Could i trick you saying this is pixel art?

[madmenyo]

So how about it?




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I got inspired by this thread http://wayofthepixel.net/index.php?PHPSESSID=60ftduua57gv5g5bti6109kod2&topic=14902.0, i hope i can get a real stylish look to it like he does. I am actually hoping he drops in and gives me some pointers, since he is still active here . I am struggling a bit with the shader setup but my difuse needs still needs lots of tweaking too.

[cels]

To me, this reads like those sequences in Family Guy, South Park or Futurama where they've used some sort of 3D software to make a complex animation, typically one or more moving vehicles, or a rotating camera, and it just looks... weird. Individually, each frame looks like it's drawn the same way as the rest of the show. I don't know if they do it automatically with a filter or if some degree of manual work is required. But put together, there's a level of smoothness that looks completely artificial.

In this piece, I don't know that your filter is actually that good, though. I don't think you could convince me that every individual frame is pixel art. I don't know if that really matters, because it's hard to notice a few jaggies or banding in such a fast moving animation.

It would be interesting to see if the animation looked less computer-generated if you just reduced the number of frames.

[JoeCreates]

Yeah, see how it looks with fewer frames. I'd also suggest shifting the hue a bit in the shading.

[RAV]

You will trick no one here into thinking that. But that doesn't change it looks pretty cool. It's not necessary to be called pixel art to be pretty cool. And it can be aesthetically inspired by pixel art, that is thematically related. There is a whole debate about process and result. We don't need open up that can of worms here, it comes down to simply this: if the creation method is so different that a normal pixel artist cannot give you any advice on how to improve your work with common pixel art technique, it is better fit in the LowSpec section. That category is great all on its own and needs no further validation, and we're glad you're sharing your efforts with us.

My comment here is more about the practical merit of discussing it. I see no value in obsessing about definition such as to argue much for or against what is pixel art. There definitely is a wisdom and value in its tradition as guideline to understanding certain skills of art.

Maybe Indigo can give you some more useful tips than that.

[madmenyo]

I should have know you guys had a sharp eye for that  . I rendered a version with every 5th frame like you asked. The piece definitely has jaggies and the linework is not "hard" enough, it still gets anti aliased. However i am still fiddling with different render options. Guess it is time to move it to low spec, sorry for the inconvenience .



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I actually switched pictures with the first post. Cels made a good point there  .

[cels]

That's very interesting. Perhaps you should post the low FPS version in the OP, and keep the high FPS hidden behind a [ spoiler ] tag. That'll remove bias, I think.

Staring at the low FPS version now, I immediately thought it looked fake, but I can't be sure if I'm biased because I know it's fake. ('fake' as in 'not manually drawn', of course)

In regards the the anti-aliasing, people are able to do that just as well as machines. If you limit the number of colours, the main difference between automatic AA and the AA done by a good artist is that the latter is better and follows certain principles, avoiding stuff like jaggies and banding.  The number of colours in itself isn't really the issue either, because there is PA done with 200+ colours, and it still looks like PA, unless it's a hyper-realistic tracing of a photography, for example. So I don't think you need to reduce the number of colours to 8 or remove AA for this to look like pixel art.

I'm glad you posted this here rather than the Low spec forum, otherwise I would never have seen it. It's an interesting discussion, and I would argue it belongs here as much as in any other forum, since the issue is whether or not it looks like pixel art.

[madmenyo]

That is what i thought too but after the first 3 comments i realized it looked nothing like pixel art i figured i failed on that point. And like RAV said, nobody here can help me either achieve this as a matter of fact not many people can since this technique is not used often. But if the lower amount of frames really do help i'm fine with this post being in pixel art, at least for improving on the pixel-art(ish) look. For the game i will be using a higher frame rate though, maybe not the original 65 frames but about half sounds good.

[RAV]

@Cels
Well, the true issue would be how to make it look like pixel art. However that practice is much more relevant and interesting for LowSpec artists, it is in their practical interest most to find this sort of information where they'd expect it. In terms of usefulness, a classic pixel artist has the least stake in it. That is no complain, just commenting on the question.

@madmenyo
I don't want to discourage your effort in having it look like pixel art, I'm very interested in how well you can get it towards that goal.

[Mr. Fahrenheit]

Maybe if it was a less complex motion, because it is rotating and tilting at the same time, which is something that seems fairly complicated for just a person to animate.

[Ymedron]

Fahrenheit definitely hit the nail there.
It offsets the advantages of using 3d by having you need to do the animation in a longer way, but I think you need to do the animation in a more labored way to give the impression of hand-pixeled art?

Really lazy thought with zero inbetweening.