AuthorTopic: pixel art job?  (Read 23704 times)

Offline Helm

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Re: pixel art job?

Reply #30 on: May 03, 2013, 03:26:38 pm
Eh, that's capitalism, not charity. Don't feel weird. Life is weird enough as it is.

Offline rikfuzz

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Re: pixel art job?

Reply #31 on: May 03, 2013, 03:34:00 pm
Thanks for the kind comments and advice, folks.  :)

Can you polyfiller ugly gaps with "self employed"?  I wouldn't advocate lying, but if avoids unfair discrimination...

Actually that wouldn't be lying as such.  Thanks for reminding me.  I was technically self-employed as a freelance pixel artist through some of it and picking and choosing which projects I felt I could devote time to and produce of a sufficient level of quality.  The 'Atomica' album cover work I did counts as that and the guy who paid me for that work said he would give me a good reference back then.

I thought that may be the case.  :y: 

Offline tim

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Re: pixel art job?

Reply #32 on: May 03, 2013, 05:31:30 pm
We should maybe create a company called pixelation with all of us and create the best pixel art games all together  :P
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Offline Conzeit

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Re: pixel art job?

Reply #33 on: May 03, 2013, 08:19:06 pm
hahaha. I can certainly get behind that feeling Tim. god knows I dreamed about it for years and years...and then did nothing about it :p

You guys think pixelation might have enough reputation to get a game like that kickstarted?
then again even if it did the problem is the same as  the one we have with getting new challenges done:
What is needed is someone with the conviction to get it done, someone who will do all the work and boring (to us artists) organizing to see it trough.

Carnivac, Since about the middle of the year last year I've been..biting the bullet. Just going out knowing my portfolio isnt much and doing what work. I think I've survived because I forced myself to beeasy to work with, timely and flexible. I dont know if I've done a perfect job of that, but the intention to do that is clear to my employers and that has been enough for me to survive.

I am the guy who cant make a crit without suggesting the whole piece be redone...how do you think I feel working a regular design job with designs that arent even mine, no control over art direction and working with whatever program is required for the job....even if I dont know said program?
That has been my job for a while. I used to say I "knew" photoshop before it but really I had only used it sparingly, I could not do a great variety of things with it, but working this regular design job has given me the chance to do a greater variery of work with it and touch upon programs I would never have worked with otherwise ( I H-A-T-E ILLUSTRATOR ). I've learnt I can adapt far more than I thought I could..and even have fun with it from time to time :p

I feel like while I got great oportunities at pixelation working jobs online since I was 18, I also wasted them by becoming too fixed in the aesthetics, and I think there was a bit of denialism there, thinking getting one gig or two meant I didnt have to expand as an artist and learn more mediums and techniques.

Honestly, I think there was also an element of not wanting to create something original. When I recopilated my work I realized my best pieces were c&c edits of someone else's art that I took much furhter than they ever did XD cant use that for portfolio! it was my way of sticking to editing sprites and not creating my own characters.

I think what we should be doing is what is in the spirit of the Low Spec board, taking whatever we learnt here and seeing if we can adapt it to other mediums and programs, you can work with just solid color layers in photoshop and have a pretty similar experience to pixeling while just doing normal illustration, and you can also use palletes in vector art while sticking to a grid, and have a similar outcome.

That's it from camus..as verbose as ever :p

Offline Carnivac

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Re: pixel art job?

Reply #34 on: May 03, 2013, 09:14:52 pm
Thanks but you seem under the impression in all these years I haven't tried vectors, 3D, voxels, Flash, whatever....  I have.  Several times whether way back at college during that tedious Art & Design course or just in my own time downloading programs off the internet trying to keep myself occupied during some bad times.  Not only was I not very good at them, I simply didn't care to become good at them.  I don't get the same enjoyment about of them like I do with low res pixel art either creating them or viewing them in games.  I don't even care much for non-pixel art elements in otherwise pixelly games such as alpha transparent lighting/glow effects.  I've used them in the past myself and eventually got rid of them, and cut down my palette sizes considerably too (and I'm somewhat embarrased about some of my old work from 10 or so years ago that wastefully used excessive colours).  And that doesn't mean I'm a fan of the rather simplistic or minimalistic pixel art I've seen used in indie games of the past few years.  I like trying to get the most out of small sprites without having to compensate too much and I've always found it somewhat fascinating how a small bunch of squares can be used to represent all sorts of things.  Other art forms and techniques simply hold no interest to me (but then neither does large scale pixel art).  Sorry if that sounds weird or geeky or whatever.  That's just how it is.  I'm not an artist.  I just like doing the pixel stuff.   Not that it's my only interest either (I have a lot of others such as theatre, learning guitar, helping out at the schools ).  Just when it comes to video game graphics.
« Last Edit: May 03, 2013, 09:17:45 pm by Carnivac »
NES, Amiga & Amstrad CPC inspired
I know nothing about pixel art
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Offline Conzeit

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Re: pixel art job?

Reply #35 on: May 04, 2013, 05:08:07 am
I wasnt really trying to imply anything about you, just trying to be honest about my own experience :p

What I was trying say was that once I had to use all this software for the job, I found I could adapt to way more than I thought I could. Trying a program in  my free time to see if it pleased my taste or felt good to use was very different to getting the best results possible before the deadline. I dont even know what's my point with this

Dont take this as me telling you what to do, I'm just trying to share, this is the thing I always do making people feel awkward. I'm glad to hear I'm not the only one struggling with this kind of thing and I try to give something useful out of my struggle.

Good luck to you, good luck to Helm...I was pretty shocked too, to hear things were so bad in Greece
« Last Edit: May 04, 2013, 06:38:09 am by Conceit »

Offline Froli

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Re: pixel art job?

Reply #36 on: May 04, 2013, 07:09:03 pm
Hm..this is a bit strange. I Assume by now that some of you guys have made your own games and partnered with a programmer for ios or android app and earned some good cash along with it. I mean the skill level of the vets here are pretty high and I believe a LOT of gamers want some of those pixel goodness with their roguelike, tower defense games, kairosoft type, terraria type sandbox game etc.  Then kickstarted along with reddit/gaf's exposure, I imagine it will be amazing. Yeah some of you might say I'm probably dreaming but this sure is possible with all the talent I've seen here.




Offline ilkke

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Re: pixel art job?

Reply #37 on: May 07, 2013, 05:59:07 am
Agreed, I immediately thought of Nitrome the minute I saw the first post.

Even if you don't get the job right away, it's good getting in touch with them as they might grab you later on.

I spent two whole years actively looking for work and came VERY close several times, but then again living outside of EU didn't help one bit.
Companies that need full-time pixel artists are quite rare nowadays, but all the experience from pixel art can easily be applied to game art in general.

Just aim for smaller studios, that would be my advice.

Also don't fret about your portfolio or CV too much, there is no 'right' way of doing things.
Just showing what you can do is the whole point. Whoever needs your skills will be able to recognise them.

P.S.
I am glad to share my dramatic experience in case you think it might help you, so just send me a PM or better yet email me at ilkkke on yahoo.
i

Offline Cage

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Re: pixel art job?

Reply #38 on: May 07, 2013, 11:49:44 am
Have this image in my head of all the best pixellers working under one roof together, bouncing ideas of each other, learning new things from each other, bringing out a constant stream of high quality, fun, very playable 2D games with great pixel art doing great business on all the major formats, having fun doing it and keeping proper pixel art in games alive forever...  Is a happy image.  Would be nice if it became a reality someday :)

Don't worry! Once I'm done with my time machine, I can take all of you guys back to the late 80's for a few years stay - so we can work on game art in the Amiga/PC-Dos era ;)

Offline ilkke

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Re: pixel art job?

Reply #39 on: May 07, 2013, 12:14:28 pm
Seriously though, these are good times for pixel art, retros game are quite in, and the indie scene is thriving.
It's just that being on a payroll for full-time pixelling is very rare.
i