Is it Art or is it Digital?

Is it Art or is it Digital?

Part 1:  Scott Mavor, Pixel Master

There still seems to be some prejudice out there against "Digital" Art.  But it just continues to proliferate in spite of the fact that like all new media it has had to deal with the usual biases in its bid for acceptance.  Digital Art is sort of like the Rock and Roll of the art world.  And like Rock and Roll, it could not be stopped;  it was inevitable that the amazing software designed for the computer would be used by imaginative artists in countless innovative and distinctive ways, leaving detractors in the dust.

Here's a little story for you about how it all began: I jumped into the medium back in 1991 when my son Scott (pictured top, above his scene of the notorious "alley" where a murder takes place) presented me with a 40-megabyte Electronic Arts computer, courtesy of his employer, Mythos Software, so that I could participate in creating illustrations with him for a pioneering computer game called "The Lost Files of Sherlock Holmes".  Scott, who was a self-taught master of VGA art and animation, did the majority of the work, but because of a deadline crunch he  called on me to to help create some of the character portraits and a few of the 23 or so Victorian street scenes and interior rooms that comprised the backgrounds for the game.

What we are talking about here is artwork that was literally created pixel by pixel in a 320- x 200-pixel frame.  Teeny-tiny stuff.  Eyeball scrambling work. Very low resolution.  After hours of brain-crunching study, I figured out (almost) how my son did some of it and developed my own techniques for how to do the rest.  Working with just 256 colors, Scott showed me how he created graduating palettes of each one, which allowed him to do what he called "getting rid of the dots" in each scene.  To further mute the pixels, he kept the colors on the darker side which also enhanced the Victorian mood.  Way beyond the flat graphics of PacMan, Scott invented what one exec at Electronic Arts called "The Mavor Glow".   A great compliment for low resolution computer game artwork back in the day.  Of course, right after the game was published, the industry went to high resolution graphics and his pixel mastery became obsolete.

Weaving the illusion of continuous tone artwork with all those little "dots" made us buggy-eyed after a long day's work.  One night, I woke up, went into the bathroom, turned on the light and the world just pixilated in front of me.  Scary imprints on my retinas had followed me away from the computer monitor,  rendering my vision as a pointillistic painting a la George Seurat.  Comparing notes with my son, I found out this was a natural, if disconcerting, side effect of the job.  That and maybe a few carpal tunnel symptoms.

 

Along with all the backdrop scenes, Scott added animated figures, character head shots with animated mouths and in some scenes, explosions, raindrops and so on.  He worked with writers, programmers, sound engineers and others who put it all together like an exquisite little film production.  In those days, despite the pixel problem, things were pretty simple for computer artists ... no Windows, no convoluted programs to figure out, no crashes, just Deluxe Paint and Deluxe Animate, easy enough for a kid to use and accessed via MS-DOS (Microsoft Disc Operating System).  The Good Ol' Days, indeed, but no one would really want to go back to them.

I have the boxed game but you can't play it on any modern computer.  Fortunately, a few gamers have preserved some of it on YouTube (this clip from crozzoverDE), and I was especially happy to see again the Intro scene with the dark and foggy London street where tiny people stroll with umbrellas and an animated horse and carriage trot along the rain-slicked cobblestone street.  The scenes may not look as good as they appeared in the original game, but it is very heartwarming to be able to take a nostalgic look at Scott's pixel-spinning Victorian scenes whenever I feel like it.  Take a look for yourself on YouTube. 

We lost Scott to lung cancer in 2008 and he is dearly loved and sorely missed.  Certainly one of my fondest and most comforting memories is the joy of working with him on this innovative project. 

Is it Art or is it Digital? to be continued ...