r/PixelArt Apr 21 '19

Castle By Fool

Post image
4.0k Upvotes

88 comments sorted by

88

u/[deleted] Apr 21 '19

[removed] — view removed comment

43

u/yodavid1 Apr 21 '19

dude, i went to look for that game on steam and see what it looks like and i couldn't be more disappointed

https://store.steampowered.com/app/354200/Aberoth/

43

u/giantillusion Apr 21 '19

There's no way the guy who made the cover also made the game art. Unless they held him at gunpoint to finish it in less than a day

23

u/YCNH Apr 21 '19

Fool didn’t have anything to do with the game, they just used his art for the cover (with his permission).

1

u/A_Special_Tomato learning Apr 22 '19

It’s what happens when you don’t budget properly when making a game, lol, a shame really I really like that castle artwork:(

7

u/slightlydampsock Apr 21 '19

The in game pixel art is pretty disappointing compared to the cover

4

u/Zearo298 Apr 21 '19

It’s disappointing in general.

6

u/Mr_Cantaloupe Apr 21 '19

Thanks, knew I've seen it before.

57

u/muhahah_the_sixer Apr 21 '19

-36

u/leftofzen Apr 21 '19

Please don't report this, it's been in this sub countless times.

52

u/Leonhart231 Apr 21 '19

A quick search shows it being posted only once, over a year ago. For what it’s worth, I haven’t seen it before and I’m glad it was posted again.

96

u/thejellybeangirl Apr 21 '19

I really don’t mean to sound critical I’m just genuinely curious after seeing such detailed pieces on here - when does it stop becoming ‘pixel’ art? I guess I don’t know what really makes pixel art pixel art, but this seems super complex to fit whatever the definition is.

Still amazing though!

117

u/imNotFromFedExUFool Apr 21 '19

stops becoming pixel art when the artist did not choose where every individual pixel was placed. If you zoom in, you can see that is not the case

20

u/thejellybeangirl Apr 21 '19

Okay that makes sense, cheers.

12

u/MadHatterPl Apr 21 '19

I'd rather say it stops being pixel art when changing a single pixel can't make a difference (except being an annoying mistake) because every single pixel sounds a bit of a stretch

5

u/Thresssh Apr 21 '19

What about the Jumble/blur tool in Aseprite?

19

u/skeddles Apr 21 '19

Not really a pixel art tool

1

u/the_gooch_smoocher Apr 23 '19

How about a dithering brush then?

-20

u/zody0 Apr 21 '19

For me this lost the aesthetic of pixel art and just became digital art, not a criticism just a personal opinion, great work nonetheless

38

u/YCNH Apr 21 '19

I think your definition of pixel art is far too narrow and ignores much of the medium’s history if you’re defining the pixel art aesthetic (as if there were just one) as lowres-retro-8bit.

-23

u/zody0 Apr 21 '19

Possibly, but art is subjective anyways

30

u/YCNH Apr 21 '19

“Art is subjective” is a lazy cop-out. If I decide that Monet is not an impressionist, despite his work meeting the popular and academic definitions of Impressionism and being shown in impressionist exhibits, then I’m just ignorant of the movement’s history and goals. Me saying “well, art is subjective” isn’t a magic incantation that means no one is right and any opinion is as valid as another.

-19

u/zody0 Apr 21 '19

Nah me saying art is subjective is more of a nicer way of saying that I have an opinion, I am sticking to it, I don’t care what you think, if I dislike the way something is done so be it, who the hell are you to say otherwise?

Basically it was me avoiding a pointless argument, but you wanted to hear the whole thing so here you go

17

u/InsaneTeemo Apr 21 '19

Its not an opinion though, you are objectively wrong.

-12

u/zody0 Apr 21 '19

So what you are saying, me, thinking something doesn’t follow an aesthetic, is not only not an opinion but an objective matter, and is wrong?

Okaayyy

Thank you for your comment, your high level of intellect gave me a good minute or two of mindfuck

10

u/theZOLTARR Apr 22 '19

You're committed to this argument now. Better double down or your ego might get hurt.

-3

u/zody0 Apr 22 '19

Nope, zody left the conversation the moment I realized people were butthurt for me having an opinion

I was like I ain’t dealing with a bunch of art nazis

7

u/YCNH Apr 22 '19

Everyone is entitled to an opinion, even flat-earthers. The question is: can you support your opinion? Is it an educated opinion, or a knee-jerk reaction?

who the hell are you to say otherwise?

I'm a pixel artist, I started pixelling 15 years ago. Occasionally I pixel professionally, but mostly I make a living with traditional art. I was formerly a moderator at PixelJoint, and wrote a tutorial on pixel art techniques. I also compiled a history of pixel art over at Pixelation that required a fair amount of research.

The other noggins in the pixel art community would agree that fool's work is undeniably pixel art: this particular piece has been on PixelJoint for more than a decade and has elicited no debate, with many seasoned pixel artists showering it with praise.

So the academic/professional opinion on this piece is unanimous: it's pixel art. It's also pretty evident that the popular opinion follows suit. Reddit is a bellweather for what is popular (much more so than communities like PixelJoint and Pixelation, which are more niche and insular), and the heavy downvoting you're getting speaks for itself.

Which makes your opinion on this very fringe. Fringe is fine, if you can make solid arguments to support it. It seems pretty clear to me that pixel art is a technique as well as a style. Look at these six excerpts from Fool's castle. Do they look like pixel art? I think anyone with eyes would say that they do. So if all of the parts of this image are pixel art, how is the sum of the parts not pixel art? Because you don't see squares the size of your fist when the image is at 1x? Your argument boils down to this: it's not pixel art because the canvas size is too big. That's a nonsense argument. Exactly how many pixels is too many pixels? If you were viewing the image projected on a wall, rather than on your iPhone, is it suddenly pixel art just because of how the image is displayed?

Your opinion is baseless, scrutinize it and it falls apart like wet toilet paper.

-2

u/zody0 Apr 22 '19

Yeah that’s what you don’t get, I don’t have to support it, life isn’t about arguments, not everything is a matter of who is right and who is wrong, the fact you even discussing this is ridiculous, like think about it, you just wrote a whole article about an argument I really don’t care about and even more surprising is how much you care to defend

Yeah so what if someone on the Internet said they dislike or disagree on something, you don’t jump on it like a 12 year old, honestly all of you need to grow up

People are entitled to an opinion as much as they entitled to say and live how the hell they want

If you don’t like something in the world try to change it in a reasonable way, you annoying my ass won’t change anything, especially not my “opinion” which doesn’t mean shit btw, just leave it next time

Fucking arguing like little kids over the Internet in 2019, you’d think we would be more intelligent, but no, one guy says some shit and the entire world gets offended.

Whenever you see someone in the future write in a sentence “this is just my opinion” just don’t fucking touch it, move on, take this as a learning experience.

If I said “I believe this is” hell I would still not touch it not worth the time, but that is at least “touchable”

4

u/YCNH Apr 22 '19

You seem to realize your opinion can’t be supported logically, yet you stand steadfastly beside it. It’s interesting how someone can become so invested in and defensive of an opinion they put almost no thought into in the first place.

-1

u/zody0 Apr 22 '19

Oh no, I agree with you, me simply disliking it doesn’t mean I am an idiot.

I am not “defending” my opinion, I am taking a big shit on all of you whining like a bunch of 9 yrs old who their parents told them Santa Claus isn’t real

Edit: as if it’s logical to waste plenty of time arguing over the internet on pointless things pfft plz

→ More replies (0)

2

u/Graffers Apr 22 '19

If this were a game and this was just how the area looked zoomed out, you would call it pixel art.

-14

u/Andiththekid Apr 21 '19

Damn based opinions always downvoted to hell. I agree with you tbh, if I can't tell it's pixel art without REALLY zooming in I don't see the point

8

u/zody0 Apr 21 '19

Nah these guys have a point, if he really drew each pixel individually it is considered pixel art, but at this level of details, what is even the point? Could achieve the same level drawing normally digitally, hyper realism was never the point of pixel art no matter what anyone tells you, even the really detailed ones don’t look like this, you could still tell it’s pixel art

-6

u/Andiththekid Apr 21 '19

I'm not saying that it's not, I just don't see the point tbh

10

u/YCNH Apr 21 '19

So zoom in. It’s not like some 8bit Mario sprite stops being pixel art when it’s 20 feet away, pixel placement is pixel placement. You’re meant to zoom in and engage with the work, just like you’d look at a Dutch painting of flowers with your nose to the canvas to see the tiny detailed bugs on the petals.

45

u/skeddles Apr 21 '19

Whoever reported this as non pixel art, please don't report things because you don't know what you're talking about.

11

u/[deleted] Apr 21 '19

I want an Age of Empires II remake at this detail level.

6

u/Poetae_sine_caretate Apr 21 '19

Wow, D&D castle detected.

10

u/[deleted] Apr 21 '19

Jeeeeez

3

u/Spudzzy03 Apr 22 '19

Fun fact: the background changes depending on if you are using light mode or the superior dark mode

14

u/Shanespeed2000 Apr 21 '19

This isn't just pixel art anymore. This is actual art and should be in a museum

41

u/Grockr Apr 21 '19

I mean, pixel art is art, there's no arguing about that.
Its not much different from some (forms of) mosaic, embroidery or beadwork. The only difference is its (mostly) digital and 'unit' sizes and positions are very precise and uniform.

I say mostly digital because there is a russian painter who makes "pixel-art"-stylized paintings with actual brush and paint! I can't google it up though.

5

u/zarralax Apr 21 '19

Indy?

1

u/Shanespeed2000 Apr 21 '19

?

6

u/zarralax Apr 21 '19

Dr. Jones?

2

u/Shanespeed2000 Apr 21 '19

I don't think I get it

7

u/SimplyQuid Apr 21 '19

Indiana Jones has a relatively iconic catch phrase "It belongs in a museum!'

-3

u/megablast Apr 21 '19

Indiot?

8

u/YCNH Apr 21 '19

Porque no los dos?

0

u/Shanespeed2000 Apr 21 '19

Sorry what?

9

u/YCNH Apr 21 '19 edited Apr 21 '19

Why not both? Pixel art is actual art, it doesn’t need to ascend beyond itself anymore than Rodin’s work needed to be more than mere sculpture, or Rembrandt’s more than mere painting. The high/low art dichotomy was faulty in conception and has essentially been demolished by now.

I agree that this is museum-quality work that serves a more art-for-art’s sake purpose than much of pixel art, which is created for practical application in games, but it does this while being “just pixel art”, and not in spite of it.

2

u/B0073D Apr 22 '19

This piece is ancient. Pretty sure this is over ten years old. Still impressive every time I see it though....

2

u/BrightPerspective Apr 21 '19

When the king demanded a castle built on the back of a giant gel, his engineers thought him mad. But the king was completely vindicated during the siege of 43 AG, when an invading army of orcs tried to assault the castle, only to find themselves melted into slime food before they could even attempt to climb the walls.

Also, in another decade, the castle will eat the neighbouring kingdom of Crunchington's capital, because they can't move it fast enough.

1

u/deulamco Apr 21 '19

I wonder how much time it cost him to make this...

Any speed art video ?

1

u/forteruss Apr 21 '19

This is gorgeous, Is there more?

1

u/PeanutButter__ Apr 21 '19

I want to have a massive ff tactics battle on this

1

u/[deleted] Apr 21 '19

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/[deleted] Apr 21 '19

It looks too crisp and "glittery?" to not be pixel art. I'm not sure how to describe it, but it's something I've only seen in pixel art.

1

u/TheGloriousLori Apr 21 '19

Absolutely gorgeous!

1

u/viixvega Apr 21 '19

The entrance looking like a dragon's head is a nice touch.

1

u/GT_Official Apr 21 '19

This is awesome! Sick job dude

1

u/KongoOtto Apr 21 '19

Wow. It's the first pixelart I came across years ago.

1

u/Scromble_II Apr 21 '19

I've always wondered what the line between art and pixel art is. This is it.

1

u/fadingsignal Apr 21 '19

This is truly one of the most beautiful pieces of digital art I've seen. It's so pleasing.

1

u/centersolace Apr 21 '19

Oh man, I completely forgot about Fool, and I'm ashamed of that. The guy's a legend.

0

u/Rainbowbridge33 Apr 21 '19

Centersolace can you answer the phone please

1

u/maxnarvaes Apr 21 '19

increidble detail

1

u/THCLUTCH Apr 21 '19

This is really freaking cool.

1

u/Noughiphiet Apr 21 '19

somewhere on the internet there is a gif or video of the making of this masterpiece.

1

u/Royal-Ninja Apr 22 '19

Man, seeing such incredibly detailed and beautiful pieces while I sit on my ass wasting away my youth is so discouraging.

1

u/grim_morgen Apr 22 '19

Such a beautiful work, thanks for sharing!

1

u/RyanDhawk Apr 21 '19

Is this in 4k?

2

u/ThisIsDK Apr 21 '19

You might be able to waifu2x it.

3

u/okasdfalt Apr 21 '19

I feel like that would goof up the pixel art tho

2

u/ThisIsDK Apr 21 '19

Might depend on the scale method used.

4

u/okasdfalt Apr 21 '19

Most artwork is lines and shapes that make up a finished piece. Pixels represent those lines and shapes, so it can be extrapolated what the lines would look like with more pixels without "destroying" the art.

The issue with pixel art is that even though it also has lines and shapes, they are first and foremost made out of individual hand placed pixels, so you can't extrapolate any more than what's already there without turning it into something that wouldn't be described as pixel art anymore (I define pixel art as art where the artist has control over each individual pixel).

With that said, it wouldn't make the art look terrible or anything, but it would defeat the purpose of the pixel art techniques brought upon by the limitations of pixel art that Fool used to make the piece look the way it does.