it cannot be overstated how valuable ur analysis and tutorial series are for inexperienced artists. all the work and love and effort put into these are very very appreciated!! 💛
This guy is the bob ross of pixel art. Calming voice and the art begins "okay, drawing some shapes, I got it". Look away for a few minutes, look back "HOLY CRAP IT'S A POKEMON OR ZELDA BACKSPLASH"
every time i watch adam's videos I crave to improve my pixel art... i really really really love both the systematic approach to art and of course the insane level of skill he demonstrates on every video
How is your art going? Maybe you would like to join the creative competition of Faketown that is going weekly. The NFTs will be in the UGC collection on rarible and its possible to be minted for the game.
The weirdest thing about this perspective to me is the characters. The world is usually drawn at an angled view, but the characters tend to be full side or front views. I think that is one of the trickier things to make work.
It's weird. Like the older Pokemon games are a great example, because when characters are facing up (away from the camera), they're almost always angled in a way where you can see part of the top of their head. When they face down (towards the camera), you have a full frontal. You aren't seeing any part of the top of their heads. It's odd that it somehow looks so natural that people don't question that more, but it's basically achieving experientially consistent FEELING perspective by having different objects in the game using objectively different perspectives. When you really sit with that, it doesn't seem like it should work. When you sit and stare at it from that frame of reference, it can start to look like it doesn't work. But when you just take it as it is without questioning too much, it works just fine.
Couldn't agree more. For my eyes, it just doesn't fit. Eastward is beautiful, but the characters are side scrolling. Weird. Yeah, I know this is the standard, but it shouldn't be.
I didn't really notice this until recently, when I replayed Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap. Interiors in this game to me seemed like an extreme example of what you're saying
These past days I've been struggling with topdown tilesets (trying to create one for my game). So this video comes right in time for me. Thank you so much your tutorials and analysis, they are always top notch
One of the most important things as well, in making pixel art for top down games, is the direction from which the light is traveling. So you would create a theoretical light source, and make sure that the lighting is all coming from that direction, and casting shadows from that direction. Love the video, thanks so much for the tutorial and analysis. I feel like I learned a lot about contrasting for the different reasons you pointed out. Thanks so much for the video!
YESSSS!! Oh this is the pixel class I was hoping to find!! :D I have recently been getting into pixel art for a possible experimental project and I am so glad you did a video on top down! * ^ * This style of game has always been a huge inspiration for me and I really hope to be able to create something with that kind of feel to it. Thank you so much for the Pixel Art Class tutorials they really have been invaluable
These style videos are so awesome. I love the comparison of art styles. I've been waiting for someone to do this kind of thing as I'm too lazy to analyse it all myself.
I've recently decided to pick up game development, and pixel art has always fascinated me since the early Harvest Moon/Final Fantasy days. These videos have probably been the most helpful in learning Pixel Art.
5:00 I get what you're saying about the way ALttP very elegantly handles communicating grass visually to the player without visual noise, for sure. It's one of my favorite games ever, and I love the art style it uses. However it is also a very early SNES game, and right above it there are a couple of examples of later games for the system (Secret of Mana/Seiken Densetsu 2 and especially Chrono Trigger) which very successfully do show detailed grass and foilage without sacrificing contrast or causing any other problems, that I can see, anyway. This is certainly also to some extent a matter of personal taste, I would think; as in, some people are more drawn to 'clean' looking styles while others prefer more 'chaotic' or busy/detailed styles, however one wants to look at it. I think it's not that uncommon in JRPGs of that era to have the horizon visible in the background... usually not as extravagantly as that, generally just in mountain scenes as a way to imply elevation and view to the area, but it isn't that uncommon in that specific genre.
This video was so helpful and informative, thank you so much! I've been trying to get into top down pixel art for game development and information like this is invaluable. I know top down isn't your go to, but I hope you consider doing more of these videos in a top down style. Character frames are especially challenging for me right now. Would love to see a video discussing that.
Yes please! More like this! I love top down and you've given me a huge headstart and inspiration! Would love to see how you would then go from this to a tileset! My artistic capability is lacking so I need to catch it up to my programming level :P
I never did 2D Art greater than sketches for my 3D Art. This analysis helps me alot to up my 2D Art. Thank you! Very interesting to see your perspective on Color. I learned a ton!
Adam you are awesome you have no idea how long I've been waiting for you to do a top-down pixel art tutorial😆 I know you've done a few top-down things, and that there are other teachers who do top-down tutorials but your art style has a professional quality that I have really been wanting to emulate. Keep up your awesome videos thank you so much!
This is the best! So much info in here. I'll probably rewatch sections of it a few times as I go. This is invaluable for the game I'm working on. Thank you!
I have improved a lot with your tutorials....i tried pixelart before im good now! i improved a lot in pixelart but also i fnd that your tips can work really on digital art ...thank you adam you are inspiring💓
In Cadence of Hyrule theres definitely some sort of lighting trick going on, all the sprites cast an angular shadow and Im pretty sure its automated. Would love a tutorial on how to do something like this.
Just starting out with pixel art, I feel like the thing I most often overlook is the environment design. Thanks for this resource, I'm still learning artistic principle on the whole, so watching through your reasoning while you work is really helpful for learning how to get into the artistic mentality
Could you make a similar type of video for creating top down urban environments, like a more or less modern town or city. Pokemon has some good examples but I still struggle with making such an environment look relatively realistic but not too boring and monotone. I think this is a good video, but I feel like there's already a lot of tutorials covering these types of lush fantasy environments...
Vary building heights, don't be afraid of color, and remember not to make every building a box. Rooftop air conditioning units and water tanks are good for breaking up the monotony.
Your videos are very inspirational and pedagogical. I've learned a lot from the them. Love the minute detail focus in everything, whether it comes to application of different techniques, composition, or how to approach all the different kinds of challenges one can be faced with. Basically: getting a glimpse into how you think when creating pixel art. Thank you.
9:48 OMG! THAT'S ON PURPOSE!?!?!? So, growing up I always noticed when items in movies and shows were movable. They were in a different artstyle, and I wondered why they could never look the same. Was coming up as a kid with theories anout animation physics, where I assummed it was physically impossible to match color on separate objects in animation. (I was single digit. Dragon Fable and other BattleOn games would blow my mind later. Gifted in pattern recognition, but was ignorant or oblivious to everything else, lol)
Adam its so cool to see how much your channel has grown i haven't made it to your stream in probably 8 or 9 months so coming back and checking out your channel was exciting to see how much it has grown so happy for you and hope to pop in on some live streams soon! Youre the man i hope all is well!
AAAAY I was hesitant to click on to your vid as I needed to learn q lot of other aspect of unity before this but now clicking on you im 10 minutes in and I'll be sifting through your work through the coming weeks
Something you didn’t mention in the eastward screenshot but I noticed while you were talking about it was there’s almost a vignette effect without having any kind of filter. I love that😍 just a well crafted game visually
Man I love your channel, you explain the topics of the channel so well and expertly. Thanks so much Adam! You definitely deserve all subscribers both Twitch and RU-vid Subscribers you get!
Thank you very very much for making this video. It is very informative and inspirational for my N00B pixel artistry. I plan to make top-down games at first, so this video is bullseye material. Wrote 4 pages of notes watching this. Thanks again mate! Big respect :)
As a living art-focused silicon-brained fossil, watching this wasn't so much informative and necessarily new as it was just incredibly inspiring. It was a joy to see someone not only so expertly doing something they clearly love but also being so tremendously good at explaining while doing. This looks like a fantastic channel and I'll definitely be watching more!
Reeallyy good class. Currently I'm doing a non pixel art game and even though this video helps me quite a lot, love it! Thank you very much, I think you saved me many hours of headache😄
working on making my own game and since I am broke decided to learn Pixel art this was a very helpful video and I will definitely be looking at your other videos as I learn Pixel Art
17:50 It's about the feeling those different colours invoke. One, like you said, is a summer beach feeling, the other is a grim and grimey dirty rock face that could lead to a creepy dangerous cave. Remember these textures are likely going to be used across a whole game, so will have to invoke different feelings when combined with other textures. The rock face is clearly designed so it can be used in combination with a bright palette or a spooky cave entrance pallet without ruining the effect of either. I feel like (so far) you have forgotten to mention movement. Things that move catch our eye far better than any amount of contrast. And we'll move around a world, so transitions between very different colour pallets will be necessary - like the rock face.
You have a great video here! I wish I had found something similar when I was starting to create my game, but even though I already have a bit of experience, I learned a lot from this video. Thank you 👏🏽😁
please make more videos on this perspective, it would really really help me and alot of other people. There aren't many tutorial videos on this perspective.
i hope to eventually publish a videogame, and making my own art is a big part of that. i'm not great at it, but i just need to practice more and learn more. your videos have really been helping with the latter
Something interesting to note is how with pixel art it's much harder to make softer edges. Every part is sharp and detailed even the places where details are blended together in a single color.
Stardew Valley's color palette stands out so much to me compared to all the other games on the first grid view. All the other games seem to have "blend together pastel colors". I'm not sure what it is. Saturation, vibrancy?
I really like your work here. I hope I can get to your level some day, but I don't have nearly enough time. I am excited though to try a cyber-punk futuristic styled look.
i find the very contrasty look of stardew valley fatiguing. muted color pallets feel comfy to me. which i find odd, because stardew valley is supposed to be a relaxing game.
I really like this tutorial but I do not agree with the brightness observation when talking about the tower and the lower level rocks that have shading at 16:01. I searched real life images and found several examples where the tower is fully bathed in consistent sunlight but the lower street levels all have major shadows on all the buildings because they are lower and much narrower, just like the rocks that are on a different level, the sun does not reach the lower part of the rocks. To me this made it much easier to grasp that there was a little cove bit on a lower level 😊
Top down games: Hey lets use asset density and noise to tell players they can't go in an area without having to spell it out. 2d side scrollers: What if the player could pass through this part of the wall that's been totally solid up to this point and has no visual difference from the rest of the wall in order to get a secret power-up?? Thanks, Megaman, for making me spend an extra 15 minutes on each mission sliding down all of the walls and repeatedly dying by jumping off platforms hoping another one below that I couldn't see would break my fall...
Greate video! I'd like to see exaclty how much impact does the "making shadows bluer" has. Is there a video or web page that has examples of the same image with and without bluer shadows?
I love your vids and your research and hence your knowledge is exceptional but I I can't shake that you sound like my history teacher. Then I realized that you have a superb amount of knowledge but you when you deliver information it should be exciting with stories, not just pictures. Your information is super valuable, I just wish it was more accessible, it's exactly the same way we make games. TL:DR: I love the content but it bores me that I find it a chore to watch
Love this video. If I were to dabble with getting into creating fun pixel scenes for fun in the style of Pokemon GSC and even GBA version of Link to the Past, and also Pokemon Ruby, and even Fire Red style, which software options would you recommend to me? Any help would be greatly appreciated!! Thanks in advance 😁
