Hi all,
New forum member here hoping I can get some advice.
I'm a programmer (used to work on mainstream games a long time ago... but left for the world of the web) and dabble in indie game programming. It drives me crazy not being able to make artwork for my ideas (beyond "programmer art"), and most things get abandoned after I get disgusted with looking at the horrible graphics. I'd love to partner with a good artist, because I know I'm a good progammer, but it's just never happened for whatever reason. So, I want to develop my own artistic skills, specifically pixel art.
I'm someone who really can't draw, at all. I mean I don't draw stick figures, but the things I draw have no essence of character in them, are totally screwed up perspective-wise, you know, all those problems that people who can't draw have. I very much draw my brain's abstractions of images, e.g. drawing with the left side of my brain .I assume drawing is somewhat a prerequisite to character pixel art, in order to start with an outline.
If an artist came to me and said "I want to learn how to program", I could probably reasonably outline a path for them to achieve that goal. e.g. read these books, do these sequences of exercises then these sequences of projects, hang out in these forums, etc. So I'm kind of hoping for the reverse here.
If I have no ability but the commitment to learn, what path would you recommend to me? Do I need to learn how to draw first? Can I go straight to pixelling? When's the right time to tackle animation? Do I start with just worrying about flat shading and getting the outlines right? Or should I take every drawing to completion with shadowing, self shadowing, highlights, etc? Where do I start and where do I go next.
I know about a lot of tutorials, eg. Derek Yu's etc, but tutorials are not a course of study.
Thanks for your help
Brian