Pixel Art in the Real World
The exhibition website: https://happypixelseoul.weebly.com/ and https://www.facebook.com/happypixelseoul
Note: I use the word pixel loosely in this blog, referring to measurement units or the style of game art.
Finished Result:
Together with a Korean artist, who helped with resources and planning, I created Happy Pixel. Our purpose was to fill an underpass of 30 metres with as much art as possibe. So I found inspiration in pixel art and specifically the original NES Mario bros, level 1. We wanted to have people walk through the level, as if they were the character, but in real life.To begin, I measured the space exactly and then created a 3D model of it in Maya.
To give a feeling of progression, maintain linearity and fill up both walls, I split the space into alternating and overlapping sections. In the original Mario level, there are 15 tiles from top to bottom and approx. 250 horizontally. So I chose to represent one tile as 15cm squared and one section as 40 tiles wide and 16 tiles high.
Tiles alone would have been dull, so we decided to make some of the platforming elements of the level 3d. The width of the underpass was 6m. To fill that void, I decided to have some coins hanging from the ceiling. I also created some pixel creatures to dot around the space.
We had 4 days to build this, between the end of the previous exhibition and the beginning of ours on the 6th of April. Our budget granted by the gallery was small and entirely used up in the creation of this work. We had to carefully calculate what to spend it on. The first resource we needed were assistants. We hired people to come and assist us over the 4 days.
For materials, we had some restrictions. We couldn't paint the wall. So to cover all the blue sky area, we used non-woven fabric of various shades. I wanted the effect of distinct pixel tiles so we needed a company to cut thousand of squares of sticky-backed felt and paper to stick onto all the surfaces. Finally for the 3d pixels we used cardboard boxes which we ordered 100's of from a box supplier. These we had to tape up and assemble by hand, one-by-one!
Making Boxes
Mess hall
After many sleepless nights, we finished with only a few compromises to the original plan.
Thanks for reading, hope this post is interesting or helpful to any artists out there!
Replies