Pixelation
General => General Discussion => Topic started by: Helm on May 06, 2009, 12:09:32 pm
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http://asides-bsides.blogspot.com/2009/05/mandy.html
I could have posted this whole article here but I think it might be of interest to a more general audience also. Discuss and comment as you desire.
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Very enlightening, and your edit is a huge improvement. ;D
I don't think the regular dithering pattern works, though, since the limited palette makes the rows of pixels stand out quite a bit. It looks particularly bad where it comes together around her cheekbone. I think something more random would make it look more organic. The right eye is also still too far off to the right.
Otherwise, I'm always impressed when someone manages to render things well using EGA colors. So in conclusion, :0'
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I sorta found that if I pulled the left eye in too much it wasn't the same face anymore so I kept the error. No excuse for the hair though... just got tired of rendering hairs to make a point.
I don't think I'll ever develop an instinct for using random dithering. I know theoretically when I should, but I think in orderly fashion when I pixel too much to consider such chaotic Go movements as the seemingly 'random' patterned dithering.
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How very German of you. ;)
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Quite a nice reading, very interesting and detailed, also from the emotional side. Your edit is very stylish and, heheh, neo-80s/90s (it bears some typical "oldschool" characteristics, like the strong "fixed" dithering bits---which I really admire---yet possesses the fresh spirit of the modern pixel art). I really like the part on fake-vector modes, as this is probably the first time I'm reading about it -- never tried to look at it in this way, and now it seems so obvious.
The hair may look a bit neglected (the rightmost part mainly) but that's something that slips out of your attention when you stay focused on the face rendering (which is brighter -- stands out) and the animation.
Wish you more of such wonderful article ideas!
ps/edit: Oh, and I see you always were more of a Sierra guy. :) LucasArts for me, I really dig their graphics styles -- just recall Loom; it has probably the best EGA (originally, then they did that VGA remake) graphics I've ever seen in an early 90s game.
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I didn't know the Sierra games had vector graphics. That ship in SpaceQuest III is hot. I like the Spider Droid in the first game too.
I can't say that I like the graphics or sound of these old PC games. It's a pretty boring palette and midi/pc speaker whatever sound is quite tough on the ears. However, after having looked though the Space Quest stuff, I think I prefer the older pixel graphics over the later painted stuff. The space suit which Wilco wears in the first game is quite nice, kinda space-knight'y. At least I can make my own liberal interpretation there.
The VGA remake gfx for SQ1 is kind of stale with a more realistic head scale. The aliased backgrounds and crisp sprites feels very disjointed.
I liked some of the character animations is SP3, they brought the pixels to life.
Edit: Seems like sound quality depends on sound card. Unfortunately the Let's play videos I watched has pretty bad sound.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhshSsT3mzw - Bad
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rqbtvGpmp8 - Ok
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Uhm, just a heads up Helm...all of your images both here and in the blog seem to be down. On the blog, when I click on the image to get a full view I get redirected to some Godaddy ad page.
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Golly that video was painful to watch. Unfortunately your images aren't currently showing on the site - seem to have chewed through your bandwidth. There's always photobucket...
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I've been thinking and I believe as far as CG goes my thing is really vectors, but this style...this oldschool pixel-ish style....I go nuts about those vectored BGs in old games...something with that aim would be ok to post in Low-Spec section right?
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The images are all back up.
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Forgot to say, all that reminds me of the idea of the Commercial Critique thread. I'd certainly play with remaking some oldschool adventure game stuff!
Conceit : Go ahead! I'd really love to see more of those! :D
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This was a very interesting read. There's something special about those old games. It really shows how limited computers was back then compared to the monster machines of today.
Very good explanations, easy to comprehend even for outsiders like me.
Forgot to say, all that reminds me of the idea of the Commercial Critique thread. I'd certainly play with remaking some oldschool adventure game stuff!
Seconding this.