I came into the interest of programming as an artist first, so I have some rough edges in my programming practices (such as the tendency to write C++ code in a C-ish manner). Anyways, as an artist I'm trying to find my 'niche', in the style of art I would be best suited for. I'm best at machine/architectural drawings, not very good with sketching characters by hand, but pixel character art interests me. Would I have much success in being mainly a pixel artist for games? I've browsed through several portfolios of pixel artists and realize that handhelds and mobile games hold the last bastion for 2D gaming, and as a gamer wouldn't want 2D gaming to go away.

Disclaimer: I have no connection to the _business_, but these are my humble opinions:

As you've said yourself, I believe that there's still a demand for pixel art on low-resolution/low-computation-power machines (cellphones, GBA). I'm not sure how good your chances are at breaking into that venue - there are a lot of talented pixel artists out there (leftovers from the demoscene, for instance), and I fear those markets may turn to 3D in the near future. There should still be a place for pixel pushers, though. Hand-optimized pixel art is always more visible on lowres devices and say, cursors and other small-but-important graphics for the latest 3D games usually are pixelized (Case in point: World of Warcraft. I do believe most of the icons are hand-made, as well as all the cursors).

I believe there will always be some market for pixel art. Webgames that can be accessed from anywhere on any computer (and fast!) are still very appealing.
Its good to be skilled in several things as an artist, it will help you have more appeal in a very competitive job market. Versatility and adapatability are very important. If you're looking for tips from a very skilled group of pixel artists, a lot of them hang out here:

http://pixel-arts.org/pixelopolis/

The people there range from new to pixel art, to people who have already been involved in many game projects.

All I've done for the past 3 1/2 years is pixel art...tomorrow I'm moving into a new house that I paid for by spriting. :) There's definitely a large market for it, if you have the skills. Mobile applications, like cellphones, PDAs, and handheld consoles are the main market, so I'd suggest learning the technical quirks and limitations of as many of those devices as possible.

Do you have any samples of you pixel art available?

As for there being an abundance of good artists out there, I'm not sure about that...I had several open recruiting drives for a company I used to work for, and the level of quality was quite lacking in most entries. I think I hired about 3 people out of 150 applicants, over the last year or so. Regardless of how nice a charcter sprite one can make, very few of them can animate properly, or handle backgrounds and larger images...

Abundance might've been too strong a word. Admittedly, my comments were based more on guesswork than inside knowledge (I'm not nearly good enough at the pixel pushing to have any). nvision seems to have a lot of that, and I agree with him that most self-taught pixel artists areless experienced with both big and animated pieces. As for knowing the ins and outs of every system out there - it sounds a little over-the-top. Simply knowing the general limitations and specialize when the time comes would be my tip - especially if you have solid skills beyond still 64x64.

nvision, I've seen your nickname before. Pixelation regular?

Quote:

Original post by Snaily Abundance might've been too strong a word. Admittedly, my comments were based more on guesswork than inside knowledge (I'm not nearly good enough at the pixel pushing to have any). nvision seems to have a lot of that, and I agree with him that most self-taught pixel artists areless experienced with both big and animated pieces. As for knowing the ins and outs of every system out there - it sounds a little over-the-top. Simply knowing the general limitations and specialize when the time comes would be my tip - especially if you have solid skills beyond still 64x64. nvision, I've seen your nickname before. Pixelation regular?

I used to post on Pixellation for a long time, until they went down for about the 50th time...have they found a new stable home? I actually worked with a few guys from the Pixellation boards for a while (FryChiko, Sals, Riva, Keops, Cave and a few others...)

Regarding platform knowledge, I think you can get by with understanding a few key things. There are size limitations (i.e. does the system require art to be sized in powers of 2? what's the maximum tile/spritesheet size it can handle? how much physical memory is available for a complete .jar file?), colour limitations (How many colours can be displayed? What bit-depth can it support? Does it use special paletting, like RGB332?), and other things like display layers, various resolutions and such. Knowing this stuff can put you ahead of the crowd, as you won't have to be taught by another artist or programmer. It also gives you more control over your game content, if you know what a platform is capable of, and you won't end up wasting any effort, creating graphics or features that won't work properly on a specific device. If you just ask around on developers forums, and even around here, there should be plently of people who can help you out.

I guess I stopped going there (only posted a few times but lurked for at least a year) for the same resaon... I tried searching for it a few months back, but I couldn't find anything. There seems to some communitys left, but none as all-encompassing a Pixelationw as at its height. Shame.

Also, to satisfy my curiosity as well as helping the OP, would you mind sharing how you became a professional pixel artist? Lucky break or hard work and dedication?

It was a little of both, I think. I actually went to university to study traditional illustration, but after graduation, I found the market quite flooded, and almost turned into a cottage industry, with amatuer artists offering their services for far cheaper than I could afford to. I started doing pixel art as a hobby and when I felt I could handle the basics, I responded to some projects on the Help Wanted boards, here. After finishing a few projects (both bree and paying), I built up a fairly rounded portfolio.

I was working on a game design doc with a friend, and we were trying to sell the game to a producer. He asked to see samples of my work, and offered me a full-time job on the spot. Working at it 8+ hrs a day helped me improve quite rapidly, and I got to a point where I didn't have to constantly look for new work, and I could pick and choose between contracts.

Basically, you've got a good resource here, in the GameDev forums. I'd start looking for some teams/projects that interest you, and start getting your feet wet!