What exactly makes good or bad pixel art? Are skinneh sprites considered bad pixel art by default...

What exactly makes good or bad pixel art? Are skinneh sprites considered bad pixel art by default? Do Cave Story or Kero Blaster contain bad pixel art?

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Unless it's extremely detailed it's shit

kero blaster is good pixel art. it doesnt matter how details or what resolution it is. pixel art can be good or bad regardless

Good pixel art follows a lot of the same conventions of traditional art including palette, light source, outline, etc. If you just doodle something in MSPaint and call it pixel art then you are probably an indie dev who makes shitty games.

A lot of great info can be found here for those intersted:
pixeljoint.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=11299

Im not demanding about pixel art, but undertale has extremelly bad art. There were instances were the pixel size was different between 2 objects in the same scene

You're asking a very broad question, user.

First of all, art is inherently subjective, so what you deem bad may be deemed as good by someone else, and the other way around.

From an objective perspective, it depends on the artist's usage of clean lines, colors, antialiasing or lack thereof, detail, form, etc

Too much detail can make a sprite look messy, too little detail and the sprite may get lost, but it isn't always the case, because you're not looking at a genre of art or whatever, you're looking at a medium that has been around since the dawn of videogames and has been approached in several different ways throughout history, it's like asking "can 3D art look bad?" without going into specifics of era, limitations, high or low poly, performance, design, etc

It's more of a "depends on the sprite you're looking at" thing

This desu

You're not gonna see good pixel art from someone that is bad at non-pixel art.

>art is inherently subjective
stopped reading there

This statement is how we got people painting with their menstrual blood and making foul-smelling sculptures out of roadkill for their multi-million dollar exhibition. This statement excuses Yoko Onno, Shia LeBouf, and Jackson Pollack. This statement is why OP's image is considered a masterpiece by various fraudulent media organizations and made its way to the fucking pope.

Zero effort garbage is exactly what it is: garbage.

I'm bad at art and bad at spriting, so I gave up wanting to work on my game that I dropped entirely.

and that's your opinion, proving that it is, in fact, subjective

you can critique it from a technical (read: "objective") perspective, but that doesn't stop it from being your opinion

Don't you know? His opinions are facts and you can't refute them because he's user.

Stuff that makes it look appealing to the eye. shading, lightning, palette, etc. however minimalist pixel art can be done well, like Cave story. It's not overly complex but it looks nice and it works.

Undertale has some awful art if I've ever seen, the pic OP posted being the worst offender. It looks blocky, asymmetrical and ugly and the coloring is off everywhere.

this post is art

It's only good if it tries to look like a 16-bit and onwards game, which is too hard for most indie devs. 8-bit style indie stuff only looks good if it's actually really well done.

why are you attacking him for stating the most common definition and perception of art?

the only criteria for whether an art piece is good or not is if the artist is successful at delivering their idea to the audience in their art piece. if their idea is about the defamation of rape victims and society's disdain towards them, how the fuck would you execute that piece in an objective way that doesn't fit into your criteria of "zero effort garbage"?

i hate pretentious fine arts shit as much as the next guy, but attacking that user just makes you look like an asshat that is way too arrogant and stubborn for your own good

>Frisk walk animation has the mouth and eyes change color for one frame

That's fucking triggering right there

I know you're trying to prove a point by baiting people into saying "no it's not" so you can say "it's my opinion that this post is art" but that isn't how it works, art needs to be made with the intention of it being art, not because someone else calls it art

if i called my own post art and you tried to refute it then you'd have a point, but you calling my post art doesn't make it art

Keep doing it senpai. Spriting, and art in general, is all about practicing, you don't become a great artist from one day to the next one, it's a slow boil but it's worth it.

Also make sure to start small, don't try to create something like pic related from start. Try to learn the basics first then move on.

The same thing that makes traditional art good

Friendly reminder that this was done by hired professionals with years of experience in the field of art and animation

Not that it matters as there will always be that one idiot that thinks an amateur indie dev can pump out the same level of quality.

this post is also art

>intention of being art
what is art user?

The picture was more or less an exaggeration, I should have used another example.

Point is you never start out great, just take your time to practice and learn.

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it's objectively garbage, unless your interpretation of art is a quick way to launder money between illegitimate millionaires which would be more accurate than the hogwash you're spewing

I make pixel art and what you're asking is extremely subjective. However one thing I could tell you is the art style of one asset matter less than the art style of the whole game. Art style needs to be uniform as much as possible.

Friendly reminder that this took 10 years to make and the final result was a nice looking, but an overall shallow game

Jackson pollock is great, its a shame you can enjoy his art

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you guys must be P.H.D in arts,that's for sure.
how can i compete against oyu lads?

Still got good sales which is sadly the only thing that matters.

how about you get your own pHD you plebian

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animation plays a big part in how appealing i find a pixel art style, even if something it's incredibly detailed, if it's really fluidly animated then i usually like it

Doesn't really refute my point

I think there's an image going around comparing it side by side to undertale, yknow, the game with art made by a musicfag unrelated to graphical art in his first videogame

art is a representation of something: an idea, an emotion, or an object, translated into a creative medium with a very wide array of techniques, made with the intention of expressing that creative translation in some way to oneself or another

"i think it's garbage so it's garbage" isn't how it works, user
at least back up your technical claims to bash it in an "objective" manner
you may think it's lazy, I think it's lazy too, but that's my (our?) opinion on it
I think it's bad from a technical perspective because the form is bad, the lines are jagged, the usage of color is pretty bland and the body shape of frisk is pretty awkward, specially compared to his side sprite and because it's also slightly uncentered

does all that stop people from enjoying it? probably not
ergo, art is subjective

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On a scale of 1-10 how good is my art?

Cave Story has generally good art, but Quote's sprite is pretty bad, imo. It's overly simplified to the point of not being able to tell what it really is.

>not casting pegnubulnuus

that's a guy in a bunny suit?

headdy has good art

4.5/10 and im being generous

maybe it would look less bad if it was in a setting that looks more similar to it stylistic but by itself its pretty below average

look up a few tutorials user
you need some work on color usage, silhouette, textures, balance, your lines are jaggy and it kinda looks like a teenage boy

If it's cool or cute, it's GOOD

Change the face. Body is okay.

One thing I love about these screens that a lot of modern indie games don't get is how to use complementary and contrasting colors to your advantage. It works wonders in having your stage stand out.

I'm not either of those other guys but something can definitely be objectively lazy, including art
It depends on how much effort was put into it, in thought or in action

I don't mean to say that it doesn't count as art just because it was low effort though, I don't pretend to have thought about it enough to say

>posting a resized gif that stretches the pixels

This looks like a girl (male) in a skimpy outfit. Unless that was your intention then I say 10/10.

I'm sorry, but there is "art" where a man spent a couple seconds shitting onto a plate.

Then there is real art where some dude took years of dedicated practice and eventual mastery of sculpting something out of wood or marble.

one is a con and the other is accomplished, and sadly only one can be easily achieved by shitters so they all like to pat eachother on the back and say they are all accomplished shitters without any merit or hardwork. Just collusion between a large group of losers that is done to make profit off cheap work.

the argument that "opinion" and all that is based on the idea that you have a group effort of everyone saying SHIT *is* art, because (((we))) the majority think so, which makes our opinion matter more than yours!

and the counter argument is to bring visible examples in the wide difference for the appreciation of true work vs lazy work.

they'll still say its an opinion and hide behind it for all eternity till someone shoots them in the head for art.

It is a fact that garbage isn't art, you can appreciate garbage and that alone doesn't make it art. Art is subjective only to the jews who wish to manipulate idiots into believing that lowering your standards is of great benefit to civilization.

Cause then food or anything else can be subjective, and you should eat dog or cat food because its an opinion to think only dogs or cats should eat them.

its surprisingly funny people still eat it up.

>What exactly makes good or bad pixel art?

If it's done by the Japanese.

rate my pixel art for my pacman reboot

>P.H.D.
it's PhD or Ph. D.
t. PhD
why is it garbage?
it does not evoke emotion in the common man, nor does it inspire a sense of beauty. if presented unintroduced, it would be ignored as garbage on the street; or it would be met with confusion.
as it exists right now, the only emotion it can manage to instill in the unindoctrinated is fury, inasmuch as the "art" costs.
"How" the proletariat asks, "can something so hideous be worth millions? I could have made that in a minute, and no one would buy it from me."

I want to cum inside Nanao-San

>posting oekaki in a pixel art thread

Its supposed to be a chick with a pixie cut but it was my first time making something this detailed

where is her neck

Wow, that looks really nice. It sure would be nice if in game the backgrounds weren't zoomed in blurry pieces of shit and actually looked like that.

I know where you're coming from, but "it looks lazy" is a subjective observation, because you don't know how much effort was put into the art itself unless the artist tells you how much effort was put into it

for example, I think looks lazy, but it may have taken him 6 hours to do it from scratch because he's new to this and doesn't have a very good grasp on pixel art

an opinion being widespread and generally accepted doesn't magically turn it into a fact
i don't think shitting on a plate is art, but that's an entirely different subject, which is people who are clearly not making art trying to use the fact that art is subjective to justify that something that isn't art is art
we're not that kind of thing, we're discussing actual art and how it is subjective
i could say the post i'm writing right now is poetry and slap a price tag in it, but that isn't gonna make it poetry, that's gonna just out me out as an idiot and i should be laughed at

>there will always be that one idiot that thinks an amateur indie dev can pump out the same level of quality
>there's an image going around comparing it side by side to undertale
Here on /vee/, there's this thing called "bait".

can normative claims ever be objective?

I don't think it's bait, I genuinely think someone out there thinks that way without taking artist background or context into consideration

I think that was kind of the point. I think it was partially used to set up the whole "Hey you're actually a attack robot!".

Artist here.
At that level of pixel art, there's no point for it to be pixel art.
The artists during the 90s had to compromise. But if the art is as detailed as your example, it might as well be hd paintings. Pixel art needs to be stylized as videogamey to make it work and justify the reason it uses pixels.

anyone wanna try and raid a stream?

>stopped reading there
then you are a fucking idiot
your next sentences just reinforce the idea

This. If one person enjoys Bach, and another does not but rather listens to "Goochi's: muh dik", don't tell me that both are on equal levels of creativity because art is subjective.

Art is not subjective. Taste is subjective. You like what you like. but preference doesn't invalidate talent.

we all know you like the fluid

Another question is what makes a good conversion for pixel art games to HD?

Something that tries to resemble the sprites of the game, Something that matches the concept art, or a new kind of style?

This is my first outing in pixel art.

how do I fix this

I don't like the arms at all

I'm retarded so I literally cannot visualize how the light and body should interact

new kind of style that resembles the sprites

>Nicely detailed trees
>Only moderately detailed ground
>Mono grey-ish color scheme
>Then Frisk, the sign, the chest, and the save point are all brightly colored and very simple (and the chest is sitting over a tree)
I'm guessing consistency has a big part in it.

Here's something to help you:

Don't do pixels of multiple sizes, it defeats the purpose immensely and looks ugly as fuck, and is the main reason why your sprite looks so wrong.

In terms of lighting, the left eye and left leg are both in a darker color, so the left arm should be as well.

Also, the left arm should be a bit darker.

Respect the grid

But 'it looks lazy' is an objective and factual statement
For example, compare the statue of St Longinus in St. Peter's and, say, this picture
The apparently difference in effort is obvious, so one can say that one looks lazier than the other, without it being opinion
I mean hell one of them is just a till receipt put on a wall

Fuck off you brain dead ignoramus

>mixed pixel resolutions
Don't do this. Don't do this especially if it's not done in some modular way through programming, if you're doing it by hand, you do it at the native resolution and then upscale it when you're done. Problems with not understanding the colors/lights/shadows is a lack of fundamental artistic understanding. If you're not gonna learn more about that, you should look into sprites from games you like to get an idea of how to make yours look better.

Jesus, undertale was such a stylistic disaster.

I got two screenshots of two separate areas of the game and removed frisk. They almost look like they came from two completely different games.

>Tfw the hack will never be completed

okay, let's use an example here, completely hypothetical

let's say the picture you posted is a receipt, but every item in the list was carefully selected to represent a specific character's shopping list
the receipt also takes in account the year the character is supposed to be from, and thus the artist researched the logo of the store during that time, researched prices and brands of the era, and then put it up as a piece of art that tells a little story about this character's everyday life

the research process may have taken months of preparation and attention to detail, let's also say that they even faked some wear by crumpling it just so slightly and maybe put a stain belonging to something related to the character

and the spear of longinus was made with hot plastic and a drill, and put the whole thing up in a day

the receipt looks lazy, and the spear of longinus statue doesn't, but you never knew of the process behind each piece of art

"it looks lazy" is a subjective observation

>apparently
Apparent, though I'm not sure that word ought to be there at all

Also
>something that isn't art is art
If art is subjective though, how can you say that something objectively doesn't qualify? Isn't that rather inconsistent?

If you can draw a character's entire walking animation in paint in less than an hour, it's trash sprite work.

Is this better?

Every time I upscale so I can see what I'm doing better, I have this autistic urge to shave off pixels.

I've read that the NES can only handle 3 colors + transparent (I assume this = white) on every sprite. Do I need to follow this rule for my simpler stuff to look good, or can I be a little more lax?

There's a difference between looking lazy and *being* lazy, though, though I concede that the viewer can't really know about the latter unless told

The receipt objectively looks lazier than the statue. I could get a receipt like that at Morrison's in about five minutes, while the sculpture would take me months at least (at a guess, I really don't know. Years perhaps?) even if I was already a master, which I am not

>Do I need to follow this rule for my simpler stuff to look good, or can I be a little more lax?

Are you trying to stick to the NES restrictions?

Yes

No?

Use more, but don't be fucking stupid about it. Nothing pisses me off more when someone uses 2 identical shades of white.

Try to stick to 16 colors or below.

speaking of pixel art, whats the best program for making pixel sprites?

aseprite, hands down

I'm kind of scared that if I use too many colors my things will look too complex and I'll have to try to make my art look 16-bit to look ok.

It's really hard to stick to NES color restrictions.

Either 2x, 3x, or 4x scaling, with nearest neighbor interpolation.

In other words: Keep the pixels intact.

Ranked by price

Aseprite (Cheap)
Graphics Gale (Alright)
Pro Motion (Expensive)

Big improvement. Some other stuff I noticed: (this might be a bit more opinion based)

-left arm should be the same size as the right arm, you seem to be wanting to add some perspective into it by making it smaller, but it doesn't really work and it looks odd.

-Tail looks a bit odd, maybe make it less thick as it goes

Maybe use a different color for the right arm? I don't know how to help there.

Also, for the NES thing: if you're trying to make this sprite look like something that could work in an NES game, then sure, go for it. Might help with the right arm thing.

Why would you upscale? Just use an a separate view window that's zoomed in or zoom out manually.

Art is subjective, but in my opinion, if pixel art is instantly recognizable, it's good. People love shitting on Undertale's graphics, but Space Funeral gets a free pass just because it's not a meme to hate it. For the record I think both look great.

aseprite also has a free version that works great
paid version has more features, but free version has all you need

Graphics Gale is also free. The only thing the free version doesn't have is the ability to save animated GIFs

>paying

>tfw i made a comment profound enough to silence teh subjectivist brainlet

Concept is best

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mspaint