Intro

Guided by an innate desire to create, humans make things. As such a matter of course, I find it hard to put words to the why and how without attempting to unravel the meaning of existence. Humbly, I cannot declare a clean escape from this quintessential philosophical bog, but a cursory look at civilization through time indicates our role as makers keeps us afloat. From a ham sandwich, to life itself, we all play our part as makers.

Pictures made with deliberate arrangements of tiny squares, that’s my mark in this business of world making. A humble craft, yet venerable enough to justly earn the term pixel ‘art.’ The ‘pixels’ provide the flavor I so adore, while the ‘art’ holds the purpose. Ultimately, my drive is fueled by love- to know, and be known among the multitudes in a servitude that can be deemed good. Now that I’ve sufficiently justified my existence as a pixel pusher, allow me to demonstrate the deed.

Concept

Staring at a blank canvas leads nowhere, but once I start sketching, the ideas pop off. I often make hand drawn thumbnail sketches to get a very general concept, then I move on to pixel sketching to form a better game plan for the composition, colors, and appropriate resolution. Sometimes I have a fairly clear vision in my head, but most often I start with a general vibe in mind. In this case, I was in the mood for a dreamy landscape that somehow featured flying machines.

The above image shows my thumbnails sketches before I went to the digital canvas. The idea started as a cliff landscape from a high vantage point that focused on dramatic geology and structures. The composition is strong, but I wanted more sky, while maintaining a wide canvas format. So, I tilted the view to more of a sideview, and included an airship for more of my trademark flavor. Lastly, I scribbled out more detailed concepts for possible ship designs.

My first pixel sketch followed my hand sketches pretty closely. I liked the colors, but the composition wasn’t quite there yet. It could probably use more cliff elements in the background, and foreground, and some resizing of elements. A vertical format might suite the subject better, but I was dead set on a wide format, as my last couple Pixelcast videos feature vertical compositions. Proper execution was looking to exceed my time budget for these videos. I like to keep the process recording under 5 hours, so the final time-lapse can reasonably be condensed into about 5 minutes. Not to mention the painfully tedious days of editing, and production to put the whole video together. Ultimately, my interest for tackling the technical issues in capturing an atmospheric landscape wained in favor of focusing on the design of airships.

Therefore, we move on to the final rough concept. I ditched the cliffs and buildings for an airship as the focal point. A docking area at the edge of the canvas adds interest to the composition, and a sense of wonder to the context of the scenario. More ships in the distance imply an area of heavy traffic.

Not a far cry from the final version, I like to develop the concept sketch well enough to establish colors, proportions, and even some areas of high detail to help crystalize the complete vision in my head. This makes the recording process go much smoother by cutting out confusing trial and error as I problem solve, furthermore, reducing the load of video editing. I’m sure some would be interested in seeing my raw process from the first pixel of the concept, but I think that would be better suited for a livestream, or long format style video.

Process

Documented for posterity, and proof of human intent, I’ve crammed 4 hours of problem solving into 5 minutes. Don’t blink, or you’ll miss the action. Try setting a slower playback speed to make it easier to follow along.

Aseprite with a wacom tablet connected to a desktop computer are my hardwares of choice. Pencil, marquee, and the eyedropper are my most frequently used tools, along with economic use of layers. There’s not much more I can add here that’s not better shown in the video.

Final Thoughts

I stuck with a familiar formula to create another solid entry in the aircraft section of my portfolio. Of course, it would not be complete without a lovely mound of puffy clouds. It’s actually been a while since I’ve made a detailed design of this particular style of side-view airship. Sometimes we have to indulge in our comfort foods to stay connected to a core inspiration, and refresh the spirit. Maintaining an original sense of style, while contending with the pressure to keep pushing into new boundaries is always a dilemma. The potential of the my initial clifftops scene still beckons me. Perhaps, I will better formulate the vision without the burden of capturing the screen recording. There are always more problems to solve, and I’m grateful for that.