Why We Sprite?

[Koopaul]

There are arguments going on in another topic that I (of course) started on this community's views on spriting. What does it mean to you?

Do you strive to be better artists?

Are you working towards making materials for bigger things?

Or are you just doing this for fun?


My opinion? I started spriting because I thought sprites were just the building blocks to something greater. I always wanted to makes sprites for a fan game or video or whatever someone needed them for.

I think that's great and I want more people to do that. Make pixels that are useful!

Well I must admit I started up trouble because (while Meta's stuff is nice) it isn't erm... useful. Yeah I know it's a terrible thing to say! I don't really care too much for big glorious pixel arts. I'd rather see people working on something that can be put on the Custom Section. Something useful. And when I saw someone who had the potential to do that I had hope! That's probably why I blew my top and I'm sorry.

The fact that A. some members scare people away or B. convince them to make the Pixel Mona Lisa means that we really don't see anyone trying to make new stuff for the Custom Section.

So yeah I was kind of being selfish, but now I realize people must choose what they want to do with pixels!

Um sorry to ramble off like that but I wanted to get that off my chest.

[UnHolyDarkth]

I sprite due to my passion for spriting (I've been doing it for 7 years now) but critique is also appreciated

[Strasteo]

Long time no post, thought I'd give my thoughts~

My initial reasons for spriting were to make sprite comics since I was really into comics back then (I still am into comics, though my tastes probably have changed for the better). I thought it'd be fun, really.

Well, needless to say my motivations changed and I haven't looked back. I got introduced to Pixel Joint two years back and that's when I really started to try and hone my pixel skills. I scoured websites for tutorials, practiced, and then I joined here a little while back to try and improve more.

But now, as I enter my senior year of high school I find myself wanting to get into game creation as my livelihood. Spriting, to me, was once something that I just did because I liked to draw. But couple that with MS Paint and video games and it just grew into my motivations now; I want to get better at spriting so I can create a convincing, memorable world for people to play in and enjoy. Not to mention I have a nostalgic fondness for these kind of graphics and it makes me feel good thinking about becoming as good as those that have done this before me.

[Koopaul]

Me I'm going to try... once again... to be less of a pain and work on my goal of getting more people to work on something for the site by focusing on my Banjo-Kazooie project. Even if we get one good sheet for the site I'll be happy.

[Chris2Balls [:B]]

I sprite because there's nothing more satisfying to me than to lay down some pixels which look good at representing what I want: I see it mostly as a tweaking game, where all the details count.

[Previous]

Most of the sprites I make are for use in one of my various games or apps. A smaller number is for tSR competitions or events, though I haven't participated in any recently.
I rarely ever did something that didn't serve some sort of further "purpose". Mostly because I never take time to make something just to make something so I rather make something for something else I do to make something.
Previous master logic.

[NICKtendo DS]

I sprite because it's fun to do. Been doing it for around a decade now, where it started as making art for my Game Maker games.
Pixelart is part of something I can express my creativity with, along with drawing, digital painting and composing. I love to create.

[RokuGurin]

I sprite because it's fun to do.

I think many people here forgot this, as evident in Nayr's topic.

[Kami]

I try to sprite evereything under the sun(Kinda)
I think it's fun to try something you've never done before, in which it makes you scratch your head for a moment.

[Gors]

I for one, sprite as a mean of improvement. It's like a personal challenge for myself. It also works as some kind of stress-reliever for me. There's something in placing those pixels that makes me feel really good.

So, I don't care if my work will have any use or not. Those big pixelarts I made don't have any specific purpose. But I enjoy making them. They push my techniques to its limits, and I always learn something by doing them. Sure, making useable graphics seem less of 'wasting time', but any work you do counts as experience imo.

Also, I shouldn't forget: I do those sprites for fun, too. Making sprites and improving as an artist doesn't exclude the fun from it.

[Zac]

When referring to Nayr's topic I think the better question isn't "Why why sprite?" but rather "What is the goal of TSR and all its related boards as a community?". For a long time, even in the pixeltendo days, Spriting and Pixel Art has been treated as a place to come to improve as an artist, and I feel the forums have kinda been shaped by this. But as the forums are directly related to the main site now it would seem like the goal would shift from being a place to improve as an artist to a place to post and get opinions on custom pixels for games/comics/reference/fun/what ever you use sprites for. As a spriter's resource tsr excels when it comes to archiving and as a reference for people to use and learn from ingame sprites, but it fails as a resource for people when people come to get opinions and are met with tsr users questioning there artistic integrity. This is because pixeling isn't necessarily a form of art. Pixeling is a method of design. It can be used to create art (like everything else in the world) but by judging everyone as an artist (or anyone from that matter) shouldn't be the goal of the board. The difference between a good resource and what we have in the spriting and pixel art board is that a proper resource gives the nessesary information to create functioning designs (this often includes alot of artistic concepts yes). But it seems like the functionality of the users sprites for there goal isn't the criteria you guys rate sprites by, but rather if the sprites appeal to you as art .

[Nindo]

It seems as if many people want to shred away pixel art's kind of soul-improving characteristic, much like any other art-form has. Sometimes art is not done for fun, nor for any foreseeable practical use, nor to portray any sort of message, and not even to pigeon-hole oneself in simply improving oneself in an art-form, but as a way of improving oneself in a metaphysical sense. I, for one, am of this opinion. Why in the world would we even tag on the word "Art" to Pixel, if we did not in some way figure that we would be setting up the foundation for pixels to become something more than just a utilitarianist's tool? If we are going to abandon this reasoning as a community, then we should at least have the decency to remove "Art" from Pixel, so that we don't further confuse the current and future patrons of the site.

Please don't misunderstand me here. Practicing this art-form for fun, practicality's sake, or to improve in the art-form are all valiant goals in themselves, but if we forget and/or destroy the inherent foundation of this practice as "Art" then we are doing a great disservice to Pixel Art.

[Gors]

In addition of my point of view already pointed out in my first post, I think that this board's main purpose is indeed to give criticism to the newcomers here in order to improve. If one decides to join with the sole intent to showcase himself, then the ideal would be not to have registered in the first place. But if this situation happens, and the OP doesn't wish to improve, then tough luck, let him be stuck "forever". You can't help someone that doesn't want help, all you'll get is frustration in both ends because the time you spent writing valid c+c will be batted right away, and additionally this will completely kill any hope the OP had in making another kind of stuff.

So, everyone has the rights to come and go. I don't think we are going to bar people without artistical skills, but then that means they won't be of any use in this community. Fair trade with me. This also avoids uneeded acidic comments and topic derailings like what happened in that thread. Spend time with the artistic-oriented people, and leave the show-off people away. They'll eventually notice what this community is about, and either leave or start improving himself.

[Chris2Balls [:B]]

Pixel art is in between applied arts and decorative arts, there's no denying that. You cannot deny the importance that people attach to aesthetics, either.
I think what distinguishes the Pixel Art board from the rest of the forums is what is posted: it is not limited to ripped assets. This is one of the reasons why I think members encourage custom work.

Unlike edits, you don't start custom sprites from an existing base that isn't yours. You can imitate a game's sprite style whilst working from scratch.
I think what is expected from this board is quality. Quality is delivered through skill.

Most turn to custom sprites for quality, but I think what is often forgotten is that quality can be found in edits.
Unfortunately, there is a preconception that edits are poorly executed. Why is that? It's because the editor relies on the quality of the existing sprite to assure the quality of his edit, which does not always match up. Why does the editor do this? I think it's because to him/her, the base is a quality guarantee.

This is why introducing these users to basic pixel art and drawing techniques through custom work will reinforce their skill, so they can improve the quality of their work, may it be custom or edited. That's why I believe this attitude should be pursued; if it does not interest those involved, then so be it. They were given an opportunity to improve generally as a technician.

[Mutsukki]

One thing I wanted to say about the other thread, is that it kinda stopped being about Nayr pretty fast and more about how things work around here.

I don't exactly do pixelart, but my first impression when joining, was that improving and critique were taken seriously here, which is pretty cool. This isn't being elitist, there's no kind of gallery, no nothing on the forum (that I know of), I can only see that as pushing other people to work harder and that is not necessarily regarding them as artists who want to work hard on it, but rather doing what a forum is supposed to do? I mean, how weird would it be to post a history of some kind in a literature forum and never expect any critique to improve? Improving is as fun as making the thing.

I don't think it's right to classify anything other than sprite sheets as "not useful", I believe that to be a really shallow way of thinking (no offense, really). Sprite sheets have pratical uses, but other forms of pixelart are more comparable to the uses of art. Like Gors said, it makes him relaxed and it's a fun passtime, that's a use. It can be used to inspire people, that's another point. I don't know if that has to do with TSR being a resource, because then, what the forum should actually enforce is the creation of edits or sheets in other styles, rather than custom work. But even then, pre-existing sprites are also used to learn how to make customs, by studying what the artist does that you like or not.

And then there's what makes me confused about the Nayr case in some sort. The site does have a custom section, so...isn't it alright for him to make that? What if he was asking for critique on a soon to be submitted to the custom board piece? If he had made at least one piece that wasn't FE related, people wouldn't find this so bad, I believe. It seems wrong to critique him for doing only FE, but it also seems wrong that he's stuck on the style forever. We could leave that alone, but since the spriting section has become somewhat of an art forum, it would kinda contradict with it's purpose. Maybe making a clear difference between these two parts of the forum? But then, what would stop people from posting terrible edits and recolors under the banner of "I don't want to improve, this is fun"?

Oh, another thing I felt like I needed to add, is that sugar-coating isn't a good thing at all, but being overly harsh makes people really unmotivated and insecure about posting their art and waiting for critique. I think this is what Zac means with "regarding everyone as an artist", some people are just starting, or just stuck on doing the same thing, some time baby steps are needed to make these people come out and do greater stuff. "okay but being harsh impacts people a lot more and make them improve", well yeah, but you can also discourage potential artists, and "that's okay, the path of an artist is a hard one" isn't exactly a good answer. A balance between critique and how angry (or way too nice) it can sound, should be achieved. You can critiscise somebody's terrible anatomy differently than "this is the worst, do you even know how the human body works?". People have their own personality and way of doing things, I get that, but you're dealing with another living being, not some robot.