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Pixel Art: Common Mistakes (2020)
- eska 4y agoNice simple tutorial! But I think the definition of pixel art is too constrained, e.g. there are great pixel art styles with a larger palette and thin limbs.
- Ygg2 4y agoI like the second version. The final version looks like some kind of monkey/Sun-Wukong.
- kzrdude 4y agoThe final one somehow looks lower resolution, more crude, but also has a style that’s a lot more reminiscent of older low pixel count games.
- nerdponx 4y agoThe final version reminds me of something that would have looked great on Gameboy Advance!
- MattRix 4y agoHe says specifically that the final one is his own style and it might not appeal to some readers as much as the second one.
- account42 4y agoCompletely replacing the character design is still an odd odd choice for an example about improving pixel art, even if the author acknowledges that that is what was done.
- Paul_S 4y agoBad pixel art is a pet peeve of mine. This is really advanced advice compared the problem most games have: - pixels of different sizes - rotating (!) pixels - scaling pixels - smooth gradients with millions of colours - dynamic lighting overlayed on top ... I could go on :(
- ido 4y agoA lot of these are stylistic choices (or could be at least) rather than mistakes.
- d_tr 4y agoAnd / or saving time and money because the artists need to draw less pixels by hand.
- Beltalowda 4y agoWhy are any of these things "bad"? Back in the day pixel art was constrained by technical limitations, but now you can use the same style but with less technical constraints, and include these sort of things. It's not "true" pixel art from 1990, but that doesn't make it "bad".
- ceph_ 4y agoFor the same reason people like the hiss and pops of a record, film grain, or even VHS tracking artifacts. Yesterday's technical limitations become today's aesthetic. But the real answer is they aren't inherently bad. People don't actually need it to conform to the past limitations. More that they want it to feel authentic to the nostalgic memory they have in their head. For example, games like Shovel Knight go for an 8bit style, but they're not limited to an 8 bit color space, NES sprite limitations, etc.
- Beltalowda 4y agoI get all that; I really enjoy the sound of some "imperfections" of old blues and jazz records, but I also don't consider any modern records which doesn't replicate those "imperfections" to be bad.
- Narishma 4y agoIt's been a while since I played Shovel Knight, but I don't remember it having any of the issues OP talks about.
- Avshalom 4y agoKind of a "draw the rest of the fucking owl" step there at the end.
- k__ 4y agoExactly my thought! "part of what I enjoy about art is admiring craftsmanship - the skill and knowledge of the artist at work." I'm a devrel person my art is writing tutorials and guides. And this one is a very naive approach at it.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- butwhywhyoh 4y agoAbsolutely. Came here to say exactly the same thing. The first couple of steps were clear and informative. The last step was almost a joke.
- moth-fuzz 4y agoand to think I almost made this comment if I hadn’t continued scrolling! Also the form of the sprites changed significantly, it was a massive shift in artistic personality and aesthetic direction that the tutorial just called it “not using straight lines”. I think they could have made their point while not swapping in a different set of tastes entirely.
- gwern 4y agoI suspect he ran into the infamous '90%' problem: he did the first two and the final end-stage and wrote it down nicely, which took 90% of the time & energy he had, then looked at the difference between the last two and realized that it'd need another like 5 images+explanations and that would take the next 90% of the time... which wasn't going to happen, so he posted it as-is FWIW.
- Kiro 4y agoNot trying to be a contrarian but I honestly like the first image best. I like the "pillow shading". It's bright and fun.
- geraldbauer 4y ago
- geraldbauer 4y ago
- Frotag 4y agoNot sure if it still counts as pixel art, but I've always preferred Maplestory's art style [0] over the art used by rougelikes like Dead Cells [1]. [0] https://youtu.be/k2rf45EXWTc?t=26 https://youtu.be/k2rf45EXWTc?t=26 [1] https://youtu.be/pU6GHVvHCRk https://youtu.be/pU6GHVvHCRk
- tpxl 4y agoI don't think MS has pixel art. Chibis with a relatively low res sprites indicative of the era (Released 2003-2007). I do like the style though, and if I made a sidescroller, that's one of the art styles I'd like to have.
- MattRix 4y agoOf course this is entirely subjective, but do you think you prefer it because Maplestory’s art is better, or because you like the game so much due to playing it during a formative time in your life (ex. high school)? Perhaps it even helped define your aesthetic sense in the first place.
- Frotag 4y agoYeah, sinking thousands of hours into that game has probably brainwashed me in one way or another. I'd like to say the art is less noisy than the more common low-rez styles (narrower color palettes, less shading, easier to separate the background from the platforms / play area). But looking at screenshots now, I can't say it looks good. But it's charming and unique enough that I'd pick it over most other styles if I was making a game. For comparison... - Maplestory - https://mmos.com/wp-content/gallery/maplestory-3/MapleStory-30-Combo.jpg https://mmos.com/wp-content/gallery/maplestory-3/MapleStory-... - Dead Cells - https://www.mobygames.com/images/shots/l/916116-dead-cells-windows-screenshot-a-trap-early-access-version.png https://www.mobygames.com/images/shots/l/916116-dead-cells-w... - Hades - https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2020/11/13/hades_09-dec-2019_05_wide-4fde2b9ef0fb00468bcad5cf44f13691cdd6b06a-s1600-c85.webp https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2020/11/13/hades_09-dec-201... - Stardew Valley - https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/screen/full/4/9/9/556499.jpg https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/screen/full/4/9/9/556499.jpg - Mother 3 - https://lparchive.org/Mother-3/Update%2023/10-7.png https://lparchive.org/Mother-3/Update%2023/10-7.png
- MattRix 4y agoFor those unaware, Derek Yu is the creator of Spelunky. Here’s one of his best posts, it’s about how to actually finish making a game: https://makegames.tumblr.com/post/1136623767/finishing-a-game https://makegames.tumblr.com/post/1136623767/finishing-a-gam...
- burntoutfire 4y agoThat post is also full of pre-indieapocalypse charm. It assumes that a decent, finished game will get its author the recognition
- esotericsean 4y agoThat is still true today. This is going to sound a bit harsh but the market really is flooded with bad to mediocre games and people who think they’ve created a masterpiece. If you take a look at /r/gamedev it’s full of people sharing their games and asking why they weren’t successful. It’s easy to see by looking at any of those games exactly why. They don’t look good. Games that are actually good do get the recognition they deserve. I struggle to find evidence proving this wrong.
- MattRix 4y agoThis is just not true. There are tons of good games that don’t get anywhere near the attention and sales that they would have during the early 2010s. In fact the only way this is true is if your definition of “good game” is “commercially successful game”. Easy examples to point out are things like Tumbleseed: https://store.steampowered.com/app/457890/TumbleSeed/ https://store.steampowered.com/app/457890/TumbleSeed/ or Mushroom 11: https://store.steampowered.com/app/243160/Mushroom_11/ https://store.steampowered.com/app/243160/Mushroom_11/ And those are both 5 years old and things have only gotten harder since then!
- armchairhacker 4y agoIdk how much attention and sales you're talking about, but Mushroom 11 seemed to be successful. I actually heard of it before because it got featured on the App Store, and on the Steam page IGN gave it a 9/10.
- jehlakj 4y agoI've always fancied japanese style pixel art. I still remember playing megaman x and it hasn't aged a bit. Or even simpler ones like super mario world or the last few pixel based pokemon games. I remember looking for tutorials for this style, but ended up copying sprites and trying to understand why they such and such decisions. Interestingly enough, I find it harder to recreate pokemon style sprites because they're so abstract and yet a single pixel can make or break it. I know this is a bit off topic, but would love to know if there are any resources for this.
- KingOfCoders 4y agoLove before, don't like after.
- binz120 4y agoI liked the before better. The latter looks over saturated in my opinion.
- xigoi 4y agoI like the version in step 1 the most. The contrast is a great improvement, then the 3D effect made it kinda weird and the restyling completely ruined the cuteness and simplicity of the characters.
- derefr 4y agoThe tutorial might be better called “pixel art for animation” or “pixel art for games.” There’s a practicality to the restyling: it vastly improves the ability of the character’s parts to be animated, without things looking strange. (E.g. without the thin little arms on the human suddenly being thicker when taken away from the body.) You might call the initial work “impressionist” — it has proportions that might be emotionally evocative, but that impression only works in that static framing, and can’t really be pulled out into a coherent aesthetic model. (I.e. you can’t just take the scene, mentally rotate it about the Z axis 30 degrees, and know what it should look like.)
- AprilArcus 4y agoStep 3: Draw the rest of the owl
- optimalsolver 4y agoInspiration: https://reddit.com/r/pixelart https://reddit.com/r/pixelart
- seangransee 4y agoAlso for examples of varying quality: https://everyonedraw.com https://everyonedraw.com
- civilized 4y agoEach step made it worse. By the end it was a monstrosity.
- the_af 4y agoThis is of course subjective, but I think the intermediate step with flat shading is the one I like the most. The initial naive shading looks pretty bad to me, while the final redesign is way too complex.
- kris-s 4y agoI don't know if I would agree that the final scene is more readable - especially the treasure chest. I can't deny it looks much nicer though! I spent a lot of time tweaking the sprites in my game for readability. I touch on it here [1] but maybe I should do a full tutorial with intermediate steps. https://smoldungeon.com/design https://smoldungeon.com/design
- planetsprite 4y agoI actually prefer the first one
- amelius 4y agoBefore: mouse looks like a mouse; boy looks like a boy After: mouse looks like a dog; boy looks like a monkey
- wooque 4y agoThis was not improvement
- dqpb 4y agoWhoa, wtf happened at the end?
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- andrewmcwatters 4y agoMy favorite pixel art style is Superbrothers’, which flies entirely in the face of this advice and embraces the limitations of pixelation by simplifying forms. That to me, is more artistic because instead of making a statement yourself through careful colorization, depth representation, and characterization as this article does, the Superbrothers’ art style relied on your mind making interpretations based on what wasn’t there.