Use of Vector Art vs Pixel Art

ID:1475845
 
Jan 20 2014, 9:32 am (Edited on Jan 20 2014, 9:51 am)
Hey all! So I'm an artist who has been here on BYOND since 2006. Well more like on and off. I've only recently hopped back in here 2 days ago. In those 2 days, I've struggled with finding games with awesome art. Something I thought would be here in BYOND's future lol. Not that the games are bad at all. I was just wondering what was keeping them from giving the visuals of the game as much attention.
In my time away, I've been getting into new mediums for art. I'm usually traditional so it's pretty awkward drawing on the computer. ANYWAY..

... During this time I've gotten into Vectors. I wouldn't say my skill level is even remotely high. However, I did notice I liked the final result of the Vector piece, more than the Pixel Piece.

Take a look:


^This is the Pixel.



^And these two are the Vector.

So now I have a question... is it possible for BYOND games to use Vector Based art, rather than Pixel Art?

Since you can manipulate the size of a Vector Piece without ruining the Pixels, it would definitely help me out in achieving what I want to achieve in a game here.

What are you guys' thoughts on using Vector Art as opposed to Pixel Art?
Jan 20 2014, 9:41 am
BYOND currently doesn't support vector art. I do agree that it would be interesting to have it, as every mobile game ever uses vector art.
Jan 20 2014, 9:53 am
Yeah I feel it would be great to have it. Pixel art is cool, however I don't enjoy the limits you have with it at times lol. I really enjoy the over all smoothness of Vector Art compared to Pixel Art though.
Jan 20 2014, 1:00 pm
Call me a pixel purist but i've always preferred the look of traditional pixel art to vector art or other digital mediums. Maybe it's nostalgia but for me I would rather see an entire game in beautiful pixel art then vector.
Jan 21 2014, 8:17 pm
I guess it really depends on the quality of the Pixel Art. Like you said, a game with beautiful pixel art would be awesome. Like Skull Girls. It LOOKS like it's Vectors, but it's not. It's actually Pixels, with really high Resolution lol. That doesn't really change the fact that it does look about as smooth as a Vector piece.
I believe it all really depends on the strokes, and how consistent it could be. Especially whenit comes to games. Vector Art has tons of possibilities, yet so does Pixel Art. I just feel like Pixel Art takes more effort to achieve a certain aesthetic, that Vector Art can easily achieve. Though at the sametime, Vector Art tends to do more than what you wanted to do, sometimes undesired results follow lol.
Jan 24 2014, 5:13 pm
I think you mean raster graphics and vector graphics.

Raster graphics is a series of pixels placed in specific locations.
Vector graphics is a bunch of numbers, which a program runs through an algorithm to generate an image.

They both output the image as pixels though.
Jan 25 2014, 2:44 pm
Well Pixel art uses Raster Graphics. So to be specific I mean art that focuses on the pixel level of things.

And the Vectors, well, yeah. I use Illustrator to make the Vector Based art.
Jan 27 2014, 10:27 pm
You're right. Vectors are points, lines and curves. Vectors don't put out pixels. They put out what's called "primitives". While Pixels are usually created on a Bitmap, Vectors are created on a Mathematical Grid.
Jan 28 2014, 12:52 am
In response to ShadowiceTeam
Falcon lazorz wrote:
The Magic Man wrote:
They both output the image as pixels though.

If they were outputted as pixels wouldn't they become distorted from being re-sized? I thought vector graphics were shown as curves and shapes.

ShadowiceTeam wrote:
You're right. Vectors are points, lines and curves. Vectors don't put out pixels. They put out what's called "primitives". While Pixels are usually created on a Bitmap, Vectors are created on a Mathematical Grid.

Magic Man is referring to the actual rendering of the graphics. While Vector graphics are stored formally as a series of primitives, Magic Man is basically stating that when they are rendered to the screen buffer or internal texture, they will render as a raster which is displayed on the local graphics context.

It's a pointless distinction to make, though, because the same thing could be said of 3D graphics. It misses the point that the means of manipulating the graphics is the distinction made between the media formats, not the end result.
Jan 28 2014, 1:12 pm
Well you could always pre-render all of your vector graphics and import them into DM! I understand that it wouldn't be "true" vector art and wouldn't have the properties of it that make it a wonderful tool. But you'd still atleast have art that was originally made from vectors. I honestly doubt BYOND will ever implement vector art into it's system though. I've always associated vector art with Flash games so in my opinion it looks sorta chimsey, but if made properly it could be a great style!