Noob, nub, however you want to pronounce it

Jedite01 · Post by **Jedite01** » Thu Aug 05, 2010 7:11 pm

Okay, I have been working on a first person maze game. Some bgs are done and some enemy sprites are done. I'll just have to convert them into 9-Bit RGB. I should have some ready for tonight, and I post them on PixelJoint.

Jedite01 · Post by **Jedite01** » Sat Aug 07, 2010 7:00 pm

Sorry I haven't replied for two days. A bunch of stuff came up (Got a new laptop, trying to instal Linux on it, going places, the usuall) but I did manage to get some work in. The art isn't finished yet, but I'm working on it right now, and guess what? Good news, I got a book on 'computer images,' and it discusses some topics about the hardware and all that, but it also discusses techniques in graphical art and programs and blah. (It talks about fractal imaging, anti-aliasing, and weird four-dimension type stuff [Haven't read that part yet,] and it discusses some three dimensional engines I can use.) Did I mention this book is somewhat old? But the techniques look awesome! Imagine what they looked like on old hardware, what could they do on newer hardware o.0

FrozenDelight · Post by **FrozenDelight** » Sat Aug 07, 2010 11:55 pm

It's great to start off art this young, and with such enthusiasm. It's unusual for a younster to be interested in such old video games hardware, but least that seperates you from the crowd. Also don't worry about not being a master straight away, and animation is also a part of games graphics.

Jedite01 · Post by **Jedite01** » Sun Aug 08, 2010 4:05 pm

Yes, it is true o.0 All of my friends are either into the PS3, Xbox 360 or the Nintendo Wii. I just sort of go UGH and tell them that I've seen better graphics on the PS1, a.k.a Final Fantasy Tactics. If they made more games in the more classical format this world would be such a better place. But some companies already have, like Sega, who released Sonic 4 as a polygonal sidescroller

I wasn't ecstatic about the polygons, what happened to good old raster art?

TmEE co.(TM) · Post by **TmEE co.(TM)** » Mon Aug 09, 2010 6:45 am

Raster art is time consuming and requires lots of skill. Plus you have to redraw every frame for the most part... but with polygons you create a single model andj ust bend it the way you want, getting new frames very easily.

Shiru · Post by **Shiru** » Mon Aug 09, 2010 1:55 pm

For me, pixel art is MUCH more easier than 3D with animation. In 3D, you have not only to paint something (textures, which is already a lot more work than creation of a few sprites), but do a lot more of tedious and painstaking work, which should be done precisely to get good results: modelling itself, polycount optimization, texture mapping, rigging, animation, etc - all these things are now even considered as different specialities.

FrozenDelight · Post by **FrozenDelight** » Mon Aug 09, 2010 4:32 pm

Jedite01 wrote:Yes, it is true o.0 All of my friends are either into the PS3, Xbox 360 or the Nintendo Wii. I just sort of go UGH and tell them that I've seen better graphics on the PS1, a.k.a Final Fantasy Tactics. If they made more games in the more classical format this world would be such a better place. But some companies already have, like Sega, who released Sonic 4 as a polygonal sidescroller I wasn't ecstatic about the polygons, what happened to good old raster art?

I used to work for Sega, I played Sonic 4 about 8 months ago. It didn't seem to me that it was using 3D, just high res sprites. It was a very early version though, they may have changed it since then. I was very pleased to play a Sonic game that's like the originals, like most ppl, I don't like the 3D ones.

Jedite01 · Post by **Jedite01** » Mon Aug 09, 2010 6:51 pm

Maybe your right, FrozenDelight, it could have been hi-res sprites and graphics o.0 I can't tell the difference for the most part, because polygon graphics are getting so advanced these days... And the video quality on my computer is awful

I'll have to read on it, and Shiru is right in my case, I have gotten so accustomed to pixel art or raster or whatever you wanna call it. I just don't have the patience for polygons -.-[/quote]

FrozenDelight · Post by **FrozenDelight** » Tue Aug 10, 2010 6:28 pm

I viewed some footage they released more recently. Actually it probably is 3D models, I guess I was playing it on such a crap TV, that I couldn't tell

But hay, I think it looks great still, it's the closest we're gonna get to 2D without actual 2D sprites. I'm looking forward to it, didn't get to play it much before. It was such an early version too, Sonic didn't even have his shoes on... hahaaa, a joke!

Jedite01 · Post by **Jedite01** » Thu Aug 12, 2010 10:12 am

You saw a possible beta/Prototype? Cool, and you're probably right, that is the closest we will get to 2-D sprites. All of the video game freaks rave over HIGH RESOLUTION POLYGONAL VIDEO GAMES, but Sega was smart and took the polygons and rendered them in a 2-D fashion... Go Sega!

And I uploaded exactly ONE picture... The main idea is to upload images of my characters, a.k.a Character portraits. It hasn't been approved yet, and I didn't use any anti-aliased text. Instead, I drew it all

http://www.pixeljoint.com/p/28995.htm

I think that's the right link... And you should be able to see the images. I think.

BTW- For whatever reasons I am going to include the palette at the top of the portrait. It is for practicing so I can work on palette management and so I can tell how many colors are in the picture...

Shiru · Post by **Shiru** » Thu Aug 12, 2010 11:10 am

It is bad idea, to include a palette on a picture. Everyone could look at palette using graphics editor (except for Paint users), and having the palette on the picture makes it look unfinished.

Regarding the picture, try to make it less blurry. The large letters does not need those vertical and horizontal gray outlines, for example.

FrozenDelight · Post by **FrozenDelight** » Thu Aug 12, 2010 12:48 pm

I'm not familiar with the pixel joint site layout, your pixel art is the TGnF logo and the penguin, right?

I may start learning pixel art soon as well. This topic reminds me of a small dilemma I had with it a while back. I think that the artists in the pixilated graphics era must have traditionally drawn most things and then converted and tweaked their images for use in games. But nowadays, ppl doing pixel art for whatever reasons (hobbies, etc) will draw pixel by pixel a lot of the time. They don't all do it, and it's not necessarily a bad thing, but I just think it may be the wrong way of thinking if an artist assumes pixel art is drawn from that low resolution straight off the bat.

Am I wrong?

Shiru · Post by **Shiru** » Thu Aug 12, 2010 12:58 pm

First pixel artists actually drawn the art on a paper.. in low resolution, from scratch. Later, they did it on screen, in low resolution as well. High resolution sketches were common, but nobody (to my knowledge, at least) ever converted them to low-res and then refined manually - everyone make the graphics looking at the sketches/photos/references, but from scratch, pixel by pixel. Even using the reference as bottom layer is not so common. Generally the reason is that it does not help to improve quality of the art, you can only get really good results if you make it pixel-by-pixel.

You free to use any approach, though, and get the idea by yourself, which one is the best for you. However, be prepared that graphics made not from your own sketch (so called 'trace', when you outline existing photo or picture) will be rejected on PA sites.

FrozenDelight · Post by **FrozenDelight** » Thu Aug 12, 2010 1:04 pm

I see. Thanks.

Jedite01 · Post by **Jedite01** » Thu Aug 12, 2010 8:38 pm

Catch! There is always a catch! I'll remove the palette. PixelJoint says I can edit or remove my pictures at any time.

Oh, by the way, I deliberately designed the letters to look weird like that o.0
I have to have some variety, right?