569K views · Jan 10, 2017 · 1:25:34 · 13 HN recommenders · 20 mentions · discussed 2018–2026
Mark Ferrari, the LucasArts background artist, explains in a GDC 2016 talk how he draws 8-bit graphics. He covers color cycling and palette shifting to create complex animated scenery without frame animation.
Why Hacker News points people here: HN repeatedly recommends it as a master class in limited-palette pixel art and palette cycling, from an artist behind Loom and Monkey Island.
“I recommend this talk to anyone who is interested in the details and history of working on limited colour palette games!”HN comment, 2024
“you really should sit down and watch it.”
Mark Ferrari on palette animation and 8-bit art.
If you are here and you haven’t seen Mark Ferrari’s GDC talk, you really should sit down and watch it. He is perhaps the greatest pallete animator of all time. Even if you aren’t familiar with the games he worked on, HN folks have likely seen his gallery of single-image animations linked below. this video link
“Every Deluxe Paint fan out needs to watch this video of the master of that tool explain his craft”
Master of Deluxe Paint explains his craft.
Every Deluxe Paint fan out needs to watch this video of the master of that tool explain his craft Mark Ferrari: 8 Bit & '8 Bitish' Graphics-Outside the Box this video
“Obligatory recommendation for this talk by Mark Ferrari”
Talk by the artist behind Loom's EGA backgrounds.
> The original EGA background art for Loom was made by Mark Ferrari Obligatory recommendation for this talk by Mark Ferrari: this video - truly an artist
“this is incredible talk form the Background Artist of monkey island”
Explains in detail how palette cycling works and modern uses.
this is incredible talk form the Background Artist of monkey island, about 8 bit and explain in details how palette cycling works, and modern way to doing the same more efficiently for modern games. 8 Bit & '8 Bitish' Graphics-Outside the Box this video
“I recommend this talk to anyone who is interested in the details and history of working on limited colour palette games!”
Details and history of limited colour palette games.
He gave one of my favourite GDC talks of all time [1]! I recommend this talk to anyone who is interested in the details and history of working on limited colour palette games! [1] this video
“most excellent GDC presentation on the lost power of palettized textures”
Ferrari on the lost power of palettized textures.
Mark was nice enough to invite me to his home studio when I was a new high school grad to talk working in games as an artist. He told me the story of the fight over dithering. I give him strong partial credit for ending up a game engine/art pipeline coder instead and got to thank him after his most excellent GDC presentation on the lost power of palettized textures this video You can see that power in action here link (Hit show options) link BTW: Deluxe Paint has been remade in Python if you want to give it a try link
Artist's view on constrained palettes and artistic inspiration.
Came across this in a thread on Reddit. It’s been discussed on HN before as well but I think it’s worthy of being resubmitted. Previous discussion: link In that discussion multiple people said that they preferred the non-stabilized dithering, and they argued that that is “how it was” on the old 1-bit Macs. “The original effect is how it's supposed to look and how it would have looked on an old computer with 1-bit graphics.” says one commenter. I think these comments are missing the forest for the trees. It’s not about faithful recreation, it’s about artistic inspiration and invoking certain feelings. See also the talk “8 Bit & ‘8 Bitish’ Graphics - Outside the Box” by artist Mark Ferrari. this video If you artificially constrain yourself too much, your game will suffer and no-one will want to play it. On the other hand, if you can give a nod to the past and a feeling of nostalgia but at the same time acknowledge that we have had progress, and incorporate that progress in your game, then there is potential for a game that is actually fun to play.
“Watch this talk from Mark Ferrari, for example”
Shows early PC pixel art and color cycling.
I don't agree with that! Early personal computers also had pixel art, and it was mind-blowing what was done with it. Watch this talk from Mark Ferrari, for example: this video link Check out what he did with color cycling in this demo: it's amazing. I recommend looking at "May - Jungle Waterfall - Rain" to see how amazing this is. That's not a gif, it's a single image, just rotating the colors. That was to deal with storage constraints. Can you imagine? The techniques of early PC and applications are worth saving , too. The art shown in that tweet is amazing, too, but it's not the same thing! It's an entirely different thing, with entirely different constraints.
Ferrari on creating pixel art for LucasArts games.
There's a lot of stuff available but the problem is knowing what to look for. For example, the book "Commodore: A Company on the Edge" chronicles quite a bit of Commodore lore, and there are numerous resources for both Amiga and C64 online. Too many to mention, really, and lots of them are heavily specialized. CSDb[0] for the C64 demo and cracking scene, for example. I also recommend The Early History of Smalltalk[1] by Alan Kay himself and Mark Ferrari's talk[2] on creating pixel art for LucasArts games. [0] link [1] link [2] this video
“The things they achieved with pallette switching were unbelievable”
Classic adventure game artist on palette switching in paint programs.
You might be interested in this GCD talk. The speaker was an artist on various classic adventure games. I found it really interesting how he considered himself a traditional artist and doesn't really like computers at all. The things they achieved with pallette switching were unbelievable, especially considering the limitations of their tools. It's crazy how he managed to do this stuff just in basic paint programs. Some HNers will be horrified (just write some code!) but I think it's really inspiring. this video
“gives lots of great detail about the art process, tools, and practices of the time”
Detail on art process, tools and practices of EGA era.
If you have an interest in this kind of art, this GDC presentation by Mark Ferrari "8 Bit & 8 Bit-ish Graphics" gives lots of great detail about the art process, tools, and practices of the time (Ferrari worked on the EGA art for Monkey Island, among several others). this video
“if you want to see a true (human) master at work, check out Mark Ferrari's GDC talk here”
Human master of pixel art at work.
This is very neat, but if you want to see a true (human) master at work, check out Mark Ferrari's GDC talk here: this video I'd love to see an algorithm that could approximate this degree of mastery :)
“great talk by Mark Ferrari about his work”
Ferrari talks about his living worlds work.
This is an amazing engineering and artistic achievement. I have the Live Wallpaper for Android and it's the most delightful $2 I've ever spent, even though it crashes every few days. Right now it's snowing. Yesterday night I spotted a shooting star. There's a great talk by Mark Ferrari about his work: this video
Shows what a master of Deluxe Paint palette cycling can do.
If you want to see what a master of Deluxe Paint palette cycling can do check out Mark Ferrari's link (hit "Show Options) and this video
Shows what a master of Deluxe Paint palette cycling can do.
If you want to see what a master of Deluxe Paint palette cycling can do check out Mark Ferrari's link (hit "Show Options) and this video
“You might enjoy an entire talk on using a limited color palette for graphics in early games”
Limited palette graphics in early games and how it spurred creativity.
You might enjoy an entire talk on using a limited color palette for graphics in early games and how it stimulated creativity this video "In this GDC 2016 talk, Terrible Toybox's Mark Ferrari discusses and demonstrate some of his techniques for drawing 8 bit game graphics, including his celebrated methods for use of color cycling and pallet shifting to create complex and realistic background animation effects without frame-animation GDC talks cover a range of developmental topics including game design, programming, audio, visual arts, business management, production, online games, and much more. We post a fresh GDC video every weekday. Subscribe to the channel to stay on top of regular updates, and check out GDC Vault for thousands of more in-depth talks from our archives."
“You might enjoy this GDC talk by Mark Ferrari of LucasArts fame”
Ferrari's pixel art technique and color cycling.
You might enjoy this GDC talk by Mark Ferrari of LucasArts fame, where he goes over his pixel art technique, as well as how he did color cycling: this video
Inspiration on what palettized framebuffers can do.
If you want to play with software rendering, here's probably the shortest code that will get an ARGB8888 2D array from main memory to the screen efficiently for all platforms using SDL2 in C link you'll need to do the translation from a 320x200x8-bit palletized framebuffer to ARGB yourself ;) If you want to get inspired by what can be done with palletized framebuffers check out link (click Show Options) and the GDC presentation by the artist this video With that you can fire up link for that classic Deluxe Paint IIe vibe. Or, link for something more modern.
“The maker talks about it in this presentation”
Creator demonstrates making the waterfall with palette cycling.
The maker talks about it in this presentation (skipped to the part where he shows how he makes the waterfall): this video
Ferrari's 8-bit drawing techniques including color cycling and palette shifting.
8 Bit & '8 Bitish' Graphics-Outside the Box this video > In this GDC 2016 talk, Terrible Toybox's Mark Ferrari discusses and demonstrate some of his techniques for drawing 8 bit game graphics, including his celebrated methods for use of color cycling and pallet shifting to create complex and realistic background animation effects without frame-animation The lost art of color cycling - Animating with color link > Color cycling was born out of hardware restrictions but out of it came some beautiful artworks that characterized the 80s and 90s. In this video we will learn more about how this effect was produced and experience first hand the beautiful artwork created with it.
