Post by The Big Daddy C-Master on May 18, 2015 4:07:24 GMT -5
www.eventhubs.com/news/2015/may/17/street-fighter-iv-garish-sloppy-eyesore-sub-par-animation-artist-blake-reynolds-discusses-video-games-departure-pixel-art/
Before we even start, there's an easy trap to fall into here and I want to clarify things right away so as to avoid it. This article does not argue that lower resolution or 2D graphics are superior to their high-res 3D counterparts, or that Street Fighter 3 has better art simply because it is "pixelated." Moving on...
Blake Reynolds, an artist who works for Dinofarm Games, has written a thoughtful piece that touches on the evolution of video game art over the years. Specifically, he examines how we've gone from "pixelated" and two dimensional to our beloved 1080p in three dimensions.
Reynolds attempts to topple the somewhat ignorant and popular generalization that "pixelated art is behind the times and ultimately, not as impressive as higher-res art." He takes a look at these animations of Chun-Li from Third Strike and Street Fighter 4:
Click images for animated versions
He goes on to state "SFIII’s animation is orders of magnitude better than SFIV’s. It’s not even close..." hit the jump to see his argument, and to get a better understanding of the incredible process that is pixel art.
"Chun-li’s body in SFIII works like a whip cracking. When every frame is a new drawing, it allows for things like flowing drapery, muscles flexing and unflexing, the natural sort of warp the body takes when it moves in extreme ways, etc. The effect is nothing short of magical." says Reynolds.
As for the SF4 animation, "the animation is just kind of dead and sloppily done. There is no urgency, and many of her limbs and facial movements seem bizarre and out of place. Because of this, SFIV Chun-li looks like she’s posing for a photo shoot, whereas SFIII Chun-li looks full of adrenaline and intensity."
This isn't to say that such vibrance isn't possible in Street Fighter 4's animation, we've had Pixar films blow our minds enough times to know better, but the animation process for Third Strike urges artists to go to such detail.
To understand this process, we take a look at King of Fighters 13. The process to create a KOF character takes no less than 16 months. Developers hand draw 400 to 600 pixel frames for each individual character. It's strenuous and time consuming, but the result is a frame by frame creation process that allows for such flexibility as seen in the Third Strike Chun-Li gif... or this KOF gif of Mai...
Take the time to appreciate the flowing, natural movements and such.
You can see the process broken down into six parts over at Snkplaymore. It certainly gives a new appreciation for games that render 3D motion in two dimensions.
The problem? We tend to see "pixelated" games as old and out dated simply because they are pixelated. At first glance, most would say that Street Fighter 4 has better graphics simply because it looks newer. The term "better" is fairly subjective here, but in this case we're alluding to the fact that Third Strike's art offers much more in that it is more alive and detailed despite it not being as smooth or sleek as SF4's.
But alas! This is the way we see things, and as a result, 1080p art will continue to be "better" even if it doesn't truly offer as much as a lower-resolution piece. If an artist truly wants their audience to appreciate specifics in their art, it's on him or her to draw their audience's attention to those specifics. If the masses glance at Chun-Li in 3S and Chun-Li in SF4, and deem the SF4 version "better," then it is. That's what Reynolds believes anyway.
You can read his whole article, which goes into a bit more depth on the history of pixel art and is more than worth the time spent reading, here.
Before we even start, there's an easy trap to fall into here and I want to clarify things right away so as to avoid it. This article does not argue that lower resolution or 2D graphics are superior to their high-res 3D counterparts, or that Street Fighter 3 has better art simply because it is "pixelated." Moving on...
Blake Reynolds, an artist who works for Dinofarm Games, has written a thoughtful piece that touches on the evolution of video game art over the years. Specifically, he examines how we've gone from "pixelated" and two dimensional to our beloved 1080p in three dimensions.
Reynolds attempts to topple the somewhat ignorant and popular generalization that "pixelated art is behind the times and ultimately, not as impressive as higher-res art." He takes a look at these animations of Chun-Li from Third Strike and Street Fighter 4:
Click images for animated versions
He goes on to state "SFIII’s animation is orders of magnitude better than SFIV’s. It’s not even close..." hit the jump to see his argument, and to get a better understanding of the incredible process that is pixel art.
"Chun-li’s body in SFIII works like a whip cracking. When every frame is a new drawing, it allows for things like flowing drapery, muscles flexing and unflexing, the natural sort of warp the body takes when it moves in extreme ways, etc. The effect is nothing short of magical." says Reynolds.
As for the SF4 animation, "the animation is just kind of dead and sloppily done. There is no urgency, and many of her limbs and facial movements seem bizarre and out of place. Because of this, SFIV Chun-li looks like she’s posing for a photo shoot, whereas SFIII Chun-li looks full of adrenaline and intensity."
This isn't to say that such vibrance isn't possible in Street Fighter 4's animation, we've had Pixar films blow our minds enough times to know better, but the animation process for Third Strike urges artists to go to such detail.
To understand this process, we take a look at King of Fighters 13. The process to create a KOF character takes no less than 16 months. Developers hand draw 400 to 600 pixel frames for each individual character. It's strenuous and time consuming, but the result is a frame by frame creation process that allows for such flexibility as seen in the Third Strike Chun-Li gif... or this KOF gif of Mai...
Take the time to appreciate the flowing, natural movements and such.
You can see the process broken down into six parts over at Snkplaymore. It certainly gives a new appreciation for games that render 3D motion in two dimensions.
The problem? We tend to see "pixelated" games as old and out dated simply because they are pixelated. At first glance, most would say that Street Fighter 4 has better graphics simply because it looks newer. The term "better" is fairly subjective here, but in this case we're alluding to the fact that Third Strike's art offers much more in that it is more alive and detailed despite it not being as smooth or sleek as SF4's.
But alas! This is the way we see things, and as a result, 1080p art will continue to be "better" even if it doesn't truly offer as much as a lower-resolution piece. If an artist truly wants their audience to appreciate specifics in their art, it's on him or her to draw their audience's attention to those specifics. If the masses glance at Chun-Li in 3S and Chun-Li in SF4, and deem the SF4 version "better," then it is. That's what Reynolds believes anyway.
You can read his whole article, which goes into a bit more depth on the history of pixel art and is more than worth the time spent reading, here.
