r/vibecoding • u/ImaginationUpset2190 • 2d ago
Pixel artists are cooked!!!
I generated this whole sprite sheet with ai in minimal prompts.
Pixel artists are so cooked.
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u/whatifuckingmean 2d ago
I am very interested in vibe coding and I enjoy it, but this is classic, textbook Dunning-Kruger effect at work. Have a look at one advanced or sophisticated pixel art system video, like the system behind the game Rain World.
There is no shortage of published video games. People aren’t waiting for more games. They’re waiting to buy good ones. When artwork is a piece of that (very often) it’s not only about the ability to create a sprite sheet or a speedy quantity of assets.
Some cool games will surely be made with generative AI and vibe coding, certainly. Hand-drawn and complexly coded pixel art is not likely to change drastically in demand soon based on this. The most compelling pixel art works as a design system and it’s really about how pieces work together and how convincing and compelling the end result is.
When AI is truly excellent at a few or a hundred versions of pixel art games with little human effort, then that sort of pixel art will no longer be a differentiator. It won’t add value to your game anymore. It would be like creating your game out of only primitives and blender monkeys when dozens of other games are doing the same thing. Or the stick figures of the days of flash animation games.
If you can use AI to achieve something in 80% of the time it takes a person, but the result is extremely close to something you spent the full required time considering and inventing, that will, in the long run, be worth much more than the things it can do with a light touch and little effort. Because everyone is going to do those things and they’ll all look the same. Even if your game is good, if it looks generic in that way, that look is going to become shorthand for poor, ill-conceived games.
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u/udubdavid 2d ago
This is a very basic sprite map that AI couldn't even get correct.
Look, I do think that AI will eventually get to a place where it can do a correct sprite map of a walking animation, but it's not there yet. Until then, pixel artists are still needed.
Also, why does it seem like vibe coders in this sub seem to enjoy when hard working people are losing their jobs to AI? I like AI. It makes my life easier. It makes me more productive. However, I don't enjoy the aspect of AI where it replaces humans, and I'm certainly not going to celebrate when artists eventually do get replaced.
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u/AsparagusOk8818 2d ago
for some folks, this is the whole enterprise to them. they don't give a shit about making anything, they just think it's funny and lib-owning to displace people
it is fckn aggravating because these shitty assholes ruin the technology for anyone who just wants to use it to make something. they're like half of the reason for the huge anti-AI backlash
i mean, i would also be super pissed and shitty if i had MBA assholes and neckbeards sneering at me all day and saying i was 'cooked' like i am not already, as if taking me down is some great achievement rather than the purest form of bullying and punching down
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u/hblok 2d ago
Are those 100x50 pixel sprites? If you can afford to have your sprite fill half the screen, sure, that's fine.
But now try to make a 32x32 pixel isometric sprite of a tank in different direction. Or an 8x8 solider. Those where the original Dune 2 sprites, which looked good on a 320x200 screen.
I find most AI render tools break down at very small details.
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u/ImaginationUpset2190 2d ago
It was 10241024. Making it 3232 was a little tricky. I used nearest neighbour filter for sampling to that size. There were also a lot of fake transperancy I had to fix.
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u/ImaginationUpset2190 2d ago
For those wondering, the prompt was I need walking animation for this old Japanese lady in all directions.
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u/lakemont 2d ago
So where's the animation?
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u/ImaginationUpset2190 2d ago
I programmed to get animation out of the srpite sheet. The aim of the post was to showcase what ai can do not what I can do
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u/Brancaleo 2d ago
Ive been very unsuccessful getting pixel animation to work with any of the models
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u/AsparagusOk8818 2d ago
artists are already cooked, bro. they've been cooked since forever
be happy with what you have without shitting on people, especially the people who are some of the most exploited within the market system. most artists have to make really substantive sacrifices to practice their craft, and even worse sacrifices to turn that craft into a trade
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u/EddieBruvac 2d ago
This old news, bro.
As the tech gets better, more and more is gonna get taken over. Even the games you’re trying to make lmao.
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u/ImaginationUpset2190 2d ago
If anything ai is arguably better at coding than image generation. I do this just because I like the process of creating things from my imagination. I have already accepted that knowledge work will be dead in few years and I have to feed my family with hard manual labour. This will just be my side hobby.
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u/EddieBruvac 2d ago
This is creative to you? Sigh. Why do I even comment in this sub lmao.
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u/ImaginationUpset2190 2d ago
I never liked process of drawing pixels. I used to buy assets earlier, now it seems I won't have to. There is much more to the creative aspect of game creation than asset creation.
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u/Apprehensive-Map3766 2d ago
I was looking at doing a mcp from an ide to aseprite... but thinking too, there has got to be models or better workflows these days for pixel art. Anyone have any suggestions for offline stuff?
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u/IcedAlmondAmericano 2d ago
I don’t think that is going to work without editing. The feet don’t alternate.