The Recorded Pixel Art Project :: FOURTEEN VIDEOS!

[st3ady]

glad to see a post like this with such great content, thanks to all of those who contributed really interesting to watch how others work. Moar!!1 

[pkmays]

Alright, just thinking of some subjects that might make for useful videos.

Tiles
Grass, dirt, bricks, ie the stuff everybody should know. Basic videos for the way to create tiles in any app, advanced videos using Pro Motion's tiling capabilities.

Large character sprites
Fighter, RPG battle screen, side scroller, etc. Larger sprites would probably need to be divided into multiple movies, lines, colors, shade, AA.

Fonts and interfaces
Title screens, HUDs, dialog boxes.

Index painting
Pro Motion specific. Never tried it before, but I'm looking forward to seeing how it's done/thinking of trying it out myself.

Animation
A big project to tackle, would probably be a long video. Setting up basic motion, key frames, tweens.

Scene
Some work of art, fairly large and detailed. Best bet would be a timelapse, 4X or maybe even 8X speed.

[Sherman Gill]

Here's a video:
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=7K8PP0JL
And the product:


I shrunk the video down a little. A decision I now regret, as the pallet and preview window are difficult to see.

[Radioactivity]

Can't view on a mac...as the codec doesn't exsit for os x

[pkmays]

Yes is does. Use the EnSharpen codec, it's on the same page as the TechSmith codec. AVIs play back fine in the latest Quicktime.

[Helm]

Congrats on hitting 10. I wanted to say I will now take a request. I can go up to 128x128 or something, ask me of something that'd be interesting to see, 'cause you've already seen my basic pixelling methodology. Going outside my comfort zone is okay.

[Rydin]

I never watched any of them yet, but have you done anything with sliced pixels  ?

[Helm]

No, but that's an extremely boring thing to watch someone make.

[Cow]

It'd be interesting to see you do something on Paint. Interesting, and tedious.

EDIT: Or maybe some kind of underwater scene. That could be pretty kickass.

[ptoing]

What are sliced pixels? Am I missing something here?

[Ryumaru]

i also vote for you making something in paint.

[Panda]

I doubt Helm will open MS Paint at all, so stop trying.
Oh and there are 9 videos (+ Matriax's post with loads of old videotutorials) instead of 10 videos.

[pkmays]

I wanted to say I will now take a request. I can go up to 128x128 or something, ask me of something that'd be interesting to see, 'cause you've already seen my basic pixelling methodology. Going outside my comfort zone is okay.

Do a wide piece, say 192x96. Have it depict some sort of scene like a city scape or important structure, or maybe just some natural scenery. Give it a strong sense of atmosphere, like the hazy dusk before sunset, or a smog filled city during a rain storm. I dunno, something artsy like that monolith you made. 20 colors max.

Do a 128x128 3 quarter view of some sort of military SciFi hover tank or drop ship. 16 colors max.

Create a 32x32 grass tile, then create an alternate one that still tiles with the original. 16 colors.

Color another one of Tremulant's lines. ZOMG PLZ!!1!

[Helm]

I think I'll combine a few of those, since I need the tile practise: I'll do a mockup tileset, wilderness, with variated grass tiles, rocks, whatnot. It'll be frustrating as I am not good at this sort of thing, but hey. 192x96 is fine

[Helm]

http://www.wayofthepixel.net/pixelation/pixelvids/mockup.avi



Not very happy with it. At least I learned. 1:35 hours, 4x speed, down to 25 minutes or so again. I dislike the rubble tile a lot. I like the tree.

[Jamie]

http://www.wayofthepixel.net/pixelation/pixelvids/mockup.avi

Not very happy with it. At least I learned. 1:35 hours, 4x speed, down to 25 minutes or so again. I dislike the rubble tile a lot. I like the tree.

you should be happy, that tree is deffo the best part 

wow, i watched a few mins of it and learnt alot about pmotion watching rest now 

[Evil-Ville]

Helm: Thanks for showing how awesome the tiling feature in pro motion is, I am going to buy the full (non-lite) version for sure now.

[Helm]

Man, cosmigo should be cutting me checks!

[ptoing]

Me too!!

[Ryumaru]

wonderful video helm, its amazing that you do this all in one sitting. i might make a video some time, of course i would be using paint and we know how everybody LOVES paint.

also, the way you pixel when you do tile work is, very, very, unorthodox. you go from generic to detail sometimes, detail to generic the other.  doing stylistic stuff before even getting the forms all the way down. either way it still comes out great.

[Ai]

http://www.wayofthepixel.net/pixelation/pixelvids/mockup.avi



Not very happy with it. At least I learned. 1:35 hours, 4x speed, down to 25 minutes or so again. I dislike the rubble tile a lot. I like the tree.

Pretty nice demo (more interesting to me than your other movie, too). Looking at the time you spend copy+pasting tiles, perhaps ProMotion would benefit from the ability to cycle the brush through the unique tiles in the image.
I should definitely make a video now... I found myself thinking 'wow, he's fast' and I still think you are.. just not as extremely as I initially thought (on recent pixels, my speed has been reasonably comparable. I think that making a video would give me some perspective on my exact speed.)

the way you pixel when you do tile work is, very, very, unorthodox. you go from generic to detail sometimes, detail to generic the other.  doing stylistic stuff before even getting the forms all the way down. either way it still comes out great.

In my experience, that is exactly what's useful for creating a small tileset, because of often needing a tile to match multiple other tiles on a given border. It makes composition strange.

[Ryumaru]

sometimes he started adding details in the tiles before he even changed the tile color from the bright, menacing red.

[pkmays]

Looks good Helm. The problem with recording videos is that they need to be done quickly, so they tend to be missing the TLC that goes into a production piece. Plus any piece will usually get worked on even after it's "finished." All in all that's an excellent example of rapid prototyping a mockup. Not sure if that's the best way to say it, but it sounds cool.

Alright, I've decided I'm going to make a similar recording using tiles. It'll be a top down RPG style view of some grass, with some dirt patches/other random things thrown in to keep it from looking too monotonous. Going to do a couple of test runs so I don't embarrass myself too much.

[Blick]

Jesus Christ, Helm, a little over an hour for a mockup is ridiculous. I feel so inferior. It takes me days just to muster up the courage to try my hand at a single tile.

[Helm]

Thanks, guys.

Totally, Pkmays. I want to go back and change almost all the ground tiles, add slopes to the level and whatnot, but now it's a done video, and that's that. I had to be fast and relatively precise, and I sorta failed. A presentation of a prototype (imagine me going "...it's going to play like a cross of shadow of the beast wilderness exploring and prince of persia gymnastics!" to my employers) is what this is, you are correct. And everybody's shouting at me for not snapping my tiles to grid when I move them around! Oh well.

Looking forward to your video.

Ai: it's not just how fast you are, but what you do with your fastness. I'm pretty damn fast (as my girlfriend would complain to you) but the end result must'nt look like some sort of oekaki madness wippy mess. I don't think that helps anyone. That being said, go right ahead and make a video, I'm interested in seeing your setup in action and everything.

Blick: why so slow? Is it a matter of motivation?

[Ai]

sometimes he started adding details in the tiles before he even changed the tile color from the bright, menacing red.

actually, you can also see he places aa pixels as black, and then adjusts the color to its quite light final color. The color you chuck down doesn't matter much when you can change it quick-smart, it just has to have sufficient definition to distinguish it initially.

I've investigated codecs; It doesn't look like Techsmith is available (Only decoding is supported by ffmpeg) ; JPEG-LS, which  strangely and ironically supports losslessness, is available, so I'll try that.  I have a few things to do which should make good test cases.

[Blick]

Blick: why so slow? Is it a matter of motivation?

Indeed. Not necessarily having a reason or deadline to make tiles and animations other than practice, mixed with my hatred for making them because I'm so horrible at it from lack of practice doesn't make for a good combination.

I will admit though, if I had Pro Motion, tiles would be easier. Perhaps animation too. The palette system looks convenient, but it'd take me a while to get used to. I'm stuck on manually going in and right clicking with the eraser tool to change an existing color and using the eyedropper rather than a indexed palette. Maybe if I get enough saved up from Christmas money, I might get Pro Motion.

[Feron]

Can't view on a mac...as the codec doesn't exsit for os x

download the codec for mac.  works perfect for me.

[Helm]

YES. KILL THE MSPAINT GENE INSIDE YOU. GET PRO MOTION. ALL WILL BE BETTER SOON

[Frychiko]

Thanks for that last video Helm, I've always wanted to see how Promotion does tiling/mockups.
The updating multiple tiles at once feature looks handy. Not to sure about drawing a background merged into the tiles (foreground). Seems a bit cumbersome especially if changes are going to be made to either. Is there no way around this?

[Helm]

ProMo isn't made for layer work. Next version will however, support layers.

[ptoing]

There is a way around it. By abusing the onion skinning, you can just set the layers so that you have a transparency colour and each layer is 100% visible. this way you can set up as many layers as you want, but they are not as dynamic as normal layers and not really seperate. all it does is that it shows the frame underneath or above, whatever distance you want. ace for animation and i abuse it a lot for other things.

and yeh 6 will have layers.

[Terley]

maybe a totally cheeky question but, would you mind if I show some of these vids on another forum (question to everyone) some people just can't think outside Ms Paint, and most of these are perfect examples of why paint just slows you down.. also I know someone who wants to know how to go about making a platformer (mockup atleast) and Helm you've just summed all that up into 23 minutes and 30 seconds of video. its all self explanitory.. 

Also am I free to post a vid of my own, I got the software, just feelin reluctant to post anything.. 

[pkmays]

I doubt anyone would have a problem with you linking to the thread. Just don't hot link a file if it looks like it's being hosted on someone's personal website. Direct linking to Rapidshare or MegaUpload probably wouldn't be an issue.

Any yeah, anyone and everyone can post a video. Odds are at least one person will learn something, and watching yourself and your work habits is useful in finding ways to improve your workflow.

[Helm]

Terley, I see no problem with either of these propositions.

[Gunne]

great video helm you are fast..

In time I might do a video about animation, sounds like fun haha!

btw, Helm how do you keep the size of the AVI that small?

[pkmays]

I already asked that question, check ter-o's post on the first page.

The settings I've been using are:

TechSmith Compression Codec (TSCC)
Highest quality setting
15 frames per second
Keyframes every 10 frames (makes seeking nice and smooth)

Captured in 32 bit, screen res 800x600, recording res a smaller region that only displays most important windows/palettes.

This can all be set up really easily in Camtasia--it's a simple but powerful screen recorder/video editor.

[Souly]

Hey Helm.
What program were you using in that video?

[Helm]

Cosmigo Pro Motion

[Froli]

I'm totally sold with pro motion. <downloads the helm mockup>

[ptoing]

Because pkmays was molesting me via pm I made a quick video doing a quake texture.
Be warned, this will be extrfemely confusing if you don't know ProMotion and it might even be if you do.



VIDEO - ~33 megs

[Helm]

Downloading video. I enjoy these textures and I think you should try your hand at some no-nonsense (meaning, not claiming to be 100% HANDPIXELLED LOL I AM FROM THE AMIGASCENE) index painting and document your results for us.

[ptoing]

I might, but not anytime soon prolly

What is really funny about that texture is the amount of thinking about the subject that went on in my head.... about zero.
When I showed it to a friend he said, "what's with the castle thing" and I was "castle?? oh, haha, I was just drawing some shape that looked good to me."

[halu]

I watched your Robot one Helm, really fun to see it evolve
This is a great idea, and I hope to have a video up on it some time.

[pkmays]

Thanks braugh. I'm gonna screw around with the Wolfenstein 3D and DOOM palettes now.

[edit]

Watched this a couple of times thru now, and I'm really impressed. I must say of all the videos I've seen so far, this one has taught me the most about cool unknown PM gizmos. I'll be replicating this workflow and posting a breakdown of the steps taken.

[ptoing]

Glad you liked it pk. A lot of it is dow to me using Promotion since almost 2 years now virtually daily at work. I would say that i have around 4000 hours in Promotion so far no problem.

I think I will attempt some proper index painting soon, with the plan to make a video as well, but that will take quite a bit longer, as it will involve more pixelling towards the end of the workflow and it might get quite massive. MIght have to go 8x speed or something

[Helm]

Index painted. Sadly didn't video. Very fast to make art like that, it has its merits and its deficiencies. This, with a layer of pixel-by-pixel work is how demoscene people worked, I guess. Dirty tools make everything too blurry, you have to go in and fix stuff by hand always. Otherwise, it's an interesting thing to try.

[Ai]

Because pkmays was molesting me via pm I made a quick video doing a quake texture.
Be warned, this will be extrfemely confusing if you don't know ProMotion and it might even be if you do.



VIDEO - ~33 megs

Cool, the only thing I don't understand is how you have 4  images in one document.
One Is the stencil, One is the spare frame, One is the current frame. Where's the 4th come from?
For the kind of video you did, it really needs a little keyboard status display, because you do a lot of things with the keyboard that are 'invisible' from the point of view of the video.
I don't really understand why you painted over the same thing many times.. Only the last few times actually seemed to *partially* apply paint (doesn't ProMotion have a way to floodfill the paintable area using the current paint mode?). It looked like you got a bit flustered actually.
I'm gonna go through the video again and note the stuff that I could use (like multiple grid settings; and is the stencil automatically refreshed based on the content of a particular frame? I know color-stencils (ie. protected colors) are possible, but I couldn't tell if what you did was as permanent as that, or would just last until the next time you manually edited the stencil mask.)

EDIT: actually, with the amount you used blur, it really should wrap around edges. That'd have to be an option. Know if it's going to be in the upcoming version of PM?
Or a way to offset by w/2, h/2 would also work around it.

[Akzidenz]

Good god. These videos make me want to partition a windows XP drive on my mac just so that I can get pro motion.

So, quick question to those who use it - have you been able to duplicate many of the techniques that pro motion uses in Photoshop? And if not, is it worth $80 and a few hours' worth of time in order to get it and use it?

[Frychiko]

I don't really understand why you painted over the same thing many times.. Only the last few times actually seemed to *partially* apply paint (doesn't ProMotion have a way to floodfill the paintable area using the current paint mode?). It looked like you got a bit flustered actually.

Err, He kept tinkering with the texture until he was happy with it?