Easy to learn art style (other than pixel art)

[Justinian]

Any art styles out there that are easier to learn than basic pixel art? Would really like my next game to have higher resolution graphics but I'm not sure my current game will sell well enough to cover hiring people to do art.

 

[Peachcurl]

Have you considered AI generated art?

https://rpgcodex.net/forums/threads/is-ai-the-future-of-indie-rpgs.144388/
https://rpgcodex.net/forums/threads/why-dont-indie-devs-use-ai-generated-images-as-art.143986/

Doesn't even have to be limited to graphics:

https://rpgcodex.net/forums/threads...text-based-rpg-and-handles-everything.144830/
https://rpgcodex.net/forums/threads/overpaid-voice-actors-seethe-at-being-replaced-by-ai.144805/

 

[rusty_shackleford]

easiest one is paying an artist

 

[Justinian]

Have you considered AI generated art?

https://rpgcodex.net/forums/threads/is-ai-the-future-of-indie-rpgs.144388/
https://rpgcodex.net/forums/threads/why-dont-indie-devs-use-ai-generated-images-as-art.143986/

Doesn't even have to be limited to graphics:

https://rpgcodex.net/forums/threads...text-based-rpg-and-handles-everything.144830/
https://rpgcodex.net/forums/threads/overpaid-voice-actors-seethe-at-being-replaced-by-ai.144805/

Yes, I already use some in my current game. But I can't have the AI do everything, you still need artistic talent in the genre you're generating in to edit them & make them suitable for a game.

 

[KateMicucci]

Pixel art isn't easier than non-pixel art. It's actually harder to do well. People are just more forgiving of it looking bad because it's "bad on purpose". It's easier to draw bigger pictures than trying to cram visual information into a 16x16 pixel area. The art you have in your current game looks pretty functional, but even the game you're cloning has bigger sprites than you do. The fewer pixels you use the harder it will be.

Find art you like. Do your best to draw an exact copy of it. Analyze it. Change it to make it better.

I'm sure that a flat vector-and-gradients style like Super Meatboy would be easier, and look a lot better, than torturing yourself with pixels.

 

[bionicman]

voxel art, it's like pixel art but 3d: https://ephtracy.github.io/ <use this
also, there's vector art, if you use inkscape or illustrator

 

[megidolaon]

for 3D, maybe a colors-by-vertex, textureless, low-polygon style like what Final Fantasy 7 had

 

[The_Sloth_Sleeps]

Whats the style of the game you have made, 2D, 3D or...?
IMO you can do a variant of pixel art that looks ok, is somewhat easy to learn, etc.
Much depends on the game, what kind of assets you need to make. 90% of assets may be trivial to make 10% very difficult.
I have a thread about this. The reality is you either pay an artist or learn how to make art.
3D renders, touched up to look 2D can look pretty good. You can even acquire premade assets and they won't look much the same after this process.

 

[KateMicucci]

3D renders, touched up to look 2D can look pretty good. You can even acquire premade assets and they won't look much the same after this process.

Good idea.

 

[Justinian]

Pixel art isn't easier than non-pixel art. It's actually harder to do well. People are just more forgiving of it looking bad because it's "bad on purpose". It's easier to draw bigger pictures than trying to cram visual information into a 16x16 pixel area. The art you have in your current game looks pretty functional, but even the game you're cloning has bigger sprites than you do. The fewer pixels you use the harder it will be.

Find art you like. Do your best to draw an exact copy of it. Analyze it. Change it to make it better.

16x16 pixel art is very quick to draw. It's true that cramming visual info in that small space is difficult and requires some experience/talent to do well, it's still not gonna take a lot of time. So I can crank them out in large numbers. My current game would be impossible to finish in a decent amount of time otherwise. and raising the resolution brings its own, much more time consuming problems. Takes longer to finish, much longer to animate, and need more experience to represent things well, just imagination won't cut it. Because it's so fast to do you also rack up experience making it a lot quicker.

I'm sure that a flat vector-and-gradients style like Super Meatboy would be easier, and look a lot better, than torturing yourself with pixels.

i was worried about that. I'm not crazy about low res pixel art but I like that style even less. Although I love "Just King" the style is def not doing it any favors.

 

[Justinian]

Whats the style of the game you have made, 2D, 3D or...?

2d. You can see some screenshots on its Steam page.

IMO you can do a variant of pixel art that looks ok, is somewhat easy to learn, etc.
Much depends on the game, what kind of assets you need to make. 90% of assets may be trivial to make 10% very difficult.
I have a thread about this. The reality is you either pay an artist or learn how to make art.
3D renders, touched up to look 2D can look pretty good. You can even acquire premade assets and they won't look much the same after this process.

I've done the 3D render thing before, and it looks good, but it's still fairly slow. Although in all likelihood I'm probably looking for something that doesn't exist. I guess I could do a game with "graphics made in paint by a 4 year old" and lean on the irony as a gimmick but I'd rather just make a normal game.

 

[Morpheus Kitami]

You could try learning how to do the classic comic book style. There are tons of books on this, from "Drawing Comics the Marvel Way" to "Fun with a Pencil" by Andrew Loomis. You have fairly simple instructions and as long as you keep at it you should be able to draw something semi-decent in a few months. I guess the problem with this is you're still learning how to draw when you're trying to find a shortcut. Unfortunately there isn't one, otherwise everyone would know how to draw.
Also, "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" by is a must if you don't know how to draw at all.

 

[The_Sloth_Sleeps]

Whats the style of the game you have made, 2D, 3D or...?

2d. You can see some screenshots on its Steam page.

IMO you can do a variant of pixel art that looks ok, is somewhat easy to learn, etc.
Much depends on the game, what kind of assets you need to make. 90% of assets may be trivial to make 10% very difficult.
I have a thread about this. The reality is you either pay an artist or learn how to make art.
3D renders, touched up to look 2D can look pretty good. You can even acquire premade assets and they won't look much the same after this process.

I've done the 3D render thing before, and it looks good, but it's still fairly slow. Although in all likelihood I'm probably looking for something that doesn't exist. I guess I could do a game with "graphics made in paint by a 4 year old" and lean on the irony as a gimmick but I'd rather just make a normal game.

I checked out your game but I'm a bit unclear on what style you want to go with. It seems to me you want some kind of 2d style with semi simple sprites but also not too basic. Do you have any games in mind that would be inspiration for the style?

I agree transforming 3d to 2d isn't especially quick, but it's a good cheat if you lack skills. And you get quicker with practice ofc. It's also probably not the style you want here.

 

[Zanzoken]

Pixel art is probably still the way to go, for the simple reason that there are a lot of pixel art assets out there that are affordable and good quality. Why spend your time drawing trees, rocks, etc when you can spend a few bucks and get great pre-made assets that the player won't care about anyway.

However there can also be a lot of efficiency in using high-res sprites for 2D. The example that comes to my mind is Bastion, which is a great looking 2D game.

Spoiler

You don't really notice unless you're looking for it, but pay attention to how much the assets are actually being reused. The artist takes the same sprite and manipulates the size, orientation, color, lighting, etc to create a more visually detailed image with fewer inputs (and presumably in a fraction of the time).

 

[The_Sloth_Sleeps]

Pixel art is probably still the way to go, for the simple reason that there are a lot of pixel art assets out there that are affordable and good quality. Why spend your time drawing trees, rocks, etc when you can spend a few bucks and get great pre-made assets that the player won't care about anyway.

However there can also be a lot of efficiency in using high-res sprites for 2D. The example that comes to my mind is Bastion, which is a great looking 2D game.

Spoiler

You don't really notice unless you're looking for it, but pay attention to how much the assets are actually being reused. The artist takes the same sprite and manipulates the size, orientation, color, lighting, etc to create a more visually detailed image with fewer inputs (and presumably in a fraction of the time).

A good level designer really takes advantage of the assets and can make it seem as if there are 5x more source assets than there are. Working with what resources you have is quite a crucial skill (that I don't have myself).

 

[KateMicucci]

You could try learning how to do the classic comic book style. There are tons of books on this, from "Drawing Comics the Marvel Way" to "Fun with a Pencil" by Andrew Loomis. You have fairly simple instructions and as long as you keep at it you should be able to draw something semi-decent in a few months.

 

[Justinian]

Whats the style of the game you have made, 2D, 3D or...?

2d. You can see some screenshots on its Steam page.

IMO you can do a variant of pixel art that looks ok, is somewhat easy to learn, etc.
Much depends on the game, what kind of assets you need to make. 90% of assets may be trivial to make 10% very difficult.
I have a thread about this. The reality is you either pay an artist or learn how to make art.
3D renders, touched up to look 2D can look pretty good. You can even acquire premade assets and they won't look much the same after this process.

I've done the 3D render thing before, and it looks good, but it's still fairly slow. Although in all likelihood I'm probably looking for something that doesn't exist. I guess I could do a game with "graphics made in paint by a 4 year old" and lean on the irony as a gimmick but I'd rather just make a normal game.

I checked out your game but I'm a bit unclear on what style you want to go with. It seems to me you want some kind of 2d style with semi simple sprites but also not too basic. Do you have any games in mind that would be inspiration for the style?

I agree transforming 3d to 2d isn't especially quick, but it's a good cheat if you lack skills. And you get quicker with practice ofc. It's also probably not the style you want here.

I'm not going to change the style for my current game, it's gonna be a pixel art game. My question was for future games after I finish this one.
And no, I don't really have other games in mind. Simple non-pixel art games are stuff like super meat boy or maybe the original binding of isaac. I was just hoping others with encyclopedic knowledge of games might know of an obscure art style that are simple enough to be mass produced by an amateur artist.

 

[Krice]

You can make any style look bad, or good. You can learn art concepts to become a better artist, so stuff like color theory and also pixel art itself, there are tutorials on youtube about what works in pixel art (and what things to avoid), because people figured it out.

 

[Not.AI]

Paradoxically, realistic styles are easier than abstract styles.

Basically a single line being not quite perfect matters less. It's more statistical, looking at all the lines. A lot more lines to work with.

Catch: Depends on that artist. Some people just can't figure out what cues make something look like the thing it's supposed to look. They'll benefit from the power that only "generic manga shit" can grant. Others can draw real "well" but when drawing realistically can't figure out how to make their character interesting at all. Their only hope is the highly stylized big eyes and big swords.

Not that it matters much these days.