I am a big fan of the huge amount of different styles pixel artists have, not to say none pixel artists don't have unique styles, but all the pixel artists I follow online all do it their own way, it's honestly quite difficult to find two pixel artists with similar styles. As a whole pixel art was born due to hardware limitations, and evolved into so many different forms and styles, whether you are making game sprites, background art, animations, full 300x300 character illustrations, the skies the limit. In addition to what you point out in how accessible it is, all you need is MSPaint and a mouse, or even just your phone. It really is something special 😎

@RobinsonPixels

2 ай бұрын

That's a very good point. As an entirely digital, and relatively new, art form, everyone seems to have learned it in their own way. This is very different from older mediums, like paint, where the wisdom has been passed down through centuries. And given that KZread is also a relatively new platform, there weren't a lot of opportunities to learn the techniques from others until recently. I am truly excited to see where this art form can go.

I came here because Jazz JackRabbit was in the thumbnail, stayed and was surprised at seeing a First Knight screenshot, and ultimately agree that the bright coloration and look of pixel art where each little stand-out block forms a whole is a large part of the charm for me- it feels like each sprite, each collection of colored dots, is a little puzzle where I can see all the individual pieces. 3D-models have so many polygons that it's harder to see and appreciate each triangle, not so for pixels. That pixel art is like a stage play is an argument I can sort of understand- it can't ever have the depth or expansive free exploration a 3D game can have so on some level the mind always knows it's "just" a drawing, just a backdrop, a matte painting etc etc... but the backgrounds of Star Wars made me want to jump into the world, and the futuristic environments of Mega Man X or the wilderness of Donkey Kong Country 3 was no less effective at making me want to be part of those worlds.

@RobinsonPixels

2 ай бұрын

Glad there's another Jazz fan out there! There are more of us than I'd realized. Excellent points about the puzzle-elements of pixel art. When you only have a few pixels to work with, you've got to put a lot of thought into which colored dot you can place into any location to form the shape you're aiming to create.

SEGA Genesis: The adventures of Batman and Robin, and Pokemon all the way to the GBA. THOSE are all why I love pixel art.

@RobinsonPixels

2 ай бұрын

For sure on the Pokemon sprites. I had to look up the Batman game, and WOW! Not only are the sprites the show brought to life, but the perspectives of the backgrounds are WILD! I've never seen a game give so many unique angles in their stage design.

@mattowens3857

2 ай бұрын

@@RobinsonPixels I feel it was a masterful game from those design perspectives, to the music, and beyond. Still a personal 10/10 for me.

I like the fact you showed Jill of the Jungle. Lived that game back in the day!

Knowing all principles of art get you closer to create better illustrations and drawings. Knowing those same principles and applying them to pixel art, gets you almost in a place where you can create anything your heart desires with pretty good results. Pixel art is not easier than traditional 2d art, but it is more approachable to anybody who wants to create art. By the way, I totally agree with you, pixel art games can get closer to the player's imagination than a 3d realistic game does. I love many 3d ultrarealistic games, don't get me wrong, but is like the difference between reading a book and watching a movie, you end up more involved with the book or the pixel art game.

@RobinsonPixels

Ай бұрын

Absolutely!

i am the content monster nom nom nom here to consume your entire channel and im even doin art what a treat

Hah, bro, I forgot Jazz Jackrabbit existed. I really think the colors and simplicity hits it on the head - I've been thinking some of these same things when I see how good shows like Invincible and Xmen 97 have been doing.

@RobinsonPixels

2 ай бұрын

Jazz Jackrabbit is so good! I'm sure that series will pop up every now and then in these videos, because I spent all my formative years either playing Jazz or Mega Man. That's a great point about why those shows may be doing so well. I hadn't really considered it for the animation scene, but you could be very much right.

Look at the pixel art animation in Capcom vs SNK 1 for the Dreamcast. Those characters look amazing.

@RobinsonPixels

2 ай бұрын

Just checked them out. At a glance they look like Marvel vs Capcom sprites, which is of course incredible. Honestly I don't know how they were able to make so many gorgeous sprites at that size for that many characters. That's real pro level work. I wonder if that's actually why the use 3d backgrounds in those games? To save time for the character animators? Hmm.

i would love a video with some sort of pixel art of sly cooper, perhaps with a background inspired by one of your favorite levels from the games

@RobinsonPixels

2 ай бұрын

Great idea! I've added that into my Idea Bank. I've played through all the Sly games and uncountable number of times.

@antonse78963

2 ай бұрын

@@RobinsonPixels me too :) sly 2 is my favourite game of all time

I clicked on this video because I saw jazz jackrabbit and I was not disappointed

@RobinsonPixels

2 ай бұрын

Glad a Jazz fan found this! There are dozens of us!

@mattasaurs

Ай бұрын

me too! played JJ2 a lot as a kid, the music and cartoony sprites are still awesome! and the level editor is pretty cool, i might go back to trying to make a level or 2 in it again someday, cause that was also a really cool part of the game i always enjoyed

@RobinsonPixels

Ай бұрын

@@mattasaurs Same! Once I've improved at environment design, I'd like to design a fully functional tileset for the game. I think that'd be neat.

I mainly clicked on this video because it had Shantae in her Risky's Revenge/Pirate's Curse appearance on the thumbnail.

@RobinsonPixels

2 ай бұрын

Such an underrated series.

While a pixel artist spends painstaking hours.. drawing a boot. accurate

Also 3d graphics eventually age, especially if you're going for a more realistic look but pixel art never ages.

@RobinsonPixels

2 ай бұрын

Absolutely. As much as I love a lot of PS1/N64 era 3D games, a lot of them did not age nearly as gracefully as their pixel art ancestors

I personally like how the simplicity of pixel art and it's inherent lack of fidelity puts my imagination into work when looking at pixel art. For example Shantae: her dance moves in the first game are sometimes about just 1-2 pixels of movement yet it still perfectly illustrates what the dance move is. Another would be old JRPGs - I grew up with Golden Sun and despite 2d sprites, limited resolution and animations, I have pretty vivid memories (fake of course) of epic scenes and battle moves (especially Djinn summons). Though of course, part of me is simply drawn due to nostalgia since this was basically the only type of graphics that games could use outside of adventure games to still look good (3D was obviously very weak and primitive). Captain Claw (kinda high-rez), Get Medieval (this is simply pixelated, not pixel-artsy), Jazz Jackrabbit 2, Crazy Drake or even Ace Ventura and Pink Panther. Those were my childhood before 3D graphics became reliably good at least for it's time (Gothic 1, Morrowind, Bungie's ONI, classic shooters like MOHAA or Return to Castle Wolfenstein).

@RobinsonPixels

Ай бұрын

Nostalgia will always be connected to pixel art, much like cartoons. But it is such a deceptively complex medium, I really hope it sticks around for a VERY long time.

The thing about video games is that while you can make them seem "life-like" and you can go for realism, you also don't have to. My view on video games is that, it is an art canvas for whatever you want to make as a creative person leading the project.

@RobinsonPixels

2 ай бұрын

Absolutely!

Personally, i love (well animated) pixel art. Like Shantae and HP chamber secrets for gbc, rocket slime for ds. Fluid animation on sprites is my kink.

@RobinsonPixels

2 ай бұрын

Agreed. You should check out Berserk Boy. It's got some of the most fluid animations I think I've ever seen.

1:36 look at it!!! LOOK AT IT UNDERSTAND ME! look at it

Buy the book "Pixel logic" and you'll have plenty of content to talk about for the following videos

@RobinsonPixels

2 ай бұрын

I'll take a look! Right now my only pixel art book is Pixels Forever, but I'm pretty sure it's a Kickstarter exclusive

I have rarely played any pixel art games. I have never even probably finished a 2d game. The only one I can remember from my childhood is Dangerous Dave. And I suppose Duke Nukem was somewhat pixel art… But I’m drawn to this art style for one reason or another. I feel like it’s more than enough to tell my stories. I want to make games with it. However, I have been struggling from three years and I’m happy to struggle more.

@RobinsonPixels

2 ай бұрын

I had never heard of Dangerous Dave, but when I went to look it up, it looked an awful lot like Commander Keen, which I AM familiar with. Turns out, the developer of Dangerous Dave went on to help form id Software, who actually made Commander Keen! Weird! Anyway, I'm happy to hear about how much you're drawn this art form. I really think there's some untapped storytelling potential here, so keep it up!

@Maseta

2 ай бұрын

@@RobinsonPixelsThank you, for the response. Ya, that’s an interesting story.

On of my favorite pixel art style is breath of fire 4, BJG did a tiny bit of coverage on it, as you probably saw, but I would personally love a slightly more in depth coverage of the pastel ish style, maybe see about different colors that arent pastel etc. :)

@RobinsonPixels

Ай бұрын

Maybe one day! I don't want to step on BJG's toes too much, but I've added this into my Idea Bank for possible exploration in the future

@MegaBlight

Ай бұрын

​@RobinsonPixels fair, I think the style could be explored with different palettes and figure out where to do some of the shade lines. ^_^ anyways really happy with your content so far no complaints

Chrono Trigger is

@RobinsonPixels

2 ай бұрын

I hate that I missed Chrono Trigger back in the day. I'll have to try it!

@Leikjarinn

2 ай бұрын

@@RobinsonPixels Chrono Trigger and Sea of Stars are PIXEL masterpiece

check out Sea Of Stars !

@RobinsonPixels

2 ай бұрын

I did play The Messenger and really enjoyed it, so Sea of Stars is definitely on my list!

@Leikjarinn

2 ай бұрын

@@RobinsonPixels you will love it more than i love my cat !

Given that Zoomers and Gen Alpha seems to like pixel art, I doubt it’s a nostalgia thing, at this point. It’s a mathematical/geometric style

@RobinsonPixels

2 ай бұрын

That's true. Now that I have a few videos under my belt, I can actually use KZread's analytics. Right now, 32% of my viewers are in the 18-24 range. Honestly that surprised me, but I'm glad to know pixel artists aren't a dying breed

@brutusmagnuson315

2 ай бұрын

@@RobinsonPixels Honestly, you should do a video essay on modern vs classic pixel art. Games like Celeste have a very particular style that’s entirely different from SNES era games.

@RobinsonPixels

2 ай бұрын

@@brutusmagnuson315 Great idea! Just added that into my Idea Bank

@reyabea

2 ай бұрын

​@RobinsonPixels 18-24 year old viewer here, our childhoods had a lot of handheld pixel art games that suddenly turned into 3d games that felt less alive (i.e. Pokemon, Fire Emblem, etc.). We still have nostalgia, but because of how poorly these transitions were handled, a lot of us associate pixel art with quality.

@RobinsonPixels

2 ай бұрын

Nice! I mean, not nice that the quality dipped with 3D, but I'm glad y'all still got pixel art in your roots

I clicked on this video because I saw Jazz Jackrabbit

@RobinsonPixels

2 ай бұрын

What more reason could you need? 🤣

It’s crazy to me how similar engines like godot and unity are to games like Mario maker. It’s literally the same set of tools just less in depth.

@RobinsonPixels

Ай бұрын

Mario Maker is solid. The only thing I don't like about it is that they won't let you directly decorate your levels, like with bushes and flowers, etc, rather than the way they randomly populate in the levels. But I do get they wanted the focus to be on the gameplay

"I love pixel art games" yeah mate look at that beard, we know

@RobinsonPixels

Ай бұрын

Every day I choose between the lesser of two evils: Either I've got a bad beard, or I've got a bad face. Better for the beard to take the heat

I am just going to learn godot from scratch to create a game. I decided to do the artwork in pixel art. And yes, I also never drawn pixel art. Thanks for the videos, it will really help. It would be of create value for newcomers if you could make a series: from absolute beginner to pro in a couple of cool videos. If you got the time ofcourse.

@RobinsonPixels

2 ай бұрын

Awesome, glad you're learning the craft! I'm still working out how my schedule will operate while keeping my creative energy flowing. Right now I'm thinking I'll alternate between tutorial-type content, sprite analyses of existing works, art challenges, and general pixelly discussions. I'll definitely keep in mind that some people do want specific tutorials!