How to Learn Game Art!

This video is mainly focused on HD 2D game art, but will be applicable to pixel art as well. It'll be less applicable to 3D, but what can you do..

[NonsensicalD]

There are as usual many simplifications, and you can quibble for quite a while on if "craftmanship" "style" and "meaning" are the best labels or even the best ways to classify art, but hopefully you understand why I make the distinction and why I think solely looking at art as another word for "craftmanship" can truly be detrimental to your progress. I have mainly tried to avoid things I've covered in the past, but some things will inevitably be repeated in order to cover the video topic appropriately.

[Aaron-oexw]

I recently started pixel art, former traditional artist. Met someone else who had been doing pixel art for around 2 weeks and i showed him some of the landscapes i had been drawing and his response was "how do you get these to look so good?" And ym response was "drawing dozens and dozens of rocks, looking at pictures of rocks, looking at other peoples pictures of rocks"....
Their response "oh man i wish i had talent like that"
😢😢😢😢

[jordentacoztm]

Using reference also allows you to actually know what something looks like, and next time you need to draw it you will know what it looks like a bit better. It builds your visual library.

[IdeaGrazer]

Something people don't talk about as much but I learned studying composition is that you want to look at a whole image as areas of light and dark. This is as important as the details that make up the image. It is the foundation of an image. Colour is secondary to the light dark values. You should be able to remove colour and still enjoy the overall look of the image.

[johnsnow]

This is actually very useful information. I took an art class in college but I've forgotten a lot of the fundamentals and this video helps a lot. I remember now that I had terrible craftsmanship in my art class, but my creations still looked alright because of the other things like style, color and meaning.

[afriendlyfox]

As a person who's doing both art and programming, if you just google solutions instead of sitting down and taking the time to learn the fundamentals of the language, you won't understand how and why something's working, and therefore won't be able to learn from it. I found the same to be true of art for me - after I took the time and learned the basics of perspective, value, composition and color, art advice from experienced people suddenly started making sense. So I'd suggest learning all and every of the fundamentals on the basic level first, and only then start trying to decompose the work of others and learn from it.

[sosasees]

"game art" is really visual design.
design is all about communication, so clarity is much more important than everything else.

some games need more complex visuals for the right mood.
but games that don't, i can make them look as simple as modern system UI on my phone or desktop.

[moonrivers]

You make more sense out of the actual thought process than anyone I have ever heard/seen. Excellent. Thank you so much. You are a very good teacher. You quiet my mind and make it extremely easy to focus on your content. You give examples of many different aspects. Please continue. It’s so helpful. Highly appreciated. :)

[vcdgamer]

3:54
For a long time I would just start with the line art, or rely on a 3d model all the time to get my game art done. But ever since I saw this snippet of video 4 months ago and focused on getting the silhouette of the character done first, drawing my game art as well as animating it has been a lot easier and more efficient.😁
14:30 There's this law I decided to apply to my game assets in my game. The living characters don't have any form of shading whatsoever, except in cutscenes, but I add some form of lighting to the backgrounds, since they don't have an animation, it saves a lot of time this way. 🙂

[hanyodossta]

My favorite quote: "When you're learning art, you're not becoming good at art. You're becoming good at one thing at a time." This was really frustrating to learn at first, and can be even more discouraging when you realize that the skills you practice in one area can fade when you move onto learning skills in a different area.

It makes me want to specialize somehow, but I need to do all of the art/animation/music for our games by myself -- I have to be a generalist who gets progressively less crap at a bunch of different skills.

[teamspeak]

you make me believe I could actually draw something cool even though for the 28 years of my life the most I've been able to draw is a badly proportioned stick figure. I'll give it a try! thanks

[Fabian-gvzx]

I love the way you are committed to the game design. You are doing and incredible job 💪🏻 . Keep going and don't give up man 👊🏻♥️

[fletchergunderson]

I love the point on silhouette and houses but I actually loved that first little house haha

[kylespevak]

It's funny that people like "realism" so much, because i find it easier and bland. Style is much more interesting and difficult. I can draw real things, maybe slightly simplified, but i CANNOT make a cohesive art style

[lemonberries]

This channel is incredible! Really enjoying the deep dive/analyses into the artwork and how to learn to think like an artist

[kylespevak]

4:26 You just blew my mind. I typically would draw with simple shapes, and end up with bland designs.

[khavi]

Your videos have been such a fantastic reference/instructional point. You seriously do amazing work with these, you deserve so many more subs and views for the work you put in.

[blackjew]

I thing I learn some time ago, Start as simple as you can and only make it as complex as needed and not more.

[KimberlyPinkney]

I love your examples on meaning! I really appreciated the tiny details of the mailbox, or ad I took it, turning a mundane item into something whimsical with a bit of imagination. Never thought of a creature cozy living in a mailbox in all sorts of weather. Now, I am envisioning it's burning your junk mail and bills to stay warm.😂 Getting into domestic disputes to the point of having postal creature cops to intervene... Unable to get your mail as the box is cordoned off with yellow crime scene tape ... Only to find your box is now haunted! 😂Thanks, I am now utterly inspired to add more meaning to my mundania where needed.

[chinkram]

I definitely need to work more on my shapes, thanks for the video!!
I would definitely made sticky notes and read them every time i can