creating pixel art as pretty as in that game only makes me want to try it out more than if it were a more generic 3D-screenshot like:

http://img.gamespot.com/gamespot/images/2005/067/reviews/925740_20050309_screen002.jpg

With some more attention to color, lighting, contrast, and illusion of depth, those graphics could be improved dramatically. As it is in the screenshot, it looks like a big ugly jumbled mess. I see what you're saying, though; those things can be controlled much more tightly with pixel-based graphics. Not to mention stylization...

[Fruity]

With some more attention to color, lighting, contrast, and illusion of depth, those graphics could be improved dramatically. As it is in the screenshot, it looks like a big ugly jumbled mess. I see what you're saying, though; those things can be controlled much more tightly with pixel-based graphics. Not to mention stylization...
Yeah, that was an exeptionally bad picture. It's extremely hard to distinguish the characters from the background, and everything is pretty much dulled out..

[akb825]

Pixel art is certainly not dead, but it's not quite the mainstream anymore. Most people prefer to see 3D, but that doesn't mean that there's no market for 2D art. I suppose it would be more like a niche market for video/computer games these days. I won't not play a game just for being 2D, but I find that with the extra 3rd dimension, it often adds more possibility for gameplay.

[ERaZer]

In my opinion, if you want to make a beautiful game, 3D is way overrated. One of the prettiest games (if not the) for the PS1 is Legend of Mana, pixelart mixed with drawn art.

[MilesBaskett]

Pixel art can help alot with 3d games as well. Sometimes you may only want a 256x256 texture map, and if you know pixel art the tetures will look better as you can anti-alias by hand and also make lines that appear sharp even if its only a one pixel line.

Check out this guys 3d, he uses pixel techniques alot.
http://adam.lastchancemedia.com/

[monteboyd]

This guy does some amazing pixel art:
Jeremy Dower (http://www.jeremydower.com/)

[arekkusu]

Check out this guys 3d, he uses pixel techniques alot.
http://adam.lastchancemedia.com/

This does not suck.

(From me, that is a ringing endorsement.)

[Najdorf]

Check out this guys 3d, he uses pixel techniques alot.
http://adam.lastchancemedia.com/

wow, pixelated textures!! dont see that very often...

[Taxxodium]

To create pixel art, do I really need to make my drawing pixel by pixel or is there an easier way? Like using the pixelate filer in Photoshop?

[socksy]

Well, there's the fill tool, and you can usually design your own pixel brushes, but that's how it's done. That's why pixel artists are highly applauded. See this: http://www.swmoore.com/ultimatepaint.html

[loki74]

I wouldn't be surprised if you could find (or write) a shader for your favorite 3D app that will put out renders that look like pixel art.

...granted, it would not be authentic, but if its just the look you want, it might work.

[Leisure Suit Lurie]

2D art often seems "warmer" than the 3D stuff. Other than Duke Nukem I don't think any of my favorite games are 3D.

I think Earthworm Jim was an awesome example of what can be done with 2D.

[Zekaric]

To create pixel art, do I really need to make my drawing pixel by pixel or is there an easier way? Like using the pixelate filer in Photoshop?Simple answer, No.

Often that is the way people do it but you can rotoscope (Scanner Darkly, taking a video or picture and painting over it) using tools like renderes and ratracers, (handy to get perspective or orientations properly) and painting over it.

Use whatever tools that will make life easier. Aside from outright stealing, nothing is verboten.

[MilesBaskett]

If it could have been done by filters, japanese game designers would have invented it.... doing it by hand isn't actually that slow. If you can already draw(or do cad like illustration) it should be easy.

Side notes:
By using a filter,ect, you lose control of how the pixelation responds/displays once said filter is applied.Leading to alot of clean-up.You also loose a major benifit of pixel art, and why its used. Pixel art was made for, and by game artists that had low or little ram/memory/disk space.When making textures for 3d(or 2d sprites) you should make them have as little impact on the engine as possible.More often than not, texture space is wasted(at least in games made in alot of western countrys).We like to just throw a better graphic card at the problem so we can use bigger textures(and waste more texture space). Did you know Playstation2 uses texture sizes 256x256 and smaller? Also, using 4-bit textures speeds 3d engines up alot! Maybe I just enjoy total control over the impact my models make in a game environment too much.

[funkboy]

I have a couple ideas for image processing that would make pixel art creation better... I wanted to add it into the sprite artwork application that was starting to be developed here awhile ago. I unfortunately am not as familiar with Cocoa as I want to be to pull it off... but I may make a proof of concept just to show my idea. It would take greyscale line art and try to make pretty clean pixel art through the use of an algorithm. I'm not sure about fills, but who knows, with the right tweaking...

[MilesBaskett]

"it would take greyscale line art and try to make pretty clean pixel art through the use of an algorithm. I'm not sure about fills, but who knows, with the right tweaking..."


I can't wait to see what you come up with. Will it do un-aliased or aliased lines(or both)?

[djork]

Pixel art by its very nature has "heart." It's a labor of love to make a sprite or texture pixel-by-pixel, and you can tell in the end result. Someone above mentioned 2D being "warmer" than 3D, and that's mostly true. I believe that pixel art can be brought into the 3D world quite successfully to make some really nice stuff. From a site linked above:

http://www.lastchancemedia.com/images/gallery/lowpoly/morden.gif

[SMagic]

Sorry bout this but I posted a message about 2D Pixel artists needed and I don't know if it showed. Here's a brief description.

Hi there, this is a project being revived. I see big potential in this game, it is called Whispers in Akarra.

First of all! The spriting necessary for this game isn't that difficult but it has a theme that needs to be followed! 16x16 ingame and 32x32 inventory as well as possibly some portraits for NPC and building/spriteset spriting which would require bigger dimensions. If you feel interested in any of these domains email me at JohnPawlak@gmail.com

To check out what the game looked like, a site is being worked on, im not sure if the web designer put up the screenshots page yet.
The temp forums are located at: www.burningstormstudios.com/forums
The temp website is located at: www.burningstormstudios.com/wia

The game is a 2D Mmorpg that used to have 400-500 users playing it in its pre-alpha stages. The game runs while continualy being worked on. At the moment the game is down and big work is being done. The game has very good editors for each field, be it mapping, spriting, skills, effects, tileset, spriteset, creatureedit, itemedit and more.

The game is a medieval style mmorpg. The artists are not required to dedicate full time to this or even too much time. It is more of a help out when you can and get to know the team as well as grab some fame with the ever growing community.

**For the time being, the forums aren't populated since they have just gotted up and many old players are still lingering in distant web corners.

The artists would receive images of what the item/monsters/NPC's look like and would be able to either modify them or create new ones using the similar theme.