Graphics & GUI
Introduction
Here I gather all my thoughts related to my graphics production
I seek freedom, not challenge, I have an assortment of styles I use and that is that.
2K10-E-Indie-Boom Styles List
* Ahlbom(Jens Ahlbom Rendering and form, Tintin rendering and form, Yotsuba rendering and form but NOT THE MANGA HEADS)
* American Comics(Disney, Newgrounds, Bully, Skull kid, Super Meat Boy, Minecraft Logo)
* Pillow Fantasy(Terraria, King Arthurs Gold, Stardew Valley)
* Raster Minimalism(W95, NES)
* Low-Res-Scan(Minecraft paintings, Kings Quest, Mulle Meck)
* Digital Painting(mimicry up to you, but I like Ralph Mcquarrie)
* HQ Digital Camera Trad. Videography
* Origami(Minecraft, Phantom Hourglass)
* Gouache 3D(Team Fortress, skyward Sword, Battlefield Heroes, 3D world that looks like gouache/poster-color)
* Blender Minimalism
* 2000s web design(I really just hate the web design shift that happened to much of the web in the 2010s)
Styles
I try to limit myself to the graphics styles that were dominant during the 2K10-E-Indie-Boom era.
I love the art styles of that time so much.
It was an amazing time.
It felt like the world was coming together, which it was.
2K10-E-Indie-Boom is the golden era of web aesthetics.
I love stylistic unity.
I dislike it when people try to be quirky for the sake of being quirky.
* I dislike quirky games.
* I dislike quirky movies.
* I dislike quirky art.
* I dislike quirky Music.
* I dislike quirky clothes.
* I dislike quirky social structures.
* I dislike quirky food.
* I dislike quirky people.
* I dislike quirky women especially.
* I dislike quirky japanese men especially too.
but also
* I dislike trend emulation in men.(not in women)
It is just disorienting and a waste of time.
FOR THE LOVE OF GOD DO NOT BE A QUIRKYMAXX PERSON.
I get nausea, really bad nausea from the entire "muh style" people.
For the love of god "your style" can go f*ck itself.
Every single "muh style" person I've met was a too-far-up-their-ass demented narcissist hyperautist who needs to touch grass.
It is on the same level of autism as creating new languages.
Maybe funny once in a star wars movie but you are soo damn laate holy sh*t.
You need a damn good excuse to create a new language, and you probably do not have one.
Practice
I practice by drawing:
*
3D Primitives
* General
3D Objects(house, car, boat, store, phone, scissors, piano)
*
3DFoilage/Vegetation
* 2D Symbols
*
3D Robots
*
3D People and animals
Inspo
* PATRICK HINES OMG(Shapes are nice, Strong balance between realism and simplicity, Rendering is effective but not realistic, A style that is accessible to mediocre artists like me)
* Herge
1 2(behaglig form, great specificity)
*
Jens Ahlbom(behaglig form, great specificity, men blir ofta DOS ACID colors, scanned art)
* Yotsuba OEKAKI
* Mateuz urbanowizc
*
Ralph Mcquarrie(composition, färger, simplistic projections)
* Pippi DOS
* Loranga, Dartanjang och Massarin
* KAMRATPOSTEN KAMRATPOSTEN KAMRATPOSTEN KAMRATPOSTEN KAMRATPOSTEN KAMRATPOSTEN
*
Kings Quest scanned Art
* All of the above have much in common(simplistic projection, rendering, bruks) but Pat Hines takes the cake as I see it.
*
Windows 98
* Newgrounds Animations & Games
* Older Disney Animation, especially the rougher ones
Newgrounds and older Disney both share that love for overtly simplistic characters and roughness which I can appreciate, though Herge is my favorite style.
* Minimalism
* Raster Art
* Pixelated Photos(Minecraft Paintings)
* Minimalist Raster Art(Super Mario Bros, Legend of Zelda, Donkey Kong)
* Pillow Fantasy(Really just deep dive in the pillow shading, get off your high horse!!!Super Mario Bros Allstars!!! Terraria, King Arthur's Gold, Celeste, Minecraft, SMW, Final Fantasy, Stardew Valley)
* Toon/Comic/Herge(I mean when I draw comics I mix ligne claire with gouache-esque painting so I prefer to call the style as a whole Herge rather than Ligne Claire)
* I DO NOT DO MANGA! I DO NOT DO MANGA! I DO NOT DO MANGA! I DO NOT DO MANGA! I DO NOT DO MANGA!
* Digital Painting
* simple 3D
* Animation/Storyboards
* photography/videography
As always, only do fancy stuff when you are celebrating something, if you celebrate everything you celebrate nothing.
Don't be a f*cking Brillobox
Themes I like
* Light Theme = Freshness and openess
* Dark THeme = Mystery, develoment, experimentation, science,
* KAWAII KAWAII KAWAII KAWAII
* I love Kawaii Design, I love Shigeru Miyamoto
* Dancing toons
* Furries
* Older background style
* E environments(LO-FI girl)
Ahlbom Style
!!!Draw at display scale if you can!!!
* thin sketchy comfy lines
* Convexes and concaves
* Polygonism construction w. rounding
* NECK IS BELOW THE BALL NECK IS BELOW THE BALL NECK IS BELOW THE BALL NECK IS BELOW THE BALL(Unless you are doing an animal)
* Medium Realism Construction, delicate
* Siluhettes
* Symbol construction
* small facial symbols/features
* Simplified Projections
* Solid Color Rendering
* Two Shade Rendering
* Simplistic rendering
HIFI SETUP
DO NOT TRY TO MAKE ART AND MUSIC ON BAD GEAR, IT WILL SUCK NO MATTER WHAT!
* BRIGHT HIGH CONTRAST SCREEN
It is important to have a HIFI setup.
Try to enjoy art on a dull screen.
Try to enjoy music on a narrow speaker set.
You can not.
Get a real setup god damn it.
Drawing/painting/Storyboard
* Gesture/sketch
* Construction(slå inte ihop 2D former när du gör gubbar dude)
* Details
* rendering(color, bevel, effects, shading, foilage siluhette layers effects)
* In the case of storyboard go as far down the list as is necessary
Raster art
I love raster art, I try to do as much raster art as possible.
I did some raster art back when I was little, before I knew of pixelart.
I call it mostly raster art, I am not loyal to the medium of computer display.
I love raster art on things that are not computer screens.
Early E Graphics
ECPC-korrekt, common use
* 16-bit/LO-FI graphics
* Many different palettes
* 90s saturated fruity palette
* Raster Art
* Scanned Art Work/Photos
* Minecraftia Font(Ideology over UI friendliness)
* High def for celebration
post 2011 E Graphicsref: Zelda Wind Waker, Super Mario Galaxy, Lego Star Wars, Team Fortress, Ni no Kuni
Good for celebrations
* DIGITAL ART WOOHOOO
* Aliasing
* simplistic
* Natural or colorful palette
* Flat shading
* Flat paintings
Bauhaus Graphics
For kommunen stuff
* Flat digital
* minimalism
* high def photo.
* Naturalism color palette
* Times new roman.
Video/Photography
* Saturation Pumping
* Contrast Pumping(I hate how often people forget to pump contrast in post, Looks like there is light fog everwhere)
SATURATION AND CONTRAST IS LOW BY DEFAULT, PUMP IT LIKE HELL!
I think people did that more in the 80s and 90s and then something happend in the mid 90s.
* Distortion(It is really funny I do not know why)
* No Zoom = Vlogger sh*t
* Higher Zoom = home video/Doc sh*t
* Mega Zoom = Dramatic, serious real sh*t(you take everyone more seriously when you zoom in on them)
* Bruks = 720p/10mm
* Dedication = 1440p/30mm
* high/low FOV depends on use case
* 80s Sweden was my favorite era of video style
* IRL meeting, natural pace
* Live Perma TV Studio
* Stativ
* Smartphones om du vill göra en sån där studio massa switchs thing.
Fan va jag hatar när människor slänger pissdyr kamerautrustning på dumheter.
Firar man allt firar man inget.
super high FOV footage has become soo common due to smartphones and now all footage looks so goofy.
This pandemic of cheap wide angle lens footage is an insult to life.
The wide angle lens insults whoever it is used on no matter their legitimacy and greatness.
Thoughts on Design Trends of 2010s->
I like the shift towards minimalism and simplicity, after all that is what I grew up with.
pixelart, common palettes, oekaki, simple video cameras.
I do not participate in the common hate towards the simplification of logos.
However,
The shift in web design bothers me a lot.
All of a sudden everything is spacey and big.
Lots of space, big font sizes, big dramatic images.
Like eating a soup with barely anything in it.
I think this is done to dramatize the content?
It is a very stupid trend.
I prefer the old reddit design that is content dense.
I prefer the japanese yahoo design that is content dense.
I like the design of Dan-Ball JP, which is content dense.
Content dense is nice design! what happend!?
This space obession is the result of individualism.
People want to feel big so they make their images, fonts and squaries big.
They think making things big will make them a more important person, they are stupid!
The importance of your work does not depend on how much space it takes up on your website!
I think gradios design in many ways is the symtom of a screaming world.
A world screaming in pain and emptiness.
Grandios Design is humanity screaming as it sinks into the void.
Another word for Grandios Design is cockish design.
In the vidya realm I would say I dislike the move towards overuse of high end graphics.
Games should look like games.
Simulations should look like simulations.
Celebrations should look like celebrations.
So yeah I appreciate high end graphics when that makes sense.
When you want immersion/tech demonstration high end graphics makes sense.
When you want simplistic communication you want simple graphics.
Too often I see high end graphics for games that should hve simple graphics.
Man I loved the Nintendo DS
Common Fonts
*
Verdana-pt12(bread-text)
* Silkscreen(titles)
* Minecraftia
