AuthorTopic: Pixel art genres  (Read 50878 times)

Offline ptoing

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Re: Pixel art genres

Reply #30 on: July 20, 2013, 01:35:48 am
Is there a website where one could view demoscene stuff. I've tried looking around a little and can't ever find one.

http://artcity.bitfellas.org/
There are no ugly colours, only ugly combinations of colours.

Offline Mr. Fahrenheit

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Re: Pixel art genres

Reply #31 on: July 20, 2013, 03:54:46 am
Thank ye.

Is Facet on artcity the Facet on here?

After seeing all the other pixelers on there I am assuming yes.
« Last Edit: July 20, 2013, 04:40:49 am by Mr. Fahrenheit »

Offline Helm

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Re: Pixel art genres

Reply #32 on: July 20, 2013, 04:55:33 am
I'd be really surprised if it's the same Facet.

Offline Mr. Fahrenheit

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Re: Pixel art genres

Reply #33 on: July 20, 2013, 05:22:44 am
Oh...  :-X

Offline Ryumaru

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Re: Pixel art genres

Reply #34 on: July 20, 2013, 06:36:28 am
I do see some benefit in this categorization of pixel art. It has movements in the same way painting does, brought on by new tools, purposes, and view points.

I can see Fool's work coming from the likes of the demoscene era as well as Henk Neiborg's beautiful and tight game art.

Big Brother and Snake both often utilize very low color counts without sacrificing clarity or detail, but Big Brother has an earlier inspiration, where as Snake's art is very aware of newer CG imagery
http://www.pixeljoint.com/pixelart/10001.htm
http://www.pixeljoint.com/pixelart/17123.htm

Of course there is a a whole many more examples. I think nailing down categorizations would be as useful as defining impressionism, abstract expressionism, and realism ( very useful in understanding the history of pixel art and how technique is formed, and for what purpose).

Offline Helm

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Re: Pixel art genres

Reply #35 on: July 20, 2013, 06:39:49 am
These art movements were usually defined by cultural critics, not the artists themselves, and often after the fact where a reading of history can be made. Furthermore it's in my opinion a bit conceited to think of oneself as part of an art movement akin to expressionism or whatever-the-hell. But all this I could take if I could see any merit to this process, which I do not. If you guys and gals - any of you - want to do cultural critique, feel free, but this is very surface.

Offline Corinthian Baby

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Re: Pixel art genres

Reply #36 on: July 20, 2013, 07:53:17 am
Something that I'm interested in that may be helpful to study, is what makes up the components of an individual artist's style. I think the pixel art scene is small enough to warrant such narrow inspection. For example, if we look at what some of the overarching traits are in some of Fool's pieces, maybe we can deconstruct them, and learn from them. Think of it as the commercial critiques, only instead of some game we analyze one of the lauded members of our own community.

This is part of what makes the april fools challenge at pixel joint so much fun, because you have to look at the components comprising a style, deconstruct it, and then imitate it.

It could be interesting if the artist themselves weighed in on the origin of their style or why they make certain artistic decisions. I suppose this model could tread some weary conceited grounds, but I think it could work and is worth trying.

Offline Mathias

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Re: Pixel art genres

Reply #37 on: July 20, 2013, 08:25:12 am
Quote
Stereotypes can help make sense of the world. They are a form of categorization which helps to simplify and systematize information so the information is easier to be identified, recalled, predicted, and reacted to. Stereotypes are categories of objects or people. Between stereotypes, objects or people are as different from each other as possible. Within stereotypes, objects or people are as similar to each other as possible.

As to why people find it easier to understand categorized information, Gordon Allport has suggested possible answers in his 1954 publication: First, people can consult the category of something for ways to respond to that thing. Second, things are more specific when they are in a category than when they are not, because categorization accentuates properties that are shared by all members of a group. Third, people can readily describe things in a category, because, fourth and related, things in the same category have distinct characteristics. Finally, people can take for granted the characteristics of a particular category because the category itself may be an arbitrary grouping.

Moreover, stereotypes function as time- and energy-savers which allow people to act more efficiently. David Hamilton's 1981 publication gave rise to the view that stereotypes are people's biased perceptions of their social contexts. In this view, people use stereotypes as shortcuts to make sense of their social contexts, and this makes people's task of understanding their world less cognitively demanding.

Yeah, that actually makes a ton of sense. Well expressed.



I'm am big on organization.
But I also like my experiences in consuming and creating artwork to be as organic and intuitive as possible so I naturally resist getting "mathematical" with art. This is probably influenced by the fact that I work full-time as a graphic designer for a print company where there's little room for time-consuming creative concept development. The work I'm expected to produce is very basic and generic. At first, I detested it, but I've learned to embrace it now because I've realized I can get away with churning out low-level graphics at work and then come home and still have "creative juice" left for the real stuff I do.
Thus, I over-protectively consider it sacred.

Also, I sometimes find it annoying that mine or others' original creations are just flung into a pre-existing category. Seems demeaning/cheapening at times. One positive effect though is that the artist's reaction is often extra innovation just to avoid categorization. And that has to led to great stuff, for sure.

Offline Ryumaru

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Re: Pixel art genres

Reply #38 on: July 20, 2013, 09:29:03 am
These art movements were usually defined by cultural critics, not the artists themselves, and often after the fact where a reading of history can be made. Furthermore it's in my opinion a bit conceited to think of oneself as part of an art movement akin to expressionism or whatever-the-hell. But all this I could take if I could see any merit to this process, which I do not. If you guys and gals - any of you - want to do cultural critique, feel free, but this is very surface.

Often I've felt that cultural critics are less capable of such a thing than the artists themselves... either way, whose to say we can't play the role of the critic for a while? Whether you think it's conceited or not, we are all creating work in certain styles, some of which have their lineage and inspiration highly visible, and can be categorized because of it; for the benefit of organization and analyzing trends. I'm sure not every artist sat down at his easel thinking they were going to be an impressionist that day, but nevertheless they may have been categorized as such by the time they died.  I think pixel art has had a tremendous amount of growth in such a relatively short time span because of advances in technology and evolution of the artist's mind ( as it pertains to pixel art); comparable to the difference between the Woman of Willendorf and contemporary photo realism. While it may not matter so much on the large scale of things, and won't land any of us in a text book most likely, I would think the history of pixel art should be important to us- and you're the last person I would have thought that wouldn't see any benefit in exploring such things!

Here is my go at some fancy art school writings on pixel art:



In this piece, Helm has infused flat planes of the background with the grungy, amiga reminiscent rendering and palettes of games such as Lionheart,( pixeled by the artist Henk Nieborg, a prominent figure in the art of the pixel whose work has adapted and grown through the pixel and game art generations). The dither patterns are also subtly reminiscent of those favored by the demoscene era, whose artists often employed stark, 45 degree angles in their dither clusters, and were not afraid to interlace their dithering, "skipping" over a value step to indicate more texture- or perhaps just flare.
With that in mind, the palette appears more limited than these inspirations, where it seems the artist has discarded some extra colors for the sake of clarity, economy, and perhaps even time constraints that may have been in effect- as the work was for a commercial title following a popular franchise. Within this self-imposed palette constraint one can find a connection to background work produced on the gameboy advance, which rarely made full use of the allotted 16 colors per tile in the extent it was more commonly used in great SNES titles such as chromo trigger, metal slug, or even the aforementioned Lionheart on the Amiga. It seems here, the division between console and portable device may have had some influence in the output of artists working with the different devices. In any case, this level of palette control found itself onto a very modern device: the Nintendo DS, which could have easily accounted for a couple more palette entries had the artist been so inclined.
While Helm's work in this image may not fall strictly into one pixel art movement, it is certainly stemming from a renaissance with classical pixel art, and imbued with a modernity that comes from the artist being a very knowledgeable, experienced, and almost innovative pixel artist- having meditated on the medium's identity and purpose for quite some time.

Of course some of it is a bit tongue in cheek because I never really liked to write this stuff anyway, but I sincerely believe in the connections I've made there, and while you may not agree with my interpretation of your work, which is completely fine and a little expected, I think it shows pixel art can be discussed historically and stylistically with a depth that is at least as useful to a pixel artist as this sort of thing's equivalent would be to a traditional artist.
« Last Edit: July 20, 2013, 09:31:57 am by Ryumaru »

Offline Helm

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Re: Pixel art genres

Reply #39 on: July 20, 2013, 10:15:30 am
Alright, I'll bite.

I am sorry, but the text above verges on nonsense. All digital art is a product of modernity, and "stemming from a renaissance with classical pixel art" is totally meaningless to me. This is the exact opposite of what I would like to read on my or any other pixel artist's work. Some of the terms are so misused I just can't tell what you're trying to say, even.

If you're interested how much on point you are with the first part of your text, I will tell you I have studied absolutely zero dither patterns in the demoscene and most of my nonstandard influences on that come from Miascugh and Ptoing's stuff, which may or may not be influenced by certain demoscene artists. Most of my pixel art influences are from the Pixelation era, actually. I like 3-4 oldschool artists, really. There is a bitmap brothers influence on the dithering but I wouldn't say their stuff and demoscene stuff are interchangable at all. I do love Henk but I never really zoomed in and tried to immitate him. Or anyone else, really.

As to color control, the Wayforward engine played best with 16 colors per layer if memory serves, hence my choices. It's easier for me to work with a good 16 color palette anyway than 60 colors. A lot of my choices have to do with habit and convinience, as with most artists, especially on budgeted, deadline-intensive projects. My personal stuff betrays my own considerations much more.

The biggest influence in this and most of my sci-fi work is one that you miss, Flashback by Delphine Software and that also means Moebius, a comic artist that worked on the designs on that game.

The biggest thing Lionheart does is use the amiga copper blit to darken and tint the ground tilesets as they progress vertically, a feature specific to the amiga that even the mega drive which was close to it could not reproduce. I would say there's no Henk in this image at all.

Besides Cyclone, no other demoscene artists come to mind that used 45 degree cuts prominently.  I am sure they exist, they just don't come to mind. The demoscene is so vast, it's a whole world of pixel art in itself, for us to come in and call all that stuff uniformly 'demoscene'. It's the exact opposite of good art history to do that. And to what end? To stroke our own egos? Do you realize how much work it takes with archives before you can do a solid historical analysis of even 5 years of worth of art history?

Point is, what you call the 'demoscene' is I believe what you've seen by artists on Pixelation/Pixeljoint that have been influenced by it, plus 2-3 actual old scenesters reuploading their stuff. How much time have you spent actually looking at art made by people in 1992 on an Amiga?

If pixel art is important - and it might not be - leave it to people 50 years in the future from now, they'll read our threads and see our art and make much better sense of it than we do in the midst of it.
« Last Edit: July 20, 2013, 10:17:02 am by Helm »