About what to use and what not to use in pixel art
Printed From: Pixel Joint
Category: The Lounge
Forum Name: Resources and Support
Forum Discription: Help your fellow pixel artists out with links to good tutorials, other forums, software, fonts, etc. Bugs and support issues should go here as well.
URL: https://pixeljoint.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=11834
Printed Date: 11 September 2025 at 3:55am
Topic: About what to use and what not to use in pixel art
Posted By: s0nlxaftrsh0ck
Subject: About what to use and what not to use in pixel art
Date Posted: 11 March 2011 at 1:37am
| I was reading an entry from somewhere that pixel art purists don't really use line tools and circle tools? Is it faux pas to actually use those tools? Or are there any tools that i REALLY should not use when making pixel art? I guess what i'm really getting at is i don't want to make something and have someone go "you cheated using this tool! That's not true pixel art!" And then i get shamed like The Prince from the King of All Cosmos from katamari...lol. |
Replies:
Posted By: jeremy
Date Posted: 11 March 2011 at 2:03am
| Both are fine; can't imagine doing iso without the line tool. Circle tools are "allowed", but they often aren't very nice (jagged edges etc.) compared to hand-pixelled ones :) |
Posted By: s0nlxaftrsh0ck
Date Posted: 11 March 2011 at 2:35am
|
ahhh very much true. But with the jaggies you can usually clean them up right? For circles i usually try to go for how many vertical lines i have on each side of the circle (example: 4) i'd do 3 diagonal pixels and on the 4th i'd do a flat row. It's slow...but it gets the job done. Though on ellipses i haven't tested it XD. Hm...welp if the line tool is all all right my productivity just jumped up 15% lol. Thanks for the reply =)! |
Posted By: skamocore
Date Posted: 11 March 2011 at 2:55am
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Have a read of http://www.pixeljoint.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=11299 - this thread :)
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Posted By: s0nlxaftrsh0ck
Date Posted: 11 March 2011 at 3:15am
| i was lurking around a bit and i did spot the noob tutorials and i will DEFINITELY highly be going back to these very often XD. Thank you very much. |
Posted By: tanuki
Date Posted: 11 March 2011 at 9:17am
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I've only messed with it a little, but photoshop has a vector line pen tool that's kind of nice. You can draw some bezier curves and then stroke it with the pencil tool at whatever the current size is (like 1 pixel). I'm sure a few people would be appalled at doing that.
I think the point is that as long as you're controlling what you're doing and pixels aren't being placed/changed by the computer's decision rather than your own then you're probably fine. Even if you're using a tool that's slightly less exact than placing each pixel by hand you can always manually edit whichever pixels you don't like, such as to smooth the curve on a circle. Actually when you think about it even having a pencil tool that's larger than 1 pixel doesn't place them 100% within your control, especially at the ends of the lines. So you just go back and correct whichever pixels are a bit rough. |
Posted By: greenraven
Date Posted: 11 March 2011 at 5:52pm
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"Pixel art purists", I'm glad you said that. We have had a number of old-timers from back in the day encounter some friction because of 'rules' that they never heard of. Making pixel art and making pixels that will get into the gallery can be two very distinct things, just keep that in mind. I'm done being the rain at the parade, resume whatever. :P -------------  "pwnage comes with patience, practice and planning." ~ Jalonso 
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Posted By: s0nlxaftrsh0ck
Date Posted: 12 March 2011 at 4:43am
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Originally posted by tanuki I've only messed with it a little, but photoshop has a vector line pen tool that's kind of nice. You can draw some bezier curves and then stroke it with the pencil tool at whatever the current size is (like 1 pixel). I'm sure a few people would be appalled at doing that. I think the point is that as long as you're controlling what you're doing and pixels aren't being placed/changed by the computer's decision rather than your own then you're probably fine. Even if you're using a tool that's slightly less exact than placing each pixel by hand you can always manually edit whichever pixels you don't like, such as to smooth the curve on a circle. Actually when you think about it even having a pencil tool that's larger than 1 pixel doesn't place them 100% within your control, especially at the ends of the lines. So you just go back and correct whichever pixels are a bit rough. I "kinda" have some practice with that vector pen tool from my photoshop class i had awhile back and my prof instilled this into us about change and break. And baseball throwing curves. As silly as he explained it. It was the most memorable lesson he taught me in there XD. But yes, very true...just as long as i have full control over what i place and fix up what the computer made i should be okay. Originally posted by greenraven "Pixel art purists", I'm glad you said that. We have had a number of old-timers from back in the day encounter some friction because of 'rules' that they never heard of. Making pixel art and making pixels that will get into the gallery can be two very distinct things, just keep that in mind. I'm done being the rain at the parade, resume whatever. :P Well i'll definitely be practicing my skill before my attempt at putting anything up in the gallery. I tried doing that at 8bitcollective and basically got trolled a lot >_>;. It really sucked and put me in a funk of not wanting to draw anymore. But maybe i should still put them up in the gallery to get some feedback on to what to improve? |
Posted By: cure
Date Posted: 12 March 2011 at 9:35am
| if you want to hone your pixel art skills, the WIP forum is the place for feedback and critique. we'll gladly help anyone making an honest effort to learn the art. |