AuthorTopic: Noise or no Noise  (Read 1790 times)

Offline slappy

  • 0001
  • *
  • Posts: 4
  • Karma: +0/-0
    • View Profile

Noise or no Noise

on: April 16, 2017, 08:32:14 pm
So Im trying to learn pixel art and i was wondering about the noise filter in photoshop.
it sorta made this character more interesting.
but I do not know if adding the noise filter is an actual legitimate way that pixel artists use.
I didnt see any youtube video that uses that and i didnt see any article or website that talks about it.
I would like to know whether this is actually a method used by professionals or is it just a lazy way to do pixel art.
Thanks for any feedback  :)

Offline eishiya

  • 0100
  • ***
  • Posts: 1266
  • Karma: +2/-0
    • http://pixeljoint.com/p/28889.htm
    • View Profile
    • Website

Re: Noise or no Noise

Reply #1 on: April 16, 2017, 10:36:31 pm
Noise reads like, well, noise. It makes things unclear in a medium where clarity is already a challenge. It's best to avoid it. In addition, using a filter (as opposed to just noisy pixelling) adds a lot of colours without your direct control, which makes colour management and tweaking a big pain. Pixel art tutorials don't usually mention noise for the same reason painting tutorials don't mention chisels - it's just not usually a useful tool for the medium.

Offline PixelPiledriver

  • 0011
  • **
  • Posts: 997
  • Karma: +6/-0
  • Yo!
    • View Profile
    • My Blog

Re: Noise or no Noise

Reply #2 on: April 17, 2017, 09:03:27 am
If you really want noise for game assets do it with a shader in game.
That way it can be non destructive, applied to multiple objects, animated, etc.

Also forgot to mention you can use noise by hand for impact frames in animation.
But still don't apply a filter to the image permanently.
Either use an adjustment layer or a full canvas layer of noise with the alpha of the character applied to it.
« Last Edit: April 17, 2017, 12:49:09 pm by PixelPiledriver »
And knowing that it is, we seek what it is... ~ Aristotle, Posterior Analytics, Chapter 1

Offline Pixel_Snail

  • 0001
  • *
  • Posts: 20
  • Karma: +0/-0
    • View Profile

Re: Noise or no Noise

Reply #3 on: April 17, 2017, 01:56:49 pm
This is my very subjective opinion (and I'd be interested if anyone agrees or disagrees) when there's noise in pixel art, it becomes much more resolution dependent. In that it will look good and read well at lower resolutions, but as soon as it gets to a certain size the 'illusion' disappears and it looks somewhat muddy/blurry. When you dont have noise, and a piece of pixel art is scaled up, it doesn't look quite as good but it still reads well and has an almost minamalist appeal/aesthetic that even an outsider well find nice to look at.