Pixel Scenes?  No Problem.

When I stumbled across a three-and-a-half-star assignment for creating a sixteen-square pixel image of a person, vehicle, or otherwise intricate object, I considered it to be an assignment too far up my alley to ignore.  In Fall 2017, I took Computer Systems and Architecture with Dr. Finlayson.  One major aspect of the course was programming games to run on the Game Boy Advance.  For those who have never written a game for that platform in C99, the coding is terribly tedious, and requires creative debugging, since there is no console to print to on GBA.  In fact, there is no such thing as ‘print’ on GBA; letters can be made as tiny pictures that have to be placed on the screen.

After writing my own version of Pong and building a Mario-like shoot-em-up with a fellow student, I became proficient at working with pixel art.  Using some images of Mario characters and maps to start with, I ‘drew’ the characters and the backgrounds for the game.  I used the PaintX image editor for Mac to get down to the pixel level and fill in the dots, so to speak.  I completed this assignment in the same fashion (keep reading for more details).

The Tale of Cinderfella

Once upon a time, at a mining operation far away, a new mineral was discovered in the heart of Zethustra Minor.  Illuminum, as it was called, was the first mineral known to man to naturally give off light.  With one company, led by the young and ruthless Margery Stone, controlling the supply of this new exotic substance, others in the industry sought to gain information about the mining operation in hopes of cutting in on their competitor’s profits.

Peter was a lad of unmatched misfortune.  After the death of his mother in a mine-collapse, he was forced in to the same profession by his stepfather and two stepbrothers.  Peter never understood how the three people he supported survived in the Zethustran mining town; they found the deep-blue stains that the illuminum left on Peter’s skin and clothing repugnant and, for fear of the stains spreading throughout their four-bedroom shack, barred Peter from the upper floors of the house, quarantining him to his basement bedroom and bath.  When Peter was offered some cash on the side by a well-dressed gentleman for ‘inside reporting’ at the mine, Peter had to accept the job; he liked money as well as staying alive.

After some close calls obtaining samples and a brief run-in with Margery, Peter knew his employment situation could not continue much longer. On the night before Peter’s planned escape from Zethustra, he decided to attend one last company picnic to keep up the appearance of normality.  Peter never imagined the path on which that picnic would lead him…

So, above we have Peter sneaking away from the entrance to the mine with a handful of the illuminum crystals while watching the security camera over his shoulder.  I was inspired to create this image after discussing an old story concept that my wife, Meg, had been working on in college.  I thought the ideas of a glowing mineral, espionage, and reverse-gender Cinderella sounded interesting, and the picture practically drew itself once I started clicking the pixels.  The story behind the story took me a little longer, but I think the time spent was worthwhile.

Two Hundred and Fifty-Six Blocks of Beauty

Creating this image was technically very simple.  I opened PaintX, created a new sixteen-by-sixteen pixel image, and used the pencil at the smallest size to fill in the pixels. The real trick here was knowing where to begin: for this I called on the rule of thirds.  Since I wanted to focus on Peter, I started by putting his head upward and to the right of center.  Then, I filled out the rest of his body and gave him the illuminum to hold.  Next, I made the mine entrance and mining cart. As an after-thought, I included the security cam and changed the direction of Peter’s head to be looking back at it.  Lastly, I painted in the different shades of green for shrubbery in the corner and added the blue stains to Peter’s hands and clothing.

After completing this assignment, all I can say is, “Thank God for View> Zoom In. “

I wanted to go out of my comfort zone with the six starts of visual assignments we had to do this week!

I started by doing the Assignment called “256 Points” where you create a picture using a 16×16 pixel square. I was a little stuck at first about how to create a picture that would just use 16×16 pixels, but then I did some Googling and was all set!

I used the website Pixilart
to create my image. In order to keep with the apocalyptic theme of our class, I wanted to make a picture of a meteor hitting a city skyline. I don’t know that it is the clearest, but I feel like once I say what it is you can tell.

The second post I did was worth another three starts and completed my needed 6. I completed the “Where Did the Soda Go?” assignment where you are supposed to make a gif showing how bad the acting in infomercials are.

I downloaded the 4k video converter from this week’s list of assignments to get the YouTube video I wanted.

I decided to go with the “Dumbest As Seen On TV Items Ever” for the video to take my clip from. I then used the website GIPHY to create my gif to share with the world.

I did the 256 Points visual assignment. So above is a picture of my superhero Charlie Sass! This assignment was perfect because she would prefer to keep her identity a secret. The picture itself is only 16 x 16 pixels… making an image this small was definitely challenging. I wanted to keep as much detail in the picture as possible, and I wanted the iconic red hair to show.

Everyone, meet Clint Pixelwood, a pixel rendition of one of Clint Eastwood’s most famous Western images. I made Mr. Pixelwood during the completion of an assignment that encouraged the making of a pixel image with only a 16×16 resolution. Since I’ve never made pixel art before, this proved to be a bit of a challenge. I don’t know much about shading and colors in such limited space, but I think Pixelwood came out pretty well. I used Paint.Net, which is a free drawing program that allows the use of layers and editing tools, though its brush functions are limited. I had to resize it in MS Paint in order to prevent it from getting fuzzy around the edges of the pixels.

In order to create my image, I referenced this photo of Clint Eastwood:

This photo is iconic to me, and since the assignment prompt encourages you to put as much detail in the limited space as possible, I figured what better way to test the limits of my abilities than to use an actual photo, background and all? Despite not being able to recreate his facial expression, I’m pretty proud of what came out of the assignment. I learned that pixel art has everything to do with colors, less so with shapes and lines.

Clint Eastwood had a big impact on Western film (and on film in general). I admire the work he’s done as an actor and director, and his older films are still incredibly enticing to watch. The image that I attempted to pixelate is from his iconic role in The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. The image alone speaks volumes of his character and of how Western film is remembered — rugged, rough, dirty, and quiet. The very essence of this image is difficult to describe, but it is certainly fun to rework.