
Pixel Art Tutorial - joshuacc
http://makegames.tumblr.com/post/42648699708/pixel-art-tutorial
======
jere
Can I just say that Derek Yu is an indie god? I remember being blown away by
Diabolika and Eternal Daughter a decade ago. And Spelunky (released last year)
is a ridiculously good game, especially with friends. He got his start doing
Klik 'n Play games and that's where I first got interested in programming
(learning quite a bit about it without doing any actual coding) and pixel art.

If you're looking for a similar article, this is one of the best ones I
recall: <http://www.petesqbsite.com/sections/tutorials/tuts/tsugumo/>

~~~
doomlaser
He also runs TIGSource, whose forums have been a breeding ground for indie
game developers for years -- note the very first posting of Minecraft:
<http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=6273.0>

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shardling
There's a pretty nice (though short) pixel texture tutorial in the minecraft
forums: [http://www.minecraftforum.net/topic/1351664-pixel-art-
textur...](http://www.minecraftforum.net/topic/1351664-pixel-art-texturing-
explained/)

I was trying to make some pixel art for a little game I was messing with, and
it really helped me understand some of the techniques.

------
_ferdev_
Awesome. What a titanic task to create a full set of characters (with each
animation frame) for a videogame using this technique.

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mwill
I remember seeing this years ago, off tumblr, but for some reason didn't
associate it with Derek Yu until now. Embarrassingly, the original that I
would have seen back then (cached[1]) was not only plastered with his name,
but lived at derekyu.com.

It makes me wonder what other blazingly obvious author connections my brain
has failed to make over the years.

Sidenote: I'm pleasantly surprised this is so popular on HN! I'm curious if
this was mostly upvoted for plain curiosity, or practical usefulness.

[1]
[http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:IiKlxup...](http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:IiKlxupvpr0J:www.derekyu.com/%3Fpage_id%3D219+&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=au)

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jQueryIsAwesome
If you can't avoid the "pixel" part and go straight to the "art" my eyes would
appreciate it. If I want nostalgia I will play games that look pixelated for
technical limitations now in the past, not for willingly decaying graphics
pretending it has some artistic value.

Even after just using a little bit of median filter it looks better:
<http://i.imgur.com/P4Dr9Kr.jpg>

~~~
ANTSANTS
I emphatically disagree, you just ruined Derek's pixel art. Are you the kind
of person that plays emulated games with 2xSai/HQ2X filters?

Here's some _way more_ pixelated, color-limited, and dithered artwork. Would
you blur or median filter it? Would you paint over it, vectorize it, turn the
dithering into generic gradients?

<http://i.imgur.com/RSZvo.png>

<http://i.imgur.com/DVjGn.png>

<http://i.imgur.com/18YHG.gif>

<http://i.imgur.com/e9ZGH.png>

<http://i.imgur.com/tj8fM.png>

~~~
mistercow
>Are you the kind of person that plays emulated games with 2xSai/HQ2X filters?

I play emulated games with those filters, and the reason is simple: it makes
them look more how I remember them when I played them as a kid. After all, old
CRT TVs caused the sprites to get smoothed back in the day, so it's not like
perfectly blocky pixels are really the "original" form. Beyond that, playing
SNES games unsmoothed makes my eyes water, and HQ*X looks better than other
smoothing algorithms.

In any case, judging and mocking people for how they like to enjoy their games
is pretty shitty.

But I also appreciate pixel art that is designed for modern displays, and I
agree that the medianed version of the Lucha Lawyer looks horrendous.

~~~
coldtea
> _In any case, judging and mocking people for how they like to enjoy their
> games is pretty shitty._

Not at all. Who said all opinions could be equally respected? Some are just
plain ignorant and stupid, even when they pertain to personal choices.

(I'm sure for example you'll find my opinion above stupid).

The thing is personal choices are never personal. They aggregate with the
total number of persons and structure the society everyone has to live in.

Somebody enjoying "Scary Movie Story 3" is a personal choice. Until you get
millions of people enjoying "Scary Movie 3", and suddenly you have to suffer
from an avalanche of shitty movies like it coming from Hollywood in order to
watch something decent. Shaming them beforehand ("it's a bad movie, and you
should feel bad") might spare you...

~~~
mistercow
>Who said all opinions could be equally respected?

Certainly not me. But there's a difference between criticizing an opinion and
shaming someone for holding that opinion. I also think those sorts of movies
are terrible, but shaming people for enjoying them is unnecessary and
immature.

And please spare me your claims of "suffering" because Hollywood makes crappy
movies. First of all, the suffering you will cause a single person by shaming
them for enjoying a movie is probably greater than the net suffering you will
endure from your awareness of every bad movie you hear about in your entire
life. Secondly, no number of snotty assholes who shame people for their
cinematic taste will ever make a dent in the number of bad movies produced in
Hollywood. The most impact you would see would be that at some point everyone
else might backlash against the snotty assholes and watch _more_ crappy movies
in defiance.

Finally, what analogy are you trying to draw, exactly, between bad movies and
smoothing filters in emulators? What negative impact are 2xSaI users going to
have on people who set their emulators on simpler scaling modes?

~~~
coldtea
> _Certainly not me. But there's a difference between criticizing an opinion
> and shaming someone for holding that opinion. I also think those sorts of
> movies are terrible, but shaming people for enjoying them is unnecessary and
> immature._

Not to sure. One of the basic ways to forge a better culture is to shame
people for BS choices. For example, would you let a racist (even if he doesn't
hurt anyone) without shaming him? Maybe you would, I wouldn't.

> _And please spare me your claims of "suffering" because Hollywood makes
> crappy movies._

It was meant as a humorous example, but I can defend it if you insist.

> _First of all, the suffering you will cause a single person by shaming them
> for enjoying a movie is probably greater than the net suffering you will
> endure from your awareness of every bad movie you hear about in your entire
> life._

This takes for granted that a bad movie just stops there (at the bad cinematic
experience). That is not the case. Any kind of art and entertainment, and
movies in particular, shape minds, opinions, tastes etc. Bad movies have many
cultural, societal and even financial results. A movie can even justify war
and hatred (as any state propaganda department can attest).

~~~
mistercow
>For example, would you let a racist (even if he doesn't hurt anyone) without
shaming him? Maybe you would, I wouldn't.

To his face? I would tell him why his specific _views_ were racist and
harmful. Telling someone that _they're_ racist isn't helpful. Where do they go
from there? The only self-identity preserving options you've given them are to
ignore you and believe that their views aren't racist (which is what usually
happens), or to embrace racism as good and correct. Whereas if you get someone
to reëxamine their views, you might get them to change their mind.

In fact, this is exactly what has happened with well-intended but misguided
racism education. We've taught people that racism is shameful, but we haven't
really taught them how to identify their own racist views. As a result, people
think "Well, racist people are bad, and I'm not a bad person, so I must not be
racist." And that's how you get people saying things like "I'm not racist, but
I think Asians are bad drivers."

And that's the whole thing: shaming people hurts them and _doesn't work_. I
have _never_ changed someone's mind by making them feel bad about what they
thought. I've felt self righteous for doing so, but never actually made a
difference. But I _have_ changed people's minds by engaging them in
discussion. It's hard, and it's not as fun, but it sometimes _works_.

------
Sami_Lehtinen
Ugh? Isn't there too kinds of graphics currently used? Pixel art and vector
art (whish is automatically converted to pixel art). Every jpg, png and gif
image is pixel art. There's no way around it, unless you start using svg's.

Yes, I'm technical nerd. But who can say my opinion wouldn't be right one.
Those basic pixel art concepts are also needed with higher resolutions to make
great looking stuff.

Every game not using CGA graphics, does look too realistic and confuses people
and blurs line between games and reality.

~~~
coldtea
> _Ugh? Isn't there too kinds of graphics currently used? Pixel art and vector
> art (whish is automatically converted to pixel art). Every jpg, png and gif
> image is pixel art._

No, every jpg, png and gif image is a BITMAP.

"Pixel art" is a stylistic category.

You might want to read this ( <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pixel_art> ) which
provides some basic insight, even though it is extremely badly written.

> _There's no way around it, unless you start using svg's._

Or unless you use the terms correctly, like everyone else.

> _Yes, I'm technical nerd. But who can say my opinion wouldn't be right one._

Anybody that knows what bitmap, vector and pixel art means?

> _Those basic pixel art concepts are also needed with higher resolutions to
> make great looking stuff._

No, they are not. While some concepts remain the same, other concepts are
totally meaningless in higher resolution non pixel-art styled images.

