.

[Grauken]

Bad 3d art is certainly cheaper than 2d, but we were talking about good art

 

[Vlajdermen]

I'm playing Serpent in the Staglands rn and it's interesting to see a game apply pixel art to gameplay which doesn't traditionally use it. Though I still prefer the Baldur's gate 2 style of graphics I will admit this clean and simple style is appealing too

 

[Viata]

Pixel art then:

Pixel art now:

I too enjoy cherry picking.

 

[Vlajdermen]

I still think the Sega Genesis has the best looking pixel games. It's not as powerful as the snes or PS1 but the colours are strong and the animations are energetic. Even modern pixel games look tepid by comparison.

 

[Viata]

Pixel art is consistently more pretty than 3D, while having a fraction of the cost. Bad art direction stays bad art direction, but at least the game didn't blow millions on bad art in an ugly pixel game.

Where does this idea come from that pixel art/2D is so much cheaper than 3D?

3D is much cheaper to animate than 2D actually, and much cheaper and easier to create variations of similar models.

Make a 2D art in a given angle. Dev decide to change the angle of the game, now someone has to redraw everything.
Make a 3D model. No problem if they change the angle of the game.

 

[Viata]

I still think the Sega Genesis has the best looking pixel games. It's not as powerful as the snes or PS1 but the colours are strong and the animations are energetic. Even modern pixel games look tepid by comparison.

Not the image you would want to back up your arguments, though.

 

[Grauken]

 

[Nifft Batuff]

Pixel art now

https://sudonull.com/post/14066-Dead-Cells-Using-3D-Pipeline-for-2D-Animation

 

[Grauken]

Pixel art now

https://sudonull.com/post/14066-Dead-Cells-Using-3D-Pipeline-for-2D-Animation

So did the original Prince of Persia, look up its rotoscoping pipeline, the outcome is still beautiful 2d pixel art

 

[Machocruz]

The old artists were aiming to make objects look like oil or airbrush illustration, as best they could with what was available to them. They didn't want you to see the raw pixels, and most of the examples posted, from modern games and emulators without scanline or crt filters, miss that point. A lot of visual information is lost with the latter, and the former look like blobs of shapes hanging loosely together.

 

[Grauken]

The old artists were aiming to make objects look like oil or airbrush illustration, as best they could with what was available to them. They didn't want you to see the raw pixels, and most of the examples posted, from modern games and emulators without scanline or crt filters, miss that point.

No, they don't miss that point, they don't consider it relevant anymore. Technology has changed, display technology has, so not all of the old requirements are important enough to emulate. That said, good pixel art still gets made, as does bad, just like in the old days. People usually bring up the great examples of old pixel art and conveniently forget that for every good looking old game there were 10 that had utter shit pixel art visuals

 

[Machocruz]

The old artists were aiming to make objects look like oil or airbrush illustration, as best they could with what was available to them. They didn't want you to see the raw pixels, and most of the examples posted, from modern games and emulators without scanline or crt filters, miss that point.

No, they don't miss that point, they don't consider it relevant anymore. Technology has changed, display technology has, so not all of the old requirements are important enough to emulate. That said, good pixel art still gets made, as does best bad, just like in the old days. People usually bring up the great examples of old pixel art and conveniently forget that for every good looking old game there were 10 that had utter shit pixel art visuals

Yeah the technology has changed. So no reason for Dead Cells and HLD to look like blocks and swatches. It's an "art style" for people not highly skilled at art. Sonic 3 on a quality crt screen shits on it, as do many modern games.

 

[Grauken]

The old artists were aiming to make objects look like oil or airbrush illustration, as best they could with what was available to them. They didn't want you to see the raw pixels, and most of the examples posted, from modern games and emulators without scanline or crt filters, miss that point.

No, they don't miss that point, they don't consider it relevant anymore. Technology has changed, display technology has, so not all of the old requirements are important enough to emulate. That said, good pixel art still gets made, as does best bad, just like in the old days. People usually bring up the great examples of old pixel art and conveniently forget that for every good looking old game there were 10 that had utter shit pixel art visuals

Yeah the technology has changed. So no reason for Dead Cells and HLD to look like blocks and swatches. It's an "art style" for people not highly skilled at art. Sonic 3 on a quality crt screen shits on it, as do many modern games.

Dead Cells and Hyper Light Drifter look beautiful, maybe you need some glasses

 

[Akratus II]

 

[Akratus II]

Obligatory:

 

[Machocruz]

Dead Cells and Hyper Light Drifter look beautiful, maybe you need some glasses

I lie, I actually dug the look of HLD when I saw the early trailers. Never got around to getting it. But a lot of people are under the assumption that how they see old games through emulators or on LCD flats are how they looked on the "proper" screens back then. And since many indies are inspired by and want to emulate those old games, they are kind of missing the point. Sharp pixels/blockiness were not intended or desired, and I really see no advantage to them outside of limited dev budget/time/skill. And even the best looking old 2D games suffer under those conditions.

What people often say is "I remembered this game looking better back in 19__". But it did probably look as good as they remembered, sometimes better, just not on SNES9x on a Dell LCD.

I'd say the very very best pixel art has so far been done in the past, but I would never say there is no modern work that is as good or better than most of the old.

 

[Grauken]

 

[Kev Inkline]

Amiga games had the best pixel art, ofc. (Bitmap Brothers games in particular)

Spoiler

 

[Kev Inkline]

I have a legit question. How does Pixel Art actually differ from 2d Art in general? Just 2d art that is at a deliberately low resolution, or is there more to it? Is there a specific resolution it has to be below to be considered pixel art?

Genuine pixel art is hand drawn/designed, pixel by pixel. I think more often than not, for the games, the artists used particular sprite editors that had grids to help with the process.

So if you have a scanned image, which is then colorized - even if pixel by pixel - in general that would not be considered genuine pixel art per se. For instance, my avatar was made through such process back in the day.

 

[Grauken]

I have a legit question. How does Pixel Art actually differ from 2d Art in general? Just 2d art that is at a deliberately low resolution, or is there more to it? Is there a specific resolution it has to be below to be considered pixel art?

That's not as easy to answer as you think, because like with a lot of things, what is pixel art is up to interpretation. The most common definition is art where every pixel is manually painted, though a lot of pixel art tools allow for an easier process where different process steps allow you to chunk it out. A lot of old games, especially some adventure games, that we think of today as pixel art, where basically scanned painted pictures that then were finished up with the display limitations of the time in mind. Prince of Persia for example used rotoscoping as the base for character sprites and then was touched up with pixel painting tools. Most people probably agree that if something looks like pixel art, usually meaning you can see a pixel outline or the outline of objects looks like it was done in a chunky style it is pixel art versus smooth outlines that look like drawings (Hollow Knight, the Spelunky rerelease, etc).

 

[Machocruz]

I have a legit question. How does Pixel Art actually differ from 2d Art in general? Just 2d art that is at a deliberately low resolution, or is there more to it? Is there a specific resolution it has to be below to be considered pixel art?

The term is rather new to me. Before it was just 2D or sprites vs. 3D or models. I only started seeing "pixel art" when a certain style of 2D became prominent. Think Super Brothers Sword +Sworcery, Super Time Cop, Gunpoint, etc. It's a different intent than a Metal Slug or a Capcom fighter (i.e. moving comic/book cover/etc. illustrations), which I never heard called "pixel art".

 

[mondblut]

it's interesting to see a game apply pixel art to gameplay which doesn't traditionally use it.

You haven't been around for long, have you?

 

[Vlajdermen]

it's interesting to see a game apply pixel art to gameplay which doesn't traditionally use it.

You haven't been around for long, have you?

Pixel art is common in DOS RPGs like Dark Sun but SitS is much more tied to Windows RPGs like the Infinity Engine games, which don't use pixel art

 

[mondblut]

it's interesting to see a game apply pixel art to gameplay which doesn't traditionally use it.

You haven't been around for long, have you?

Pixel art is common in DOS RPGs like Dark Sun but SitS is much more tied to Windows RPGs like the Infinity Engine games, which don't use pixel art

What does it have to do with operating systems?

SitS is a tribute to Darklands and wears it on its sleeve.

 

[tritosine2k]

Pixel art then:

Pixel art now:

I too enjoy cherry picking.

Then: "sprite"
Now: fetishism, cargo-cult, autofellating

, retarded "meme" -s + Phil Fish