Pixel Art Class - About Pixels For Games

Hey, this is E2 of my new series on everything pixel art! In this episode, we discuss differences between standalone pixel art and game-specific art, with notes on game art constraints.
Enjoy!
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This video features clips from my stream. Catch it live: Mon, Tues, Thurs and Fri 1-6pm AEST.
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Check out my game Insignia at uppon-hill.itch...
Later, pals!

[@WyMustIGo]

In the early days (early 80s for example) we used a lot of palette animation for effects such as water. Palette animation meaning that instead of the pixels changing, the palette itself would rotate so that the pixel colors in the rotating range would change without having to render the screen again (only the palette registers changed on the video card). By the late 80s we were already working with 24 and 32 bit graphics on the Amiga for example. We had ray tracing, video editing, etc while the IBM CLONE (PC's) were still using 2, 4, 8 etc colors. The 80s were great and that is where most of the innovation began as the people from the 80s became more prevalent in the industry.

[@Leen-zt5lu]

You are officially my favorite person on earth now THANK YOU FOR THE TUTORIALS

[@blackcitadel37]

That's a hell of a compliment

[@ataleofgamesandcats7672]

That outline shortcut in Aseprite was a hidden gem 😂 thank you!

[@vuminhdang5724]

Seeing the video at the beginning was a trip... I literally just watched 5 videos in a row from the creator of that little pixel art game at the start and that's what prompted me to find your tutorials in the first place

[@MrEastgalaxy]

Damn i am a hardcore programmer and i came to make my pixel art better for my games. But man i could listen to you talk for hours, you bring and tie in Computer Science and Art how they are very relatable.

[@wandering_gemini]

I am jelly I can't program but I can do some mean art work

[@MrEastgalaxy]

@@wandering_gemini got a link to your work

[@linebyline7270]

To be fair, that highway scene at around 2:38 looks to me like it would work well as a background in a point-and-click adventure, where the camera doesn't move much if at all. Pixel racing games use roads like this, too. They create the illusion of curves by scrolling the background left and right during hblank (i.e. between displaying each horizontal line). Even the Game Boy can do this. It wouldn't work with this picture, though: The road and ground are too detailed, so you'd see those details only moving left and right rather than moving past. (I'm sure you already know that, of course, but I didn't see anyone mention it, so...) Love the channel, by the way. The fire and 8-way walk cycle videos have already been a big help so I'm making my way through the rest of the playlist.

[@2thinkcritically]

A classic example of using a single colour to highlight points of interest can be found in 1984s The Touchstone. The Dragon 32 only had 4 colours in colour graphics mode, and the game used the popular red/yellow/green/blue palette. The floor was always green (the same as the border colour that could not be changed), and the walls were yellow with red for shadows. Blue was the colour that was used sparingly. Your character had blue clothes, keys were red and blue, and treasure always had blue in it. For wall tiles, there were blue arcs showing where enemies would spawn, blue bars that showed warp points the player could pass through, doors had blue keyholes, and there were special wall tiles with blue marks on them that identified the start or end of a level. It just goes to show how important colour is when designing your tiles and sprites.

[@tommasomaruffi1306]

Thank you, I'm working on making a video game, so your tutorials are helping me a lot!

[@THEspindoctor84]

wow, these are really high quality videos. Thank you for all the knowledge!

[@jonnymars2254]

Everytime you teach way more shift and o wow this whole time I was doing it manually thanks a lot buddy you saved me loads of time from now on.

[@F0RG077]

Wow this video is awesome, a lot to think about when creating pixel art

[@NicotheMerchant]

Really appreciated the shortcut and of course, all of the information.

[@ogal]

These are high quality videos

[@magnaeon]

When you put 'hue based' complimentary colors at least, like red and green at the same value side by side they blend to make a form of 'grey' naturally in painting.

[@konstantinosgrammenos8492]

Excellent tutorials man! Way to go so educational

I really love your videos, and you became an inspiration for me. And I'd like to know what is the name of that software you use to take notes, and see the references.

[@trueshinchan]

Aseprite

[@RyanDxxx0]

8:26, Ayo Pong HD is looking amazing so far.

[@erkindalkilic]

Wonderfull! Thanks for sharing... Great Share.

[@joshzafranco9648]

keep this going!! helps a lot!

[@arti5769]

Ok that's kinda weird. I'm watching your videos since yesterday and started on my own little projects, where I downloaded a palett beforehand. I just figured out, that's one of your releases. Nice work.

[@jonathansilva9139]

I like your youtube content and I've got some time to watch your videos.

[@Leptilan]

What palette are you using in this video?

[@Roady312]

This is an amazing video. You are soooo helpful. Btw does anyone know how to get the color selection window to look like his? can't seem to figure out out to change the default display.

[@Goual]

9:50 even youtube's compression is actually struggling to tell between the colors

[@soul_abyss3854]

first of all I love your tutorials. But I got to say Thank you. Thank you for spelling colour the right way. Im definitely subbing now

[@lexsec]

there is no right way...

[@relytheone853]

I'd wish you make the Krita full course, cause it's free.

[@xXDragonTribalXx]

Good stuff! Wonder though, where would the Shaded Outline fall into this and if looking a mockup of gamescreens in grey scale, when is the contrast enough?

[@AdamCYounis]

Outlines are a tool, so they serve a clear function. There are actually guidelines by the WCAG (web standards) about what contrast ratios are acceptable for accessibility, so you could refer to that if you wanted a hard value. For games, it comes down to context. In your example, you'd have to know which shades of grey were used for the character vs backgrounds, in order to recommend a shade for the outline.

[@richardnavas2610]

what tool do you use to make pixel art?

[@Grafiction]

I think he's using aseprite. I hope the answer can help you.

[@WyMustIGo]

Your knowledge is amazing for someone your age. Are you sure you were not born in the 60s or 70s and simply aged slow? LOL. My background is programming (ASM/C++) and I am retired. My entire career was based on video editing applications, hardware, and graphics application development. So now that I am retired, I want to USE the technology to draw instead of developing the cool tools for a change.

[@patcunha1]

What if your sprite changed at each change in the background. For example you conveniently find a blue ice cloak to protect you before the lava level

[@shyrory]

It's refreshing to see in 2020s people are accepting modernized pixel art style. I've been using shaders and drop shadows etc. with pixel art since 2000s and people were so closed minded then. I would get hate comments from pixel purists 100% of the time.

[@hainguyenthanh9227]

Please make more videos

[@PeterMilko]

How is twitch doing for you? Worth the time?

[@AdamCYounis]

Twitch is my bread and butter. It's where I make most of my content. I'm live right now, in fact.

[@Nova04550]

Love you Pixel Pete I watch all your videos!!

[@DavidBoura]

i square, if you have dots about the visual style of your game, try Pixel Art a bit.

[@mavkoshv9149]

Hmmmm....but if you added the outline to Mario he would not fit in 8x8 tileset, right?

[@williamdrum9899]

Probably not. But what's more important is the number of colors. Adding a black outline to Mario would exceed the maximum number of colors per 8x8 sprite. A workaround would simply be having the outline be its own game object that follows the character's movement at all times

[@denshou]

Hello Adam. If I want to make a background art for a video game console (PS4, Switch...), at what size do I open the Photoshop artboard to start designing it? Resolution and Dimensions. For example, Xeodrifter, this game has a different pixels dimensions, comparing the main character pixels and foreground pixels, with the background pixels. Thanks a lot.

[@PennDraken]

You want different pixel densities for different layers of the image?

[@olegharput9988]

Would you mind commenting on the sprites of Amiga 500 game "Gods" (1991) please. I can not understad its key features of success.I think it is the best sprites ever.

[@baldogang7302]

hi bro do u have a copy of the pixel banner in ur stream

[@tyekaybro9127]

Devin Nash of game development

[@cjtodd6244]

Red and green don't go together? But they're complimentary colors lol?

[@karmanuenes7629]

Ig Christmas is ugly 🤷🏽‍♀️

[@nighthekiller73]

He meant the brightness i think

[@xenosone8456]

what is the program name ?

[@williamdrum9899]

Aseprite

[@Nova04550]

What is the game at 4:19 ?

[@Nova04550]

Ah, it's Chrono Trigger isn't it?

[@josefortyfive214]

what's the background music?

[@bb_201]

What program do you use to make your pixel art?

[@FakeLLama23]

Aesprite

[@anglevertex1781]

What's the software you use to make the pixel art

[@alexandreclement9399]

It's Aseprite

[@ccost]

8:50

[@nerdy_dyrne]

what's that software he's using?

[@scheve1994]

Aseprite

[@nerdy_dyrne]

@@scheve1994 really? It does have a different font though. Is that a theme?

[@scheve1994]

@@nerdy_dyrne In one of his later videos (I just watched) he mentions the sketching software is called 'Leonardo'. So nah, not Gimp. The pixelart one is Aseprite, though.

[@clickchapman5240]

Chat feed is a little distracting. Do you have an overlay for Pixel Art Class instead a twitch stream?

[@AdamCYounis]

I think the chat adds to the stream for the most part. I can minimise the chat in the overlay, but it's in the video feed once I've recorded, as this is a recording of the stream. So if I didn't minimise it then, I can't minimise it after.

[@jonnymars2254]

I actually watch him adding his followers chats it shows he cares and replies back. You rarely see that in this type of medium. Hit two birds with one stone. Work smarter not harder. He’s getting both jobs done plus him doing the game artwork. If anything you should be happy he can multitask and do all this.

[@clickchapman5240]

Nah. You're just simping. It's entirely way too distracting specially when most of the time the chat isn't even talking about the current lesson. It's a tutorial channel dude not a twitch stream. He doesn't even say "and if you look at my chat and see that Tony112 asked this and here is an answer" no, the chat just flies by during these videos and he just cuts out everything from his stream that isn't about the lesson..that's gotta be hell to edit...just sit down and record a video about the lesson at hand and not have to sift through an entire stream to find the parts that pertain to the lesson. There is literally no need for a chat to be seen by someone who only wants a pixel art tutorial. If I want to chat then I'll catch a live stream.

[@ver5621]

@@clickchapman5240 cry more

[@schizoirl8563]

this is how annoying you need to be to complain this much about free content

[@slein_grobaaf]

great video, but sooo hard to concentrate on it with fast music in the background - please stop

[@HalkerVeil]

Nintendo probably thinks they own this.