AuthorTopic: GAME GRAPHICS VOLUME -1: PIXEL ART TECHNIQUES (pixel art book)  (Read 26206 times)

Offline mitch30

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GAME GRAPHICS VOLUME -1: PIXEL ART TECHNIQUES
A book on how to make pixel art, for beginners and advanced pixel artists


"Ever wondered how to make pixel art? Wonder no more! This book shows you the very basics of pixel art. Step-by step instructions to help guide you in making effective art with pixels. Easy-to-follow and lots of pictures to help you along the way. This book aims to teach the difference between art made with pixels and pixel art."

Hi i'm Mitchell, I created a small book (64 pages) on how to make pixel art. It covers basic and advanced techniques and has lots of tutorials. I have been creating pixel art for several years and compiled all of my knowledge into this book.

Check out the book here: payhip.com/b/JBK7

Brief look at the contents:
  • Basic and advanced pixel art techniques
  • Using Photoshop for pixel art
  • Neo Geo Pocket tutorial
  • Sprite tutorials
  • Character portrait tutorial
  • An in depth look at graphical projection for video games
  • Setting up Photoshop for pixel art
  • Common mistakes associated with pixel art
  • Organising colours

PREVIEW


-edit-

Cyangmou reviewed the material in this book and found it to have content very similar to tutorials from various users in the community, here is his post on pixeljoint where this book was also presented.

Quote from: cyangmou
Mitch,

I downloaded your book, not for learning, but for checking out where you got your knowledge from.

You took the tutorials provided by autors like: Cure, Helm, Kiwinuptuo, Pix3m and myself as well as others who posted small tuts in the noobtorials section of Pixeljoint and posted at Pixelation.

We provided that knowledge to enhance the medium, some of us even together, but you presented all of that as your completely own work without giving credit to the sources.

You also haven't asked any of us if you may use that content, but you take money for it.

The art in the book (except the screenshots - where you added sources) is yours, but nonetheless it's plagiarism of already free content, just sorted and presented in a book.

You definitely ripped off the design of certain charts and layouts and as well as the content of various tutorialy and I can easily proove that just with side by side comparison for a big part of your book.

I will inform all others who provided tutorials which look strangely similar as in your book and will inform them that you try to make profit from our achievements.

That's illegal.

And what's even worse is that you advertise your product on the site and for the community you took from and aren't a part of  -at least you neither have a gallery here nor have you contributed anything to the comm so far.

For all others I personally would recommend to use the free tutorials already available, because what you get for your money in the book is very little new content compared with what is already there.

« Last Edit: February 15, 2015, 10:21:35 pm by Ryumaru »

Offline buonarroti

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Re: GAME GRAPHICS VOLUME -1: PIXEL ART TECHNIQUES (pixel art book)

Reply #1 on: February 14, 2015, 07:19:36 am
Very interesting...looks like a good book...bought it and ready to check it out.

Offline yaomon17

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Re: GAME GRAPHICS VOLUME -1: PIXEL ART TECHNIQUES (pixel art book)

Reply #2 on: February 14, 2015, 07:27:18 am
Looks nice! There should be a small cast shadow on the hadt though  ;)

Offline mitch30

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Re: GAME GRAPHICS VOLUME -1: PIXEL ART TECHNIQUES (pixel art book)

Reply #3 on: February 14, 2015, 07:51:56 am
Thanks :)

Looks nice! There should be a small cast shadow on the hadt though  ;)

Yes you are right, but that part is focusing on shading correctly, I figured it wasn't necessary.

Offline Helm

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Re: GAME GRAPHICS VOLUME -1: PIXEL ART TECHNIQUES (pixel art book)

Reply #4 on: February 15, 2015, 05:54:32 pm
Well I guess this was inevitable, at some point. Still, it's not the spirit I would like to see ideas propagate and be discussed, but this happens time and time again, somebody distills (often ham-fistedly, I can't speak for this book because I didn't and will not buy it) years of free communal work by other people to make a buck. I don't think it's illegal, it's just capitalism.
« Last Edit: February 15, 2015, 10:24:47 pm by Helm »

Offline 0xDB

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Re: GAME GRAPHICS VOLUME -1: PIXEL ART TECHNIQUES (pixel art book)

Reply #5 on: February 15, 2015, 06:51:40 pm
Quote
I have been creating pixel art for several years and compiled all of my knowledge into this book.
Can you show some examples of your work from those several years of experience?

"My" knowledge? To my eyes that reads a bit... pretentious and like you are claiming to have been the originator of that knowledge. The screenshot of the page you posted contains terminology that you obviously did not invent (since you are only 21 years old (says so on your homepage) and some of the terminology has been around longer than that), so you might wish to rephrase that into "compiled everything I have learned from freely available online resources and experience into this book".

Is there any original content in your book, any tricks you invented yourself, any conclusions you drew on your own from your several years of pixelling experience? Going by the list of contents in your opening post it seems it does not cover anything one can not learn for free by reading all the well known and established online resources on the topic of pixel art (e.g. this board).

Quote
Yes you are right, but that part is focusing on shading correctly, I figured it wasn't necessary.
If that part is about shading correctly... should it not then be... well... shaded correctly?

Disclaimer: I am not saying you are being intentionally dishonest and you deserve credit for doing the work of compiling all the knowledge and formatting/bundleing it up for convenience but I do not think anyone who wants to learn about pixel art needs to buy or read your book. All the information is already out (t)here, for free and it would not seem right if you were to profit from it while letting others think it is "your" knowledge or the result of "your" experience/research/observation.

On the topic of capitalism: The buggy thing about it is, it is tough(maybe even impossible) to avoid having to sell ones lifetime for money in some way, if one wants to survive as a "functioning" member of society. However... taking free stuff and putting a price tag on it to make a profit seems like a bad thing to do if one cares about reputation.

Offline Ryumaru

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Re: GAME GRAPHICS VOLUME -1: PIXEL ART TECHNIQUES (pixel art book)

Reply #6 on: February 15, 2015, 07:07:52 pm
Well I guess this was inevitable, at some point. Still, it's not the spirit I would like to see ideas propagate and be discussed, but this happens time and time again, somebody distills (often ham-fistedly, I can't speak for this book because I didn't and will not buy it) years of free communal work by other people to make a buck. I don't think it's illegal, it's just capitalism.

It's a sticky situation. These ideas have been developed on public forum for all to see. I actually don't mind the idea of a pixel art book. even one that costs money. This guy at least put the work in to compile the information in book format using his own art ( I sincerely hope)

I think the stuff in here ( what I see in the post) is pretty fundamental stuff that a lot of people have come to over the years. If there is a section about attractive pixel clusters as we know it now I think that is crossing the line, as it's certainly something that you have put a lot of personal effort in bringing to the community and discovering.

Why don't we make a pixel art book and sell it, using the funds for upkeep of this forum and giving back to those authors who contributed?

Offline 0xDB

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Re: GAME GRAPHICS VOLUME -1: PIXEL ART TECHNIQUES (pixel art book)

Reply #7 on: February 15, 2015, 08:09:55 pm
If there is a section about attractive pixel clusters as we know it now I think that is crossing the line, as it's certainly something that you have put a lot of personal effort in bringing to the community and discovering.

Why don't we make a pixel art book and sell it, using the funds for upkeep of this forum and giving back to those authors who contributed?
The image on the page linked to in the opening post contains a view of the back from the book and in the tiny contents box on that, it reads "clusters" and "banding". I might be mistaken but I think those terms, as used in discussing pixel art, originated on this board (not sure about it though, maybe Helm knows better).

Maybe the book has a credits section where sources of knowledge are properly credited? Can not know that though unless the pixel art community is given a chance to review the book.

I like the idea of compiling the knowledge of the community into a single resource. A good way to go about it would be to set up a Wiki (but then again, there is already this board and there are already overview threads which contain links to relevant topics). Not sure if trying to generate money from it would ever work out in a way that everyone agrees with. To keep the board running, if it should ever become an issue of finance, monthly member fees could be introduced if necessary or annual fundraisers (I recall there has been a donation campaign in the past).

Offline Helm

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Re: GAME GRAPHICS VOLUME -1: PIXEL ART TECHNIQUES (pixel art book)

Reply #8 on: February 15, 2015, 08:21:23 pm
Please don't misunderstand this: I don't care about retaining some 'intellectual copyright' of cluster theory and so on. When Cure took some of my ramby ideas and put them more succinctly and clearly for everybody out there I think he did a great service and I explicitly asked him to remove 'quotes from Helm' from his original draft. Pixelation wrote the ramblethread, in essence.  I don't care about being the face of anything, feel free to spread the ideas and tailor them to your needs.

It kind of irks me that there's a for-pay e-book out there when Pixelation and Pixeljoint have these ideas and a lot of deliberation and discussion around them (super important) for free, completely, and with an invitation to get involved in the dialogue. That's the annoying part, for me. But as I said, I don't think there's a legal point to stand on and all I can do is to reiterate: this information is already out there for free just like Cyangmu did on the news item on pixeljoint.



btw: though the term 'banding' might have been mine (I don't remember), the concept of banding was presented to me as 'vertical breaking' by old Pixelation head mod Peppermint Pig. Just a bit of history.



Come to think of it actually the most subversive idea would be to buy the book and then post it for free whereever this person is trying to sell it. That *would* be illegal, keep in mind, but ethically satisfying.

« Last Edit: February 15, 2015, 08:43:49 pm by Crow »

Offline 0xDB

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Re: GAME GRAPHICS VOLUME -1: PIXEL ART TECHNIQUES (pixel art book)

Reply #9 on: February 15, 2015, 08:39:45 pm
A better win for ethics would be if the author person would understand why it is wrong and would give back the money to those who already bought the book and then release it for free and publicly apologize for this behavior AND give credit in the book where credit is due (just now read what Cyangmou said in the PJ news item on this (edit - the part about it containing obvious plagiarism of existing free tutorials by other community members - end of edit)).

Otherwise it will only be remembered by the community as a very bad first impression. The internet does not forget these kinds of things and it will most definitely hang like a smelly cloud of shame over the authors reputation forever and a day.

Well... what happens now is up to the author, unless anyone actually cares to get a lawyer and wants to go through the hassle of wasting any more time on this.
« Last Edit: February 15, 2015, 08:50:09 pm by Dennis »