Since I’ve decided to go with a low-poly pixel art style for my game, I want to take some inspiration from artists I like. I’ll evaluate what I like about each style, then choose a style to focus on channelling when I eventually 3D model my characters. I’ll conclude each artist with one useful quote from them.
Brandon James Greer
I love Brandon’s work, I’ve been following him for a while! While he mainly does pixel art, he has made a few videos about Blockbench, a platform used for Minecraft model-making, and has a few videos showcasing the amazing things you can make with the app. One video, in particular, I’d like to highlight is his How to Make Low-Poly Models with Pixel Texture | Blockbench Tutorial video. I don’t intend to make pieces for this game in Blockbench, but this video is such a fascinating insight into how simple yet effective low-poly modelling is, I was truly glued to the screen! The result of the Pokeball and Pokedex looked amazing!
Design notes:
- Chibi Inspired
- Sharp edges
- Cell shading
When you’re thinking about what you’re going to model, it’s best to consider how that thing can break down into a series of simple shapes.
Brandon James Greer, How to Make Low-Poly Models with Pixel Texture | Blockbench Tutorial (2023)
Keven
Keven is another YouTuber I started watching earlier this year. He has a distinct low-poly art style similar to 3D Harvest Moon. I love the softness of this style. The shading looks airbrushed and lightly blends into the mesh. A video I watched of his, How I Learned to Create Retro Game Characters, goes into the background of low-poly models, citing PS1, DS and 3DS modelling techniques to create an authentic-looking model. I was particularly fascinated by the painting process of the model as I’ve always wanted to make a character in this style. The result is great and what I like in low-poly models.
Design notes:
- Harvest Moon + Animal Crossing Inspired
- DS/3DS inspired
- Airbrushed look
I’ve tried to keep my UVs straight as with the smaller texture size, things can look a little off otherwise.
Keven, How I Learned to Create Retro Game Characters (2024)
Lacruzo
I first stumbled across Lacruzo’s channel from his Creating Stylized Low Poly Characters in Blender video, and he has a very soft yet angular style, which reminds me of 3DS Pokemon characters but upscaled. I also see a resemblance of Mega Man Legends characters in this art style and I was also drawn to this aspect. The YouTube video I watched of him broke down the techniques that devs use to achieve the look such as drawn-on textures and facial mapping. I love his character designs, they give me lots of inspo for this project!
Design notes:
- Similar to Mega Man Legends and 3DS Pokemon
- Cell shading
- Sharp edges
The Colour Grid [in Blender] will help us visualise our UVs on the model and make it really easy to see if there’s anything we need to fix or adjust.
Lacruzo, Creating Stylized Low Poly Characters in Blender (2024)
PRIICHU
Priichu was (guess what) ANOTHER skilled 3D modeller recommended to me by the YouTube algorithm. They made a time-lapse of making a tuber model using poly modelling, which is a method to create a coherent face topology. The result is a character with great topology and edge flow. The video I used from them was Stylized Low poly Vtuber 3D Modeling Time-lapse. Their art style goes for a Megaman Legends X 3DS mix, where the body is cell-shaded and the features are drawn on. The final result is so cool! You feel the dynamic nature of their characters like they are coming to life.
Design notes:
- Similar to Mega Man Legends
- Cell shading
- Sharp edges
The video had no commentary, but one note I took from it was that they mapped the reference texture onto their 3D model and then erased/redrew the texture to make it neater. This made the mapping process way easier.
Evaluation
After looking at all of these talented artists’ work, I’ve decided what I want to go for! A mix of Keven and Priichu’s styles would best suit my game. I love how flattering their styles look and if I focus on studying how they make their characters so appealing, I could apply it to my game. The cutesy style and vivid colours would catch the player’s eyes and help my game form its’ identity.
2 thoughts on “Deciding my Art Direction. . .”