hahaha I used that tutorial four years ago, I had forgotten where it was, and I didn't know who wrote it. In my mind's eye the quality of the graphics were much better. (suppose I stored them as relative to my ability)
Good thing I never paid much attention to that selective outlining article, I guess?
I feel like there's a losing battle going on when people start dithering gradients on sprites and ask, "how's my dithering" rather than "how do I properly define my forms". I think the problem rests in the mindset, people think they can get something for nothing. Instant gratification, shortcuts, techniques. Honestly it isn't that sel-out is used, it is how it's used, or maybe why it's used. I guess you could say blumunkee did commit some kind of sin. However.
Selective outlining has it's time and place, it can work. But maybe it shouldn't have a name at all, maybe it should just be treated as something capable of smoothing the edges of sprites placed on a darker background. Maybe even then, dithering shouldn't have a term coined. It should just be commonplace knowledge that when you don't have a color, you make one by making a pattern out of different colors. But that's the problem, because they are so commonly used (and actually have their uses), it's not up to any one person to decide if they should or shouldn't be a technique, because they already are. You can't change the mindset of society, you can't infiltrate different communities and erase awareness.
I guess I'm addressing
techniques' must be destroyed. Someone looking at Symphony of the Night and saying 'wow this style is rad, I bet they have specific techniques they used to get this result' probably hurts their artistic growth more than it helps. Fool's errands are popular because they seem to suggest shortcuts to artistic ability. "Learn selout and your sprites will become much better". This is meaningless and should die. "Learn art fundaments and your sprites, along with the rest of your art, will become better". This should be promoted. Dithering is a technique. Anti-alias is a technique. Banding is a discernible effect that should be talked about to much greater length. Selout is a byproduct of some bigger artistic decision that younger artists should face up to, not just look at the end result and pick selectively.
Truly, I agree with you. But I also believe that once something is established it can not be practically destroyed.
You can see in the beginner's work that he does not treat his game sprites as art. I don't know how else to put it. Because he does not see it as an art, he tries making game characters without first studying art. Is there a digital disconnect? I believe that this contributes more than all else to the mindset that 'techniques' will make your art better, rather than you using techniques because the situation calls for it. Ideally we'd all be problem solvers and come up with these techniques on our own. But because we choose to socialize in a place such as this, terms are coined. When terms are coined, I believe then the practice becomes a technique and the novice treats it as a weapon in his arsenal. Ultimately it leads to what you feel so strongly about with words such as "destroyed" and "die"
So I don't think blumunkee is to blame, it would have arisen anyway. And so too anything that hasn't been given a name yet. And I don't want to search for these undiscovered "Techniques" lest they be equipped by someone who is not adaptive but merely uses what is in their 'arsenal'.
At least on Pixelation we can try to "destroy techniques" but this place is only so big.
This has been an embarrassing post for me. I think in circles and don't make up my mind before I start typing, sometimes changing my opinion within the same post. I usually don't say much but I felt like I should speak up instead of just keeping it to myself this time.
