AuthorTopic: Schoolwork: History of Pixellation? Famous Pixellers?  (Read 3668 times)

Offline Dascu

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Schoolwork: History of Pixellation? Famous Pixellers?

on: September 20, 2006, 02:55:33 pm
Right, so I'm working on something for school. We have to deal with a form of art. Apparently, the teacher allowed me to do Pixel Art. So now, I'm looking for people who can give me some more general info about pixel art. History, evolution, famous pixellers, etc.

Btw, if someone like Helm or Ptoing could provide some personal info and stuff, that'd rock.

Offline Helm

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Re: Schoolwork: History of Pixellation? Famous Pixellers?

Reply #1 on: September 20, 2006, 03:01:47 pm
The first really recognisable people occur in demoscene. c64, speccy, then Amiga and Atari ST. Please remember most are great technicians, but not really much of original artists. I'd say you should investigate www.gfxzone.org for Amiga stuff and this listing here for c64 art you enjoy. You can sort by date as well so you can realize the significance of 'Duch Breeze' art by Hein back in the 80's.

I'd say you should investigate the following people:

c64:

Sarge
Hein
Tch
Deekay
Sander
Mirage
Cyclone
Wile Coyote

Amiga:

Cyclone
Cougar
Made
Danny
X-man
Lazur
Henk Neiborg
Dan Malone


EDIT: sadly, gfxzone is currently down, so that'll be a bit more difficult to do. Also, to understand why c64 art is so impressive, you should look into the graphics modes and assorted restrictions they have hanging about them, to see for example, how amazingly patient someone like Tch is.
« Last Edit: September 20, 2006, 03:04:10 pm by Helm »

Offline Feron

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Re: Schoolwork: History of Pixellation? Famous Pixellers?

Reply #2 on: September 20, 2006, 03:23:22 pm
Damn i wish i got to do a project like this at school.

Pixel-art is one of the most fascinating art forms in my opinion, due to the fact that it has evolved so much.  Looking at the demoscener's and C64 would be a great begining, but since then there it has been used in many other ways.  Snes, nes, and the other original consoles.  It then jumped onto hand held devices, and in modern day - we use it as much more of an art medium however its still widely used on mobile phones.  You should be able to use lots of the comercial citique threads to help you analyse techniques for some old games.

Offline ptoing

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Re: Schoolwork: History of Pixellation? Famous Pixellers?

Reply #3 on: September 20, 2006, 03:25:48 pm
As far as gfxzone goes I have downloaded almost the whole thing. I will write you a pm with a link.
There are no ugly colours, only ugly combinations of colours.

Offline Helm

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Re: Schoolwork: History of Pixellation? Famous Pixellers?

Reply #4 on: September 20, 2006, 03:28:16 pm
There should be some iso art and pioneers discussed, but I am not knowledgable on this aspect of pixel art.

SNES art and generally japanese video-game art of that era didn't do anything that wasn't already done in terms of technique by the Amiga boys (although a lot of stuff was pretty-pretty. I'm sure others will give you examples), and by arcade cabinet developers before them. In fact, a lot of dubious terminology and technique was the result of overanalysing video-game art from that era which should historically find its' influence reduced, in my opinion. Selout, anyone?

Art from games like Flashback (originally developed on Amiga) should be inspected and understood, but it's more GREAT game-art than it is GREAT pixel-art, besides startling levels like the jungle level. Meaning, the admiration arises from realizing this is made from tiles and few tiles and colors at that, whereas pixel-art deals with a different set of aesthetic principles, eventhough there's a lot of crosspolination.

Our (modern internet scene) own validity and influence on the history of pixel art will be made plain in 5-10 years from now.

EDIT: this person is to be remembered, also.
« Last Edit: September 20, 2006, 04:30:35 pm by Helm »

Offline Dascu

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Re: Schoolwork: History of Pixellation? Famous Pixellers?

Reply #5 on: September 20, 2006, 04:51:31 pm
Thanks for the feedback so far. I'll definitely be looking into those names.