10 most common pixelart mistakes by beginners

[@activepepoeke]

video: *shows some pixel art as an example* me: "wow that looks cool" video: *this is an example of what NOT to do* me: "oh"

[@huhjanus]

me to banding and shading lmao

[@SquizmWizzerd]

Honestly that's the problem with videos like this, saying that some methods are objectively bad. Sure, technicality is objective, but whether art is good or not is subjective.

[@lukealias1uk345]

I think doing mistakes like those don't prevent you from being good, but from being better

[@shadowversebga8707]

yea lol

[@ExceedinglyFPR]

@@lukealias1uk345 better in what regard, the binding of isaac makes all of these "mistakes" would you consider that game to look bad or cheep or poorly made? the value of the art is not determined by dumb rules set up by other artists. the value of art is set by the full product and it's perception amongst it's consumers. however i understand the need to teach these rules to beginners that are looking to enter the workforce because it is what is expected it will not necessarily make you "better" and no one should be afraid to use these techniques if they believe it would improve the final product.

[@EstevanLopez]

"Gradients . . . no . . . just don't." Haha I love it!

[@morgankasper5227]

specifically smooth ones

[@morkaili]

Though correctly and rarely used they can be used for some quite interesting, eye catching effects.

[@DaChrisstar]

Gradients can look good too! But it really depends on the style of the game, it just shouldn't look out of placd

[@lucak_art]

Hyper light drifter Joins the chat

[@colinyoung3685]

Don't know what I would have done in Flash circa. 2003 without using gradients.

[@davr1]

Why did it took me so many years to realise why mari0 has so few scaling options and why you can't correctly fullscreen it on a 1080p monitor

[@mariannmariann2052]

Same for me with a different game. Pizza Tower has 3 scaling options (1080p, h1080p, q1080p), and if you try to fullscreen it on a 1366x768 monitor, it looks bad-ish. Especially the text in the manual.

[@p.s.8949]

I think that was the fist thing I noticed after 3 seconds when activating the first emulator of my life.

[@bland9876]

The fake Metroid game am2r can't be properly scaled to 1080p

[@rodolfoinnocentirisaliti390]

Same with the first Risk of Rain game, some resolutions look awful or it just doesn't scale

[@CrazyBananas56]

@@bland9876 "fake Metroid" ༎ຶ‿༎ຶ

[@jbsgames]

I feel like one more should be added: dont "rotate" pixel art graphics.

[@MrSefe]

Yes, one of the seven deadly sins

[@r033cx]

In some cases I prefer rotated graphics, like character hand when aiming, or objects with physics. But it's more of a game thing, you absolutely shouldn't rotate in your drawing software

[@edonslow1456]

Came here to post this. Related to the size continuity, your pixels should only exist on a pixel grid. Sprite based hardware could rotate, but it looked choppy as hell. Sonic Mania did a good job of recreating this effect.

[@andrewsprojectsinnovations6352]

What about simulated Mode 7 effects? Just be sure to rotate the object BEFORE scaling (I just keep everything at 100%, then scale the framebuffer when rendering).

[@Razumen]

Er, I think this is debatable. What about games like Towerfall? Rotating arrows is necessary unless you want to create countless variations of arrows at various angles.

[@racheltiffany9892]

"Stretching and rotating sprites isnt sprite animation, its flash that looks uncomfortable"

[@sansaraee]

Starfy!!!

[@racheltiffany9892]

@@sansaraee :3

[@Dargonhuman]

The only time that has ever looked good was when it was done in Mode 7 or the Sega equivalent.

[@racheltiffany9892]

@@Dargonhuman Hhhhhhh

[@andrewsprojectsinnovations6352]

They are both valuable tools. While I agree that the lazy method (diagonal/stretched pixels) looks ugly, that doesn't mitigate the fact that pixel rotation is a valid option. Just respect the grid.

[@Scubadog_]

While I agree with the overshading argument, I think it can look kinda interesting in some cases.

[@MarcoValeKaz]

Overshading in a way displays the skill of the artist and can make interesting art styles. But usually when begginers do it, they lack the control or restrain to keep it from looking blurry.

[@HAWXLEADER]

@@MarcoValeKaz They look good when using real scale on HD screens, small characters on large play field. the overshaded character will look sharp and shiny 3D-like.

[@Trimint123]

@@MarcoValeKaz A good example of that is Sonic Mania. Where it does look like it was quite a lot of shading, but if you inspect the color palette of the character, it shows that they make sure the color are limited to 24 palettes, for instance for Sonic, the shading of the eyes is actually use the same palette for white object on his glove, but because it's blend with his blue color, it almost like it was overshading even though it was use the same palette as the gloves.

[@Tim.Hammer]

Like other things on the list, this completely depends on the style of the game and the reasoning behind it. I think he got a little too "black and white" in his arguments. Sometimes there are good reasons to shade more, use gradients, etc... The most important thing is to keep the style consistent for each project, so that the art doesn't conflict throughout...

[@xanri7673]

The new Minecraft textures are overshaded.

[@jackmcslay]

Point about banding: real life lighting isn't that simple. The type of lighting you described applies mostly to open areas with a single light source. Most of the time real lighting is way more diffuse because it bounces off multiple surfaces, specially indoors, it is not that common to see objects with a well-defined shadow line. I much prefer SNK's sprites as they feel more solid and dynamic, Capcom's look bland and flat. Much more important: If you draw sprites banded like that, you're giving the programmers an amazing tool to create beautiful dynamic lighting effects by manipulating the pallete colors of the character.

[@MarcoValeKaz]

Real life is not that simple, but also the academic method is not 100% true to life. Its a gradual process. In my course I teach both the direct light shading, and the adding of bunced light form the scene. But its a complex theme. The biggest issue is the banding, since if people use banding, they usually don't leave room for bounced light

[@GraveUypo]

yeah i was surprised at how he used snk's sprites as an example of "wrong". wtf? They're just less cartoony than capcom's.

[@MarcoValeKaz]

@@GraveUypo the original snk sprites are used as an example of banding done right, and of how they solved it, and the capcom is an example of the core-shadow grouping.

[@GraveUypo]

@@MarcoValeKaz ok, then

[@CarterDeLeo]

@@MarcoValeKaz Oh, I came away from the video thinking you were using the SNK sprites as an example of what not to do. That surprised me, since I thought they did it much better.

[@raskr8137]

Oh, cool, I don't make any of those mistakes I still draw like shit though

[@throatychunk]

Yes, this is me

[@NoelJasik]

Same

[@morgankasper5227]

its ok to draw in any quality

[@theultimatedragonx]

@@morgankasper5227 Inspirational

[@napolpettone]

Neither do I. Well, I actually don't even do pixel art but that's another point.

[@Pablo-V]

9:25 "Mistake no. 7: Gradients. No. Just don't." Concise and right to the point, love it

[@pholidia8175]

The heart at 4:30 annoyed me so much by just looking at it

[@iosgamertool8741]

Triggered and angry rn

[@t4ky0n]

and 1:08 ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh

[@whyareyoustillsuscribed3722]

@@t4ky0n Yeah same

[@n_coder]

Same

[@joemartin7451]

also the pun at 4:50 "really close to my heart"

[@lebendigesgespenst7669]

I think overshadobg is just people trying to add in as much detail as possible in too little of a space

[@sansaraee]

Yep, that was what I was thinking when I overshaded...

[@kirtil5177]

@@sansaraee overshading can look very good with experience to make it properly, so its not strictly bad

[@lethauntic]

Yeah, no shit

[@lebendigesgespenst7669]

@@lethauntic ? Someone’s got a stick up their ass...

[@manperson5315]

@@lebendigesgespenst7669 a very sharp stick

[@h-Films]

Overshading... Mario Kart pixel fanartists: *chuckles* I’m in trouble.

[@QS1597]

zippee playZ danger*

[@ng42.]

@@QS1597 chaos*

[@ZarHakkar]

"Don't use gradients in pixel art." Hyper Light Drifter would like to have a word with you.

[@MarcoValeKaz]

This video is more intended for beginners. The devopers or hyper light drifter are experienced enough that they can both bend the rules and make an art direction out of it. But yes, gradients can be used. Just make sure to steer away from them when you are staring to avoid solving shading with a basic gradient

[@ZarHakkar]

@@MarcoValeKaz Welp, I really didn't expect you to reply to my honestly tongue-in-cheek joke comment. But it is cool to see a KZbinr staying on top of things like comments, especially if they're assisting in expanding others' knowledge by doing so.

[@MarcoValeKaz]

@@ZarHakkar you make a valid point

[@curse7469]

Nice profile pic!

[@ZarHakkar]

@@curse7469 Hell yeah boyee!

[@blinkingberry9591]

"The transition from the light side to the dark side is a little harsher."

[@asmylia9880]

I mean, the high ground scene was somewhat harsh tho...

[@MarcoValeKaz]

@@asmylia9880 I have a timelapse of a "Force awakens" mockup in my channel!

[@bland9876]

My dad said there was a book where Luke Skywalker became a Sith because he learned everything he could by being a Jedi so that was the only way he could learn more about the force

[@temmiemew]

Read this exactly as he said that XD

[@DraconicDuelist]

@@bland9876 Could you get a title? I'd like to see if my local library has it.

[@CapnSlipp]

_“Dithering is an automated process”_ and I thought “hey wait a second, hand-drawn dithering is used by talented artists to…” and then you mentioned Mark Ferrari, whom I've worked with (at Griptonite Games). So yup, different strokes for different folks. As a pro tip to improve your handle on using dithering properly (which I learned from Mark Ferrari and others), it can be intensely useful to have a palette of dithers pre-made (such as in a separate PSD with color layers set up so you can rapidly swap which colors you're dithering between), varying in the angle and pattern of dither used, and including pre-made dithers for corners of 3D objects from different perspectives, and curved surfaces of different slopes and “materials” (a metallic surface dithers differently from concrete or wood or skin). Then when drawing the pixel art, you can copy-paste in pieces of dither and modify as needed. (Mark uses *a lot* of copy-pasting.)

[@MarcoValeKaz]

Mark is a legend. I saw his gdc talk. His work is unmatched!

[@zoruasnivy]

A lot of these came naturally to me over time but I still learned a lot. The excessive shading one especially used to be a pitfall I would fall into.

[@davie1560]

I don't even do pixel art but felt like this grilled me.

[@mlmattin]

Honestly, one of the best videos about pixel art that I have ever seen. A real eye opener.

[@GRAHFXENO]

This is fantastic! As a pixel artist myself I taught myself all of these when I first began years and years ago and anytime I play a pixelart game these things pop out to me and in most cases are a red flag! Like you said; It's not that the games are necessarily "bad", but rather they could have been rushed, or more likely, they simply don't know any better. If I may point out another mistake: "Overuse of Black Borders". I find too many amateur pixel artists use black borders exclusively rather than an appropriate complimenting color. Black borders are fine in a lot of cases, but after you're done doing the art, take a moment to replace the black with other colors, see how it looks. Take the skin tone color and darken it by 20% and use that, see how it looks. Same with armor tones, etc.

[@TaranVH]

Lots of great info here! (that I will never use)

[@LifeWithJuan]

12:53 "You did not get the point of pixel art." Pun intended? Haha

[@CathodeRayKobold]

In which a professional pixel artist doesn't know how to pronounce "Palette" (All in good fun. Very good tips.)

[@pgtd]

pAlette or palEtte ?

[@キラキラくりくり頭]

PaLETTE... Makes me cringe.

[@CyberDragon10K]

@@pgtd I always said it as PAL-IT. I've never heard PUH-LET until this video.

[@GregorianMG]

*Accent and how pronounce it doesn't really matter. But for professional you should try to pronounce it correctly*

[@NicholasBrakespear]

The word is originally French, and has gone through several iterations of meaning. Pronunciation at this point is entirely moot, especially since the way he's pronouncing it still clearly indicates what the word is without confusing it for any other.

[@0DRONZER]

saving the image as a jpeg

[@mattontop]

So png is better?

[@shagarakar]

Tahm Kench On Top yes

[@mattontop]

@@shagarakar I always confuse the two lol. Thx

[@oscwavcommentaccount]

@@mattontop Yes. Png supports transparency and jpeg doesnt. And sometimes jpeg has bad compresion.

[@mattontop]

@@oscwavcommentaccount oh k. I knew one of them supported transparent backround and the other didnt. Thx for the help

[@sokisoko_]

literally everybody: Minecraft skin makers: 9:52

[@raxo4009]

Yeah. Ive noticed nowadays that these new bedrock skins its like 128x128 now or something. And the creators really overused it.

[@rooban989]

I really dislike those generic faces skins

[@mevoogle]

I fucking hate overshaded minecraft skins and texture packs. Fucking keep it simple

[@CatMC_1]

@@raxo4009 They are just 64×64

[@lovethem7369]

oop

[@inceptional]

As a side note to do with "defining a light source", historically in classical art training you would set the light source (the sun as default) as if it were coming from the top left unless there was a good reason to do otherwise (probably something to do with where the sun rises and sets or something like that). Similarly, when moving a character you move them from left to right to indicate moving forward in time and travelling to a place over some time (and from bottom to top in the same way), again, unless you have a specific good reason for doing otherwise. This is probably why almost every 2D platform game has you moving left to right--it just feels right. Moving right to left would indicate travelling back to somewhere you came from and/or back in time as it were.

[@timothymclean]

Incidentally, the "natural" direction of progress varies from culture to culture-or more precisely, from writing system to writing system. For instance, Japanese has traditionally been written from right to left (though Western writing direction is also common these decades), so Japanese visual media often treats left as forward instead of right. There are exceptions, of course, but there are also Western games where progress is to the left-they're just less well-known and influential than Super Mario Bros.

[@inceptional]

@@timothymclean Yeah, I imagine that's the case in some examples. I haven't actually seen many games where going left is the norm personally.

[@chriswahl1337]

Having just discovered dithering yesterday, I can say I spent plenty of yesterday making mistake number 9.

[@MarcoValeKaz]

Dithering in it self isn't wrong. Its when you dither excessively instead of looking for other possibilities. Please keep dithering away!

[@bigcreator2084]

Dithering is very hard to master

[@jacknation1141]

I wish that every 10-yo on Scratch could see this video.

[@GumSkyloard]

Same with most Minecraft skin makers. Most of them are overdetailed to all hell.

[@smugsdeadchannellol6184]

Do you know how the editor on Scratch works? Some of these can’t be fixed on Scratch.

[@jacknation1141]

RandomRows They can

[@EpikBirb]

I import sprites and they're fine.

[@dayyan6063]

The fact that i gave up on scratch to do pixel arts is awkward af

[@DaniPaunov]

the 150% scale mario looks like he's seen some shit

[@NinF37]

Mfw I used to pillow shade Mfw I now use banding

[@ret3576]

I like your style in explaining. Other youtubers and people just do a bad job and talk about of topic things.

[@fuzzy-02]

I Learned a Lot like 8/10 of these are new ground to me. THANK YO

[@OrbGoblin]

Just got started w/Aseprite a few weeks ago, thanks so much for this stuff it's really helpful when you're a total beginner.

[@lizardgeek1658]

That heart pissed me off so much.

[@ReFreezed]

The video has some good advice, but it's also pretty opinion heavy. A lot of these kind of "mistakes" can look fine in the right context and if the artist knows what they're doing. But you gotta know the rules to break them, I suppose.

[@ChrisHanline]

Common voice recording mistakes: 1) Too much low-end that muddies up the speech 2) Not enough sibilance frequencies which impedes clarity 3) No compression, making low dynamics difficult to hear

[@MarcoValeKaz]

Thats actually very helpful! Ill be mindful of that in the next video. Thank you

[@ShinyShilla]

Chris you should do a video about them! please!

[@ChrisHanline]

@@ShinyShilla There are hundreds already. Do a quick search and you'll find just so, so many.

[@ShinyShilla]

@@ChrisHanline Sorry for the spam, the websited kept saying my comment was not submitted due to an error! I'm saddened you would not like the idea of a tutorial :( I'll search some online

[@temmiemew]

4) Saying Pa-let

[@bepstein111]

Am I the only one who laughed everytime he said "pulette"? am i crazy? have i been saying it wrong my whole life?

[@xphreakyphilx]

You're not crazy, he says it wrong. (Unless it's some really obscure regional pronunciation)

[@GumSkyloard]

@@xphreakyphilx He sounds like he's from Portugal, so, I'd bet he just said it wrong unknowingly, as a Portuguese man myself.

[@decayedwolf1997]

I like Super Mario World’s pixel art. It doesn’t have any specific lighting but the style of game makes it work.

[@kyudeathsbr3138]

Fun fact: the rules change if you are making a different kind of game

[@RosewoodGD]

Another thing to add in: Try and make both a monochrome and a colored version of your sprite. Look at them both and say "does my sprite show what it is just through black and white", if yes, look at your colors and make sure that they compliment the sprites general form and read-ability. If no, adjust the shape to be easier to read and then repeat the process.

[@JeffreyRemick]

Creating pixel art is something I've decided to finally learn, so this was helpful. Thank you!

[@IMFERMO.]

Did this video got recommended just for that minute about terry?

[@funkytime69]

Yes

[@gumby5068]

IMFERMO yes...

[@naomiklk]

Scott Pilgrim-

[@nyieshalinae831]

VS ZA WARUDO!

[@davidkglevi]

What brilliant video! I've been doin pixel art, animation and games on and off for twenty years. This was really spot on!

[@Hevii_]

I can’t be the only one who thought the overshaded Knight dude looked way better than the less-shaded one, right?

[@phizlip]

you are

[@BigOlSmellyFlashlight]

no I think so too 🍿🥤

[@lostandthrown3137]

You are

[@garrafa9046]

yes

[@WoodyGamesUK]

Pillow shading is not just having a diffuse light from the center, it is not taking into account the volume you are applying the light on, like a face with the nose being more exposed to light on top, and blocking some of the light creating a cast shadow... basically you start to avoid pillow shading when you start thinking about the actual shape in 3D and how it reacts to light.

[@kilic_]

Almost threw up at that gradient art lol

[@RichardthePWNman]

Watched this on a whim thinking I wouldn’t learn anything new but I did. Thank you for posting this, I will be using this as reference material for myself and friends seeking advice.

[@ABaumstumpf]

The "banding" example... they were not really about banding at all but rather a particular style of Shading. Both spheres where showing banding, but one with a way softer ambient light, the other with a single directional light. Gradients: There are many good uscases for gradients, but that normally requires some in-depth knowledge and mostly used in conjunction with pallet-swaps. They can for example be used for very nice dynamic lighting or for simple texture-animations. Dithering... No, simply no. That was not about excessive dithering but just using a poor procedural dithering without giving the tool the necessary information. One of my favourite example of dithering: Final Fantasy 9 - it is used to simulate transparency and gives a really nice effect.

[@Derpy-qg9hn]

In the first sphere, it honestly looked less like a sphere and more like four discs strung together. Arguably using a 1px-thick line for *both* transitional colours in the second sphere looked odd din its own right, but it was more obviously a sphere than the first example.

[@spindash64]

I feel like gradients work nicely for background layers, giving a sort of smoothness to the sky, or allowing a really pretty marbling for sunsets But for individual sprites, gradients just don't have enough _room_ most of the time

[@zoran7081]

I like banding more than clumping them together

[@SxSxG666]

“Mistake“ one is wierd. There's nothing wrong with good filters that aim for the crtv look. old school games never looked that pixely on their hardware to begin with.

[@paul1979uk2000]

I have to agree, I look at a lot of pixel art games, and they never looked like that in the old school days, so it's one thing to want to have that pixel art look of the past but at least they should give it the kind of look for how we remembered them on crt screens but on lcd screen and to me, a lot of pixal art games look even worse then what I remember many games of the past looking like.

[@NicholasBrakespear]

Most of the filters aren't good though, and cause clipping along the edges of the sprite. Old CRTs may have added a bit of subtle blur, but the blur is more akin to FXAA than texture filtering (and I'd highly recommend checking out this difference, in fact - if you play an old sprite-heavy game like Doom, for example, with texture filtering? Looks awful, like everything is plastic... but with an overall screen softening effect from FXAA or the like, it looks softer without looking necessarily blurry)

[@SxSxG666]

@@NicholasBrakespear True there are some bad attempts out there to recreate the crtv -look. But also some very good yet rather hardware hungry solutions. When I play old arcade games on mame I always use some crtv-filters. My eyes just can't watch them pixelated. It simply feels wrong. Some new filters really look astonishingly correct. At least when I compare it with my memories. You even get a headache from watching it like in the good old days ;) There are many new great looking clean pixel art games around. One contemporary example is Blasphemous or Blazing Chrome. But those games were usually designed with superior modern hardware power in mind and make up with effects that wouldn't have been possible on real 16-Bit machines. With this kind of artwork I don't miss any filter at all. It is good as it is. To make a long thing short: It can go both ways and look cool. By the way guys! Check out The Last Door. It is such a great example of what you can do with minimalistic pixel graphics and good sound design.

[@vonheer7418]

@@NicholasBrakespear This is the right answer. It's texture filtering that is the mistake, not "filtering" in general. The fact that texture filtering is on by default in Gzdoom is maddening. Even if you are using RGB cables with professional quality CRT monitors, old games don't have that sharp and starkly colored look that many indie games have today. That's not to say its a bad look, and you could argue its more fitting for modern LCD displays. However, it is less truly retro than many people think.

[@derrickshowproductions3010]

In the case of modern pixel art, games tend to look sharper without any additional filters applied.

[@eduwardian5979]

thanks for making this video, now i understand i have to avoid the mistakes in pixelart

[@papyrussemi2848]

Every time I see a non-interger scale I have a mini aneurysm

[@spindash64]

Still better than looking at mixels. Eughgugh.

[@rigby9534]

Thanks for this! I honestly didn't even know that you could mess up with dithering that bad, and now I'm seeing quite a lot of flaws in my work which I feel like I should've noticed sooner

[@spacetaco048]

When I was in middle school and first starting highschool I loved drawing pixel art on ms paint or gimp. I like this video and found out now I really didn't many of these mistakes so I must not have done half bad lol

[@gumbaholic]

I wouldn't consider myself a pixel artist even though I appreciate pixel art and working on some, I really thank you for that video. It's so true. Almost every second "pixel artist" should watch this.

[@babyoopsiedaisy6392]

I like how he pronounces palette like paulet. Like, "My name was Paul. But now I'm Paulette."

[@atcJ]

a lot of these are "here's one style of pixel art" but sometimes people want filtered styles, for example

[@richardgibson8403]

3:00 150% Mario is mood

[@medicyukisuna]

I'm not a pixel artist, but i still find this extremely interesting and educational. I've always been fascinated by game design and pixel art is my absolute favorite within the genre. Now, i don't know why i was randomly recommended this in youtube but i am really glad i was.

[@caiovasconcelos2946]

Cara, só notei que você era português na hora de você mostrar os sprites dos jogadores de futebol e falar os nomes dos criadores. Seu inglês é ESPETACULAR parabéns mesmo pela sua arte incrível e ótimas dicas. Abraços brasileiros

[@miwiki6]

PERAI ELE É BRASILEIRO?!

[@PixelProfligate]

Man, I wish videos of this kinda quality existed years ago when I actually started pixel art. It would have saved me so much time figuring out all these things on my own just thru trial and error. Most all that was around when I started were those old forum posts that would call certain techniques "wrong" or "bad" and would just generally push people away from using those techniques at all.

[@ceporalles4922]

I love how u present mistake number 7 ^^

[@mcfletch2171]

Jumping back into pixel art after 20+ years. This is great advice!

[@tessemi]

there are no mistakes. just happy accidents.

[@zguthethird]

[@ABK1505]

A comment I would like to add on this when it comes to people saying but you can do these things. It reminds me a lot of what I learned at my school which was mainly the basics of all media production and rights (well almost). They taught us to not just learn the basic rules but to breathe them. When the understadning of basic rules becomes second nature, only then you'll understand when and how to break them to your own benefit. It's not 100% how it always is and should be, but is solid thing to follow if you're new to something

[@yokaiju8909]

I actually prefer the 'overshaded' one to the 'fixed' version. I don't know, there's just something about it that appeals to me.

[@GraveUypo]

because that's how 16 bit games used to be shaded like. it does look better.

[@Razumen]

Same, It's the only rule I don't agree with, and his reasons against it are quite subjective.

[@Pilotgeek]

Yeah some of this is very subjective. There was an era where even 32bit pixel art was used. It doesn't mean bad, just a stylistic choice. Not everything needs to look like 8bit or 16bit art.

[@jackbergman4724]

It looks like a gba game

[@evanm738]

This is great advice not only for beginners but it’s good to be reminded about these things even as a professional

[@armanedits8883]

Why am I watching this - I dont even make pixel art lmao

[@Crayon_Egbert]

Same

[@PabbyPabbles]

The Eye of the Critic has been bestowed upon you. You won't be able to play your next pixel art game normally

[@lostandthrown3137]

@@PabbyPabbles oh no

[@moonmilk15]

Awesome video! I knew about most of these to varying degrees subconsciously, or some I never attempted. Having the examples really helped it all sink in! Thanks

[@creedolala6918]

I realized I kept squinting my eyes nearly shut while watching this and it took me a second to understand why... seeing pixel art scaled up to such a huge size in youtube (while fullscreen especially) makes it hard to see the characters, it looks like a collection of squares. So I was kind of blurring my vision to give 'fake shading'. A nicer solution is to ctrl+mousewheel down a few times, shrink the YT video to a small size within the browser, and suddenly all the artwork makes sense.

[@YouKnowMeDuh]

The picture you clicked on to get to this video is a good example of someone saving the model as a jpeg, which is a lossy format that approximates certain colors, instead of a lossless format like gif. In the past, saving a picture for a game that ran on older hardware or on mobile would have been preferred since the resulting file sizes would be smaller, and there was only so much storage on certain devices to work with. Just my thoughts when I initially saw it. Great tips in the video!

[@wayfinderofficial]

Had a suspicion from your name that you were Portuguese, the "pixeis" at 4:56 confirmed it hahah. Great video!

[@hugomejia7826]

I'm just starting pixel art as a hobby, and this video will really help me a lot! Tnx!

[@mustard8148]

7:50 The "mistake" looks better than the "solution"

[@starlite5154]

no

[@spitgorge2021]

it does though

[@mustard8148]

@@aliasmcdoe in cartoons light doesn't need to be perfect

[@canabissskank]

true

[@TheGodlikeBlock]

short, concise and to the point, and incredibly helpful! thank you very much!

[@coarte8242]

Hey, really like you content! Where are you from?

[@MarcoValeKaz]

I'm from Portugal

[@blacktiger171]

The pillow shading bit definitely explained why some of my pixel art is trash

[@ChozoSR388]

"Palette" is pronounced like "pallet". Short A, not short U

[@joshuawalker7054]

The "Paulette"

[@kaizobit-gaming8485]

I personally spell it "palette" and not pallet

[@RyanTosh]

It. Depends. On. Where. You. Live. People can pronounce things differently.

[@arobot7426]

@@RyanTosh nope

[@ChozoSR388]

@@kaizobit-gaming8485 You do realize I was using "pallet" as a pronunciation example, yes?

[@AeongelYT]

This is some really crucial information that makes me more confident to dive in deeper into pixel art, thank you for this video

[@MusicKekz]

shows guy with pillow shading: Thats nice! shows him with real shading: ... wtf? ...

[@danieljayne8623]

I liked that you gave a practical solution for point #1 - nice

[@billybobjoe198]

The fighter at 8:20, you praise "capcom" the middle one, for its "correct" lighting, pointing out specifically how you think the pants are better. The pants on that frame are the worst of the three though. The problem with the one on the left is the contrast is too high. Capcoms has very little contrast, and very little shading. The left one show far more detail and is well done. It's just out of place in any outdoor naturally lit scene.

[@Mykl0000]

You mentioned the left the capcom one, and the other left

[@ikelldagay1801]

So... I'm a amateur... and I'm really thankfull to you for this video, not only because I as an amateur found that other people has the same problem as me with pillowshading and with the shading and lights definition, but also because this is a help to someone like me, color blind

[@olliemaster]

I dont even do pixel art so why did I watch the whole vid

[@okarowarrior]

procastination

[@emosti9652]

HempLemming I feel personally attacked

[@purpledefaultpfp6233]

Maybe try it and you might like it bro

[@KrustyAnne]

Me before clicking on video: I'm just gonna skip throughout the video to see what the mistakes are then click a different video Me after clicking video: becomes invested in the video and actually watches the whole thing and pays attention to it

[@deceased._]

10:07 i like the overshading more then the smooth one...

[@tomh2572]

idk his face kinda looks like porridge

[@zerp510]

@@tomh2572 indeed

[@inceptional]

Because you're not understanding the actual way it will look once you zoom out the characters to normal scale. The second one will read much better at actual scale.

[@envar1]

Dude the shading/lighting part just fixed everything, great video.

[@anothergol]

What annoys me with "today's" pixel art is the lack of antialiasing. That's something that you were rarely encountering in arcade games for several reasons (crap CRT's + the fact you weren't paying as much attention), but that was *key* on computers. To me, the masters of pixel art are/were the Bitmap Brothers. Of course at that time everyone was dreaming of a higher res & more colors, hence hand-drawn antialiasing, and what you would call excessive use of dithering. Yet, it is still the best pixel art in my book, and I prefer it over self-satisfied artwork where pixels are too visible. Of course, one might argue that what the Bitmap Brothers were doing, today they would go for high-res cartoonish style, a bit like the visual remake of Spelunky. Still, when you take a look at games of the Amiga era, you'll see quality & detail that you rarely see today. Today's pixel art is certainly more artsy & original, but it's too self-satisfied, IMHO pixel art is about handcrafted art using pixels, it's not about *seeing* the pixels. Yeah it has its charm, a bit like Sierra's old AGI style has its charm, but it's pompous when seeing the pixels is seen as the form of art, where it's just a way to to speed up the workload.

[@Tim.Hammer]

I do a lot of hand-drawn antialiasing. The main challenge is finding a balance between too little and too much, especially if you're shooting for a true retro (no alpha transparency) look, in which case antialiasing between objects and what falls behind them is a no-go, since it would require semi-transparent pixels to achieve that... This is why too much can look bad, as it will create a strange look - lots of blending on the inside of the stroke and none on the outside. Very unpleasant to look at - so this should not be overdone.

[@anothergol]

@@Tim.Hammer But I don't think that sprites with an alpha channel go against pixel art. Even technically, color-keying is a thing of the past, so even just for efficiency most likely an engine would better use an alpha channel anyway. But in the past, artists generally had an idea of the darkness of backgrounds and generally it was fine, only sometimes passing a sprite looked bad passing over a bright sky. There are also other reasons to do every sprite with an alpha channel, and transparency was sometimes used in old games.

[@Tim.Hammer]

@@anothergol Of course. Not denying any of that. In fact, I've used mostly dark backgrounds myself as a way around that. I prefer to avoid transparency also for optimization purposes.

[@inks_msm]

Ok boomer

[@madhero2333]

you don't know how much I needed this , thank you so much for making this video .

[@VannyARTS]

I like the Terry by SNK over the capcom version. More colorful and detail

[@bloodypommelstudios7144]

Nomuber 2: Atari 2600 wants to know your location. Lack of size continuity was baked in to it's hardware, the background layer pixels were different sizes to the sprite pixels.

[@yayababatoto]

8:11 And here we are now (:

[@ruler_of_everything]

google "how to make crepes"

[@mireena9488]

9:28 That voice change tho... xD was awasome!

[@IanEastonIsJesus]

Every time he say puh-let instead of palette it makes me die a little inside

[@SikoSoft]

some amazing advice here IMO. I don't consider myself a master pixel artist by any means, but this guy makes a lot of sense and proves it with some terrific examples. I'll keep all of this in mind next time I go get the urge to go amateur pixel artist

[@callan816]

Just dropping my comment before this hits the algorithm hard

[@ARandomNope]

This is an incredibly useful video, it both solidified what I already know in words, and also taught me new things I wasn't thinking about before this. Thank you for this video.

[@patrickchuang7734]

Your audio has too much bass, lower it down, please.

[@morcoroni]

i’m just starting to learn pixel art during quarantine 2020 so thank you for these tips! excellently explained!

[@error.418]

_nobody_ pronounces "palette" like that...

[@GumSkyloard]

He's Portuguese, so, he probably just mispronounced it unknowingly.

[@error.418]

@@GumSkyloard good to know, thank you

[@aubreyh1930]

I mean he does...

[@error.418]

@@aubreyh1930 Idiolects notwithstanding

[@aubreyh1930]

@@error.418 part of it might be his accent which he can’t exactly help

[@bobxbaker]

very nice video explaining some of the tribulations of pixel art, keep it simple, work within boundaries. been thinking of testing out doing some pixel art for fun. especially the example of banding and grouping colors together really got me intrigued, i really liked the pixel art they did for KoF so i'm definitly gonna use that as a reference point in the future.