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| I think Bruce Lee would be proud |
I was born in the spring of 1977 and was five months old when Elvis
died. As far as I can tell, that is my most current claim to fame,
though that time I defeated the game Ghost and Ghouls ranks up there in a
close second.
In
the late 70's computers weren't common place as they are now, in fact
they weren't even common in business yet. It took the industry changing
launch of the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) in 1983 to make home
based gaming a real idea.
The first games had a
staggeringly low bit rate of 8 which meant graphics for had to be
minimal, lacking gradation and detail. This resulted in simple
animations and blocky layouts. At the time, games like Mario Bros. were
all the rage and my friends and I played them daily, having 'sleep
overs' as an excuse to eat pizza and stay up late. I don't remember
anyone really worrying about the graphics or lack thereof, the important
aspects of the games were the replay value and reaching top scores.
That time period led me, in a meandering way, to my current life as an illustrator.
I live in a world where 8bit graphics are a retro design concept and
many games are being created for mobile devices that take full advantage
of the idea. I hope to create one of them.
So what makes pixel art look so damn cool?
Well,
from the perspective of people only playing the games, it provides a
sense of nostalgia. It also gives a nod to those players who, like me,
From the perspective of artists who utilize pixel art (like I do)
the creative process uses colour theory, image balance and takes
advantage of the human brain's ability to 'fill in' the blanks as part
of it's pattern recognition capabilities. When all this plays out, you
have a powerful design that communicates all the necessary qualities of
the game without the need for fine details, in fact, more details only
take away from the feel of the retro 8bit graphics.
So, today I
find myself in the fortunate position of having both a healthy sense of
nerdiness and a level of creative/artistic skill that lets me create retro pixel art.
Do you like pixel art? Do you have an idea that would benefit from pixel art being part of it? Contact me: jason@theredrabbit.com
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| Can you name them all? |
About me:
I'm a full-time freelance illustrator and designer focusing on the ideas and future success of other freelancers and entrepreneurs. Contact me and lets have a chat about your idea.
Studio: 778.786.1209
Email: jason@theredrabbit.com
Website: www.theredrabbit.com