Creating a Scene for my 3D Pixel Art Game

[@t3ssel8r]

FAQ: 1. Can I buy this? The package I'm building is for a game project I'm working on, so I currently don't have resources to support external users. Plus the code is in a constant state of flux. I may revisit this in the far future toward the end of my project, if there is interest at that time. 2. Can you make tutorials for how to achieve this? I've written about the techniques I've used in the video descriptions of my older videos, and plan on making new higher quality videos as I work on new features that I think are interesting or have educational value. I don't always have time to make a detailed video for every thing, but I'm always happy to respond to specific questions here in the comment section, or privately over on twitter. 3. Where did you pick up your skills? I mostly learned graphics programming through following the tutorials of Inigo Quilez and Catlike Coding online. I also highly recommend Sebastian Lague and AdamCYounis' channels here on KZbin.

[@Hekai]

Thanks so much !! I just came upon this video, and damn the clip at 4:15 is the closest to 2D i've ever seen in a 3D based engine, i'm straight shocked that's literally amazing bless you !

[@bobsmithy3103]

What CPU and GPU languages are you using? Like do you use c++ and opengl? nvm: title is misleading. He's just using unity and did not create his own pixel art game engine. He's using what seems like his own renderer

[@t3ssel8r]

@Arsen Here In my (limited) experience, releasing a successful product entails cleaning up the code, testing it so it works for different platforms, making sure it can be integrated in other projects, providing training, and support. Some of those things will naturally get done as I make more progress on my game, but some of them are too much of a distraction at this point. Thanks for understanding.

[@braindeveloperdimensional5579]

So your engine is for Unity only? Can it be ported to Godot? Is your rendering engine opensource?

[@t3ssel8r]

@Brain Developer Dimensional I suppose the shaders port easily since it's just HLSL. The rest of the pipeline would need to be rewritten for each new environment. I based on Unity because it is what my team is familiar with. No, the project is not open source.

[@Geddy135]

I could imagine an entire game being made in this style and at the very end of the game, the camera pans in and moves around to reveal the game was 3d the whole time.

[@penkinodenuevo7468]

Cool!

[@t3ssel8r]

haha my idea was to do the reveal at the end of the first scene or something like that. or in the middle of the trailer. there's definitely some potential for that sort of deception

[@parallaxdawn2546]

@@t3ssel8r what about having it in the pixel art style but you can move the camera in a 3D space?

[@wiktor3727]

Try fez

[@andresouza6711]

wait its all 3d? always has been

[@oliveryt7168]

I never worked with any of these programs... But WOW, 2 hours for this?! Insane! I am impressed by the quality of this piece of art.

[@Reloecc]

it's like.. there are 2 hours of modeling, but hundreds of hours for the engine.. ;)

[@Zantler]

@Jan Černín to be honest modeling is the easiest part, getting shaders and textures(even UV wrapping) is the long and painful process

[@robrobusa]

@@Reloecc Definitely! The 2hrs do not account for the programming of the pixel shaders. The modeling and porting into engine? Sure!

[@roastman9753]

"To make the rocks more realistic, I let the computer do it for me."

[@IPlayKindred]

Welcome to 3d modeling

[@Med-B]

@@IPlayKindred i don't think anyone wants to spend 90% of the time working on a project just manualy making the models when it can be generated quick

[@IPlayKindred]

@@Med-B that's my point

[@ficticious_jr.]

@@IPlayKindred i agree with the kindred player because he plays kindred

[@otohime8516]

@@IPlayKindred Welcome to 3d procedural modeling***

[@FilipeDeschamps]

Wow, the final scene is amazing!!! Congratulations and thanks for sharing 👍

[@arkvitinhoo1646]

@AnarchoOrc como isso é possível? 🤔

[@RVKY]

Oxi kkkkk do nd ele aqui

[@JovemCancelado]

Deschamps gosta de gamedev? não sabia kkk

[@joziel3664]

caraca, Michel Teló já passou por aqui

[@nologin5375]

Even without the pixel engine the scene looked pretty nice and serene, but that engine stepped it up so much, very nice.

[@mythicdawnist]

When they said “trees are just cylinders with some merged spheres on top.” I felt that

[@PPno9]

I've been saying this for 15 years and no one's listened to me.

[@alcob5945]

they?

[@ireadysucks3026]

@@alcob5945 gender neutral pronouns

[@alcob5945]

@@ireadysucks3026 i don't believe men can become women and viceversa, especially without surgery and all the other stuff that should make you more similar to the other sex (yet not the same since you can't change your brain and every aspect of your body, not to mention that even if you did you would be a fake man/woman)

[@Esteban_Santos]

That displacement and decimation technique is so cool I’ll try to figure out how to do something like that, great video!

[@idkidk9204]

It's fairly simple, it's more about tuning the settings

[@otohime8516]

It is a trap, just looks pretty and lower poly, but it just mess all your topology. If you're a begginer, I recommend you avoid this kinda 2 modifiers by now...

[@not_ever]

It can cause you a lot of headaches. There is a GDC talk called Low Poly Modeling: Style Through Economy, you can watch on KZbin that talks about some of the pitfalls of using decimate and better workflows. From memory the guy giving the talk is an indie dev who works alone on his projects. This is not a comment to shit on the creator of this video. I found watching this workflow very interesting and have liked the video.

[@ZedAmadeus]

Holy hell. The final result is goddamn gorgeous!

[@josewenzel]

This youtube channel must be the best thing I found this year, you are really talented dude... it makes me envious... in a good way

[@ruvimperna5532]

Your pixel art is superb, the lighting/shading is perfect to emphasize the shapes of objects in pixel art, like your water line is very light, if a stone is sticking out, u have a lighter gray highlight around where it differentiates it from the ground (4:23 stone next to pillar). Your style is so perfect.

[@ktmochiii]

the colors and little grass/leaves movement really make this scene! looks so good!

[@dited358]

Dude this are literally the most nostalgic beautiful and timeless graphics design I have ever seen, imo the market is too full of games that think realism is the ultimate goal

[@yukinanka]

Yo, I'm stifled. Your work looks fantastic! Thanks lord KZbin algorithm.

[@renatorodrigobs79]

Please, PLEASE, teatching us how to make something like it! It’s AMAZING!

[@dumas124]

Wow, the pixel shader you have going on here is absolutely amazing.

[@silvercarroll2352]

I'm at a loss for words at how beautiful the final product is. Just subbed!

[@youneskasdi]

This is kinda wild, spending time to make a whole 3D scene just so you can flatten it out and turn it into 2D

[@DTLamia]

I imagine drawing it in 2D would've taken a lot more time and skills so this is actually a really neat idea

[@t3ssel8r]

you got it. I'm a petty bad pixel artist but even I can extrude a few cubes.

[@gamechannel1271]

Doing this in 2d would take a lot more time, also the 3d engine allows cool lighting effects as shown here.

[@Beryesa.]

Imagine the guys spending their time on making 2D look like 3D :ppp All artist are crazy :d

[@PandaTheGFX]

Who would win? guy that took years practing vs default cube

[@1jiu23]

leaves made from spheres and rocks being low poly distorted cubes is such a familiar aesthetic in these indie games tbh

[@Detrax655]

It's an easy way of doing it, but damn it looks good ngl

[@__leftistVegan]

I absolutely love this art style. the combination of pixels and realistic reflections in the water make it look to warm but immersive at the same time.

[@danlei88]

This is some incredible work! Can't wait to play whatever games you make with this system.

[@mikesproductionsgamedev]

This is really beautiful. The fact the trees are just spheres beneath all the well-animated pixel leaves is something I'd have had trouble believing just looking at the final product.

[@キラキラくりくり頭]

Mind blown by the end result

[@CiruPlays]

as someone who just sometimes models and rigs random unpainted monsters in blender for fun, this makes game scenery and for some reason, breath of the wild scenery, even MORE breathtaking. thank you.

[@janthummler3548]

Holy Cow, this is beautiful!

[@BlackroseXX9]

Well done! This is an incredible pixel generation. Thank You for sharing!

[@EyedMoon]

Watching these videos I'm always thinking I could do it too. I start planning out the landscape, what I want to show, the colors... Then comes the time to actually do it.. Needless to say I've never finished a project. GG to you, looks super nice. Couldn't help but sub for the next one ;)

[@jarrettonions3392]

keep practicing! each plan/unfinished piece still counts.

[@xhappybunnyx]

gaaaah damn, that pan at the end had me feelin somethin. looks super, super good, but I'm sure you already knew that. amazing work!

[@empiredirt6530]

wtf. too good. That pixel art shader/rendering engine is gorgeous. I'm jealous. I'd buy it from the asset store wink wink.

[@Soyaa]

This is genius and your Pixel art engine looks great. Are you planning to sell some of your tools in the asset store?

[@jasonhoffman91]

Wow, this is great. I am new to game dev and this help alot. Amazing work flow!

[@u3mmar958]

@@jasonhoffman91 ????????

[@Garnox_]

the new pinned comment says this: 1. Can I buy this? The package I'm building is for a game project I'm working on, so I currently don't have resources to support external users. Plus the code is in a constant state of flux. I may revisit this in the far future toward the end of my project, if there is interest at that time.

[@ecco1k]

@@u3mmar958 I think he meant to comment, not reply

[@otohime8516]

Make sure to correct the several vertices, the transforms and the topology, if you get it in your hands hahahaa

[@pluto4540]

This already looks so cool, like this as an entire game just- damn Amazing work so far

[@Braindrain85]

From the title I thought you programmed your own Engine instead of using Unity. Looks gorgeous though! And your Remesh -> Displacement -> Decimate - Method is brilliant! I might steal that ;)

[@t3ssel8r]

yes, subsurf -> displacement -> decimate is a good variation too, for some meshes.

[@nicoladc]

The pixel engine part blows my mind, the finish is so cool

[@player6769]

The end product looks incredible my guy. A tutorial on the procedural editing for the trees and stone would be super dope but I understand you're busy.

[@vedoxg]

Man that style is so chill and relaxing, somehow it gives me some nice anime atmosphere... Nice

[@unescent3592]

you make it look so easily and flawless but my instructors always go "Everything must be in a single piece" like tf

[@iviankasabov8155]

In my school my teacher told me that you have to model as many pieces from 1 object as possible but then I asked a friend of mine, who had a background in 3D art and VFX. Needless to say, my friend said that this is pure bullsh*t and you are only making it harder for urself like this. Nobody makes entire scenes with only 1 object in the end

[@fettkotzbromas8443]

@@iviankasabov8155 Maybe your teacher did this stuff in the mid 90‘s where multiple models were made out of 1 object, like Peach‘s castle in Super Mario 64.

[@iviankasabov8155]

@@fettkotzbromas8443 he did look quite young though 😅 Id say around his 30s

[@fettkotzbromas8443]

@@iviankasabov8155 oh

[@unescent3592]

@@iviankasabov8155 it's so frustrating. Modeling is significantly easier when you take advantage of multiple objects

[@Levi_Zacharias]

I love the cloud shadows in the final version! and that pond reflection looks great.

[@dialog_box]

That’s like, op. Like wtf how are you allowed to do that. The jump to pixel art. It’s too good x(

[@igor_ai88]

Wow, the result looks so nice and cozy, the water is very eye catching too

[@McNottagoose]

Increase upload frequency of this quality and youll have a very, very large following very quickly

[@TimpersOliver]

as a pixel artist im blown away by how good the final piece turned out. the colours are incredible.

[@Kenji_195]

Ignoring the title, to me this is actual art

[@groudon6423]

Pixel art is a style of art

[@mylo5641]

@@groudon6423 and 3d art is as well, this is basically 3d pixel art

[@cearaj405]

I don't see how the title would annul this statement?

[@groudon6423]

@@mylo5641 I didn’t get what he was trying to say 😅 I thought he was saying that pixel art wasn’t actually art. I get it now.

[@MrHerrJonsson]

​@@groudon6423 He might refer to "my Pixel Art Game Engine". The engine itself is Unity. My guess is that the pixelation is made through a shader with some other nifty tricks. Regardless the title implies it's his own engine, which it is not.

[@dariusz.9119]

That procedurally generated pattern on columns, stairs etc. was brilliant. I'm not a pro blender user, nor I'm a game developer so I've never heard of that technique. Really clever. I'll need to try it

[@Mighteyes]

You made this in two hours?! It looks absolutely incredible!

[@peterjurgens5968]

Man thank you for your video? First of all I love to watch time laps-blender builds. They are really entertaining to watch and often I discover a few new tricks. Even more so when there is some commentary!

[@wstrong1981]

Just me, or does it look like a genshin map, dang, dude managed to make something that looks straight out of a game which is so coooool

[@RaflySug]

The grass made it look like genshin

[@gaspardbouchard6215]

I've seen alot of 3D pixel art and I can tell its very hard to pull off, but I find your artwork not just a perfect execution of this technique but also incredibly tasteful

[@jester5905]

Sometimes I wish I had the confidence and talent into making stuff like this. Even with practice it's hard when you don't know what anything does or is.

[@henfelsen4884]

find out the basics and move from there a video explaining what stuff is and replicate what tutorial you find and start out very simple. find balance before taking a step.

[@RANDO-M-USIC]

Just wow! I really like it ... I got some nostalgia feels ... and combined with the background-music, they got enhanced :)

[@superscatboy]

Imagine a world where steps were put on weird offsets like that.

[@alexnoman1498]

My thoughts exactly. :D Making a world and making a world used by people are quite different.

[@ecgwineicling2543]

The misaligned steps may not make practical sense, but they are a minimalistic design element that changes the perception of the scene from "transitional zone, just a flight of stairs" to "it's an enchanted baroque garden".

[@thejoshuawatts]

Wow, this is my first time seeing this kind of technique, and i gotta say this blew me away! thanks for sharing your technique! learned so much.

[@erache100]

could you give some hints on how you made the leaf on your trees? they look incredible

[@t3ssel8r]

I spawn a leaf sprite on each vertex of the tree mesh and transfer the normals of the mesh to the sprite so the shading works. then I use a vertex shader to make the sprites face the camera.

[@travgaming0659]

This is my favorite art style for games

[@sosasees]

This is a Pixel Art Renderer for the pre-existing Unity Game Engine, not your very own Pixel Art Game Engine. You explained this a bit poorly by calling it your own Pixel Art Game Engine in the video's Cover Image.

[@t3ssel8r]

apologies for the confusion. you're not wrong, but I also have entirely custom render pipeline, a custom terrain system, custom particles, custom animation system, and custom physics, so it's hard to describe in just a few words for the video title.

[@sosasees]

@@t3ssel8r It's OK. I myself was not confused by this. With the context of the video, I have immidiately understood what this actually is. I just came to the idea that other people (who have not used or seen the Unity Engine's UI before) would misinterpret this.

[@m_bogus]

​@@t3ssel8r that is what we as game developers do, we are creating custom stuff in Unity, but engine is not ours. Just a friendly remainder claiming that program shown in video is yours "Pixel Art Game Engine" is just a lie and it is violation of Unity Terms of Use also may lead to legal action, so just be aware of that. If i were you i would change it to something more accurate as "Pixel Art Rendering System in Unity". With such a result, which is awesome btw, it can lead to even more views and possible sales? If you are aiming at Asset Store ofc. I see great potential in it and I would definitely buy it!

[@arrtemfly]

yoooooooooooo those pixel shaders are NUTS! this is totally great.

[@Pearking_]

that has to be one of the most beautiful things ive seen in a long time.

[@chickennoodlesoup8098]

This is so good. You made this seem so simple to make

[@damianeksiema9443]

Yooo, those materials that You using are just insane. They are giving so much to this project

[@Nayphilim]

I was just looking into some things for game ideas i was having and i am OBSESSED. This is stunning and i will definitely be looking at trying something like this. Congratulations, this is really well done!

[@ZimmervisionCZ]

This looks absolutely stunning! I would be overjoyed to watch or play something that looks like this!

[@soerennielsen]

I've never seen anything like this before. Simply in awe here. Amazing job! Keep us posted please.

[@Dessikret]

a game like this thats able to shift from top down to 3rd person revealing its 3d would be fucking crazy cool take my money please

[@jerrygreenest]

There are several different 3D pixel art videos out there on youtube, but I think you nailed it the best with your engine, filters, shaders and whatsoever. Can't wait when the actual game will come. And also when after the release you will make efforts toward sharing your way of doing, in form of tools, lessons, etc., - also can't wait. Good luck.

[@hungha4329]

god your style of this made me so pacefull

[@bluematter435]

indie game dev its the ultimate, making more with less. it looks so beautiful... when i saw how simply youve made the trees i though, man i gotta get me a pice of this 3D pixelart action. its so cool, the way you do bolean oprations and make use of procedual modifiers / shaders. how you dont even care about perfect topology, cause the only thing that matters in the end is "does it look good", and man does it ever. thank you for sharing your process, it has inspired me to be much more ~lazy~ energy efficient! also thanks for sharing who you've learned from, i also learned a lot from sebastian league, my intro to making cool interactive grafical things comes from Daniel Shiffman's videos (the coding train) (makes many coding challenges and tutorials)

[@PitchBlackCat]

Absolutely stunning result

[@solojun27]

The water looks so amazing

[@rodmileski]

This is sick. I am not into pixel art and the realistic art style is more my cup of tea, but man this looks so neat. Awesome job dude.

[@vincentsavoretti2201]

Fantastic work, I live your pixel filter. Good to see I'm not the only one using 3D specifically to get a 2D result

[@DeaconOfTheDank]

Loving your content. The end result is always astonishingly beautiful.

[@RaidenFreeman]

I ADORE the look of what you've made.

[@trysta73]

Very successfully pulls off the illusion that it's pixel art. Gorgeous, nice job!

[@Fan-dh9hw]

DUDE, this is awesome! hope you do well with your project.

[@jehriko7525]

This is incredible, I have to take notes from this!

[@caiocesar4827]

That's insane! Awesome job and thanks so much for show us!

[@88Spint]

The way you madethe stones and brickwork was fking cool!!! :D

[@timmy1877]

That pond touched my soul

[@wizard4599]

Studying game dev at uni right now, this is really inspiring. I'll share this around, love what you're doing.

[@depressyimpressyrepressy]

Jesus, this is gorgeous. Like unrealistically gorgeous.

[@MilesPlaysPriv]

the water is so gorgeous

[@drawcentral1048]

That looks insanely good!

[@semproser19]

That end result is absolutely incredible

[@sebastienmichel5866]

Wow i'm really impressed by this channel and the vibe. Love the render of that pixel art

[@CapemanProducti0ns]

the model might've been 2 hours, but the coding and making of the engine feels like fruitful hard work!

[@RachelRoseMitchell]

this is wildly cool omg

[@Betruet]

That water reflection is magic

[@iamvulgar8188]

Bro, this is absolutely amazing looking. Great job.

[@DatdudegilToo]

I'm blown away by this. It's absolutely incredible!

[@ashrafsahli2869]

It's amazing, wonderful work.

[@Michael-jn3kt]

This is awesome! Can't wait to see more.

[@monochroma3803]

Jesussss, this shader must be professional ! Love the result by the way ! :D

[@captainofnumenor8221]

this is truly magnificient

[@_Lostinthesky]

Image an open-world game in this style! Amazing!

[@bawkslawd]

Thank you, o kind algorithm gods, for this wonderful suggestion

[@Rawrlz]

I love this and I hope you've made progress on this game!

[@RamJam610]

wow! thank you for sharing this process. looks great!

[@TheGrowlerOne]

This is beautiful! Keep uploading more videos, it was well edited and nice to watch :D

[@MrCrompz]

This is very interesting and useful. Thanks

[@v-vol224]

omg, I've been looking for something like this for so long and finally I found you. hope to learn something new from you.

[@itsmoonlight9649]

this looks stunning