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[raiten]

its a harsh generalization but still.. its the negative connotation. im just waiting to be shown otherwise...

you used to do great-looking stuff in flash yourself, Annabelle, although your current stuff of course looks much better. is this some kind of self-hatred caused by the fact that your art has improved since you switched mediums?

[JLJac]

Gotta say that the quality of art more often depends on the artist than on the medium of art. When it comes down to it there are two things to admire in a piece of art:

An idea
The showing of that idea

Ideas don't have anything with your way of painting to do. When painting, people choose tools they think are easy to use, and that fit their ideas. For me it's mostly about the ideas, the work of making them clear enough to understand for the viewer isn't as interesting to me. If it works and it fits, that's good. You can't say one is better than the other, since it all comes down to good/bad ideas in the end.

[Hayden Scott-Baron]

eh whaddya think about this one? the character is drawn in flash and the bg is photoshop
http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z84/truendymion/sia_YOUWIN.jpg?t=1233741206

Looks fine, but that's not gameplay. It's the balance of detail on the gameplay screen that's harder to get right.  Also, once you start going too fine, then things like the lack of shadows become all the more glaring. It takes considerable care to balance things out like this.

[rayteoactive]

Hmmm... I personally works on both pixel and vector, but mainly vectors. Pixel has always been more of a "for the fun of it", since I'm really much more familiarize with my vector tools. However, my latest project made me reconsidered my choices.

In the future, if it's a game for the hardcore audience, I'd give pixel a shot. But if it's something for the masses, like an advertising game or sort, I guess it's a lot safer to stick vector.

There's no statistic to back these decisions, but advert games audience does includes female audience and guys who watches cartoons and don't play games. If you throw them a pixel 2D game, they probably gonna think that this is really hardcore (even more so for 3D).

As for vector, the latest project made me realize how tiring it can be. With pixel, you can express so many things without all the details. But for vector, you need to draw exactly everything to express the same amount of information, 1:1.

Here's something I'm working on...

and when you compare to...


I think both are nice (for me), but the time spent to create the 2 out of 3 vector characters are enough for me to create the chunk of Rock man characters below, and still have time for another episode of Bytejacker. It's even more so when it comes to environment artwork.

I might be whoring my portfolio a little, but for those of you that don't mind, you can check out http://www.cnb.gov.sg/kidpower/PDEGame/Sections/maingame.html
It's a game I did 2 years ago in my previous company (it isn't a great game, but since we're just talk about the art aspect...)

Point is, if you look at the details in the artwork, and compare to my sprite work... like this for example
I think they both look okay too. But I'd probably kill myself 5 times working on the vector game, and only once working on the sprite... and that's quite a bit of production cost if you ask me

[Joseph]

Heres a shot from Spectrum of Violence



And heres a more recent shot from Killgore

[Μarkham]

Another pet peeve is dithering in pixel art. It does not make pixel art look better, it just makes it look outdated and is a relic from when fewer colors were allowed. One of the artists I make games with loves dithering, but I hate it.

Actually, there is still a valid use for it - alternative page layouts for Internet Explorer 6 for websites that rely on alpha-transparent PNGs, thanks to the vast amount of people who still insist on using crappy, outdated web browsers...  

I should not need to design an additional CSS layout for each version of IE!

[letsap]

Dithering can work in a few places, I think.

Also, as far as pixels over vectors, for me part of it is definitely nostalgia. The other part is that aside from feeling like I have more control over how the finished composition looks, it carries a certain atmosphere that vectoring doesn't.

Don't get me wrong, some vectored games and non-sprited games (Ragnarok Battle Offline comes to mind immediately, but I'm not sure that counts as vectored) look great and wouldn't look better any other way.

[rayteoactive]

Dithering can work in a few places, I think.

I think dithering are best used if you're looking for a realistic pixel look. I think if Gears of war were to be done in pixel art, dithering is a must, lol.

The other part is that aside from feeling like I have more control over how the finished composition looks, it carries a certain atmosphere that vectoring doesn't.

A friend of mine (purely gamer, from other line of work) mentioned that pixel art gives him a best sense of space. Since the graphic is almost precise, he knows very well where his punches lands in Street of rage.

In games like Street Fighter 3, it is especially the case. On that precise frame, precise distance, you know you must do your moves. I just don't think that's possible with vector art and all that tween motion.

[Tandemar]

I'm baffled by this whole "I don't get it" routine.

What's there to "get"?

If you're above a certain age then pixels are the basis of all the games you played as a kid, and if you're below this age then polygons were the first things you saw.

Now some Kids (if they'll excuse me using this term) like pixels in a retro kind of way because some of the coolest graphics are done in pixels and are predominantly oriental in origin; mostly because no Westerner is either focussed, determined, talented or mad enough to throw in the sheer volume of time and effort into some of the graphics that our Oriental cousins produce.

Not that we couldn't if we wanted, but for the most part...we don't.

That's not to say that some sweet pixel graphics haven't been produced in the West, because they have. I can't be bothered citing examples just now, I'll leave that to you guys as I know you'll probably start a whole new post on that topic...but the main reason is I don't have time...I'm actually taking time from pixelling to write this.

Yep, I pixel cos it's my job. I've been doing it for 25 years and sometimes I like it, sometimes I love it and other times it drives me so bug-nuts crazy I want to walk out into the sea until my hat floats.

Pixel graphics are just one of the many forms of game graphics that exist in the wonderful world of computer games.

You either like them or you don't.

Simple as...

[Joseph]

RAAAAAAAAmen brother!

[Peevish]

Mm, Raman.

[RayRayTea]

Pixel art generally allows for more projection and this is the most attractive aspect for me. I like when the artist leaves just a bit of space for my own brain to fill in the blanks. Still good art is good art, so Ness looks good both in Mother and in Super Smash Bros.

My love for pixels doesn`t have to do anything with age. In fact I was very uninterested in it while I was a teenager.