eBook Pixel Logic

General talk
#1

I’ve just purchased Pixel Logic, an eBook by Michael Azzi «Michafrar»:

The book is in PDF format, with over 200 pages, excellently designed.

I’m very satisfied with the purchase, the book is a real learning treasure box, with organized tutorials and full of great pixel art images from various authors. I wonder how I missed out this book so far in my searches for tutorials; I wish I had found it before.

Needlsess to say, I strongly advise Pixel Logic to anyone interested in the topic! The price is very reasonable and the book is actively being updated. A free preview is also available:

#2

Looks interesting and I’m curious about it. Is it more geared towards complete beginners or do you think it is also good for intermediate pixel artists?

#3

Is it more geared towards complete beginners or do you think it is also good for intermediate pixel artists?

Overall, I would say that it’s a book targeting complete newbies, but also guiding them through to the intermediate level. But the last chapter (about finish up work) is quite advanced stuff, and it has been announced a new chapter on finish-up work due December/January.

Having said, that, keep in mind that the author is a well established professional of Pixel Graphics, and that many articles are written by other professionals, each having consented to include original images from their published works (and some exclusive images that never went into final games), as well as their paper sketches and pixel art drafts.

So, even the simplest lesson takes on a whole different light when it comes from someone who has mastered the art and made a carreer out of it. When you read the individual advises and techniques from this authors you have the certainty that they know what they are talking about, and often you’ll find small details that make the difference even in matters which are for beginners.

But for sure the book doesn’t go into technical details like color management, monitor calibration, and hardware tools of the pro (it does review the history and evolution of such tools, in the opening chapters). Nor it goes into technical details about file formats, color palettes standards, etc. It’s mainly about planning and drawing techiniques, and polishing up the final work.

If you’re looking for a technical book on pixel-art computer graphics for videogames, dealing with formats, color, graphic cards and monitors, there is Ari Feldman’s Designing Arcade Computer Game Graphics, which is a good technical book:

Unfortunately, it’s quite old (2000) and no so up to date with modern PCs’ power; but the fundamentals of computer graphics and Pixel Art are all there. Also, not many modern books of this type deal with pixel art, since it’s no long a major trend as it used to be.

#4

There is s free download today: https://widgetworx.com/book/

1 Like
#5

Thanks tajmone, for the detailed reply. I have also purchased the book now and am looking forward to diving in. And thanks also Jan for the heads up on the free download! Excellent resources that I hope to put to good use :slight_smile:

#6

New Chapters

Since my original post, the Pixel Logic eBook was ultimated (v1.0) with two new chapters added:

Chapter 8. Sub-Pixeling Chapter 9. Animation
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These two chapters are also availabe as HTML animated chapters viewable (offline) with the browser, via a cool book-like interface (showing 2 pages at the time) where the example images are shown as animations.

Also, all the image assets of these chapters are available in subfolders to allow detailed examination in graphic editing tools — which is rather cool since these chapters deal with advanced Sub-Pixeling techniques for improving animation frames, so having reak examples to study pixel-by-pixel is really useful.

These last chapters seal the tutorial cycle of the book, making Pixel Logic a really good book on the topic. It’s definitely an excellent book. Besides, I don’t recall many books being available on the subject.

I had bought a nice PDF tutorial on Pixel Art years ago, but unfortunately it went lost in a hard drive crash and I no longer have the email account with which I bought it, so I’ve lost it for good and can’t recover it.

But Pixel Logic is on another level altogether, for it explores the subject inside out. Also, the book features real pixel art images from some of the best video games of the past — e.g. sprites from Metal Slug, Mario, and other famous game — thus being able to provide high quality reference material.

Surely, there are some areas which I hope the book would have covered deeper (e.g. the technical aspects of preserving colors across devices, and a better overiew of the technologies of the video game industry, both hardware and software) but, as the book points out, these not being pixel-art specific topics there are plenty of resources available. The book tries to stick to what is specific to Pixel Art in this respect, but an appendix offering an overviwew on Pixel Art and games engines would have been nice.

Final Book Structure

The final Table of Contents of the book now is:

  • Ch.0 — Introduction
  • Ch.1 — Line art
  • Ch.2 — Anti-aliasing
  • Ch.3 — Colours
  • Ch.4 — Readability
  • Ch.5 — Dithering
  • Ch.6 — Game perspectives
  • Ch.7 — Clean Up
  • Ch.8 — Sub-Pixeling
  • Ch.9 — Animation

French Version

A French translation of the eBook is currently in the making (as of today, 4 chapters out of 9 are already translated), and available for early access on Gumroad: