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Author Topic: A Pixel Artist Renounces Pixel Art... What's your opinion?  (Read 4208 times)
LuisAnton
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« on: May 13, 2015, 03:51:18 AM »

Dinofarm games has just posted an article explaining why they won't keep creating games using pixel art http://www.dinofarmgames.com/a-pixel-artist-renounces-pixel-art/

I'm not sure I agree with them... Pixel art is sometimes a personal choice, sometimes an imposition because you just can't afford anything else. Similarly, 3D low poly is sometimes an artistic choice, sometimes an imposition. I wouldn't be able to create anything close to Auro myself, for sure. My pixel art is constrained to 16x16 (I drew my avatar, the running guy), because I wouln't be able to draw and animate anything much bigger than that! Thus, I must stick to that style or befriend someone who can do better than that.

Auro's pixel art is great. But even knowing the huge amount of work and skill there's behind  it still looks weird to me... and I LOVE pixel art. I think it's its the color palette.



Apart from your opinion about Auro's graphic style, what do you think about that article?


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Cobralad
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« Reply #1 on: May 14, 2015, 11:23:18 AM »

I renounced pixel art long before that loser did.

Pixelarts whole point is to carry narrative of being an old game. It also lot easier to manage color and composition which makes it prettier to the commoner who cant communicate why he likes it except "pastel colors".
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LuisAnton
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« Reply #2 on: May 14, 2015, 11:30:06 AM »

Really? Does Paul Robertson's work feel like that to you?  Undecided





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Cobralad
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« Reply #3 on: May 14, 2015, 11:46:10 AM »

Emm, that exactly what he does. His shock-art japonesque bullshit would not exist withot 90s games. Also his art is gererally not properly low-res or palette restricted, he is not a fine speciman of pixel art.
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LuisAnton
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« Reply #4 on: May 14, 2015, 12:01:52 PM »

I still don't understand this color-palette restriction... Today's pixel art is not 90s games pixel art. Why a limited color palette? I don't really care where Paul's inspiration comes from, it looks beautiful to me. Isn't that the point, no matter if it's pixels, low poly 3D or Final Fanatasy DirectX12 demo?
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Cobralad
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« Reply #5 on: May 14, 2015, 12:03:05 PM »

Explain why you find his art beautiful in technical terms.
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b∀ kkusa
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« Reply #6 on: May 14, 2015, 12:15:09 PM »

What's the point of low-rez and palette restriction nowadays? At least Paul Robertson manages to give the image of pixel art as not as shitty indie useless art.
Because of those non-sense low-rez and palette restrictions, there's a lot of wannabe pixel artists with 0 skills who make people think that anyone can do it.

i found the article interesting for the KOF and CHun-li  and i noticed that a lot amongst friends who've never been in the art section when playing game together = HD is beautiful no matter what lol.
Pixel art for the sake of pixel art is niche. But it saves a lot of time when you're restricted in time or money.
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My pixel art is constrained to 16x16 (I drew my avatar, the running guy), because I wouln't be able to draw and animate anything much bigger than that! Thus, I must stick to that style or befriend someone who can do better than that.
The charming point of pixel art in a game, is that it leaves the rest to your imagination, you imagine his real face etc..

ANd if your pixel art is outstanding, at some point it is just stupid to stick blindly to pixel art. It takes no time for a decent drawer to learn pixel art. It's just difficult for him to limit his palette and stick to low-res because it makes no sens.


And just for Cobralad, the art of paul robertson isn't beautiful, it just the way it is animated, it makes it alive. (there is more skills in the animation process than in the pixel art process )
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LuisAnton
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« Reply #7 on: May 14, 2015, 01:17:41 PM »

Explain why you find his art beautiful in technical terms.

I don't think 'beautiful' can be explained in technical terms, not as much as love can be explained through chemical reactions...

I don't like Auro's as probably because of the color choice, but I just enjoy watching Paul's sprites moving. They seem alive, they pulse with life, they have plenty of details while being clean and uncluttered.
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cynicalsandel
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« Reply #8 on: May 14, 2015, 01:44:54 PM »

i like pixel art and palette restrictions because im color blind. same reason why i like solid bold vector art. less colors = less problems.

but also who cares.
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Tokinsom
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« Reply #9 on: May 14, 2015, 02:08:37 PM »

Guy makes pixel art for device not meant for pixel art. People complain. Guy renounces pixel art forever because "they just don't understand."

The article makes some good points but...I can't get over that. Just switch to vector or whatever for your next mobile game and call it a day. Lesson learned. Why the big deal?
« Last Edit: May 14, 2015, 02:35:37 PM by Tokinsom » Logged

skaz
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« Reply #10 on: May 15, 2015, 01:54:00 AM »

I can understand his point, but since I make really tiny sprites, I can't relate to the reason he quit pixel art as a whole.
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« Reply #11 on: May 15, 2015, 07:30:45 AM »

I agree with Tokinsom, it was just not the right audience for pixel art, there are still people who love and appreciate pixel art and I've heard many times that making a damn good looking game in pixel art is even more expensive than using other techniques.

I consider the mobile market a very different audience than consoles or PC, a lot of casual players that really have no love for the video game culture, so pixel art and chiptunes may turn them off completely.  Huh?
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ktch
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« Reply #12 on: May 15, 2015, 09:44:58 AM »

It's probably besides the point but the thing that irked me about the article is the "good art" vs. "bad art" thing that he talks about in the beginning.

Sure, from a purely technical stand point the Zelda example is a better display of efficiency and skill but for me personally the Bubsy example feels more interesting and evocative (well, relatively speaking). Even if it tehnique wise is inferior. It's an important distinction to make when talking about bad vs good, there're multiple axes to measure that in...
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FrankieSmileShow
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« Reply #13 on: May 16, 2015, 10:33:22 PM »

From what I understand, his point is, since he was not actually developing a "retro" title like shovel knight or retro city rampage etc, making the game in pixel art was a mistake. It made his game's visual intent confusing. He says, its not his job to teach the players that his art looks like this on purpose. It should be self-evident from the game, and it wasn't.
I guess I can understand that point of view. He was kind of going somewhere in-between, and it just didn't really work. hes not actually interested in making retro looking stuff, he was just drawing pixel art because that's what he does best. He realized that retro-looking games isn't actually what he is interested in developing, so he will no longer makes games in pixel art. This sounds pretty reasonable.


Although, looking at the screenshot he showed of his game... While he is talented at the craft of pixel art, I think he has a problem handling "art direction", he has a problem making the game look good as a whole. Personally, I think this screenshot he showed of Auro looks kind of bad... The character sprites look fine individually, but it all meshes together kind of badly. Doesn't that interface look really garish? Something about these colors and the weird edges and the mix of palettes really rubs me the wrong way, cant be the only one? Maybe refusing to limit his color palette made his color choices sloppy, and so we end up with a kind of unappealing screen filled with individually-appealing assets.

As for me, well, I'm not gonna drop pixel art any time soon.
It's what I am good at, it's fun to make, it's simple, it makes cohesiveness easy, its abstraction connects to the imagination, it's easy/quick to animate.
Seems like a pretty obvious choice to go with for games. I don't know why anyone makes games with anything else.
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diegzumillo
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« Reply #14 on: May 16, 2015, 11:24:57 PM »

I have some minor gripes with this article. His (their) approach on this decision seems less artistic-oriented and more business-oriented than it seems by reading the post. They are switching from an art style they like for one that is more easily digestible. I'm not judging them though, just putting it into my perspective.

Example: A jazz musician could use an equivalent argument to quit jazz and do pop music. Because most people that listen jazz for the first time say it sounds kinda random and the solos are too long and boring. Because my uncle says it sounds like rubbish doesn't mean Chick Corea failed as an artist.

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Though I never intended for Auro to be a “retro-style” game, what I intended doesn’t matter at all, and it’s 100% my fault for failing to communicate in a language people understand.
Just like jazz, some people did understand and they do appreciate it. Your art was successful. But more people = more money, right? nothing wrong with that. I bet Justin Bieber makes more money than Esperanza Spalding ("who the hell is that?" you are probably asking. Please, google it! :D )


However, a good argument for dropping pixel art are the technical difficulties that are commonly overlooked. Specially if you intend to publish on several platforms. A lot of people dive into pixel art (myself included) using its simplicity as main motivator, and what they find is a whole new host of problems to deal with! pixel grid and fixed resolutions are not as simple as it sounds.
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valrus
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« Reply #15 on: May 17, 2015, 12:45:19 AM »

Auro is actually the only pixel art game I have on mobile that I would say actually looks *bad*.  The pixels themselves are stretched and don't maintain a consistent shape during animation, the interface and colors are garish, and there's a weird disconnect between the detail of the sprites and the flat-colored, detail-less backgrounds.  (Like the backgrounds nearly suggest a vector game in their lack of detail, and that highlights the wonky pixels of what's in front of them.) 

I don't think we can separate that from the argument in the post.  The artist is suggesting that people didn't like the game because they had the wrong expectations, and therefore that there's not an audience for pixel art on mobile.  That *might* be true, but Auro isn't a great n=1 data point.
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oahda
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« Reply #16 on: May 17, 2015, 01:50:15 AM »

How did two people individually describe the interface as "garish"? WTF Is that a common word?
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jamesprimate
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« Reply #17 on: May 17, 2015, 02:55:15 AM »

Guy makes pixel art for device not meant for pixel art. People complain. Guy renounces pixel art forever because "they just don't understand."

ALSO "its hard", lol

that article was worth the read if just for that final fight gif, daaaaang! but yeah, i find it very strange that the artist is blaming... a technique? style? genre? instead of perhaps looking at what other design shortcomings might be on their end. after this detailed analysis and survey of good pixel art, with links to amazing works as a build up, he then posts some pretty underwhelming pictures of their random mobile game. rather than driving his point home, i the reader thought to myself "ah, yes, i understand why people didnt like this." probably not his intent :/

his overall point sort of still stands though: if you are going to do something in a specific style, you should probably have a reason to. like, if people "not getting" the pixel art style is enough for you to quit, then it probably wasn't all that important to the aesthetic in the first place.  Shrug
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Carpetwurm
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« Reply #18 on: May 17, 2015, 08:51:50 AM »

I stopped doing pixel art because I wanted to make something that felt more original. I feel this because the indie market is over-saturated with pixel art games. I'm not saying I dislike pixel art, but I'd really like to stand out from the droves of pixel art. My peers usually say I'm pretty good at pixel art, but I don't think so myself.  Epileptic


Patch, I tried doing something more interesting with this game's art.


Dreamer, pretty amateur 16x16 sprites.
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RolandJMoritz
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« Reply #19 on: May 17, 2015, 09:07:01 AM »

Well...I guess pixel art will be around for much longer, simply because - as difficult and time consuming as it may be to do it really well - it is still a comparatively easy way to get graphics that can work in the context of your game, especially if you are not a professional artist.

I picked up pixel art out of necessity - I just couldn't find an artist for our game Tongue I don't consider myself an artist, because I can't do much outside the particular style I taught myself by now, but I guess it works for us ... so basically, it's not really an attempt to be "retro" or jump on the pixelart bandwagon, but simple pragmatism.
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