hmmm, i am gonna have to go with aa.  since imo, alot of the lure of pixel art is the "blockyness" of it

I voted for Dithering... alot of people take too much stock into using this when sometimes you don't need it at all. A cartoony piece can be ruined using dithering whereas a realistic piece (depending on the texture) can utilize it to its fullest effect. Remember, it's all about context.

Sorry for my lack of knowledge into this, but what exactly is Selective Outlining?

i agree with those ones being hard to consider overrated, because they are the basis of fun pixels...  however, the rest it is a hard decision to make...

Where's the "Picture of a Dragon" option?


No, but really, dithering is way overrated. It can be very helpful in occassions where you need texture and such, but when people use dithering to replace a color to minimize the pallette, it can have very ugly consequences. I prefer the "smooth" look of solid shading.

Dithering for sure.

whoa... I love you too dude

Dithering.  At times I feel like it's become the lens flare filter of pixel art.  It has its uses, but a lot times it's added just because it can be.


Edited by Beaker - 30 August 2006 at 5:26pm

Holy sh*t, I was looking for the very fine print that said "NPA CG Backgrounds", but I couldn't find it. You see, I saw Jalonso's name and naturally assumed it would be there :)

@Degital, thx for the hearty laugh
@Sab, Hybrid pixelart (CG BGs), like Oekaki, have their place (your site, your project, etc.) It sets a bad precedent on a site dedicated to pixelart alone. The fact that this very poll is here proves the waters are muddy enough as it is.

I'm the AA vote. If you need it your lineart sucks.
Pixelly pixels ftw.

Edited by jalonso - 30 August 2006 at 11:10pm

I'd go with AA. I mean, if used correctly, it could drastically improve a piece, but one of the turn ons of pixel art is its blocky style, and then if incorrectly used.. it's enough to make you cry.

Where's isometry?

Thanks Jalonso. Very good idea for a poll. Mmmmmm have to consider this one carefully.

(lol @ ditherrhea)

Edited by kaltsu - 01 September 2006 at 3:34am

I couldn't dissagree with you more.  after-all AA isn't any different than shading.  AA is just tight, small-scale, shading.  Maybe OUTER AA is overrated, but AA itself is just as useful as shading.

i vote dither.  Dither has it's place, and is quite lovely, but alot of times overrated

I definitely think dithering is the villain.
Even when it's used well, it's still just airbrushing -- and I mean that literally.

My fastest way to dither is to airbrush then colorreduce the area to 2 fixed colors (I also invented a method that works for any continuous range of colors, and blur tool works pretty well to smooth the not-yet-dithering out if needed). Then there's just a little cleanup to do.
If you could do that and get any substantial time gain from it, you may be overusing dithering.

Mind you, I have contributed a 'custom dithering patterns' patch to GIMP, which is included in the development version, so you can expect that I'll use dithering (mostly custom,stylistic) rather a lot. I used it yesterday working on my Fairlight picture as a texture hinting method (which is where I feel it belongs)

Perfect AA is usually fine. By perfect, I mean mathematically correct and having the controlpoints and endpoints of the curves being approximated aligned to pixel corners. Amiga Demoscene art often demonstrates this best. The opposite,also effective,  is the Wu method (google 'wu antialiased line draw') -- it is based on aligning pixel pairs that total to 100% opacity.

Is there anyone who overemphasizes selout? I haven't come across anyone.

I often don't see much USE in color restriction; in those cases it is overrated. It should be an essential part of the artwork just as every other part.

Animation is a tricky business and is the most UNDERrated -- even accounting for the fact it usually is considered quite cool.

Canvas size as in 'big is impressive' or 'restricted to small fixed size is impressive'? I like moderate things. Moderate in the proper meaning: carefully considered, rather than big, small, medium or whatever -- the size of the image should be suited to it's content. The immoderate is overrated.

Transparency is underrated. I like alpha transparency, but it's rarely used any well.

Black outlining (or indeed any discrete color outlining with constant line width) I consider as evidence of unfinishedness.

Palette is unimpressive, if it is using a difficult or odd palette that is meant.
I am impressed by the aptness of a palette. moderation, as I said.

i think one of the most overrated things is to have a black outline, which then is AAed into a nonexistant background.

Black outline. The amount of n000bs who draw black outlines and fill in with MS Paint pallette....   

I agree wholeheartedly.
I enjoy aa, but I also enjoy the definition of outlines. It depends on the artwork, I guess.

I noticed a lot of people also went for dithering in this poll.
I agree, it is overrated. It's as beautiful as the next aspect of pixel art, but it's not the be-all end all of it. I understand the usefullness when you've got restrictive color, but when you don't, it's fun to explore the spectrum. :D

Damn right. Lately i've seen far too many ditherrhea cases - every time it makes a little panda cry.

thanks

ceddo: It is an aesthetic and practical difference (unified 16color palette looks more integrated; using less colors means reduced time needed for animation.). And most of the platforms that pixel art is used commercially on have some technical restriction (eg. 15 colors plus transparency)

This topic isn't focusing on what should or shouldn't be used, but what is or isn't overrated by viewers.

Lol pwnage.

pillow shading

it might not be something to consider in this but there are a LOT of noobs who worship anyone who uses this style of pixel art