Lecture Topic:

History & Digital culture

PIXEL ART

 

ElizabethbyGretchen.jpg

“Elizabeth” by c. G. Blatt MS:I Fall 2008

 

 

Evolution of the pixel:

 

The Parallel Analysis of Vision:

Modern Art & Modern Science:

* Neo-Impressionism

* Pointillism

* Daltonism and Color Blindness

 

* Chuck Close: the grid

http://www.tfaoi.com/aa/6aa/6aa176.htm

Self-Portraits

paintings

MOMA Museum of Modern Art, NYC video except of process

 

CMYK & RGB

 

The Pixel

 

Alvy Ray Smith creator of Paint, the first full –color program

“A pixel is a point sample, the value of a continuous thing at a single point (with zero dimensions).”


* What is a pixel?

http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/p/pixel.html

 

http://www.perceptivepixel.com/


pixel sofa

 

 

* What is pixel art?

Isometric pixel art

See examples at:

Eboy http://hello.eboy.com/eboy/?cat=42

 

Royksopp - Remind Me
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBvaHZIrt0o

 

Invader
http://space.invaders.paris.free.fr
http://sixspace.com/gallery/invader2005

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invader_(artist)

The game:
http://www.neave.com/games/spaceinvaders/

 

Cat Mazza
http://www.microrevolt.org/
http://www.we-make-money-not-art.com/archives/2008/01/how-and-when-did-you.php
http://www.umb.edu/research/news/mazza.html


Pixel Game Art: So simple but so wonderful:
Passage
http://sourceforge.net/projects/hcsoftware/files/Passage/v2/Passage_v2_Windows.exe/download"Passage, created by Jason Rohrer, is an exercise in gaming minimalism. Made for korokomi's gamma 256 competition, It's only five minutes long, it weighs in at less than 500kb, it takes place on a 100x16 field of pixels, and it only requires the arrow keys. "--John Schwartz

 

Other Reference:

1.       Museum of Pixel Art

2.       Flash Pixel Art Tutorial

3.       Pixel Freak

4.       Flip Flop Flyin'  

5.       Paul Robertson's Journal

6.       Graphical Illusion
 

7.       Pixeldam | home

8.       Final Redemption

9.        :: dot-invasion :: and the invasion begins ::

10.    LOVEPIXEL

11.    Pixel NascImpact - Pixel Art, Galerie, News, Brushs, Goodies, Tutorials (Photoshop, Flash MX)

12.    DB DB Pixel Art Characters

ASCI Art 
wiki
good application: asci_gen_b13/Ascgen.exe

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Screenings:

The Story of Computer Graphics


Visiting artist
:

 

 

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Readings:

Manovich

 

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Project:

1. Create a pixel art head (of your agreed upon classmate in your section team).
2. Blow up your head image
3. Then make an animated gif of all of your team’s images. See samples below.



pixelkevin

heads 

 

Pixel art sample student movie some good, some not

 

Studio skills:

**Pushing pixels and making the pixel art head portrait:

Techniques in: Photoshop:  Photoshop Basics

setting up an original image, png/gif file formats, pencil tool, fill tool, seeing essence and simplifying color, resizing images.

Resolution    Bit depth   in depth schema on bit depth

File Formats

Basic Graphics File Formats intro

Graphics File Formats all

Animation in Photoshop: importing folder as frames, tween, timing, save as optimized

Color Understanding Digital Color

 

Task:

Using techniques covered in lecture, studio and your own artistic research, create a pixel art head (of your agreed upon classmate in your section team)

 

* create an image file of 73 x 100 in Photoshop, RGB 8bit

* Create upon this 73 x 100 space a pixel head using a one pixel pencil tool and eraser. Keep in the tradition of the pixel art. For tips see: How to do a pixel head:

http://www.flipflopflyin.com/g/2006/06/how-to-do-pixel-head.html

* save as png (see Basic Graphics File Formats intro)

* Take your head and blow it up using: image, image size, pixel dimensions, 370 x 507, Nearest Neighbor (preserve hard edges) interpolation, save the new image with a different name from the little image

* Then put all completed 370 x 507 team heads into a folder.

*In Photoshop CS4: Go to: File | Scripts | Load Files into Stack...

Select: Use Folder

Browse and click OK

to get the images in.  Just make sure that each image is in its own layer. Then, when you go into the tween window (by clicking the icon in the lower-right corner of the animation window) you should add a layer for each image you have, and then specify which image you want to see in each animation layer by turning on the visibility (clicking the "eye" icon) for just the correct layer in the main (rather than the animation) window.  Then, just set the time duration between frames to what you want and click "play" to see it.

 

 

* Use the tween tool with 5 frames to add, all layers, check all parameter boxes (position, opacity, effects).  Then use .5 second frame delay time interval for each frame. Then go to file, save optimized as, images only gif (animated gif).

 

 

Deliverables

* 1, 73 x 100, png pixel head of your agreed upon classmate in your section team in rgb 8bit

* 1 larger version 370 x 507 using correct interpolation methodology to preserve the pixel look
* 1, animated gif of all 4 large heads  (370 x 507) tweened with .5 second frame delay time interval

 

ALEXpixelhead

 

Animated Gif:

 

PixelHeadAnimate

 

Pixel Art Student Samples


Other Student Samples

 

Grading Criteria:

 

1. Assignment completed on-time

2. Adherence to the size and file format specifications

3. Appropriate use of tools.

4. Exploration and application of creative tools in Photoshop and Image-Ready 

5. Quality and clarity of class presentation

6. Likeness of your image to the actual individual

7. Quality of your animate gif morph