Isometric RPG Battle | Pixel Art Timelapse

[@saultoons]

Your pixel art is amazing but what is most impressive about this is how well you establish a world from your designs and characters. Looking at the final animation, I'm convinced this is not just a single screen game mock-up but a larger world that exists, with an environment, characters and creatures that could easily have full backstory and lore, and we're just getting a glimpse into that world with this piece. What do you think helps you achieve that?? Thanks for sharing Brandon, always blown away by your work!

[@BJGpixel]

Thanks so much dude, that's exactly what I like to feel with my art as well! I can't say I've got all the lore _actually_ worked out for myself, but I thinks what helps to achieve the world-building aspect within a solo piece like this is finding the inspiration "along the way". I tend to look for connections within the aesthetic (in this case, as simple as "sci-fi fantasy" + "dinosaurs 😆) and then think about how to build upon it or just tie together existing elements. The real test will be to actually try and develop the idea some more to see what else is there! :D

[@serpentsforhair]

I used to do pixel art for fun in the 90s and had a "sprite adoption" webpage! Were you aware of those? People would "adopt" and collect sprites on their personal websites which were linked back to the creator's webpage (no hotlinking!) So you'd see a cute page (some people called them a "Toybox") filled with various little pixeled sprites or animated kaoani from different creators. Good memories! Anyway, even though I don't do pixel art anymore, I enjoy watching your videos thoroughly :-)

[@BJGpixel]

Wow I've not seen those but that sounds really cool! I love the idea of being able to showcase a collection like that, and to have the adopted sprite linking back to the creator :D

[@Amieee]

@@JamesTDG it really would

[@TimConceivable]

bring back geocities!

[@serpentsforhair]

@@BJGpixel Back then it was just a fun novelty to have on your blogsite, but I can totally see it as a mini portfolio of sorts and a great way connect with other artists!

[@serpentsforhair]

@@unoriginalusername4416 Ah, cool cool I took a peep, would be interesting how they develop.

[@brentwalker173]

Tricerator and T. Commander are PERFECT names for those enemies.

[@benpthomas99]

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[@roastingnerd8545]

I challenge you to make pixel art with soft shading, just like the pixel style in Blasphemous or Castlevania. It eould be an interesting study.

[@staltheclown6352]

that would be really cool

[@lordhazelnut1359]

That sounds like a great idea

[@kuuly3334]

Yes get this more likes

[@lava_king7860]

That is a dope idea

[@epitaph3175]

Great idea!

[@heello2u465]

I misread this twice. I did not see the humans at first, and thought we were going to get to play as little lizard armies fighting each other. And got disappointed. Then I realized it was just art.

[@scrubsandwich1050]

The love the use of the pico8 color palette with the often over looked extended palette. I’ve been using pico8 for like three years and it’s always nice to see art made with it

[@Vicious-scribbles]

This is so cool! I’ve been on a pixel art kick recently and your videos are my favorite so far with both the commentary and timelapse. Love it, and I adore your sign off.

[@MisterTroglodyte]

Pico-8 is still limited to 16 colors overall - you can use any 16, but not more than 16, on the same screen. For example, you can pick a color and remap that single color to be different colors on different levels and such. It’s a fun system - I’m working on a de-make of Mr. Do’s castle! 🤓

[@retrocademedia-announcements]

I'm pretty sure you can swap entire lines between palettes to have both on screen at once. That sonic demo used it that way for dipping in and out of water

[@jordiklavers9491]

I'm not into pixelart but watching these channels leave me no choice to get into it

[@kuuly3334]

I used to dislike Pixel Art when I was young. But now at 20, I'm obsessed with Pixel Art

[@crupplemcsplits792]

Honestly, I would love if you expanded on this in another video. Maybe a boss battle or even new party members, there's just so much potential here.

[@CKTDanny]

Okay *wow* - the amount of attention to detail in this piece is phenomenal! Was this all done within the week? I definitely got that sense of an going battle in-game, so you achieved that effect nicely, with the animation sets you created 😁 Also it was nice to see an alternative take on the Pico-8 palette! I appreciated the brief explanation of where the extended colours come from. Now I'm just curious to see how it's been implemented in some PICO-8 productions 😱✨

[@BJGpixel]

Thanks so much! Yeah this was completed within the week; I originally thought it might be a static piece but going further with adding animation was really necessary to bring the concept to life :D Yeah the palette was awesome! Gonna have to look into how that works; it's funny reading about it because it sounds as if people just discovered these colours "hidden" within the program lol

[@scooter3699]

The health bar animation is super neat. And at 10:45 the arrow on the ground to show us what you meant. 😌

[@JaimeLynBarbarian]

You sir, are my hero. A billion thank you's - every video you post I learn so much, I can hardly believe! Best artist & best teacher 🔥

[@unoriginalusername4416]

The Gameboy Advance is such a cool era of pixel art to explore. It was like the hardware limitations all fell away except for the screen itself. The classic SNES approach still worked the best with the additional hardware mostly going to better effects animations or more parallax layers, but the internals were powerful enough to handle what were arguably 3D graphics (through raycasting and spritestacking, as well as the classic DK Country bitcrushed-render approach) on a much larger scale, so a lot of times you end up with these really fun or weird blends of the new and the old. I generally associate the GBA style with those disconnected styles, like how in the GBA Crash games the environments are these nasty crunched down textures, the UI is in sleek gradients, and the crates and characters are done in really crisp bright pixel art. Or in a lot of licensed games with 3D characters like Jimmy Neutron and Shrek, you'd get sort of dimly lit sprite-sheeted 3D renders walking around a really bright pixel art background. I can't say in good faith that it was nice looking all the time but it's a very distinctive look you don't really see anymore.

[@garwert]

A neat little proof of concept for a game. Good job, as always!

[@chrisp3082]

Amazing as always! I always look forward to watching your videos on Sunday mornings.

[@Linck192]

that life bar animation of taking damage looks really nice. Definitely games should start doing that

[@rileyreviews9870]

As someone who grew up on Final Fantasy Advanced Tactics and recently got into Tactics Ogre, I really love this, I'd play this game anytime! On another note, I made my first pixel art yesterday and find your content really inspiring. I was sort of losing momentum after I first attempt, but videos like this keep me going :D

[@alanaraujo7891]

Great job, man! I really like the way you make things look simple, but super beautiful.

[@tisiphone535]

The FFTA vibe hits me during the animated time, I love it so much !

[@brandonjacksoon]

Thank you, Brandon! Really cool looking mock-up ;) I will try to repeat it soon!

[@benpthomas99]

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[@7excess]

Man, this channel is a gem. Thank you

[@psychogaze]

Great project! Wouldn't mind you just making a series of isometric rpg characters/enemies.

[@abzer0gaming]

Seconded!

[@DeadShot-zb2by]

Dude tbh I've learned so much from you and have seen huge improvements in my pixel art over the course of like a year and I hope one day I can make it look this easy lol your amazing!

[@somecanadianguy7455]

Thanks, just recently got into Pixel Art and your channel has been an inspiration. :)

[@TimConceivable]

i luuuuuuuuuv this one! everything about it is so good! well done.

[@luffiewebster]

Making an isometric grid like that blew my fricken mind hahaha it seems so simple but I never thought about it before!! I can already tell that's going to help me out a ton :D

[@Izzythedestryr]

Pixel art and crt is an undefeated combo

[@Logandroid]

I love Benjam and Nell. It would be cool to see bigger more detailed sprites of them like the ones that appear during dialogue or the file select for some games.

[@Ty-douken]

EVERYTIME I watch a video of yours it inspires me to immediately start working on my Pixel art for my current game I'm developing (slowly, but surely it will get made). Keep this up!

[@benpthomas99]

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[@virgihimself499]

This is fantastic. I think I will try this too.

[@therror77]

Love this ! Miss my Amiga and the deluxe paint files..

[@Mattno.777]

This is awesome!

[@fruitspunch]

Great looking piece!

[@redpandacreations]

Reminds me a lot of Breath of Fire 3 on Ps1 (my wife and I just replayed it so could be a biasing factor!). Had a really cool 2.5D artstyle (2D sprites, 3D world)

Awesome as always!

[@kurocle]

very good work guys! and thank you for the tutorial.

[@azim5976]

This is superb. I love all of your work!! I wonder if you have any plan on doing some analysis on Ghost trick: Phantom Detective.

[@NobodyAtAll420]

This is absolutely fantastic!

[@mute_ed984]

Dang! You make it look soo easy 🤯

[@NaitsirhcCheck]

Love the health bar idea

[@Amieee]

Amazing work, of course!

[@Niniju8970]

I feel like it would advantageous to save a separate file of the isometric grid to remove some of the tedium of the prepwork. Like as an asset.

[@timothymclean]

The squishing health bars are a pretty neat effect. I wonder why more games (particularly ones where not all units are onscreen at once) don't use something like that to indicate that unit X got damaged, maybe go do something about that.

[@ryunbaranims1722]

Man’s helping us recreate the style of Mario RPG

[@segamai]

Great job, this reminds me a lot of Breath Of Fire 3! God I miss those games, what a shame how it went down with the last one they made (BOF 6 on mobile 🤮)

[@durrium]

Wow this looks really good!!

[@benpthomas99]

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[@dikhtiaruk]

How cool you do it! Very interesting! 🔥

[@gabrieldai88]

simply awesome

[@supi_ipus]

I like this, this is cute and so cool

[@dilsency6101]

The nostalgia for a game that doesn't exist.

[@EnchoMoskov]

Gorgeous!

[@kinoko6096]

Oh I love this, I want to play this game now!

[@rpvarela]

Really nice!

[@abzer0gaming]

Mega Man Battle Network is another good reference for isometric designs.

[@mrxblocks8580]

Wow this was awesomeness

[@Widderic]

Reminds me of Golden Sun and Advanced Wars on the GBA. I love that style.

[@muhammadgul7199]

love this art

[@dammitspawk]

its really cool to see the art on a crt afterwards bc you see just how much dimension that display adds to pixel art. it looks more fully rendered that if you're seeing only the sharp pixels and i really like how you include that. also i was wondering how do you do your timelapses at the end? do you stop and take screenshots ad every stage as you're working or do you glean them from the footage you record for the video? i really love how you put them at the end of the video so we can get a brief overview of how everything comes together.

[@ColinTedford]

If I remember right, he copies his progress to extra layers in Photoshop and make the time lapse from them. Unfortunately I don’t recall where he explained that.

[@gnuwaves743]

FF tactics and megaman battle network are what I think of when I hear isometric game. Very nostalgic games.

[@abhishek79]

This made me want to replay the final fantasy tactics games

[@xxsuperproductionsxx138]

AMAZINGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!

[@Gr8GooseYouTube]

Very nice pixel art.

[@eboatwright_]

This is so CUTE :D

[@pinguaina]

So cool!!!

[@backtodeclan]

you are just so talented wow

[@r4yZorTV]

love it .....i wish i could be this good

[@Volcanojungle]

It's super cool!

[@Diogocb]

niiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiice thank you for the tips!

[@djjacoby1511]

Awesome!!!

[@OneEyedMaxi]

I think it'd be great if you started showing your keyboard shortcuts on the screen, as I'm sometimes wondering exactly what you're doing!

[@katherinedobbs52]

I've been doing more isometric stuff lately, and it's so validating to see that your workflow is similar to mine! Your ideas are always so fun and creative - what inspires them?

[@BJGpixel]

That's awesome, I'm also glad to hear about the shared workflow! And thanks, a lot of my ideas are inspired by games/movies/aesthetics I like - for this one there's some Final Fantasy and Breath of Fire influence, with a touch of sci-fi thrown in for good measure :D

[@suisignz]

love the vibes of the videos man also I’m called branden 😂

[@flikkie72]

Now for an isometric action rpg!

[@TheeFlashbackMan]

video suggestion: try making isometric platform but kinda looks like the Penrose triangle, cube, etc. it would be interesting to pull off

[@dankershenold]

Does anyone know how he instantly replaced colours for the dinosaur? I've been trying but I've had to do it manually so far

[@potatocannongb3328]

You should try "sub-pixel animation" It's a pretty useful and interesting technique used in some games like Metal Slug and Nuclear Throne

[@AmmonomiC4T]

Until this day Nell and benjam are still said that they keep fighting the overgrown dinosaurs

[@joaquinayala3015]

Muchas gracias

[@xalkuthehaikugod2709]

It would be cool if you did something like this in picocad (or however you spell it)

[@ronihun]

Hi Brandon! I was wondering if you could make a study of the upcoming game Eastward? I think it has a very modern and distinct style to it, especially its color palette, and the character design is what makes it unique. Also, I think the Asian futuristic environment is something that resembles some of your work so it would be cool to see you analyze it or make something similar.

[@davidwalz3317]

So good :)

[@benpthomas99]

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[@victoryoj69]

Hi. Nice video. How about snowfall animation?

[@LukeHwarang]

Always a very polished work! I would love to see a Sprite Analysis video about King of Fighters XIII characters like you did for Megaman, Street Fighter and the ninja turtles. o/

[@essatowardsyou9401]

Can you remake any NES 80's games?. I love this competition, because it's very cool, it looks nice to you

[@gamedevmanti4578]

Awesome work! I loooved FFTA's art style, are there many other GBA games that made use of an isometric perspective?

[@kwangbug]

lovely :D

[@thatcuteaxolotl4475]

Legends say, Benjam and Nell are still fighting...

[@batcat2338]

Good job man

[@benpthomas99]

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[@teabagNBG]

i would only use photoshop if there was a pixel perfect option, and the same timeline lol but other then that photosho is easy to handle and has way more features... for me i do big stuff or portraits in photoshop and animations and sprites in aseprite... basically both are good to have... i want to check out aftereffects next since i mostly work with vector files...

[@randomdude5558]

wow.. another game I wish would exist *_*

[@stephenrose3202]

This is great! I definitely enjoy the isometric grid being a somewhat skewed ten by ten. Oh, what was the final number of frames for the animation loop? I'm guessing 24 as the focus is on four characters attacking and reacting...

[@BJGpixel]

Thanks, it ended up being a really comfortable sizing! And you're absolutely right, it's 24 frames! ✌️😊

[@Anarki9891]

hey man love the art and your timelapses. What program would you recommend for pixelart in an ipad? procreate or pixaki or anything else?

[@ColinTedford]

I’m hardly an expert, but I would avoid Procreate for pixel art. There are a few tutorials on how to do it, but ultimately the way it handles things at the pixel level causes problems. Pixaki looks to me like the best, tho it’s a bit pricey. i bought it but I haven’t used it much yet because I took a break from pixel art shortly after. I can recommend the less-expensive Pixel Studio, with the caveats that the interface needs refining and doesn’t match iPadOS, the file-saving is weird, and it has a few other little annoyances that I can’t remember (some or all of these things may have changed since I last used it). But it’s quite capable and the developer seems enthused about his work. Most of the other apps I tried were too limited, broken, or wonky in some way.

[@yopibram]

how to make the animation? i use CS6 too the best version for me 🥰

[@AnotherReader132]

How can you transform the drawing without blurring it? :0

[@norrinradd359]

exquisite

[@izdhr07]

may i know what canvas size you use for this ?

[@stephenrose3202]

At 1:05 the tag reads 240x160 because BJG is going with the Game Boy Advance resolution.

[@NeroTheAngel]

You always make such good pixelart. Do you make Games too?

[@toochmcgooch4678]

Great work, as usual! Do you have a background in art or is this something you picked up as a hobby?

[@ColinTedford]

Both, AFAIK. He has some sort of background in non-pixel art, tho I don’t recall what. Sometimes he mentions general art principles that he’s using. And I believe he picked up pixel art as a hobby.

[@eboatwright_]

Is the palette an expanded version of the PICO-8 palette?