Pixel Art - Like Legos. But more AWESOME

So, I ranted about the underappreciated style of black and white illustration, and started to touch on my love for pixel art. So now, I think I'll complete my thoughts on it!

Pixel Art is the art of using small blocks, that are generally the smallest visual element of a video image, in order to make images. This was a lot easier to do, when our screens had resolutions that were only a few hundred blocks wide and tall.

But now, we have screens that are almost 2000 dots wide, and almost as tall. QUITE the increase, when you're drawing dot-by-dot, eh?

Thus, this art style isn't used nearly as often anymore. You have to redraw every animation you want in pixel art. Why would anyone go through so much work, when they can just make the character in 3D, create some animations, and use the animations across any characters of similar size and proportion?

My reasoning? There's a lot more heart in pixel art. You KNOW that every odd dot in pixel work was personally put there, to convey something. Every little grin, every eye wink, every flop of hair. When it's done well, it's like watching a classic Disney movie! They really animated SO MUCH in their traditional films. If you compare their movie animation, to every day televised animation, it was like the difference of watching 1 leaf blowing in the wind, versus watching a whole field of petals, each and every one with it's own dynamic, fresh movement.

SNKP's newest game, King of Fighters XII, is one of the first "Next Gen" games to try and make Pixel Art work on modern consoles. The game has a lot of rough spots, and doesn't have all the characters and animations of it's predecessors. However, if you look at the pieces that ARE there, they have an insane amount of care put into them.



It's the first new 2D game in years that I didn't have to look at, and pick out were the "Adobe Flash" looking motions looked awkward. Don't get me wrong, games like Odin Sphere and Castle Crashers are fantastic looking 2D works. But I always found the "flash" look to bring an unfitting "3D" like smoothness to 2D, that just doesn't look as pleasing as pure pixel work animations.

I've done 2D pixel animations, and I've done 3D modeling and animation as well. To me, the goal of 3D, in my eyes, is to live up to the quality that 2D has already established for YEARS. (The opposite of all who wish 3D just to be used for realism, eh?) 3D games are still trying to replicate the depth of animation, character interaction, cloth movement, and unique color and personality, that we saw in 16 and 24 bit (Neo Geo!) video games. Street Fighter IV is probably the best I've seen, when it comes to capturing the animation personality and variety. And the Dragon Ball series of fighters, plus Namco's recent games like Eternal Sonata, and Tales of Vesperia, are probably the closest at getting the colors, mood, and finer points of 2D animation accurate.

But that's still "Catch up". We still don't have 3D side scrolling shooters that are as awesome as the Metal Slug shooters. We still don't have 3D fighters that have as many character interactions, little unique animations, and individual personality as KoF 98.

Thus, I think there's still a reason for Pixel work to exist. I don't think 3D will ever replace solid 2D. Top 2D artist and top 3D artist should each have their place. The gaming industry seems not to agree, but I hope we see that change. KoF XII is a rough start, but at least we now have something to suggest "SEE, it can be done!"

The next step could come from SNKP. It could come from independent game developers who are inspired by their work. It could come from ME! (^_^) I just want to see it happen!

High Contrast Illustration

The Image above is a sample one of my own. It is of Hattori Hanzo, from the Samurai Shodown game series. It was entirely drawn in pencil, and probably took me as much time to do as most color works.

But people don't seem as attracted to B&W! I always have found this a shame. I love the values and contrast of Black and White works. In some ways, I find them more attractive than color works. It's the perfect way to display works that are bold, and are meant to get your attention.

This is a good reason why, every once in a while, I like to turn by the classic movie channels, and watch a a few minutes of older movies. The way they employ "Halo" lighting, to make characters stand out from the background, and the ways lighting is used to add mood to a scene... it's just very impressive to see how much can be conveyed, with such a limited set of values.

And, for that matter... that's also something I love about manga! Some of the panels in works like Gunsmith Cats, for car chases and gun battles, are as lively to me as anything I've seen in animation.

The more I think about it, the more I realize that I enjoy lots of art styles that depend on their inherit limits. Pencil and pen work, manga screentoning, and pixel work. On the artist side, they all force you to think more creatively than if you had colors, or, in the case of pixel work, higher resolutions.

On the viewer side, they force you to use your imaginations more. A light shade of grey could be a light red, blue, or yellow to the viewer, and this enables them to see characters and settings in the ways they want to. And with pixel art, we can suggest the eyes and mouth, but a lot of the finer points are "filled in" by the viewer. Game characters in pixels very rarely have finely detailed lips, but a few dots can suggest this. When you think of Mario in the old Nintendo games, do you remember him as a bunch of messy squares, or as a rounded, short man with a mustache?

I hope I can continue to show my love for "limited" forms of artwork here. I see a lot of people who don't "get it" when it comes to these things. This is my way, to try and enlighten those people.

INTRODUCTION!!

HELLO WORLD!

Anyone who ever tried programming knows what I'm alluding to!

Anyway, SAB CA here! I hope some people who KNOW of STUDIO ARTIC BANANNA find me here! (And if not, I need to find YOU!)

For those of you who do NOT know, SAB is the name of an art studio run by myself (SAB CA) and my friend (SAB JOE, who might appear here, if I can figure out how to do that...)

Over the years, we've been a presence at our local anime con (Animazement!), and we've done everything from hosting Artist 101 panels, to running our own Artist Alley table.

So what do I hope to accomplish with the blog? WELL....

I hope to connect with previous fans. SAB has gone dormant at times before, and I always want to 100% abolish that happening! With the proper support, we wouldn't ever have to "focus on other things", this WOULD be THE thing, y'know?

I hope to make NEW fans! I know there are people out there who love what we love. (I saw a bunch of you at animazement 2009!) and I'd like to stay in contact with these people! Life is so much cooler when you're connected to people who GET you.

I hope to reach out with my products! We've made shirts, poster prints, bags, bookmark, etc, all over the years. I wanna see people wearing, and using these things! I wanna see the same for my friends, too! It'd just be so cool, to see a catch phrase you came up with, being worn by someone, or even just repeated by them. (We get a taste of that at Animazement!)

I bet people who follow this blog, will also be big dreamers. I've seen fanartist in the back of gaming magazines become comic artist. I've seen people I've liked the art of over the years, get the recognition they always deserved. I'm always happy to see this happen, so hey, lets connect here, and make this happen for all of us!