AuthorTopic: "Clean"  (Read 7379 times)

Offline ndchristie

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"Clean"

on: August 15, 2006, 12:25:05 pm
This may sounds really dumb of me, but what is Clean in pixelart? or perhaps more importantly, what is Messy?  i seem to get both words said about me for works that i see as more or less the same, and in fact, sometimes one person tells me a work is very messy and another very clean...

but i dont know what either actually means?  I thought like in traditional art clean ment tight and messy ment loose, but where nearly every pixel (every final pixel) is placed with real thought, that doesnt really apply?  i know this sounds kind of dumb, but perhaps someone could explain this a bit better so that when people tell me to clean something i know how?
A mistake is a mistake.
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The same mistake three or more times is a motif.

Offline Helm

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Re: "Clean"

Reply #1 on: August 15, 2006, 01:00:36 pm
It's about pixel and pixel shape placement. There's many ways to imply a lighting effect, a texture, a volume, but only a few of them are most intentful, developed for the art style, and clean. It's about AAing smartly when AAing is important. Your idea of where it is important might clash with mine, hence a difference of opinion. My opinion of it clashes with Ptoing for example, and he goes AA  MORE and I go THAT'S ENOUGH and we laugh, but he recognizes he's AAnal and I recognize I'm a bit more interested in the overal effect than nitpicking every little detail.

But in my opinion you're a few steps away from that, and even more into the overal effect than benefits pixel art. I think you should try to be a bit more clean, even if you find later on that you drift back to being a bit more messy. Taking as an example one of your recent pictures:



where do colors touch where there's a big difference in lightness? Should you buffer then? Should you tidy shapes so they don't touch unless you really want to imply a sharp point there?  It looking good initially is only... initial. The extra hand of polish needs to do all the little tweaks everywhere until something is 'clean' by my standard. Again, because I seem to be easily misinterpreted on such matters, this is just my opinion. Others can successfully argue such small edits don't really make a difference at 1x zoom and are pointless. I think 30 such small changes put the art from good to great as far as technique goes.

Offline ndchristie

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Re: "Clean"

Reply #2 on: August 15, 2006, 01:41:08 pm
oh, alright, that makes a lot of sense :P

i have a bad habit in opaque mediums (which i guess does include pixel art) of jumping in with a single color and not bothering with the others; its a novice move that often gets me in trouble in paintings.  I use solid shapes rather than trying to...well, i guess clean them ^^

thanks for the help, i tihnk im actually going to go clean up that same picture you used as an example now that i know what people ment
A mistake is a mistake.
The same mistake twice is a bad habit.
The same mistake three or more times is a motif.

Offline Feron

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Re: "Clean"

Reply #3 on: August 15, 2006, 02:03:23 pm
i find pixel-art to be quite different from any other medium due the the fact that there is a grid that the artist must stick to.  In other mediums you are able to put down any color you want where you want it regardless of the rest of the picture - however pixel-art relies on the viewers eye to blend the tiny dots in front of you into an image - which often means that you must adapt the placement of your pixels to work with the other pixels around them.  I would define messy as putting down colors where you think they look good (highlights and blocks of color in relation to where the lightsource is etc...) and often the individual pixels dont work together.  For example look at helms edit of the ear, you put down color where it should be, however helm has refined it by moving them to a combination that may not have immediatley come to mind - but when the pixels work together they appear a lot better.  I would define clean as where you work makes most of every pixel and the piece has been made to work.  The artist thinks about the lines and flow that different pixels can create just by using a different hue.  In the end it pretty much comes down to AA and what pixels touch where - and therefore experience.

Offline Helm

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Re: "Clean"

Reply #4 on: August 15, 2006, 02:21:07 pm
Yes. It doesn't get more opaque than pixel art, really. It's the opaquest of the opaque. It's opaque enough to rescue the president.

Feron: good post.

Offline Feron

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Re: "Clean"

Reply #5 on: August 15, 2006, 02:28:08 pm

i have a bad habit in opaque mediums (which i guess does include pixel art) of jumping in with a single color and not bothering with the others; its a novice move that often gets me in trouble in paintings.  I use solid shapes rather than trying to...well, i guess clean them ^^

Starting off with block colors is a technique many people use - and theres nothing wrong with that.  However after you have shaded/defined it then you could spend a hour or so cleaning it up.  Block > Define > Refine.  However if you really try and visualise the piece you want to create you should be-able to just sketch it out and then shade, but shade it in a way whereby you will not need to clean it afterwards.  Think about the pixels you are putting down and what will be near them.  It will save you a lot of time - but like all things practise is the key.

Helm: nice metaphor.