Meeting With: Ryan Locke #2

Hello,

Just a quick blog update of my first proper meeting with my supervisor,

So yesterday we had  a meeting, I had written down an agenda as to what to talk about, These being:

1. Project Proposal
2. Blog Grouping
3. Ethics Sheet

So my project proposal as quoted by Ryan, "Is like a cracked pavement, you can walk on it but you have to mind your step" 

As my 2nd or so draft of it I take it as a positive. He says im pretty much their just need to fill in the cracks with more references etc. 

also got to clear up what it is you reference, and that is pretty much everything that is related/helped you into writing your proposal which is a relief as I have alot of references just not many I could actually quote from.

as to my 2nd query:

I need to talk to lynn or brian about that as he isnt too sure.

Ethics sheet, I was considering in doing a questionaire to see what other people think when they see pixel art. I feel this would help me solidify that my project has some value to gamers experiance. 

Anyway its a good start my proposal is at about there:

abstratction: leaving that tiill the end

Introduction: 568/500 words, give or take and pretty much fully referenced and structured only the aim and objective need to be re worded and fixed

Contextual/literature review: 1193/1500

Methodology: 109/500 this is probably the section that needs more work to it.

Conclusion: leaving that untill i have completed my contextual review

Anyways thats me for today,

David M

Meeting With: Ryan Locke

Hello,

So yesterday I finally managed to get a meeting with Ryan who turns out is also my supervisor for my project.

The meeting went well I managed to clear up a few of the questions he had for me after my presentation which I feel helped alot in him catching upto where I am at.

Essentially what we did was throw ideas and such at each other to get the ball bouncing and just told each other what we knew about pixel art and why we like it.

Because of this I didnt manage to take down as much notes as I was hoping but I did try to get down the more important points, which are:

Abstraction - What is it? Is pixel art abstract art, if so how can we prove it? Why are we attracted to it?

Nostalgia - What is it? why do people feel its important and have to replicate it?

Why are humans attracted to the building blocks of things we played with lego to create houses, scientists discovered the cells, DNA etc. there has always been an interest in discovering the building blocks to things, can that be related to the attraction to using pixel art?

symbolism, semiotics

there was also an article that ryan unfortunately forgotten the name of but it was "connecting: Abstraction and applied meaning" or something along those lines, If i find that and be able to fit pixel art in somewhere It should help me a great deal :)

Meeting With: Lynn Parker #4 & Concept Development: 3D me

Hello,

Well on Wednesday I had another meeting with Lynn and it went pretty well,

I have managed to make somewhat of a start on my proposal and she went over with me what I could possibly talk about and how to structure it. We also talked about my practical stuff worryingly we realised most of the things I have done is for my personal development rather than what i thought was my concept devlopment which has me worried also that next week is crit week so should have alot of new stuff to show =/ time has sure flown past *gulp*

Anyway,

Think I am slowly climbing out of the rut i was in and feel more on track just gotta have stuff to show for my presentation.

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So after that i made a start on my 3D pixel test, its not finished I dont think I want to do something 3D anymore but thats yet to be decided.

So here I am in my untextured form, the bit i am not happy with is when I went to mirror the geometry I had to delete intersecting ploys this then created a hole, I have no idea how this happened as i was being careful when i was modelling. this irritated me quite a bit.

Meeting With: Robin Sloan #3

Hello,

Well today I arranged to meet up with Robin to discuss where I was at.

We discussed more about my aim and stuff and he thinks I have one I just havnt really wrote it out academically but he said that something like "Contemporary pixel art" and doing case studies on games like fez (which I was pretty much doing already) and discussing things like whether there pastiche or a parody how most games that choose pixel art over nostalgic reason over any stylistic reasons.

this is the path I may choose as it interests me quite a bit. but have another meeting with lynn to see if she agrees i like having more than one opinion on these things. hopefully it will get me out of this low point i seem to be in right now.

thanks for reading,

David M

Meeting with: Lynn Parker #3

Hello again,

Well it turns out my worries I had in the previous post were all in my head and im back to feeling like I am on track which is good.

So here is what we talked about,

• For 3D pixel art my UV textures have to be spot on so practice that. might start this next week as I feel I still have things 2D to do
• look into the indie game movie take note of things I find important to pixel art so mainly Phill fish and his motivations
• research into cubism and pointilism and try and recognize any similarities they have when compared to pixel art
• look into the area of aesthetics
• look into the area of nostalgia read reviews on games that use pixel art and discover where the game gets its merit from. 

What do i have planned for today then?

1. I want to do more low pixel stuff, so was planning on doing people from my course so shall do 3 or 4 today ( then I dont have to constantly draw sketches of characters that I make up dont want to use up all my ideas on media tests.
2. watch the indie game movie and take notes!
3. loook for books on cubism, pointilism and art theory
4. read reviews and take quotes of what the reviewer makes on the games graphic style.

David M

Meeting with: Robin Sloan #2

Well on monday I arranged to have a meeting with Robin to discuss a couple of things mainly just what am i going to do for research (I have arranged to also talk to lynn and Ryan but havnt got any reply)

So the meeting I found very helpful we discussed;

• Looking into the history of game art ( there is a useful youtube channel of people discussing such things that i might find useful).
• Very early pixel art pre. 1985 
• Varying pixel art styles
• pros and cons compared to things such as vector and 3d graphics
• Gamasutra - has various entries about things that may be related
• game studies books (introduction to game studies)
• the aesthetics of pixel art and nostalgia 

So, after the meeting I feel like I understand what things I can research into.

Meeting with: Lynn Parker #2

Hello, short entry but there will be another presentation post up later on

Well this morning I met with Lynn, with my presentation tomorrow that is what we focused on. I am not good with talking in front of people so this year I wanted to go in prepared if i know what I am talking about it should alleviate some nerves.

So I showed her what I have done, what gone wrong what I have researched and what I need to do next.

The feedback I recieved was good and Lynn seemed pleased about where abouts I am, which has given me a boost in confidence.

Since I shall be posting up my presentation soon, I shall keep this as the notes I took during the meeting:

• Pixel art brief info
• people are doing it a very large following
• Minecraft and Fez what they have right what they have wrong
• why my project will help
• what i have done
• what has gone right
• what has gone wrong
• what i am doing next

Thats all I took during the meeting, full presentation will be posted up later

David M

Meeting with: Lynn Parker

Hello, 

Yesterday my internet was plagued with problems making it impossible to do anything that required it, so was unable to make this post until now.

I had another meeting today so another post consisting of text for you to read,

Today I had a meeting with Lynn to discuss my idea and thoughts on the matter. The meeting helped alot for me as she pointed out things I didn't think about, which has given me a new plan of attack in terms of research however shes glad that I am doing things which is good to know that I am still somewhat on top of things.

So here is my plan of research,

1. look and ready making of books/dvds of games that use pixel art, fez scott pilgrim etc.
2. research into how pixel art is used in old consoles such as the Nes and Master System and the ones of today such as Swords and Sorcery and Fez.
3. Try and scour the internet to find forums and communities that are interested in pixel art.
4. discover the pipeline on how pixel art is made to try speed up and make life easier than the way I am using right now

thanks for reading,

David M

Should have another post up later today discussing what I got upto today.

Meeting with: Robin Sloan

I had a rather reassuring talk with Robin today that helped calm my nerves over the lack of research i can do ( reading wise ) on pixel art and just being new to pixel art.

So we discussed since pixel art is rather scarce in research materials what parallels it has with other mediums,

• abstract art
• abstract films

The idea of how that the story, how it can be told and the characters thoughts and feelings are more important and can be expressed more creatively or even effectively than if you tried to tell it as close to real life as possible.

after the meeting I feel more relieved as Robin doesn't think I am behind, and the lack of a research question is good in moving forward, however I can feel one bubbling away in the back of the brain, either that its all this surplus goo that seems to be making its way out my nose and mouth.

all in all a good day in terms of finding out where I am, a bad day in the creative department though so no pictures to show today.

but shall get up more tomorrow just to make up for this, the colds finally on its way out so soon I can get back on top of things once more.

Concept Development: Illness,Starbound and Meetings

Well, I have been hit by the illness that seems to be spreading across dundee recently so my work has slowed down to a snails pace, but its a Sunday so I decided that it would be ok to have somewhat of a rest and not to burn myself out, hopefully this illness will go away pronto and i can pick it back up again.

However, to my surprise i have managed to get chatting with one of the artists behind the upcoming pixel art game "starbound" http://playstarbound.com he answered a couple of questions i had and was happy to help as he agrees that pixel art is hard to come by, which was nice and hes happy to keep in contact.

'starbound'

We also discussed my first attempt for a bit and he gave me some tips on my next effort, one of them being to start doing characters with the least amount of pixels then work up. 

so thats my work decided for tomorrow :)

anyways today I also have planned to email a few lecturers that could help me in my project so shall be doing that in 3...2...1...-

-David M

Concept Development: Sketches ,Pixel Test and Problems

Well I have spent yesterday and today doing some sketches of random characters and a few pieces of fan art.

I have just finished a test, trying to use photoshop but the result was not what I had in mind atall, which has resulted in me having to research into if there is any decent programs built specifically for pixel art.

 My result with using photoshop Cs5

I had'nt used the sketches i have in my sketchbook, so i did this entirely in photoshop.

Anyways after encountering this problem I am going to research into tutorials and also going to see if i can get in contact with Paul, Edmund and Phill to see if they can help me in where to look.

I will also start to post up timelapse videos of my art pieces from start to final piece when I can get VLC to capture properly.

anyways, untill next time.

-David M

Concept Development: Introduction + Project ideas

Hi all,

This is a blog documenting what I get up to during the development stages of my honours project. Please follow and give me feedback it would help me to keep motivated and post regular updates.

Thanks.

Week 1 

Week one was our introduction to the year, what is expected from us now that we are in 4th year and generally making everyone panic/excited of whats to come.

Project Idea

Pixel Art and animation using sprite sheet is common practice in 2D games, however I have not seen (as yet) an animation story told using that medium and want to research into that area.

Research

Paul Robertson - http://probertson.tumblr.com/

Paul Robertson is an Australian based Pixel Artist/Animator, this guys work is mind blowing and if you find something online that is made of Pixel Art then this guy is most probably the one responsible. 

Ire Vs Taito by Paul Robertson

Anamanaguchi Airbrushed (single) Cover Art by Paul Robertson

These are a few of Pauls art pieces, I am not sure exactly why they appeal to me so much, I like how over the top everything is.

other inspirations, 

Edmund McMillen

Phill Fish

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However my main problem is I haven't dabbled in pixel art myself so I am planning on getting myself a new sketchbook and do some doodles and get them uploaded, asap.

My other, is that pixel art articles and such about the history and practice seem to be rather hard to come across and my project might have to change so that I will able to do some proper research.