AuthorTopic: Realtime Rendering of 3d Meshes as Pixelart  (Read 127787 times)

Offline Cherno

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Re: Realtime Rendering of 3d Meshes as Pixelart

Reply #100 on: October 08, 2015, 08:27:50 am
Just yesterday I stumbled upon this isometric realtime mech combat game "META4" which uses pixelart-textures 3d models for it's terrain but detailed multi-angled sprites for the mechs. I wonder how close to the sprites the mechs would look if done as 3d models with your shader.

http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?PHPSESSID=e7596e359d633a5308df9df87da03180&topic=32409.100

Offline Howard Day

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Re: Realtime Rendering of 3d Meshes as Pixelart

Reply #101 on: October 08, 2015, 09:08:21 am
Gil: Oh. I understand that. Here're some animated Gifs of it swapping through the options.



Cherno: I'm very familiar with that game - and some of the issues it's had. :( Here are some of the mechs at similar angles, and various settings:




Howie
« Last Edit: October 08, 2015, 09:21:17 am by Howard Day »

Offline Rydin

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Re: Realtime Rendering of 3d Meshes as Pixelart

Reply #102 on: October 09, 2015, 08:43:08 am
Quality pixel art requires fine control of each pixel working together as a team to render exactly the intended shape and material within the restraints. Since we're dealing with computer-generated images it is easy to assume the computer can do all the generating, but what's not being considered is that there is a quality to pixel art that reflects the mood and care of the artist. The mind of an artist while pushing pixels determines the flavor of the finished product. There is a relationship between the pixels and the artist that you are underestimating Howard Day. Which clusters of pixels to keep and which to alter? Does it look better like this or like that? An artist makes these informed decisions with experience. This is why it is an art. The artist puts himself into the pixels and the computer screen gives instant output but when is a piece of pixel work complete? The artist decides. The artist guides the pixels towards a vision with time and care.

If an artist writes instructions for where pixels should go and the computer carries them out, it is not the computer's fault if the output pixels lack quality placement. The end result is still the expression of the relationship between the pixels and the artist (the programmer). It is possible to write a program to generate pixel art, but the resulting art should not get a pass on standards only because the computer is doing all the heavy lifting. With an adequate understanding of the subtleties of what makes certain pixel combinations beautiful and others unthoughtful, plus the skill to execute such understanding with code, quality pixel art could be produced by an artist's programming commands. This would be heroic and quite admirable to witness. You still have much to learn about this subtle pixel technique though. 

You can't just go around dithering everything and call it pixel art because it's "close enough". Trust me on this.

I've got a pretty solid grasp on dithering and I am still not churning out quality pixel combinations like the best. There is no shortcut to putting in hours zooming in and out fine-tuning pixel placement one pixel at a time. I've tried. And while we can tell you things that could be changed with your filter here and there to help your program "create better pixelart-like output" we are only holding you back from discovering your own relationship with pixels as you learn to understand the reasons our suggestions make the output look "better". By all means use this project to expand on your craft, but don't use it as a reason to avoid learning the 1x1 pencil tool, instead realize the more time you spend with the 1x1 pencil tool the better this project will become. I am not trying to kill your motivation for your project! I like it and I want to see it become the best it can become by trying to get you to ask yourself pixel art questions. Good luck. :y:
« Last Edit: October 09, 2015, 08:48:49 am by Rydin »
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Offline Gil

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Re: Realtime Rendering of 3d Meshes as Pixelart

Reply #103 on: October 09, 2015, 10:58:09 am
the more time you spend with the 1x1 pencil tool the better this project will become
I do notice, that as I get better as a pixel artist, I'm starting to use less and less of the 1x1 brush. It used to be that pushing individual pixels around was 90% of my time, nowadays I just seem to work in broad strokes, apply automated effects, use the selection tool a lot and then in the end slap around a few pixels (but exactly the right pixels) to tidy up the image to pixel standards.

How all that relates to what Howard is doing, I don't know, but he'll figure it out :)

Offline DatMuffinMan

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Re: Realtime Rendering of 3d Meshes as Pixelart

Reply #104 on: October 11, 2015, 01:59:45 am
the more time you spend with the 1x1 pencil tool the better this project will become
I do notice, that as I get better as a pixel artist, I'm starting to use less and less of the 1x1 brush. It used to be that pushing individual pixels around was 90% of my time, nowadays I just seem to work in broad strokes, apply automated effects, use the selection tool a lot and then in the end slap around a few pixels (but exactly the right pixels) to tidy up the image to pixel standards.

How all that relates to what Howard is doing, I don't know, but he'll figure it out :)

Really? Do you have any examples of this kind of workflow? Sounds like a really odd way to make pixel-oriented artwork (I don't mean to be disrespectful; I'm genuinely curious to see what you mean).

Offline Gil

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Re: Realtime Rendering of 3d Meshes as Pixelart

Reply #105 on: October 11, 2015, 05:07:33 am
Really? Do you have any examples of this kind of workflow? Sounds like a really odd way to make pixel-oriented artwork (I don't mean to be disrespectful; I'm genuinely curious to see what you mean).
I don't tend to keep progress around (bad habbit, I should, if only for backup reasons), but I think you can see that kind of progress in this folder:
http://art.game-designer.org/pixelart/rocknroll/

Offline lachrymose

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Re: Realtime Rendering of 3d Meshes as Pixelart

Reply #106 on: October 11, 2015, 02:17:00 pm
I'd go nuts if I used the 1x1 tool often lol. Myself, I do quick line art with the 1x1 brush but quickly switch to a larger brush to blob in, and the eraser to subtract, shape and form.

Anyhoot, looking really good Howard.  :y:

Offline Kellawgs

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Re: Realtime Rendering of 3d Meshes as Pixelart

Reply #107 on: October 12, 2015, 06:49:02 am
The art looks good, man. I wouldn't get too concerned over whether not it can be called pixel art, because the bottom line is that it looks good regardless of what it is.

Offline Ai

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Re: Realtime Rendering of 3d Meshes as Pixelart

Reply #108 on: October 12, 2015, 08:01:17 am
That locking/snapping seems to be working quite well, although I notice that where several small overlapping features are crammed in, 'sparkles' / crunchy bits may appear.. with AA off, at least. It's easy to understand why, but I'm less sure about what could be done about it. Manually turning locking off per-vertex seems pretty impractical. Ideally I guess you would detect the number of nearby vertices and don't snap the vertex if that number's too high... I suppose that's not too bad since those numbers can probably be precalculated. OTOH, it might need to be done on a per-edge basis to avoid obvious distortions of planes...


The art looks good, man. I wouldn't get too concerned over whether not it can be called pixel art, because the bottom line is that it looks good regardless of what it is.
It's more a question of whether it will *fit in* with actual pixel art, which Howard has set as a goal. That's the context of all this discussion about making it more pixel-arty.

If you insist on being pessimistic about your own abilities, consider also being pessimistic about the accuracy of that pessimistic judgement.

Offline MysteryMeat

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Re: Realtime Rendering of 3d Meshes as Pixelart

Reply #109 on: March 03, 2016, 08:16:55 am
from my friend on skype:

"If you combine this with a vertex shader that quantizes bone position to limit the framerate of character animation, you could do some pretty sick things with IK"

I don't know jack all about this "Third Dimension" stuff but here you go
PSA: use imgur
http://pixelation.org/index.php?topic=19838.0 also go suggest on my quest, cmon
MAJOR BORK TALLY: |