Philosophy Of Sprite Creation

[SeFoNo]

**Note to any who may take any offense to this title, I am only proposing my own ideas, and am under no circumstance saying this is in any way factual. This is my view.**

I started spriting in....2004, '05? I'm not quite sure, but I've gone from naïve kid to a neutral, yet confused teen. I started spriting after reading Bob and George. Simple, elegent, and then I created things which would make most spriters die from laughter. The norm. Y'know?

Well, after a few years, I've found to create things for people I like, or for some personal reason. I want to show the world how I think.

**WARNING: EXTREME PHILOSIPHISING BELOW.ENTER AT YOUR OWN RISK**

After just a short metaphorical stroll through the site fourms, I've seen the critics. No offense to these people, but I believe that each style, each pixel layered onto another, expresses a different layer of a man's mind. Spriting, usually, is just a way to express that just because something is impossible, it dosen't mean we can't believe in it! Impossibly innocent chibis, absurd acts of pure willpower, it's just the belief that the impossible is, relatively, a matter of mind.
Think about it- Link, able to overcome an evil lord with only a couple of creepily identicalold men, one old woman, and a one-sentence merchant! Sonic - When was the last time you saw someone bleed? They went super-saiyan after that, and restored peace!
But, undeniably, there is always a darker side - Remember all those goombas you stomped? The same ones you could talk to and befriend?

Here's to you, critics- We bare our souls, and you respect that. Looks too much like something from the Gameboy Camera? I've been trying to make something look like that for weeks! There's no right, no wrong, just souls. Torment, Joy, Happiness, damn, even lust. It's not that we aren't doing it right, we're just finding new ways to do it. Recolors...well, even those have a color which came from hundreds of possibilities, right? So, in final, don't discount anythin' as no quality. If the final looks nothing like the original, it's lost it's purpose.

[Gors]

well, first of all let me tell you how your ideas are idiotic


We are here to give criticism. That's what tSR (now VG resource) is about. People make sprites, people give feedback to said sprite, people fix sprites. That's how it worked since we were dwelling in a dark place named Pixeltendo.

So, if you think that criticisms are bad, or limits creativity in any way, then this place is not for you. Art is indeed a representation of one's mind, and we do respect that. Each one has their styles and all , and we all can learn from each other. Waht's wrong, though, is to use this excuse "it's art, it's my style, it's what I'm thinking" as a way to not fix things (because fixing things mean you need to acknowledge you were wrong, you need to study more to fix it and actually fix it. That's a lot of work, and I could possibly get away by doing backpedals like that, right? BUT THAT'S WRONG)

Like art schools/galleries/clubs, we are ok if your art looks ugly or even subpar. But then we'll give criticism, tell why it looks bad and convince you (not force you) to try a better style, or study more. Art is not easy as you think. You need to study a lot of theories, coloring, line control, practice it a lot to produce something nice, especially pixelart. Pixelart, in addition to the traditional art techniques, involve more technical stuff such as limited palette, pixels as your smallest element, anti-alias, and other things.

Jaggy lines are wrong. So is pillowshading, lack of contrast, lack of hueshift and/or color theory. So is horrid anatomy and character design. Those are not styles. Those are not 'manifestations of people's ideas'. That is straight out mistakes which need to be pointed, corrected and avoided in new works. Pixelart is YOU making the hard work of placing the dots and seeing the magic happen; it's not color-reducing a photo, it's not scribbling with MS Paint tools, it's not pillowshading every square inch of the sprite, or grabbing an already made thing and recolor it. So please, stop saying that's something valid because it is not.

I do believe in you that one should portray his feelings in his art, whatever it is. The only difference is that in addition to that, we also reach for technical advancements in art, we want to go there and do better, we want to aim higher and higher and still keep trying because that's what an artist does. We will always suck forever, but that's what motivates us to study anatomy, color theory, anti-aliasing techniques, animations and tilesetting more and better. Don't talk small about spriting, because I personally take it seriously and it hurts me to see someone thinking this way.

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Addendum: Some avant-garde art such as Dadaism and Cubism revolves around getting already made elements and editting them with collages, small strokes or stuff. But before using it in your defense to edits, recolors and subpar art, let me tell you that Dadaism was created in order to criticize people who cared about pretty art even in the middle of wars and armed conflicts. They were created to break the wall of 'pretending' everything was okay, like the pretty art represented, to show people what the world was actually living through: a struggle of emotions, people being killed, cities being bombarded. As far as I know, no spriter will get a Sonic sprite, recolor it and blame it on the war between country A and B. You simply have no reason to do "crap" art. Just accept the fact that you are bad, and get better. After all, we all were bad at the start, and the only way to get better at something is by sucking hard at doing it.

PS: Finally, in no way I despise edits, recolors, jaggy lines or the like. They are usually your first step in everything, and I'll congratulate you if you make something terrible, but 100% yours. Though, I will not accept them if you stick to it in a way to not get better. Humans stagnate very easily, and it's our job to shake people up and show that pixelart is more than making webcomics, recolors, pillowshading and banding.

[Koopaul]

That's how it worked since we were dwelling in a dark place named Pixeltendo.

I hate how I am the only one who's been around long enough to remember Pixeltendo as a nice happy place... for a little while.

Anyway the way this community critiques is a lot better than it used to be. The key is to point out what they need to fix but put in some encouragement in as well.

However I'm still trying to figure out a way to encourage more people to sprite...

[BobbyLala]

If the final looks nothing like the original, it's lost it's purpose.

The critique here is not about destroying the soul of art, it's about improving technical skill. Having ideas is the place to start but if you can't draw them decently, isn't that depressing?
If people improve their understanding of form, colour theory etc. surely they can convey the meaning of their art better.

i have no idea what you're talking about with the goombas and whatnot though. that's not philosophy.