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At first I though the approach to dynamic lighting was overdone ("they had to paint light sources manually 4 times?") but then remembered the world is not 3D, s

At first I though the approach to dynamic lighting was overdone ("they had to paint light sources manually 4 times?") but then remembered the world is not 3D, so there's no way to do it automatically without drawing defined boundaries among objects. Painting 4 directional light sources and blending them together is super smart. I totally envy pixel artists, especially those from the earlier days of the art. What a different world.

jweir 8y ago
I got my start as a pixel editor/animator using Deluxe Paint and Deluxe Animator for DOS at Virgin Games. Hand anti-aliasing, selecting your limited palette, and working with the hardware and screen constraints was fun. But, we at the time (early 90s) couldn't wait to have more colors and more resolution and more framerate and more memory. So, folks today get to choose their constraints, which is important to most art, and the results are lovely.
- corysama 8y ago
  Just making sure you've already seen Mark Ferrari's GDC talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMcJ1Jvtef0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMcJ1Jvtef0 :)
OskarS 8y ago
The other way to do it which does work is to make both the normal maps and the diffuse maps from an underlying 3d model, and then render them out to make them look "pixely". That's how Dead Cells does it, the "source" of the sprites is a 3d model which is then rendered out as pixel art.
- monk_e_boy 8y ago
  I played stardew valley and terraria a lot, but I do find pixel games hard on the eyes. I have no idea why you would want to go from a 3D model back to a pixel look. Yooka-Laylee has just done this to make it N64-retro-esque but ... no thanks. If anything make it higher res, more beautiful.
  - OskarS 8y ago
    The reason they want to do it is because they find it an appealing art-style, though obviously that's up to personal taste. I think the style really works for Dead Cells. You should check out the Gamasutra article on the graphics pipeline of Dead Cells if you're interested in how they did it: https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/313026/Art_Design_Deep_Dive_Using_a_3D_pipeline_for_2D_animation_in_Dead_Cells.php https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/313026/Art_Design_Deep_D...

jweir 8y ago

I got my start as a pixel editor/animator using Deluxe Paint and Deluxe Animator for DOS at Virgin Games. Hand anti-aliasing, selecting your limited palette, and working with the hardware and screen constraints was fun. But, we at the time (early 90s) couldn't wait to have more colors and more resolution and more framerate and more memory. So, folks today get to choose their constraints, which is important to most art, and the results are lovely.

corysama 8y ago
Just making sure you've already seen Mark Ferrari's GDC talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMcJ1Jvtef0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMcJ1Jvtef0 :)

OskarS 8y ago

The other way to do it which does work is to make both the normal maps and the diffuse maps from an underlying 3d model, and then render them out to make them look "pixely". That's how Dead Cells does it, the "source" of the sprites is a 3d model which is then rendered out as pixel art.

monk_e_boy 8y ago
I played stardew valley and terraria a lot, but I do find pixel games hard on the eyes. I have no idea why you would want to go from a 3D model back to a pixel look. Yooka-Laylee has just done this to make it N64-retro-esque but ... no thanks. If anything make it higher res, more beautiful.
- OskarS 8y ago
  The reason they want to do it is because they find it an appealing art-style, though obviously that's up to personal taste. I think the style really works for Dead Cells. You should check out the Gamasutra article on the graphics pipeline of Dead Cells if you're interested in how they did it: https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/313026/Art_Design_Deep_Dive_Using_a_3D_pipeline_for_2D_animation_in_Dead_Cells.php https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/313026/Art_Design_Deep_D...