Pixel Art comes to life with Sculpteo

Posted By Alexia Toulmet on Aug 14, 2014 | 0 comments

Pixel Art is everywhere these days, flourishing in a plethora of industries. Trends in design are leaning more squarish and colorful than ever. The 8-bit graphics video games are booming, maybe even more than at the time of the 8 bit-era. Pixels’ role has switched from a technical limitation to a real, long-lasting trend. There’s no exception when it comes to 3D modeling: as it has in each other industry, pixel art came and invaded 3D printers. One of our pixel art designers explained us what seduced him about 3D printing.

Designing in Pixel Art doesn’t mean you’re free from all the constraints of modeling. Instead, you have to conceive the shapes, and the colors of your design in an entirely different way. Pixel Art is easy to create, assuming you have enough patience to create your design square after square. Thus, most 8-bit designers prefer to use the classic Paint Software, than more elaborated Design softwares.

Jean-Rémi, designer at 8-Bit Foundry, told us his story.

“I love the minimalistic beauty of designs made from pixels: a few colors are enough to bring life to unforgettable characters and universes. I wanted to create designs aimed at those who had the 80s nostalgia, and retrogaming and Pixel Art fans. But, we can’t touch pixels, get our hands on it, that’s kind of frustrating.

“3D Printing liberated me from this constraint, and made my designs come to life. It’s really easy and fast to go from digital model to concrete object. Above that, I just have to upload my file on my online shop, and people can order it within the second.

“Even though I’ve been interested in 3D modeling for a while, I had never experienced it myself before. Creating my Pixel Art characters was the perfect opportunity to get my feet wet. 3D Printing allows me to give my creativity free rein, freedom I couldn’t have if I had used plastic moulding.”

3D Pixel Art is becoming more common now. There’s even a word for 3D pixels, called ‘voxels’.

Owen Wu, Qubit Games’ CEO also thinks of 3D Printing as a big opportunity.

“Our game is based on voxel customization. Before playing, the gamers first create their character with voxels. More than 20 000 models have been created already.

“3D Printing is a really good way to add some value to our game. Since gamers can print their favorite characters, it allows us to extend the game into the real world.

“We’re currently developing another game, a voxel based robot game. This game, called Qubot, will also integrate the possibility for gamers to 3D print their characters.”

Here, at Sculpteo, we love all those 3D Pixel Art and voxels designs. What about you?