AuthorTopic: An uncertain introduction... (comments welcome)  (Read 10102 times)

Offline eobet

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An uncertain introduction... (comments welcome)

on: October 14, 2006, 07:29:17 pm
Ever since I saw my first Bitmap Brothers' game I've adored pixel art, and the pixel art of the demo scene was just uneblievable (Made's stuff especially). Henk Nieborg is also awesome. I need to find a copy of Lomax again.

But anyway, I never felt that I was any good at pixel art. I'm used to be more into pencil sketching and these days, I mostly use my Wacom board. However, I did dabble a bit in placing pixels by hand, so I thought I'd post here and see what you think:

Knockdown Karate graphics


This is so old, but I think it's my first real serious pixel art attempt. It was made for a shareware game for the old grayscale PalmOS devices (which later turned color as seen in the last picture, but the two on the left only have four shades of grey). The game was released, but never using my graphics (I do have an internal release with them, though). Unfortunately, the developer switched to PocketPC despite Gameloft (a big publisher back then) having shown interest in the title.

Steem buttons


These were made for an old Atari STe emulator and I'm still actually pretty proud of them. Working with 16x16 icons in 16 colors wasn't easy, and I must confess that I suprised myself several times at how readable the images became. I especially like the joystick. Can anyone tell what brand and model it is?

Anyway, so that's what I dare to show you, but I'm looking forward to your comments and crits.

I will probably mostly lurk here, since I very seldom do pixel work these days, but I do enjoy looking at everyone's art here!

Btw, does anyone know where the Amiga demo scene pixel gallery called... gfx2art (I think?) went... I can't find any evidence that it ever existed in Google... very weird.
« Last Edit: October 15, 2006, 07:08:51 pm by eobet »

Offline VictorR

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Re: An uncertain introduction... (comments welcome)

Reply #1 on: October 14, 2006, 07:44:36 pm
Nice, I like the houses.

Offline Feron

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Re: An uncertain introduction... (comments welcome)

Reply #2 on: October 14, 2006, 08:07:34 pm
Nice, I like the houses.

obviously you can't tell whats pixelled an what isnt.

gradients look ugly.  Whats with the scaled vector images aswell?

As for the first game mockups - more contrast.  You should change some of the hues also.  Texture is massivley needed on the sand, pyramids look ok, just a bit bland.

Offline eobet

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Re: An uncertain introduction... (comments welcome)

Reply #3 on: October 14, 2006, 08:18:12 pm
Ack, sorry! I just read the rules for this site, so I removed that house, as it wasn't 100% hand pixelled.

The last image, however... the rules talk about using Photoshop tools and such, and I know using a vector based app is as far removed from pixel pushing as you can get, but has anyone tried this technique before? Perhaps you don't want to discuss it here, though. Let me know and I will remove it as well.

Which then only leaves the really old and basic looking stuff. Whoops!

As for the first game mockups - more contrast.  You should change some of the hues also.  Texture is massivley needed on the sand, pyramids look ok, just a bit bland.

If you read the description, you will see that it was made for PalmOS, which only had four fixed shades of gray, and depending on the device you had, those shades could actually be green instead! Granted, the color image could perhaps be improved, since I believe that palette was around 200 colors, but it was my first try.
« Last Edit: October 14, 2006, 08:24:54 pm by eobet »

Offline Feron

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Re: An uncertain introduction... (comments welcome)

Reply #4 on: October 14, 2006, 08:45:09 pm
Vector is not pixel-art and therefore also does not qualify.

I was refering to the color version aswell.  I think you should work on it - as it has potential.

Offline Blick

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Re: An uncertain introduction... (comments welcome)

Reply #5 on: October 14, 2006, 09:28:25 pm
Quote
Btw, does anyone know where the Amiga demo scene pixel gallery called... gfx2art (I think?) went... I can't find any evidence that it ever existed in Google... very weird.
gfxzone. It's almost always down. Infact, it looks like it's down right now.

Offline Gil

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Re: An uncertain introduction... (comments welcome)

Reply #6 on: October 15, 2006, 01:13:00 pm
Feron: get off your purist horse there buddy.

Scaled down vector art is pixel art too if done correctly. These aren't the best quality vector reduxes I've seen, but they're probably better than what a lot of people could achieve by hand.

Also: eobet: the AA doesn't work on these smaller icons, they just blur it up... The AA would work if it were more subtle,

Offline Feron

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Re: An uncertain introduction... (comments welcome)

Reply #7 on: October 15, 2006, 01:34:59 pm
Scaled down vector art is pixel art too if done correctly. These aren't the best quality vector reduxes I've seen, but they're probably better than what a lot of people could achieve by hand.


What the hell.  Photoshop color reductions arent considered pixel-art so why should these be.  And they are only better than many could do is because the're made by a computer not by an artist.

And i'm hardly a purist - i just know what pixel-art is.

Offline Gil

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Re: An uncertain introduction... (comments welcome)

Reply #8 on: October 15, 2006, 01:38:12 pm
Since when is photoshop color redux not pixel art? I use it in most of my pieces and no one ever complains?

Quote
And they are only better than many could do is because the're made by a computer not by an artist

And what would be wrong with that? If he can make art with his computer that others can't do by hand, then that's more power to him, no?

Offline AdamAtomic

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Re: An uncertain introduction... (comments welcome)

Reply #9 on: October 15, 2006, 03:13:15 pm
Since when is photoshop color redux not pixel art? I use it in most of my pieces and no one ever complains?

And what would be wrong with that? If he can make art with his computer that others can't do by hand, then that's more power to him, no?

Great color-reduced art is not pixel art, but that's okay.  Color-reduced backgrounds or props or characters are also not pixel art, unless you go back over the entire piece by hand and correct every pixel.  It doesn't mean you shouldn't do it, especially if it yields the results that you want, and you did the source art with color reduction in mind.  However, it does not magically become pixel art just because it is small and uses few colors.