Issue with rules
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=17151
Printed Date: 10 September 2025 at 10:27pm
Topic: Issue with rules
Posted By: 2blackbar
Subject: Issue with rules
Date Posted: 19 September 2013 at 1:21pm
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Hi, my sprite animations were rejected from pixeljoint gallery because im not using frame by frame drawing and basically my whole process is against some rules made up 20 years ago when 16 colours was limitation but now i dont know whats the use for such rules especially on forums where sprites are made for fun and not for paid game project with strict 16 colours per sprite rules because snes cant handle more... are the rules to use or not use this and that created to offend people like me and say "your time spend on animation is sh*tworhy anyways cause you used bicubic resize"? I dont think so, i know that you should not use resizing that create blur on sprites cause it looks bad. Im trying to be calm here but i do feel offended because i spent a lot of hours creating my animations and trying to make them look like sprites and there comes this guy who makes 16 colour pixel art for c64 and tells me i broke the rules i should be punished. Im sure no blurry resizing rule was made so animations dont look blurry and sh*tty but look again do my anims look blurry and sh*tty ? http://bwwd.deviantart.com/gallery - http://bwwd.deviantart.com/gallery   So now i cant share my sprite animations made with my own method possible only because software for making it exists only from a couple of years and people have no clue about it so rules to accept it dont even exist ? I like sprites and i dont really have skills to draw decent pixel art (pixel art is not sprite) i dont use patterns and my shading is very simple trying to mimic sprites. I dont have a problem telling people that i dont draw my sprites frame by frame but i do have a problem with 20 years old rules that offend people who spent hours on their animations and are rejected because it doesnt look sh*tty enough with 16 colour palette and 5 frames for walkcycle. What's the difference to anyone whats the process used for sprites especially if i dont submit to contests where colour amount is strict just for fun and challenge ? Outcome is what matters - not process, its not like animations are making themselves move and i dont have to do anything, im still learning but its sad that on one of the biggest sprite making forums im treated like that because i dont use the same tools even if my sprites do look like sprites and look fine ingame.  Yes im a bit pissed, or maybe im on wrong forum and people dont like sprites here? If so please recommend me some sprite making forums.  Rule number 6 is : Any art you post should be PIXEL ART! Pixel art implies that each pixel is placed by hand (no filters, paintbrushes, gradient fills, etc). But pixel art and sprites are not the same thing ! |
Replies:
Posted By: guskooyman
Date Posted: 19 September 2013 at 2:23pm
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Well these don't look like pixel art. I'm not sure what your process is, but it looks like you made a couple animated gifs of 3d models. The color count on both of those images is over 100. You may have worked hard on these, but the pixel joint gallery is strictly for pixel art. Maybe if you did something similar to the old Mortal Kombat games and reduced the color count and cleaned them up a bit then they'd be accepted. Even that can barely be considered pixel art though. |
Posted By: 2blackbar
Date Posted: 19 September 2013 at 3:03pm
Engine im using supports 256 colour sprites so im not worried about that, so im not gonna degrade my work just to fit within 20 years old rules made valid in 2013 for no reason, it is not pixel art and never meant to be, these are sprites, pixel art is something different.
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Posted By: yrizoud
Date Posted: 19 September 2013 at 6:06pm
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The topic of the PJ gallery is images and animations designed/refined at the pixel level. Your animations are great, but it's a different... art form. See (briefly) the topic http://www.pixeljoint.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=11299&PID=139320#139320 All these concerns : pixel clusters, manual anti-aliasing, subpixelling, avoiding jaggies and banding : Is it what you spent time on ? I'd say no, instead you focused in what's important in traditional animation (ie cartoon) : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/12_basic_principles_of_animation - Squash and stretch, anticipation, staging,... There's no problem with that. But don't try submit cutouts in the gallery, it was just not designed for it. |
Posted By: StoneStephenT
Date Posted: 19 September 2013 at 6:50pm
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1.) There is no set restriction on how many colors you can use in a given piece of pixel art (unless you're working on a piece for a weekly challenge). Pixel artists try to keep low color counts as both an exercise in minimalism and an attempt to emulate/pay homage to the pixel art of old. 2.) Pixel artists work on the individual pixel level. From what I understand of your post, you didn't make your animations by working with the sprites on an individual pixel level. While your images have admittedly impressive animation, they don't appear fit Pixeljoint's guidelines for what constitutes pixel art. 3.) Pixel art and sprites aren't the same thing, but you came to Pixeljoint, not Spritejoint, and Pixeljoint only accepts pixel art under a strict set of guidelines (which your sprites don't meet). |
Posted By: greenraven
Date Posted: 19 September 2013 at 7:02pm
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Originally posted by 2blackbar are rejected because it doesnt look sh*tty enough with 16 colour palette and 5 frames for walkcycle. Personally I'm a little insulted by that statement. The fact that you think something is sh*tty because it's not what you're used to. Some of us grew up with those "sh*tty" graphics and they have a nostalgic feel to us. That said I do mildly agree about the rules being too strict. If people want to use limitations they should, if they don't they shouldn't. But as it stands Pixel Joint is what it is, the rules are there. Just go along with them. The most important thing however is to stay calm and don't feel like your work is personally being insulted. It's not.  -------------  "pwnage comes with patience, practice and planning." ~ Jalonso 
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Posted By: 2blackbar
Date Posted: 20 September 2013 at 5:48am
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WOW nostalgia statements, I grew with them too and my first cpu was atari xl in 1989, i cheated my mom that i got good grades to play games on it so please dont, i dont get why people are so obsessed with using different method and call it cheating or whatever like if cpu did all the job. I guess if my sprites dont fit within 20 years old rules then i just get finger from whoever made stupid rules valid in 2013, thanks. Whatever ill write its useless cause looks like its like forum full of bots where one person made 20 year old rule and nothing can change it now. Look, im not skilled pixel artist but i learned how to make sprites so instead of giving me a finger and gtfout from gallery how about letting me share them so people could learn new techniqe to make them like i did, without it i wouldnt be able to make any animations and its a chance for people to create good looking animations for their games, all they need is one handdrawn picture of character bodyparts.Am i talking with real people or bots im not sure if im wasting my time. Is this about some competition all the time or something who did what with how many colours and dithering style, i was just looking for place to share sprites and if people asked i explained they arent pixel art. Pixel art:  Sprite:  In capcom they created outlines on paper first is it cheating too im not sure but it should be all pixel art by standards.  |
Posted By: StoneStephenT
Date Posted: 20 September 2013 at 6:37am
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Capcom may have drawn the lineart on paper first, but they still worked
with the sprites on an individual pixel level. They didn't just scan
full-color images in and downsample them. Pixel art is what the phrase implies it is: the practice of creating art with pixels. Back in the days when videogame systems had far less memory and far more restrictions than they do now, every pixel had to count. Even as the restrictions lessened and the memory grew, the same underlying idea remained: every pixel had to count. That one phrase guides the entire idea and practice of pixel art. Pixel art also embraces a minimalist mindset, in a way. Artists find ways to "do more with less", as the saying goes. Serious pixel artists create works today by embracing the limits that old-school programmers had forced upon them in their day.  Look at this piece I did ( http://www.pixeljoint.com/pixelart/78999.htm - http://www.pixeljoint.com/pixelart/78999.htm ). While I "cheated" in that I didn't pixel every last pixel on every single chest by hand (I used Copy-Paste, Color Select, and Fill tools), I did pixel the original chest from which all the others came, and I did so with an attention to the detail that I could get away with using about eight colors to "paint" on a 16x16 "canvas". I had to worry about what each individual pixel would do to the image as a whole. Every pixel had to count. No, sprites do not automatically count as pixel art. But some sprites do count as pixel art under the guidelines offered by Pixeljoint and commonly accepted by the majority of its members and other pixel art enthusiasts. Remember: you came to a pixel art enthusiast website, not a sprite enthusiast website. If the moderators and administrators don't believe your works count as pixel art, they have every right to refuse your works entry into the gallery. You can disagree with the ruling, but they do have the final say. As I said before, I think your sprites have amazing animation. They have a fluidity and "feel" that makes them a pleasure to look at. But, under the guidelines of Pixeljoint (and my own personal opinions), they don't qualify as pixel art. |
Posted By: yrizoud
Date Posted: 20 September 2013 at 9:39am
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2blackbar, stop being stubborn. You can make the nicest painting, photograph, movie, sculpture, or book, it still won't get "accepted" in PJ, because it's not the subject of this website. (even the forum part has no "other art forms" categories, while Pixelation has a random creative thread and a "Low-spec art" board) It's nothing against you in particular, many people before you have already misunderstood the limits of the gallery. > In capcom they created outlines on paper first is it cheating too What's important is that in this Little Red Riding Hood, somebody spent the time to manually fix each line, surface and pixel (look at any individual frame, and for example the texture of the basket). Pixel art. Would belong in the gallery, no problem. |
Posted By: 2blackbar
Date Posted: 20 September 2013 at 10:46am
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What about this, is this animation good to go to the gallery or no because i see software rotation not made by hand , well i am stubborn because its about spreading my work and self promotion, if people dont see your work they dont know you even exist, i dont know if thres other big community where sprites could be shared in gallery like here but i would gladly join them if im refused to show my work here because i dont follow pixel art rules even if sprites and pixel art are not the same thing, i start with lineart too you know using my tablet. 
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Posted By: greenraven
Date Posted: 20 September 2013 at 11:58am
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You really need to calm down. Hostility isn't going to make things any better.
------------- "pwnage comes with patience, practice and planning." ~ Jalonso
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Posted By: yrizoud
Date Posted: 20 September 2013 at 12:09pm
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This one is in the gallery : http://www.pixeljoint.com/pixelart/49832.htm It's often considered borderline, but you'll note that in this case : - 100% of the individual pieces are pixel art. They were designed with a specific size and orientation, with clean and sharp edges. - Each frame is hugely fixed up at the pixel level. For example : 1) the left gatling gun : the 7 tips stay round throughout the rotation. No rotation algorithm would have preserved these 4x4 circles, he had to re-drew and place them manually on each frame, selecting the best integer position. 2) The black dither pattern of the backpack : automatic rotation would destroyed it, he had to redraw it. I see you already have DA, it's very likely that other people who do your kind of animation use it. Here, the only links I can find are: - A 1-year-old question http://www.pixeljoint.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=15057 - 2 pieces in the gallery by http://www.pixeljoint.com/p/7791.htm - DarkfalzX (both bosses for Legend of Iya) - http://www.pixeljoint.com/pixelart/9016.htm - one piece by Shoba |
Posted By: StoneStephenT
Date Posted: 20 September 2013 at 12:47pm
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2blackbar, I think you have a fundamental misunderstanding of how PJ handles sprites that has led to confusion. PJ accepts sprites made with pixel art techniques. While artists can draw out the sprite (and however many frames of animation they wish) beforehand and (as DarkfalzX must've done) use specialized tools to handle complex animations, they must still work with the sprite on an individual pixel level. Sprites not made with pixel art techniques (which still count as sprites no matter what you might think anyone here has said to the contrary) don't belong on Pixeljoint. Your sprites look great, but you don't seem to have made them with traditional pixel art techniques, so they don't fit in with the Pixeljoint guidelines. |
Posted By: AlexHW
Date Posted: 20 September 2013 at 1:10pm
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Originally posted by 2blackbar well i am stubborn because its about spreading my work and self promotion, if people dont see your work they dont know you even exist, i dont know if thres other big community where sprites could be shared in gallery like here but i would gladly join them if im refused to show my work here If you're relying on one website to publicize yourself then that's not a smart method. Go out and find those other websites that accept your work, and build a larger network. |
Posted By: 2blackbar
Date Posted: 20 September 2013 at 5:33pm
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Yeah but im also interested with other people's sprites and pixel art, but i cant even have my own gallery here.
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Posted By: greenraven
Date Posted: 20 September 2013 at 6:23pm
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Check out http://www.pixeljoint.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=1623 - this topic . It's for things that won't be allowed into the gallery. If you want, try a pixel art tutorial. You can slowly start building up your gallery that way. ------------- "pwnage comes with patience, practice and planning." ~ Jalonso
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Posted By: jalonso
Date Posted: 20 September 2013 at 8:00pm
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When this issue arises. I like to say that the MOMA would reject DaVinci's MonaLisa for no other reason than its not Modern. The same applies to these hybrid pieces. ------------- |