8-Bit Animal Paintings
September 22, 2011 11:01 PM   Subscribe

"Menagerie" is a series of 10 polygonal animal paintings by Laura Bifano, inspired by her love of nature and classic 8-bit video games. [Via]
posted by homunculus (21 comments total) 16 users marked this as a favorite
 
It kind of gives me the howling fantods when people make fake low-res stuff but don't make all the pixels the same size, or on the same axis.

Anyway: other than that bit of nerd rage, this is pretty neat. I do like the regular hunter & dogs & horses chasing the blocky fox.
posted by aubilenon at 11:08 PM on September 22, 2011 [2 favorites]


They should add those to minecraft. If someone tweets them @notch or @jeb, they probably will.
posted by Ad hominem at 11:14 PM on September 22, 2011


Awesome!
reminds me a bit of Space Station Silicon Valley or Cubivore
posted by Lovecraft In Brooklyn at 12:26 AM on September 23, 2011


I like the colours used in these. The macaques don't look too happy.
posted by arcticseal at 1:40 AM on September 23, 2011


These are just beautiful thanks for posting.
posted by longsleeves at 1:41 AM on September 23, 2011


Oh man, I love her style (and the other work in her gallery, too). Thanks for this.

I went to see the I Am 8-Bit art show in LA recently, and they had these happy little guys on display. As I'm looking at them, a dude walks up next to me:

Dude: Whoa, look, they got the Minecraft items!
Dude's Buddy: Oh, sweet.


I wept silently, until my wife came over and announced that she had just bought this print (profoundly NSFW).
posted by jake at 4:19 AM on September 23, 2011


8-bit is the new bacon!
posted by R. Mutt at 4:35 AM on September 23, 2011


Honey badger!
posted by slackdog at 5:03 AM on September 23, 2011


Wow those paintings must have really good anti-aliasing because some of those pixels look almost diagonal.
posted by nathancaswell at 5:09 AM on September 23, 2011


Sure, like polygonal bees would build round beehives.
posted by JaredSeth at 5:17 AM on September 23, 2011


The diagonals and fine lines (such as the heron's beak) in the artwork made me dislike the effort, but at least it made me think a lot about why the color schemes didn't annoy me quite so much – I mean, if we're talking about 8-bit images, why should blockiness be the defining trait? Surely the available range of colors should be just as important! It seems like you could violate one rule (256-color palette) or the other (pixels) but not both. She violated both. And I'm sorry to be so picky, but as a result the whole thing felt rather try-hard.

And, jake, that's a pretty profoundly awful print. Nothing like glorifying one of the worst games to ever be invented.
posted by barnacles at 5:31 AM on September 23, 2011


i personally never even thought 8bit was all that cool. read my blog at www.zzz
posted by This, of course, alludes to you at 5:58 AM on September 23, 2011


Surprisingly disturbing. (I'm not saying that's a bad thing.)

Also - Cubical honey badger don't give a shit!
posted by aught at 5:59 AM on September 23, 2011


There is an Etsy store! Awesome.
posted by pointystick at 6:19 AM on September 23, 2011


You know, I looked at this all prepared to hate the 8 bit thing that seems to be the fad right now, but I actually kind of like these. They are artistic rather than just some novelty like most of the 8 bit stuff is.
posted by Eekacat at 7:49 AM on September 23, 2011


slackdog: "Honey badger!"

Be excited all you want, but honey badger don't give a brick.
posted by pwnguin at 9:26 AM on September 23, 2011


He's ain't nothin' but an 8-bit honey thief!
posted by Kabanos at 9:31 AM on September 23, 2011


Lies, damned lies, and honey badgers
posted by homunculus at 9:32 AM on September 23, 2011


I think people are over-analyzing the 'diagonals' and stuff. These aren't meant to be true 8-bit, which would always be 2d, not 3d but rather to simply 'recall' those things. If you look at minecraft, many of the animals, like pigs are made up of cubes, but those cubes are not aligned to a strict XYZ grid.
posted by delmoi at 9:50 AM on September 23, 2011


I thought I wanted the bees, but then I saw the octopus.
posted by Specklet at 11:50 AM on September 23, 2011


It says she was inspired by her love of 8-bit games, but she describes the works as polygonal. Perhaps it was the idea of creating images of living things without using any round bits that she likes about 8-bit, not the cubes or the colours.
posted by harriet vane at 11:05 PM on September 23, 2011


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