AuthorTopic: Pixel Art Wiki  (Read 30318 times)

Offline tcaud

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Re: Pixel Art Wiki

Reply #30 on: August 09, 2013, 03:46:57 am
Blending is jargon. Jargon should be avoided when explaining things to newbies/laymen/what-have-you.

Yeah "technique" sounds cool. Cool matters. It matters to make people use their noggins in a variety of different ways. The experiences stay with them. It's worthwhile to see people experimenting.

The EGA uses a very specific, non-programmable palette. There is a specific sets of rules you need to follow to get the most out of it, as with any palette. Maybe create a set of articles just for blends, discussion of specific color blends, interaction between colors of different palettes.

Tutorials could be an excuse for laziness, but I think the sense of dissatisfaction with rehashes and "the usual" is its own motivation for creativity.

ptoing you seem to be suggesting that effective instruction has both color and technique aspects.

Offline ptoing

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Re: Pixel Art Wiki

Reply #31 on: August 09, 2013, 09:12:26 am
I do not buy the "specific set of rules" you say is needed to be followed when doing EGA. I never thought about it that way, ever. If you have a decent knowledge off colour theory then you will figure out which colours work together in ANY given palette.

One exception I can think off would be something like PAL blending, which occurs if 2 colours have the same luma and are displayed on a proper CRT monitor with a PAL signal. Those 2 colours will make a totally new colour if alternated horizontally, because of how the hardware works and the PAL signal is encoded. This is something that works on the C64 and maybe on other Commodore 8 bits as well. This could be called a technique, but it is not C64 technique.

And about blending being jargon, I think everyone understands what blending means. If you tell someone about colours blending in natural media such as oils, they will get it, if you tell someone how printing is done with dots grids of a bunch of colours and that the colours to a degree blend visually, they will get it. If you stop assuming people will be confused by such terms, and treat people like intelligent human beings, you will get further in what you are trying to do. Art is not quantum physics or anything like that. The concepts of colour blending and such on an application level are not very hard to understand.

I think that effective instruction has a lot to do with looking outside of pixelart, which has a very tiny insular set of specific things which are kinda unique to it, such as manual antialiasing and dither (dither already is borderline as you could dither in non pixelart too). Colour theory, perspective, anatomy, composition. This is the kinda stuff people should learn. I believe that any artist who has solid classical training could be made into a superb pixelartist in a matter of months if given the right instructions or given good self-motivation.
There are no ugly colours, only ugly combinations of colours.

Offline tcaud

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Re: Pixel Art Wiki

Reply #32 on: August 09, 2013, 02:33:16 pm
That's all pretty good for replicating stuff you've actually seen before, but maybe not so great for creating exotic art like we'd like to see more of in games.

Offline Helm

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Re: Pixel Art Wiki

Reply #33 on: August 09, 2013, 03:30:41 pm
That's all pretty good for replicating stuff you've actually seen before, but maybe not so great for creating exotic art like we'd like to see more of in games.

Are you making a wiki to assist in learning or to influence the direction of future pixel art?

Offline Mathias

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Re: Pixel Art Wiki

Reply #34 on: August 09, 2013, 03:54:15 pm
A wiki should be as unbiased and neutral as possible, just presenting the facts.

Offline ptoing

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Re: Pixel Art Wiki

Reply #35 on: August 09, 2013, 04:13:36 pm
That's all pretty good for replicating stuff you've actually seen before, but maybe not so great for creating exotic art like we'd like to see more of in games.

I don't even know what your thought process here is. Do you think any artist that made something new got that taught somehow? Like Dali, or Escher, or van Gogh, or any other great artist who broke some new ground. They all had more or less amounts of traditional art training and then brought themselves into their art. That is what you bring to it. How you see the world, how you recombine things you have experienced and seen into something new or something relevant to you you feel is worth expressing. You are a collection of your experiences, and the more you know and have seen the better you will be able to do certain things. For example a creature concept artist who actually spends lots of time looking at real animals, drawing them, studying their anatomy, will be able to make much more convincing new creatures which do not exist.
There are no ugly colours, only ugly combinations of colours.

Offline tcaud

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Re: Pixel Art Wiki

Reply #36 on: August 09, 2013, 06:59:45 pm
Well yeah but the point is to create a conversation. To create a conversation of a certain level, you have to elevate everyone to that level of relative sophistication. That's what the wiki is for: to allow people to attain a baseline quickly. The more information on the wiki, the higher the baseline, the better they can contribute to the discussion. I'm actually much more concerned about seeing people create novel designs than discussing particulars of form in specific circumstances, as people do here. The introduction of novelty, even at low quality, has a way of working itself out when the socio-environmental conditions are right.

Offline Helm

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Re: Pixel Art Wiki

Reply #37 on: August 09, 2013, 08:42:14 pm
People will create novel designs because that's what people do. I'd be more interested in solid education.

Offline Mathias

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Re: Pixel Art Wiki

Reply #38 on: August 10, 2013, 02:49:30 am
http://wikipixels.gamestargcs.net/index.php?title=Palette_Collections

Several "obsolete" typos.



*EDIT - nevermind; appears intentional . . .
« Last Edit: August 10, 2013, 02:52:05 am by Mathias »

Offline tcaud

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Re: Pixel Art Wiki

Reply #39 on: August 10, 2013, 04:17:31 am
People have been taught it's bad to be creative. That needs to change. Creativity can be good, in moderation. Questioning is what's important.