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Before I tried to make my own, I had been convinced that an icon is just a resized large image. For me up to this moment, it's amazing, how hard is to create an

Before I tried to make my own, I had been convinced that an icon is just a resized large image. For me up to this moment, it's amazing, how hard is to create an icon or pixel art. How every pixel counts, how the creator needs to manage the shades, gradients, and sometimes two pixels will show for example the white and the pupil of the eye.

timeon 3y ago
This might sound contradictory, but constraints are boosters for creativity.
- KineticLensman 3y ago
  Yeah! I had to fix a shed roof during one of the lockdowns when DIY stores were closed and amazed myself with what I managed to achieve with just the scraps i had lying around
  - yitchelle 3y ago
    When I was younger, a senior told me that If all you have is a hammer to solve the problem, all problems will start to look like a nail.
wanderingstan 3y ago
Imagine going back to Susan Kare's shoes in 1983, having to design icons in black and white in only 32x32 pixels. Made even harder by the fact that people had never encountered icons on a screen before. https://archive.org/details/paint.net-macintosh-icons https://archive.org/details/paint.net-macintosh-icons
- keepamovin 3y ago
  Yes. her designs are truly iconic. So charming. A good icon seems like a good invention, something that has always existed, speaks to you directly and seems to have been recalled rather than created for the first time. I think the nostalgia over some retro OSes is warranted.
- Someone 3y ago
  On her own site: http://kare.com/apple-icons/ http://kare.com/apple-icons/
Nition 3y ago
Did you ever see Mark Ferrari's animated pixel art landscapes from the 1990s? There's a working archive of them here: http://www.effectgames.com/demos/canvascycle/ http://www.effectgames.com/demos/canvascycle/ They're real masterpieces. 256 colour pixel art, with some colours palette cycling to create animation by using the right pixels in the right place. But then he also changes the palette to create different times of day. Some of them have rain or snow and the particles appear to move smoothly over the various parts of the background. Carefully switching the palette index not just for each bit of movement but also using a different section of the palette each time a snowflake transitions to pass over a different-coloured background layer. There's a pool with a shimmering reflection! There's an animated aurora borealis! There's underwater scenes, oceans, fires, all animated via fixed palette cycling only! And none of it looks forced, it all looks beautifully natural. You can open up the "Options" tab to see the palette and hover over the colours to see where they're used.
- stavros 3y ago
  Ahh, I remember this site, thanks for linking. These are magnificent.
- Elbrus 3y ago
  > Did you ever see Mark Ferrari's animated pixel art landscapes from the 1990s? I have seen these long ago, thanks a ton for the working link. Considering it is not some modern trendy pixel dithering, I can hardly imagine the amount of work required to create this art back then.
- p0w3n3d 3y ago
  Wow. Thanks
tracker1 3y ago
Worth checking out is also text mode ansi art. A lot of similar techniques apply. It was more popular through the mid 90s, in particular the DOS (CP437) characters with the CGA 16-color pallet. http://16colo.rs/ http://16colo.rs/

timeon 3y ago

This might sound contradictory, but constraints are boosters for creativity.

KineticLensman 3y ago
Yeah! I had to fix a shed roof during one of the lockdowns when DIY stores were closed and amazed myself with what I managed to achieve with just the scraps i had lying around
- yitchelle 3y ago
  When I was younger, a senior told me that If all you have is a hammer to solve the problem, all problems will start to look like a nail.

wanderingstan 3y ago

Imagine going back to Susan Kare's shoes in 1983, having to design icons in black and white in only 32x32 pixels. Made even harder by the fact that people had never encountered icons on a screen before. https://archive.org/details/paint.net-macintosh-icons https://archive.org/details/paint.net-macintosh-icons

keepamovin 3y ago
Yes. her designs are truly iconic. So charming. A good icon seems like a good invention, something that has always existed, speaks to you directly and seems to have been recalled rather than created for the first time. I think the nostalgia over some retro OSes is warranted.
Someone 3y ago
On her own site: http://kare.com/apple-icons/ http://kare.com/apple-icons/

Nition 3y ago

Did you ever see Mark Ferrari's animated pixel art landscapes from the 1990s? There's a working archive of them here: http://www.effectgames.com/demos/canvascycle/ http://www.effectgames.com/demos/canvascycle/ They're real masterpieces. 256 colour pixel art, with some colours palette cycling to create animation by using the right pixels in the right place. But then he also changes the palette to create different times of day. Some of them have rain or snow and the particles appear to move smoothly over the various parts of the background. Carefully switching the palette index not just for each bit of movement but also using a different section of the palette each time a snowflake transitions to pass over a different-coloured background layer. There's a pool with a shimmering reflection! There's an animated aurora borealis! There's underwater scenes, oceans, fires, all animated via fixed palette cycling only! And none of it looks forced, it all looks beautifully natural. You can open up the "Options" tab to see the palette and hover over the colours to see where they're used.

stavros 3y ago
Ahh, I remember this site, thanks for linking. These are magnificent.
Elbrus 3y ago
> Did you ever see Mark Ferrari's animated pixel art landscapes from the 1990s? I have seen these long ago, thanks a ton for the working link. Considering it is not some modern trendy pixel dithering, I can hardly imagine the amount of work required to create this art back then.
p0w3n3d 3y ago
Wow. Thanks

tracker1 3y ago

Worth checking out is also text mode ansi art. A lot of similar techniques apply. It was more popular through the mid 90s, in particular the DOS (CP437) characters with the CGA 16-color pallet. http://16colo.rs/ http://16colo.rs/