How should I go about creating Pixel Art?

I am also wondering is Pixel Art easier to create than HD?

How do people create pixel art what tool do they use?

I prefer to do HD but is it much more difficult? its for a side scroller a metal slug clone type of game

 

If you are a competent artist and are putting equal levels of quality into it, neither is that different... at least if it's static. Animation methods aren't so equal though. Frame by frame animation can take a lot longer than skeletal based (tweened) animation, especially in bulk like with variants, and pixel art is pretty much stuck working frame by frame.

As for tools, the two main dedicated pixel art tools are asesprite and pyxel edit, but photoshop and GIMP work just fine.

 

Cosmigo's Pro Motion is also a very good dedicated pixel art tool, though it is a little more pricey than other tools(not like Photoshop though).

I for one never got good at pixel are HD art. I prefer to make models and if I need sprites, I render them out from models.

 

Well. It depends really how you work.

Creating Pixel art with some pixel art tool, where you paint with individual pixels can be easier. You only need to care about so many pixels instead of creating your art in HD first and then pixelating it.
But of course, you have to make every pixel count. If you misplace a pixel, it might be way more jarring than a small line in HD art which isn't quite right.

In the end though, it really comes down to your expectations. Are you aiming for simple beginner pixel art? Or are you aiming higher (and, if you need to ask here, most probably too high for now)? Simple pixel art is, well, quite simple to create. Making simple pixel art which is also meaningful to the player is a little bit harder.


Personally, if I face such a question, I would try both. Create a pixel art character. Create a HD art character. See how much time you spend on both, see how the result looks. Maybe repeat the process a couple of times. Start with simple art first, and low resolution HD art to get a faster turn around.
Sometimes, when you do that, it makes "click" and the answer is right there before your eyes.

 

One pixel at a time!

Honestly, your questions are very subjective and not something we can answer. You just need to start making art. What tool you use doesn't matter, a lot of people use Photoshop, but there are free alternatives out there and there are alternatives dedicated to pixel art.

Here's a 10-step pixel art tutorial by Derek Yu, the creator of both the original Spelunky (pixel art) and the remake (HD art) which I thought was worth saving:
http://twiik.net/resources/learn-to-draw-pixel-art

Both games have really good looking art in my opinion.

You also make it sound like don't actually want to do pixel art, but for some reason you think that it's easier which is why you're considering it. Good art is hard, crappy art is easy, no matter what style it's made in, and neither style is hard if you're talented at making good art.

Just start drawing. You'll need to do thousands of drawings before you'll have anything to show no matter what tool or style we advice you to choose.

 

You've touched on something that I've wrestled with for a long time.

Basically graphics are like everything else. The more time you spend on any one thing the better it can look. However, the more experienced & skilled you are in general the less time you should need to create a similar quality piece.

The tools you use can make a difference. You can make pixel art or HD art in Paint. If you are very experienced / skilled that may work extremely well for you. Otherwise, using a dedicated pixel art tool such as PyxelEdit or Pro Motion will probably work better for you. I think such tools would also work better even for highly experienced and skilled graphic artists. Odds are very high the people making high quality pixel art are not using Paint and are using these specialized tools. There is a reason for that.

Anyway, like the others have said... learning art fundamentals and then creating a lot of art is what you will need to do. Spend thousands of hours creating pixel or HD graphics always striving to learn & improve and you will end up much more capable than you are at the beginning.

The detail level of your art will make a huge difference in the amount of time it takes to create it. Metal Slug is known for having some of the best pixel art and animations ever created. So you have set a very high bar if you intend to match or surpass the art in that game. Not that it will be impossible to achieve just the goal represents a huge amount of work. I am sure many dedicated artists worked on that game... you are one person and you will also be responsible for game design, programming, sounds, music, etc. Hopefully that helps to put things into perspective.

Some things that may help you...

Use more abstract less detailed graphics perhaps at 1/2 to 1/4 of the resolution. Check out BroForce which has a sort of Metal Slug vibe to its presentation yet you can see the graphics are at a lower resolution with less detail meaning it wouldn't take as long to create the graphics (it is the animation where the higher detail levels really add a huge amount of time).

You'll notice BroForce (a very popular successful Indie game) looks like an extremely watered down game compared to any of the Metal Slug games. But BroForce was created by Indies. And is a fine game in itself. It just lacks the presentation wow factor of Metal Slug. In Metal Slug everything seems alive due to the heavy use of animation even on the background imagery, the music and sound FX. Now BroForce would be much more exciting with some focus on music and sounds but that is another topic.

Focus on streamlining your workflow in Unity (or whatever you decide to use). I have been focusing on this a lot. And the reason is because the more streamlined that development piece is the more time you can afford to spend on the presentation.

In the end, I'd highly recommend going with a presentation style similar to either BroForce or Blasting Agent

Personally, I'd go with the resolution and detail of Blasting Agent and use the time saved to jack up the presentation in other ways. Meaning add more animation, some wicked explosions, etc and a strong focus on audio. I think so many people put way more focus on the visuals and don't realize how important audio is to sculpt a scene, set a mood and provide feedback.

The ultra low res will also come in very handy when you are creating and animating those 1/2 to 3/4 screen size bosses.

Just some things to think about. Creating Metal Slug calibre game by yourself will take many years IMO. Better to drop down use a simpler visual style and make a game that plays better than Metal Slug in less time.

 

Thanks a lot everyone so I have one last question lets us say you were comparing pixel art, hd vextor art in photoshop and Blender 3D for 3D modeling.

Which would be the most ideal? I ask this because I hear 3D is a lot easier to animate and faster to develop if one was going for low poly etc.

 

WOW

This is an amazing post!!! such quality!! thank you!!

I admit the Bro Force does look amazing but I hate the last one man that looks waaaaay too low. Bro Force looks like something 1 man could accomplish.

I didn't realize or could appreciate Metal Slug's art until now, wow you are right it really takes a team of people to create something like that it really stands the test of time.You never truly appreciate the work that Neo Geo put into that game until you try it yourself.

Bro Force looks incredible thanks for mentioning it I am gonna buy it. lol Didn't know about this game I could see myself putting in the extra work to get the graphics to look like Bro Force I would rather that than go lower.

Could I ask your thoughts on 3D modeling for a side scroller? would that be easier say a low poly 3D metal slug clone?

 

OMG bro force has 1.2 million owners JESUS CHRIST!!!!!

So its true Graphics don't matter after all gameplay and fun is everything!!! I admit even for pixel art there is something special about Bro Force is anyone seeing it? yes low pixels but the explosions and sound and just overall feel is incredible.

Ok so I take it that its likely easier to make a bro force type of game with pixel art over say 3D?

 

Pixel art looks deceptive, but it is not easy to do, it's time consuming.

I'd say a platform game with animated sprites using bones would be easier to begin with.

 

What about learning Blender 3D or Modo? and doing it all in low poly?

 

I guess it is possible to create a low poly slug, but don't underestimate the time it takes to get professional with 3D.

It took me years to master blender, I started when I was about 10.

https://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?358525-Perfect-studio-setup-test

 

Keep in mind that BroForce was developed by a team. 5 to 6 people as I recall. Blasting Agent also by a team but I think maybe half the size of BroForce's.

There have been some epic games made by a single person but they take a long time. Axiom Verge was about 6 years in development for example.

Ultra low poly flat not textured may be a good choice. It can produce a nice clean visual style. Would be easier to model and animate than frames of pixel art animation. But it would also look very different than either Metal Slug or BroForce.

Really the best thing to do is spend a week or two playing around. Find a visual style you like and can produce fairly quickly. Once you have that down you are basically "golden". Becomes a matter of grinding through all of the content creation, game design, level design, programming, etc.

You can literally spend forever on graphics because you will always think something can be improved. So you must decide. Do you want to make awesome graphics for animations you can share online with others or do you want to make a game? If the latter then graphics quality cannot be your primary focus. Of course you can always hire artists or build a team and have 2 to 3 artists knocking themselves out on creating Metal Slug type graphics.

@Arowx has done some great ultra low poly work. You may want to check out his work and consult with him for guidance if taking this direction.

 

WOW thanks and this thread is exactly why Unity was the way to go, there is noway in hell I would have gotten these quick and detailed responses in Unreal forums.

I am amazed Axiom Verge was created by 1 person. This goes to show one person can do it, I wanna do mine in 2 years so even if I released it as a short game for a much cheaper price i won't mind. Not really concerned about profits just wanna make sure I release and complete my project and its up to par with other successful games this is most important to me.

I am buying Bro Force so I can experience this wonder and get some more ideas aswell. I know now what I have to do.

You are right I am gonna spend a week on pixel art and see how it works for me. The other guy said it could take years to learn Blender so I am guessing it may be a bad idea to do 3D but I will try it out anyways.

 

Ha ha. Well I am actually not using Unity lately for my projects but it all applies the same to anything. Anyway I am glad you found my replies helpful.

I am wrestling with the same thing currently. I'd like to make a game kind of sort of like either Rastan or Gladiator. Sort of a combo I guess. But doing it at the level of detail of the original artwork is just not reasonable for me as a lonewolf very part-time game dev. So I am deciding on a visual style that I can make look good while still being easy & fast to produce. It will likely be ultra low res pixel art like a 160x90 or even 128x72 pixel resolution for the screen.

The idea is it will then be easy to really bring the world to life with animated background, little details here & there (dust, leaves falling, etc). And will e easier to produce the large characters, etc. So first resolution, then I'll choose (create) a palette of say 64 colors to work with. Then spend some time drawing characters at different levels of detail. Finally choosing one as the target for the entire game to follow. That being the one that is the best combination of looking good while taking the least amount of time to produce. Then I can focus on the actual game.

 

It depends how much time you want to invest. Bear in mind knowing 3D is always a good thing but if you're not interested in 3D then you can always ignore it. My time estimate was based on many things, learning the UI, low poly modelling, texturing, uv unwrapping, sculpting retoping, material node creation, lighting and rendering, smoke and particle effects, fur/hair particles, animating.

However if you just want to make a 2D place holder and animate using bones it is possible. For example, I did the following in blender but using bones. It is a bit of an overkill, especially when you have tools like spine 2d

http://esotericsoftware.com/

and similar ones on the asset store, but knowing blender allowed me to do this for free. (the animation is a bit laggy but you get the idea)

 

Pixel art is going to take a long time.

Have a look at this guys blog, there's a few time lapse giving you an idea of what it takes, plus bear in mind non of those are animated for game dev.

http://pixelshuh.tumblr.com/

 

Thtas cool the animation is very lacking but yeah I understand what you are saying.

 

And sometime this month Anima2D should be going free since that was picked up by UT. So now there shouldn't be much need for external tools with that workflow.

 

ooh very nice, looks like he takes a day to do 1 or 2 pic

 

wow didn't know that I wonder how much Unity paid for Anima2D? and how much did it cost before they removed it from the store?

One thing I have to say that I love about Unity is the bright grey GUI. I live on a tropical island so I love my big open sliding windows with lots of strong warm breeze and natural sun light, unfortunately UE4 UI is black and there is noway to change it so my glossy monitor reflects like crazy. Yes I could have bought a matte monitor but its not good for my eyes I don't like the haze I just love the perfectness of glossy screen it means no hazy coating its like looking at the screen in all its glory a bit like laptop screens.

In Unity it comes with a bright grey UI so praise the lord. lol

 

~$50 I think. I thought Puppet2D was more expensive, but it's listed at $30 now.

 

wow then thats good value isn't it? Unity with a $50 package free. So that pretty much reduced the costs hmm.

When can we expect it to be released in Unity?

 

Would take one man 2 years minimum, just bear that in mind. I'd say 3 for a finished product assuming you didn't need to do R&D and were experienced.

But if you were aiming at far less scope then 3-6 months is feasible, assuming again you're already experienced. So bear in mind the project scope as well. I would recommend a very small title to test the waters first.

 

This stuff is kind of going to be native soon, judging by the beta forum and blog.

 

https://blogs.unity3d.com/2016/12/02/unity-expands-2d-offerings-with-anima2d/
I think it's just being left on the asset store for now.

 

How long did TOB take and how many were on the team?

 

True but I still can't stand animating in anything outside blender, but that's just me

 

I agree with @hippocoder. Don't just jump right in to making your dream game right out of the gate. I mean sure you can make a version of your dream game. Or a piece of it at least. That is fine and would be the most helpful. But do a much smaller version of it. Something where you can focus on the underlying systems and mechanics without having to also manage the full scope.

Doing this will help you to figure out the problem areas and be able to develop the underlying tech needed that you can plug into your "real" game. Alternately, you can develop the "real" game itself in bite size pieces kind of like modules.

For example maybe you make a small game focused around two short levels only. First it is just getting the player character moving through that level interacting with the environment including rescuing the hostages. Reach the end of level one. Go to level two. That gets you a very tiny game complete (albeit without enemies and only environmental obstacles). More importantly you take that and now have your player controller, level interaction and game structure to handle transit from level to level all ready to plug in to your real game OR you just build on to it.

So your next iteration has you either building a new game or updating the same game adding enemies for example. One of the things that makes the Metal Slug games so interesting is the variety of ways enemies enter the playfield. Climbing and swinging/sliding across vines, dropping in from helicopters, coming in on boats, etc. Again they make heavy use of their environment and use it to get to you.

And once you get it all working then it becomes a matter of just assembling it all and focusing on the level design and making the real levels and tying it all together.

You certainly don't have to follow that kind of project plan. I am just suggesting you break it down and tackle things bit by bit. In each iteration you will learn very important things. What to do and how best to do it. And what not to do and how not to do it.

 

By the way, you can animate stuff directly in unity. It is awkward, but can be done.

 

Thanks I am following a youtube video from the bracleys guy so I will have an idea how to do a simple 2D game admittedly his game is a little more than just a simple 2D game but this is a good thing. He even gives away some awesome royalty free stuff on his site aswell.

 

Yeah I know, but don't you find it hideously tedious especially when the viewport in blender is so fast, you know, set up quad view, right click a bone, press r to rotate, move then hit 'i' to insert a keyframe.

Compare that with unity, well... yeah.

 

True, but the problem is that you can't animate unity component parameters (light strength, particle system emission rate, enabled/disbaled flags, etc) in blender.

 

Wouldn't it be awesome if the Asset Store had kits of pixel art that you could simply buy to make your version of Metal Slug (or for me to make my Gladiator/Rastan style game)?

Yes indeed it would but here we are in 2017 and there is still virtually nothing available to make pixel art games.

I go back and forth on this. Sometimes I think of making a game. Sometimes I think I should just hire artists to create pixel art I can sell in packs on the store. Basically I'd like to see art there to make any game I can think of. Metal Slug? Sure just get these 4 packs! Rastan? Sure just get these 2 packs. Choplifter? Sure just get this pack.

Just seems ridiculous to me the state of things. End of rant.

 

hmm if I get good at pixel art maybe I will sell it on the asset store?

I wonder how much cut Unity takes and how much it costs to wire transfer money world wide to my bank account?

 

I don't know the answer to these questions but many people around here do.

I know how much money you earn will be based on two things... 1) how much potential demand there is for your pixel art and 2) how well you market it to get those potential customers to the page to see it.

 

or buy...
http://oryxdesignlab.com/product-sprites/
https://kenney.itch.io/
https://henrysoftware.itch.io/ (self promotion)
https://itch.io/

 

Problem is you cannot buy it. Because each asset pack is limited and very few 2D art assets work together. I have checked out thousands of them over the years on numerous sites. And in the end I never was able to build any game that I wanted to make.

 

not another pixel art game please -.-
someone had an idea, to make players feels nostalgic... and that was very cool, but thats enough -.- its not creative anymore... its not unique
Everybody is copying that idea, I have seen great concepts minimized to pixel -.-
there are many others styles of games... hand painted its great too and very popular... or you can make it realistic or low poly like super hot... there are several ways and styles of graphics and even more creative and unique

 

Ha ha. People could say the same about HD 3D or any of the other styles. Not another 3D game trying to look like movies please! We have had those for far too long now. Someone had the idea of trying to make a game look like a movie and then everyone started copying that idea.

In the end a person has to make what they are interested in making with an art style they like and are capable of producing (sometime before they are dead).

Remember this is the future of games...

 

I will be honest, one of the ugliest games ever made in 3D is Street Fighter 5 and street fighter 4.

It is a perfect example why pixel art can be superior to 3D sometimes offcourse its likely because capcom has no clue what they are doing since these are outsourced to the cheapest Japanese studios they can find which is why it looks so horrible. Ken's banana hair for example or Alex looking like a vagrant. And just think it was hundreds of times worse in SF4.

If you look at Street Fighter 3 Third Strike, it is timeless and its impossible for it to age. A single character like say Akuma has 3000 frames of animations. Just think about that for a second 3000 sprites for each character. Capcom will never ever attempt something like that again. It was estimated the price to re do another 2D character in modern 1080p for a Street Fighter 3 HD Remake would cost half a million US dollars.

Think about that for a second, half a million US dollars $500,000 USD to draw a SINGLE character with 3000 frames of 2D animations if they were to re do a SF3 today in 1080p.

Crazy right? this is why really pixel art truly is art at times.

Behold the greatest Pixel Art ever made by mankind also the most technical and deepest sprite based game ever created. So technical, expensive to develop and deep that Capcom lost money and it became a financial failure. They call this the gold standard of fighting games.

There is a reason not even 4K 3D in UE4 could come anywhere near the timeless visual quality of 3rd strike. This is real 2D art.

 

This game was a prototype from a game jam in early 2012, and was available in early access about 2 years later with the official release about a year after that. So 3 years ... I don't know how much time each person spent, but:

Director(s) Evan Greenwood
Producer(s) Shaz Greenwood
Designer(s)

• Evan Greenwood
• Dorianne Dutrieux

Programmer(s)

• Evan Greenwood
• Ruan Rothmann
• Richard Pieterse

Artist(s)

• Jarred Lunt
• Dawid Strauss
• Filip Orekhov
• Jonathan Hau-Yoon
• Dorianne Dutrieux
• Duncan Greenwood
• Philipe Rios

So I think if anything @hippocoder is being conservative.

In other news its an awesome game

 

^ Yeah but bro force is a $15 game and it sold 1.2 million copies. Those guys are millionaires now so it really can't be compared to a solo dev making a much smaller game and selling it for like $3

 

Kind of makes you wonder if the cost wasn't a factor in the AAA studios all dumping 2D and diving into 3D. 3,000 frames of animation per character. That is just... mind blowing considering the size of the characters. I might tackle 300 frames per character if they were 16x16 in size. lol Assuming one could even get 300 unique frames in 16x16.

 

Yeah its insane the cost to do a SF3 sprite based character came up to $500K USD if they had to re do it in 3000 frames so Capcom said they decided to leave it as is because they couldn't afford it so they just applied filters.

Capcom had said if they did it any less than what the Original SF3 sprite animations were it would ruin it and people would honestly just play the old low res version instead a bit like what happened when they tried to create SSF2 HD Remix. Animations were horrible yet it cost a ton of money still.

The one info I never got was the cost to develop SF3 back in the 90's. All Capcom said was it was a mistake going overboard like that both in cost to develop the graphics and the deep technicality of the game. The parry system meant you would have to be a mega pro to play that game against other people.

But yeah SF3 truly is the all time champ of pixel art nothing else comes close. My only regret is back then there wasn't hardware available to do atleast 720p sprites, the reason I say this is because we all know Capcom will never recreate SF3 because it would be flat out too expensive. It is only when you posses this knowledge is then you truly appreciate pixel art

 

BroForce was an example used as simpler than Metal Slug (which it is), I was just pointing out that getting this much polish is still generally pretty difficult and time consuming.

I'd also add that you can't go much simpler than that and expect to compete in this space. BroForce for all its polish is a simple game for the genre, particularly if you consider the early access release ... which as still two years of effort from multiple developers/artists.

 

Pixel art IS NOT the future of games... you do not need a ps4 or the last graphic card to play 8bits games... what you say does not make any sense...

Remember, This style comes from 80's games... its just nostalgic, its not the future

 

Ha ha. Well it was mainly a joke. Although thinking about I think have seen as many, if not more, pixel art games in the past 5 years as I did in all of the 80s and 90s. In a way they are the future. It has nothing to do with graphic cards. Just the choices being made my many Indie developers.

There will be many pixel art games released this year. Probably even more next year. And so on.

 

I wonder how much different is it to create a 2.5D platformer? I know a lot now about 2D but wondering what if I was to do the exact same thing but in 2.5D am guessing all the 2D physics options etc would be useless?