Hand drawn is easier than pixel art | HD graphics vs low-bit vs Hi-bit

a quick Comparison between a lot of different artstyles and how difficult and easy they are. This is largely a comparison between pixel art and the type of hand drawn or HD 2D art that I usually make.

[NonsensicalD]

I realize in hindsight that mentioning dead cells was probably a poor choice since they used a 3D workflow for the animations (although as far as I've understood it the environment is 2D and the animations are exported into sprites). But I didn't really think about it at the time and just looked at games in my library that look fairly complex and blasphemous and dead cells were the ones I had :)

Another thing that has been commented on and that I really regret talking about is how much easier it is to animate in pixel art. This is so true, an animation that took me 5-15 hours could essentially be finished in like 1 hour because of how easy it is to reuse frames. And frame by frame animation in hand drawn is really quite tricky, With that said, this is why rigging is so commonly used in HD art and while it probably still is worse than pixel art, it would make things easier. But ye, I probably should have talked more about it cause it is worth considering depending on the game you are making.

[jordentacoztm]

I whole heartedly agree that pixel art is a medium rather than a style as many people refer to it, but I do find animating with pixel art to be simpler since you're sculpting the frames rather than drawing them. This means that you can build off of the previous frame rather than draw a completely new and unique one.

[MissyMona]

As a pixel artist, I appreciate this. It's frustrating that people seem to think something that requires a lot of skill especially to make look good is easy. It isn't, the reason so many indie games end up looking worse for wear is when they use pixel art to try and make their game look better without understanding it. They would of been better off just doing hand drawn art!

[MrVinc]

Pixel art doesn't require the same degree of mark making skills (hand coordination) as digital painting, so it is easier in that regard. However, it takes simplification of shapes to an extreme because of the size of the pixels relative to the scale of whatever you are painting (I guess limiting yourself to a very large brush in relation to your canvas would force you to simplify shapes at a similar level). And then all the same art fundamentals still apply regardless of your medium of choice: form/construction, proportions/anatomy, light and shadow, color, rendering textures, composition, and--depending on the projection you use in your artwork--perspective.

[Vesdus]

With pixel art, however, it's much easier to make good animations. You can make many more in-between frames much more easily because you only have to move individual pixels rather than drawing out entire shapes. You can make smears much more easily because the shapes are simpler. And particle effects look much much better in pixel art with minimal effort.

[dmnoodle]

A few years ago i only played AAA 3D games, playing sidescrollers seemed ridiculous to me, playing pixelated ones even more so. Then i saw Ori and couldn't resist, the magical designs, gorgeous visuals and brilliant music pulled me in. I beat both games 100% in about 4 days and fell in love with sidescrollers, and metroidvania's in particular.

Looking for more of them i quickly discovered that many are in fact pixel art. The likes of blasphemous, carrion, moonscars, death's gambit, mo:astray, haiku and tarnishing of juxtia quickly changed my mind on pixel art. I still love the hand drawn aesthetic most but i've grown very fond of pixel art too. Especially when combined with particle, fog and lighting effects to make it look more cinematic.

Games are art, not just entertainment . Ori made me realize that, and many games i played afterwards, mostly indies, have solidified that point. Pixel art is no lesser than the other forms. Only thing is how well it's done. And both pixel art and handdrawn can look great or bad, depending on the artist

[SadTown]

This channel + Thomas Brush have become my favorites for artwork/game design, always keep me motivated to push forward when I’m frustrated. 🙏 Thank you.

[CYOND]

As a senior pixel artist I agree with you. Making good art in any medium requires hard work, experience and time. There's no easy way out.

[creechieuihana]

I actually love the high res pixel art style! It’s the awkward child mix of hand drawn and pixel art, which makes it all jagged and odd yet surprisingly freeing. I think it’d be funny to try a high res art style with Shovel Knight’s 5 color limit per sprite kinda like the old days.

[Sieghiro]

Great video. Also, the dithering on the flowers looked so good!

[DicaDev]

As a 2D artist with a deep passion for hand-drawn style in video games, I always wanted a channel like this. Now I have it, and I loveee iit!!

[orionrowan]

Dead cell if I am correct was actually made not as usual pixel art, but it was made with 3d animations, that were than transformed to pixel art with a filter.

[BRBS]

There is a small timeskip at 1:35, but I still get your point. Like another commentator already mentioned, the biggest advantage of going the Pixel Art route is animations. These can be a huge time sink depending on the game you're making. I once tried drawing a very simplified version of Rivals of Aether (a fighting game) for a single character and doing it hand-drawn style was so time intensive, even with all the technological shortcuts of Krita. But doing some sprite work with mostly copy and pasting shapes in Aseprite was considerably more doable. Still a lot of work, though.

Good video, as always!

[hrnekbezucha]

Look, you have a hand-drawn art and downscale it to small resolution, and say it doesn't work - that's not pixelart. Of course it doesn't work. If you were making pixelart assets from the get-go, you would make different creative decisions, and the overall design would be different. Just like you _can_ translate an ink wash into oil painting, that's a very misguided approach. They're just different media, and need to be approached in different ways.

[EastToWestStudio]

Hand Drawn Art! That's my Jam. Just found your channel, loving the content

[chinkram]

from my experience, i can say that what makes something look pixel arty is definitely the shapes, when you do very readable and very geometric shapes such as squares, circles etc. it sells the idea more of the pixel art.
also something that help me a lot, is doing color ramps before doing any piece, when you make color palettes (using hue shifting), I always try to connect or cover more colors from the colors that I already have put on the palette, that way it gets easier to actually shade stuff, and it will overall make the scene more clean in a way.

[dawidgaeziewski]

Just wanted to say I love your content.
I am a programmer that is trying to learn to draw and do some assets and your tips helped me a lot!

[TheXtremeBoltGuy]

Hi, pixel artist here. It really pisses me off when people think pixel art is 'primitive' and 'takes no skill'. Absolutely NOT. Standard 2D art is way easier! At this point it's clear pixel art is its own separate medium and takes time to learn, same as any other medium would. This stuff is not as easy as people like to think, not even close

[VoidMetallurgy]

I like this video a lot - It showcases the effort put into pixel art and also makes handrawn more 'aproachable' to those who might want to give it a try.

As a pixel artist (hobbiest), here's my humble opinion on the subject:

Pixel art is a medium born of restriction, which is either a blessing or a curse, depending on the artist.
I personally love it - it freed me from the choice paralysis I had with hand drawn and gave me a basic framework to start and build upon. Pixel art is accessible with high skill celling; it's the art of telling more with less, and I find it very creatively engaging and just... fun.

(also, mind blowing at times. I have no idea how the devs made SHOVEL KNIGHT look so visually rich in such low resultion, but they are a huggeee inspriation)

I think this is why I liked your video, because it showcases the idea that there isn't "hard" and "easy" art, just art befitting the artist.

I kind of want to recreate the scene at 4:40 from zero in pixel art (with your premission, of course!) I don't really think as a digital handrawn artist (I sketch with penciles sometimes but I mostly work w pixel art) and I wonder how the differnt mindset and approach effect the results.

Also, I just want to say I love your channel!!! I find your tips very helpful even if we work in differnt mediums, and if not that then the video is always interesting and so well produced I feel inspired by the end anyway. Keep up the excellent work!

[franciscofeest]

I have been looking for this type of content for years. I am an illustrator and I started digital like 8 years ago. I have been studying illustration hard over the last few years. I have always wanted to make a videogame for various purposes (Including increasing my portfolio and dev knowledge). I am gonna binge all your videos!