Retro Sprite Art

[Anonymous No.3292219]

There seems to be something very unique about a lot of sprite art for the earlier generations of gaming systems. They look very well done in ways that haven't really been replicated since.

Was wondering if anyone knew anything specific about sprite artists' processes back then. What did they do differently than people do today with all our conveniences? Are there well known sprite artists that designed for specific games? How come today's "pixel art" aesthetic rarely pays homage to the greats in this medium?

I know the excellent designer Kazuma Kaneko preferred spriting characters first before drawing them traditionally, before moving completely to digital media. I can't think of anyone else whose process I've heard about.

[Anonymous No.3292273]

>Be an actual artist
>???
>???
>PROFIT

[Anonymous No.3292307]

>>3292273
This.

Way back further, during the NES days, programmers used to have to manually put in the character art via code instead of just drawing it on-screen. Not sure when that changed.


But yeah, most "pixel-artistts" don't actually draw. They're not artists, they just go with what looks good enough.

[Anonymous No.3292309]

>>3292219
I recall a guy responsible for some of the spritework in Sonic 2 in Kid Chameleon describing these incredibly large machines or booths where they made "dot art".

take a look at some of these games and observe the color choices and minute details
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJ4twLJ-Jb0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1KCxsrt41W0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSzxzSNXTC8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H200yPXEbfU

[Anonymous No.3292313]

>>3292307
I should clarify they had to do that UP TO the NES days. There were video games before the NES.

[Anonymous No.3292417]

[Anonymous No.3292420]

[Anonymous No.3292582]

>>3292307
They also didn't have paper back then so it was impossible to plan the art before turning it into code.

[Anonymous No.3292658]

>>3292307
The fuck? No they didn't. There were spriting applications already mainstream in the industry by the NES where you could live edit sprites and autogenerate the binary data for them. Also, saying that they "put in the character art via code" is also misleading. Manually embedding a string of binary data in your source is tedious and error prone, but not "code" and it didn't mean that programmers were designing sprites or whatever the fuck you're trying to imply.

[Anonymous No.3292689]

>>3292219
Palettes, palettes, palettes. Proper color choice catches the eye better and makes movement more noticeable. It's the difference that makes modern games, with their emphasis on fancy lighting, look kinda dull in comparison. The human mind can only process so much at once, and after a point it just blurs together in the moment.

[Anonymous No.3292790]

>>3292219
Henk Nieborg who started in 1990 is an example of a pixelartist that got known by name. He mostly did games for those non-pc and non-mac computers at first but hes since done graphics like the backgrounds in Contra 4 and Shantae: Risky's Revenge.

[Anonymous No.3292952]

>>3292658
>>3292582
Sorry guys. I was using super mario maker's interviews as a source but then I realized they were talking about the levels, not the graphics.

Sorry.

[Anonymous No.3292973]

http://shmuplations.com/kazukoshibuya/

[Anonymous No.3293167]

>>3292219
>How come today's "pixel art" aesthetic rarely pays homage to the greats in this medium?

Probably because they're not paid, as talented, properly staffed or have the same level of experience as those people of the past.

Why does everyone believe Metal Slug is a standard that any amateur, especially one man armys, can meet? Did you fuckers never beat Metal Slug and not see all the names in the credits? SNK isn't the name of the guy doing every single game.

[Anonymous No.3293182]

Actually there are a lot of good artists, it is just that indie game developers don't want to include more staff. Some might say it is because they don't want to share earnings, some might say it is because artist won't help you without being paid first.

[Anonymous No.3293281]

>>3292219
What is called "pixel art" in today's indie games is way closer to 2600 stuff than NES.
most of sprites looks more like a glorified Pitfall char than a NES Batman, Kirby, an SMS Sonic, WBIII (that had correct left and right drawings FFS...), a MD Rocket Knight, or an SNES Actraiser II

[Anonymous No.3293765]

>>3292952
What a clumsy girl.

You're supposed to eat the ice cream before if melts everywhere. Silly girl.

[Anonymous No.3295000]

>>3292309
>>3292417
>>3292420
>>3292973
>>3292790
I think this stuff is all really cool, I'm really interested in the kinds of methods they had to use back then. You ask casual sprite artists today and it's all very simple, and their work shows it (for the most part) but I know it was a much bigger ordeal back then.
>>3293167
>Probably because they're not paid, as talented, properly staffed or have the same level of experience as those people of the past.
I do think this is probably right, the fact that big studios don't pool together art on it. However I don't expect one man or even a group to just hit Metal Slug quality. I think of modern games like "Gods will be watching" and how it's technically pixel art but like >>3293281 says it looks like glorified atari 2600 work.
>>3293281
I think that's a great way to put how I view a lot of modern sprite art, it's true that it mostly comes out looking blocky-yet-detailed, I dunno how to put it.
>>3292689
I also agree with you and I had not considered palettes. But now that I do think of it, I feel like it is much stronger in the past when limits enforced it, now that there's less inhibitions people just go crazy and overdo it. Unlike pic related, I've always loved capcom's work in general.

[Anonymous No.3295126]

>>3295000

>glorified atari 2600 work

Fuck, this the exact phrasing that I needed to describe my personal feelings on how 2D pixel games keep 'missing the mark'.

Thanks for that.

[Anonymous No.3295138]

>modern pixel art
>each "pixel" is fucking huge

[Anonymous No.3295361]

>>3295126
>>3293281 here
believe me, it took me a while to point why I don't like it like 8/16 bit graphics, and then it struck me, it's because it's closer to 2600 than it is to NES and beyond.

[Anonymous No.3295568]

>>3292273
The thing is that most beloved old-school sprites were not done by actual animators. At least, not by people who took into account actual animation principles. Most old-school sprites, while much better than the indie clique bullshit of today, still lacked proper animation 2D fighting games historically have often been an exception, but even some of those are very choppy in motion like BlazBlue and the 2D Guilty Gears.

As far as side-scrollers go I honestly can't think of many games with full cartoon or well animated anime-like animation like Earthworm Jim and Darkstalkers.

A super-underrated game in that regard is Super Tempo. It's stylistically fantsatic and has great animation to boot.

[Anonymous No.3295572]

>>3295568
I guess it's kinda 'style over substance' but it's not like the gameplay is bad or anything.

The first game on the 32X had good sprites but really poor art direction; the levels were awkward clusterfucks.

[Anonymous No.3295576]

>>3295568
That's awful. An artist expresses himself with his medium, he doesn't force his style on it.

[Anonymous No.3295608]

>>3295568
>The thing is that most beloved old-school sprites were not done by actual animators. At least, not by people who took into account actual animation principles

That's kind of amazing.

[Anonymous No.3295614]

>>3295572
forgot pic

[Anonymous No.3295616]

>>3295576
That's utterly nonsensical.

[Anonymous No.3295765]

>>3295568
>As far as side-scrollers go I honestly can't think of many games with full cartoon or well animated anime-like animation like Earthworm Jim and Darkstalkers.
MD Batman & Robin had animation drawn by a jp studio that was one of the Batman TAS studios. Actual, original cels were send to the game studio, and in an interview the guy responsible for adapting those said he put all his heart and passion adapting then for the game, given how rare and precious real cels are.

[Anonymous No.3295776]

>>3295765
>MD Batman & Robin had animation drawn by a jp studio that was one of the Batman TAS studios. Actual, original cels were send to the game studio, and in an interview the guy responsible for adapting those said he put all his heart and passion adapting then for the game, given how rare and precious real cels are.
And yet the game still looked like shit and had a big wet fart for the soundtrack. Top kek, Sega fans are the biggest cuck'd losers on the planet.

[Anonymous No.3295783]

>>3295616
I'm saying good pixel art should be agonized over every single pixel and it was back in the day. That Saturn game you posted is just making big enough sprites to use broad strokes. I bet them bitches ain't even scaled up.

[Anonymous No.3295786]

>>3295776
This is actually only true for the sega cd game

[Anonymous No.3295814]

>>3295776
Top kek indeed, Sega fans are TOP KEKS!

[Anonymous No.3295959]

>>3295568
>>3295614
PIZZAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

[Anonymous No.3297138]

>>3295568
>The thing is that most beloved old-school sprites were not done by actual animators.
I would actually really love specific confirmation of this, I mean I believe you and it makes sense but I'd love to hear insight on how animation translates to this specifically.
>>3295765
>ywn see this level of care for this sort of thing ever again
>>3292417
>>3292420
I was glad to see these because for a long time I couldn't tell if true sprite work was done straight into the screen with whatever software or if there was planning after all. Most friends I ask in order to get into it say the former, and I'm really a lot more comfortable with wanting to plan it out.
>>3295959
I want to kick Tempo's floppy butt. Not that hard though

[Anonymous No.3299683]

Shit like this is really impressive.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0k2sAR3hmE

Would be impressive if it weren't for the technical limitations.

[Anonymous No.3299768]

>>3297138
>I would actually really love specific confirmation of this, I mean I believe you and it makes sense but I'd love to hear insight on how animation translates to this specifically.

I don't think it makes a lot of sense, especially for the big games. NEVER believe anything like that you read on here, half the time people just make shit up. Sad but that's how it is.

[Anonymous No.3299895]

>>3295000
If you ask a GOOD modern spite artist, you will know they use similar process - draw a sketch, digitally resize it to the size of the sprite you want, then pixel on top of it.
I personally suggest games by Joakim "Konjak" Sandberg, Derek Yu and pretty much anything by Tribute Games studio to see examples of great-looking modern pixel-art.

[Anonymous No.3300019]

>>3293182
>some might say it is because artist won't help you without being paid first.

Can verify. Working on an indie game of my own, and finding a spriter has been fuck and a half.
I have been handling programming, writing (lol), level design, and sound design entirely by myself on a budget of ramen, and a couple pixel artists I've asked for quotes wanted up to $500.

I know art isn't exactly easy and papa's gotta eat, and I'm fine with that. But if I'm muscling this much and am getting shit all and artists want hundreds just for one job, then it's easier to just face that my game's going to look like shit.