How to Pixel Art Like Ace Attorney | Render Breakdown
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- Опубликовано: 27 июл 2024
- Render Breakdown is a show where we take official video game artworks, break down its art style, and try to replicate it in the end.
This episode is all about Ace Attorney, and how you can make sprites in that same funky pixel art art style!
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00:00 Intro
02:03 Part 1 - Background History
03:44 Part 2 - Art Style Analysis
05:25 Part 3 - Breakdown Process
13:30 Part 3.5 - Replicating the Art Style
14:48 Part 4 - Results
15:43 The Great Ace Attorney for DS Gameplay
17:56 Credits
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MUSIC
"Prelude of an Adventure"
"Objection! (2015)"
Dialga22239 - / @dialga22239
"Render Breakdown"
Loeder - / @loedermusic
"Godot"
"Turnabout Sisters"
"Objection!"
Lofi Lia - / @lofiliamusic
MISC
TGAA UI textbox made by
FieryExplosion / @FierySprites
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This video took too long to make lol 
Игры
Hello! This video got a lot more attention than I expected, but hey. Glad you're here!
A couple disclaimers: I used Photoshop because I figured the entire process (shrinking down illustrations) isn't typically what you do to make pixel art artworks in a normal setting. I honestly hesitated titling the video with 'Pixel Art' to begin with. That said, a couple people have pointed out great alternatives to Photoshop:
- GIMP is an image editor like Photoshop. It's free, and more importantly, also features the Indexed Color feature.
- Aseprite is a great program that a lot of pixel artists use to make pixel art artworks, and it comes with the Indexed Color feature. This is probably the program that you're looking for.
Lastly-- I can't claim that this is exactly how Ace Attorney sprites were made, but this is a great way to simulate the look and feel of them. That's all, and thanks for watching! Lemme know what you wanna see next :^)
would you be interested in breaking down and replicating valorant's art style?
@@aphrodirty69 i actually already have valorant queued up for sometime later this year :)
im glad to hear that! cant wait!
i'd like to add on top of this comment that i personally tried to use color indexing in krita and was able to find.... absolutely nothing like that. a small inaccuracy in the vid but since you already have alternatives, it doesn't affect the quality or the tutorial at all
I need a whole 2D ace attorney chronicles. These breakdowns amazing. You know how to pinpoint art styles so well. Keep up the great work!
Same here. Btw, I also need a whole 3D Ace Attorney games (The Main Trilogy, Miles Edgeworth games and Apollo Justice). Imagine character models in 3D like Mia, Godot, Dahlia, Kristoph Gavin, Gumshoe, Manfred von Karma, Matt Engarde, Lana Skye, Damon Gant...
Given how important the 3d sprites are to the actual gameplay, I'm not sure if that would really work
You would probably have to switch between 2D and 3D models based on what that section requires, and that would be a bit jarring imo
One important thing to point out about the art style of the first 3 Ace Attorney games (mostly for the first game) is that the original artworks of the sprites were designed with a slightly washed out and bright color palette to accommodate for the GBA's non-backlit screen. These artworks were also reused for the DS ports without any color changes, despite the DS already having a backlit screen on release.
If anyone wants to recreate something in the style of the first three games, please keep in mind making the artworks brighter and less saturated to have a more "authentic" feel.
The first edition DS still used semi-reflective LCDs, kinda similar to the GBA, but slightly better, i started playing these games on one a few days ago and only then realized that the courtroom is supposed to be wood, but looks like gold due to how over-saturated it is on other platforms.
Here from Tumblr (thank you haiku bot!)- this isn’t just impressive, it’s also informative. As someone who wants to replicate more art styles but doesn’t have the arsenal for it yet, I really treasure videos that are willing to dissect what gives these art styles a “feel”. Thank you so much for this video!!
As for art style recommendations, it’s a long shot, but what about one of the Project Moon games? All three of them have incredibly distinct art styles that still share common DNA, I think any of them would make for an interesting breakdown
Thanks! Getting the haiku bot's attention was definitely a pleasant surprise. Glad you liked the vid!
I can't say I'm familiar with Project Moon so I'll give it a maybe :)
project moon mention ‼
years ago i remember experimenting with this, i took phoenix's HD sprites and scaled down to DS resolution and it looked eerily similar to the original pixel art sprites... i was like "huh, that's cool."
cool to see someone else experiment with this
This is amazing!
I love how it turned out!
However, something I feel I need to point out, is that 2D/pixel Ace Attorney talking sprites always have the same pattern, they go from closed mouth, to an "A" shape, then an "O" shape, then an "A" shape, then a closed mouth again, and then repeat. Other than that, this looks legit like if it was made for the DS games!! Astonishing!
Pretty sure GIMP also has color indexing available. It's pretty much the go to free image editor.
I forgot all about GIMP! Nice to know it has that as well. Used to be my very first art program
Id also recommend krita, its more for painting but its also has a lot of stuff that u need for photoshopping basics
Aseprite has it too, although it doesn't have the same options. You have to make your palette first (it has a separate tool to auto-generate a palette from your image), then it indexes your colours to that palette.
@@kylekyleson3971unpopular opinion, I actually like that, it gives me more control over what colors are used for certain sprites.
the only thing I hate about it is the lack of a shape tool
Problem of Apollo Justice in DS that unlike Previous trilogy, it's actually has several layers with own shading and palette that is being put on top of others layers in game so Apollo's Justice sprites has better shading and amount of color than older DS AA Trilogy Sprites.
The video is mainly based off Apollo Justice because for the most part, the Phoenix Wright DS sprites are the exact same as their GBA counterparts. The only real difference I've seen between the GBA and DS trilogy are the backgrounds, with the GBA ones having less colors and more compressed. It's why I made the distinction of this being the DS era art style (Apollo Justice, AAI1 and 2)
The DS has two palette sizes: 16 colors and 256 colors. And that's including one transparent "color". You can have multiple objects with different palettes, but ace attorney character sprites never use multiple palettes.
awesome to see another render breakdown episode. I was pretty stoked for this when I saw the impromptu announcement video since, despite only having three episodes, this series has entered my "eating while watching a video" hall of fame. Also, might I suggest disco elysium for a render breakdown episode? It has a very vivid and memorable art style that I just haven't seen anywhere else, which I think would make it interesting to tackle.
Haha thank you! I think this is the best compliment I've gotten so far. That's lowkey always been the goal for this-- I love putting videos in the background while I do stuff like eating or washing the dishes, and the format is built around that idea lol
Aseprite is probably the best tool for making pixel art, and it comes with color indexing. I use it a ton for quick pallet swaps
Because you use color indexing with a loaded pallet in Aseprite, you can have even more control I think than photoshop on what colors get used
Forgot all about aseprite! I've never used it but I got it from a Humble Bundle one time lol, though I know it's what a lot of pixel artists use. I used Photoshop because I figured this entire process (shrinking down images) isn't really normally done in pixel art
@@thomoclock you can still open images of any size into Aseprite and scale them down, I’ve seen people do a similar process as the one in this video but in Aseprite, starting from the resizing step. Myself included!
This video couldn't have come at a better time! I saw the video before it got posted but it was estimated 5:00am for me so i didn't drop in
I've been getting super into ace attorney (again) but specifically the DS version so I can now enjoy the sprites and this video!
I've always loved your stuff man, keep it up :)
This video came at the perfect time, holy shit. I'm working on making an ace attorney fan game right now, this will come in handy if I decide to make the art myself! Thank you!
So happy I found your channel! I feel like not many perfect people have covered content that reveals how games get their signature look and it’s everything I’ve ever wanted!!
your channel is exactly what i have been looking for for years! i absolutely love your video presentation, it has a very “hands on “DIY” feel to it, which absolutely matches the information in the video!! the clear path of breaking down a style, building it back up with guides, then rebuilding it entirely makes these videos not only easy to follow, but also inspiring to try for yourself! definitely looking forward to whatever you have planned next!!!
as for a style breakdown suggestion, how about the game disco elysium? it has a very distinct style!
So happy to see someone talking about one of my favorite parts of the game: The detailed yet simplistic pixel art!
With the new release of Apollo's series, I've actually been looking for something like this for advice on art of my own. Thanks a bunch!
This was really great to watch, man! I appreciate you making a break down of the process, as I always find it interesting trying to pick apart artistic decisions in various games.
I've been replicating the Ace Attorney sprite style myself so I was excited watch this when I saw the thumbnail, curious to learn from your methods. Much of it is the same as what I figured out on my own, while there were also many tips I hadn't considered. After your watching this video I took a look at your channel and to my surprise you had another video on the OTHER style I've been figuring out: the Smash Ultimate mural style. I'm excited to have found your channel and I'll definitely continue following your work since we seem to be on similar artistic paths. Thanks for making these videos and keep up the good work.
hi!! i just found your channel and i LOVE it!! i'm working on an ace attorney video essay that i'm making sprites for and i'm definitely gonna be referencing this video (with credit of course). thank you for showing where you got all the assets and info as well. it's very helpful AND very respectful to the sources.
i hope you have a lovely day!! :^)
I literally just started really playing the game series like last week so wow this is good timing, great video!
Yooo great job!! This was really informative and the workflow you showed is p helpful for pixel-izing illustrations. Hoping you get more views! Rooting for you!!
Love the graphic / motion graphic design of your lower thirds / intro and stuff.
This is so cool. Keep it up! As someone who messed around with these sprites a ton for like, a decade, this stuff is incredible.
Such a great video!
Keep up the work mate 💪💪💪
Also, can't wait to see one of these breakdowns for Octopath Traveler's artstyle 🤗
Awesome video! Just discovered you through this video showing up on my recommended videos as I am a big Ace Attorney fan, Can’t wait to see more videos!
This is INSANELY impressive. So much thought and care was put into this project, and it really showed in the final product! Also loved how you documented the whole process, very insightful...
I just wanna know: how did you made it look like 2D Jezaille Brett was on your DS??? That was some next-level sorcery lmao
Likely romhacked the DS to switch them out? Probably a more advanced vein than what Scarlet Study/AAI2 Fan Translation does
This is really cool and impressive! Keep at it, I hope that you reach out to tons of viewers
Yesssss, Render Breakdown is back babyyyyyyy
yessir 🫡
Great video! Not really a photoshop guy but I felt like I understood the process and could do it also. Looking forward to your next video!
been waiting so so long for something like this
thank you so so so much lmao, i was always confused why nobody had ever done something like this before
Love this!! They look like real DS sprites
I’d love to see you do a render breakdown of Shin Megami Tensei. There are a few different key art render styles throughout the history of the series, so take your pick.
dude this video is so well done. crediting is on point, you're very talented, and it's clear how much time and effort was put in... it's a tutorial, a fan animation and a love letter to the Ace Attorney community. Not surprised at all that it took 2 years to make. if RUclips is something you want to pursue full time i have faith you will make it bro. fucking keep it up I'm so glad this got recommended to me
I first played this in 2011 and it's been one of my favourite series since. Apollo Justice probably being my favourite game. I bought the Apollo trilogy on release and I'm already up to case 4 of Apollo......did I mention most of that gameplay was over 2 days as I'm also playing gen 1 and 2 pokemon atm? Ahhhh public holidays are nice.
This is so cool! I’ve been playing The Great Ace Attorney 2 with my friends, and it’s been really fun.
I recently got into Ace Attorney, you know why, and yes I was one of those people who'd reference the game without knowing anything about it so I'm glad I'm finally getting around to this masterpiece
Also I'm half speeding through the first trilogy collection (on 3ds of course not the HD version) so I can hurry and play the Apollo Justice trilogy
It's so cool!! Thank you for this analyses, I recently became the designer for school project of creating a game for children and had to get into pixel art (though I work on much tinier canvases for now, but I still have hope I'd have to create little icons of the character in a semi-detailed artstyle like the Ace Attorney series), this was very interesting :^) And I can't imagine the time and efforts it must have taken to do this remake or the Objection Scene, but it turned out so very cool!! Congratulations on pulling this out :D
Gotta say man, you made The Great Ace Attorney Investigations possible.
But seriously your an amazing artist and this way of making characters is super creative! You broke down step by step really easily and it was great to follow along to. Absolutely amazing work dude keep it up
this topic has ALWAYS been on my mind, such a sick video brother ❤❤
This is simply amazing. Great work!
Grah!! Aw man i love this editing style!!
So awesome! Amazing work!
Video professionally done.
Subscribed
OOO this is so good! I had no clue that's how they were likely made! I'd love to see a professor layton character design style breakdown ngl... yes, the coloring style is basic, but it has some of the most charming use of color and really unique character design. I'm trying to make a fan game of it and there's so much to the style ha ha
this is a great vid, i love style breakdowns! lots of interesting stuff here about how to use art programs that i never knew before! for suggestions, i love the art style in the game hades, its very iconic.
This is amazing! Really great breakdown on how to pixel art for a beginner like me! Keep it up!!
Thanks! I can't say that this process would be helpful for standard pixel art practices, so you should check out @BJGpixel's as well!
The demake was really well done, I literally thought the first few seconds were from some AA DS game I haven't heard about.
Bro why do your videos have so few views?!?!? Its criminal. This was great 👍
never thought I'd see a good demake of the 3D ace attorney models, ty for making this
This is amazing genuinely so much can be done with this.
This was amazing! You are so talented 👍🏻
Court Records
This is super neat. What a cool project sample.
This is really cool! Super interesting to see someone break down the little things that give certain styles the "feel" they do. I think it'd be interesting to see you delve into fighting game art, especially sprite based anime fighters like Blazblue or Melty Blood! Alternatively, Dead Cells is a sweet looking game with a weird animation pipeline that I think would make for a cool video.
Thank you so much for this video! Its very interesting and I thank you for all your effort in this video! Thank You!
17:14 "Tell me which videogame artstyle you'd like me to create next!"
Would love to see a MMBN (Mega Man Battle Network) breakdown! Not sure on who to convert to MMBN style, per se (maybe Zero.EXE or Sigma?) but I'm sure it'd make another great video!
Wow, what a good find of a channel to randomly find. Love the rendering videos. If you're open to suggestions, i think an episode on the style of original three mario and Luigi RPG. games.
That is amazing! 😭 I would literally buy this version
this is such beautiful work :)
Insanely well done!
Great video! You should try replicating the persona art style next!
This is so cool! :0 I always wondered how they did the art for the first 4 games.
This is really random but I've been wondering how the art for The Sims Urbz for DS and GBA was made, especially the sprites. The game is pretty underated imo
Woah, this was a really neat demo!! As a suggestion, I think a Splatoon art breakdown could be cool. :)
You should do one on Persona 5 Royal! They have some seriously detailed portraiture with some subtle gradients and with Persona 3 reload coming out soon it'd be pretty topical
ahhh thank you so much for this video! I've made some 2d sprites imitating the Apollo Justice HD art style but I never knew how to scale it down and make it look like the game, and I couldn't find any good guides for it. This is really helpful! And the Great Ace Attorney segment looks amazing!
btw, have you played Ghost Trick? It's another DS game made by the creator of Ace Attorney, and it has a unique art style that is very fun to replicate
This video was really fun and interesting to watch! Sunrscribed!
this man is the most wholesome positive content creator i know so far, i hope there's more
I'm not an artist, but as a fan of the Ace Attorney series I really enjoyed this! Great video!
I remember my brother telling me to play ace attorney on my jailbroken ipod touch. That version of the game is my personal favorite. You can play it with one hand no problems. Wish they kept that version
Thanks for being an amazing Client for Music! :D
I really have to try this out someday.
For the next Render Breakdown, I would suggest the Artstyle of Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX's and Pokémon Super Mystery Dungeon's Illustrations.
Maybe the Original Red/Blue Rescue Team and PMD2: Explorers of Time/Sky/Darkness as well.
7:15 I know that GIMP also has a color indexing feature. I had to use it when I was making custom Worms Armageddon maps.
That custom DS The Great Ace Attorney is breathtaking.
I wish it was real to get.
Also, amazing breakdown!
No doubt Ace Attorney has such an unique and stylish pixel art and design in general, the fact that you managed to recreate The Great Ace Attorney in DS pixel art is glorious!
Just imagine a timeline where The Great Ace Attorney was released on DS instead of Investigations.
Omg I’m from the like. 2008 fandom (I was 14 at the time) and spent a lot of time in court records haha. This looks so good!!! Great job
Could you do Lisa the Pointless Monster Update? I LOVE the pixel art in that game
Huh i remember messing around with color indexing back when i did scanlations, reducing to 8 colors made it so i could release high quality scans (its black toner only but the few extra shades did help) while keeping the filesize small (i had dialup)
I was using the save for web menu which had a much more intuitive method of messing with indexed colors because you could see the whole palette and therefore choose which colors to swap
A tip I have for making the outlines of the character look more accurate to the games is to add a black (or dark grey) background to the image before indexing the colors, then removing the background after you're done. This will result in a more jagged, inconsistent outline that you can see in most of the DS sprites.
I see this technique done a lot whenever an illustrator is asked to make pixel art, and it actually works great. I'm sure there are many examples, but one I can name off the top of my head besides AA series is Cortex Command.
Best practice is to actually have your color palette planned out beforehand, during character design, and use that palette when changing to indexed color. Lets you skip the color picking step of this approach, and having all of your character designs draw from the same limited color palette of 128 or 256 colors can help make it look visually cohesive.
So so so cool!!!!! Amazing job!!!!
Probably the most interesting spritework in comparison to any 2D capcom game after Super Turbo.
While it does look close to Capcom's in-house arcade design, it manages to stand out in its softness because of Kumiko's style. Nice video overall!
This is so impressive!!
Dude thank you for your shoutout to court records. I've been their reporter for the past couple years, such as posting the latest news on the new AJ Trilogy.
Totally agree with you about wanting to bring back popularity to the forums/community there. The more core members have been busy but they still have plans to grow it.
great vid
The artwork in the DS/GBA version as well as the art in the official artbooks is way nicer than in the HD remakes.
Hey! Glad you guys found this video! I miss the sprite competitions you used to host. Granted, I never participated in them; I was a lurker more than anything, but I was always interested in figuring out how Capcom made their sprites.
And I agree. While the Apollo Justice HD sprites look better than the OG trilogy HD ones, they still look flat/vectorized compared to the official artbook artworks. I wish they had gotten someone else to make the illustrations, something closer to the Famicom Detective remakes maybe
@@thomoclock I remember those. I personally was a lurker as well when it came to that stuff. But I have read some of Kumiko Suekane's manga. Even with her artstyle, it's still not quite the same until you add the shading and coliring and all that to make it phoenix wright.
Shoutouts to C-R. I used to be super active on the forum "back in the day". Shoutouts to the old Random Chatroom Thread crew.
Great video!
this video has been great! would you possibly consider doing this with the game coffee talk?
This looks so great :D
One series you gotta try and mimic is metal slug, there's one website a guy made with a pretty comprehensive guide already, but I am never gonna say no to more metal slug art existing
so freaking cool, I love how you know what you’re talking about. very good for someone who’s stupid as I am
just subscribed!!! you’re amazing bro
With the new Ace Attorney Turnabout Creator you can finally create the playable scenario you mentioned!
the apollos justice trilogy just dropped and its so good
I actually love the idea of demaking these
Really cool video, I remember seeing the Great Ace Attorney demake video over on Twitter and it was really cool!
Question however: What about the background of the game (Like the courtroom for example), does it use a similar method than the character sprites? I'm also curious on that.
Can't wait to see more from you!
The backgrounds are also illustrations shrunken down, then Index Colored. On real DS hardware all of the backgrounds are probably going to borrow from the same 256 color palette, but since I just made these for a video, all I really did was set the Color count to around 100 and called it a day lol
But I did redraw most of the background so it looks like an illustration vs a 3D scene
Ah ok, thank you for this info!
I can't believe how accurate your method is!
oh hey it's the J2ME man himself
@@thomoclock hi
The opening had me tricked! Well done
You made this right as the trilogy is on sale 😂😂 amazing timing
i would love to see a breakdown of the pokemon art style, more specifically the ds era
Hey, dude. The final result is incredible! I love this. Can't believe you made it all in AE instead of, e.g. assembling it in a game engine! A question, though. In 15:43, how did you port it to a cartridge and played it on the Nintendo 3DS as if it was a full-fledged game?
It's just a dummy cart, I used PinBox to stream my PC playing the video to the 3DS screen
Pffft don’t be sorry about r4 cartridges. That’s how I discovered my favorite games like Professor Layton, Cooking Mama, and Another Code. Of course now I bought the original ones but those r4 cartridges have my memories haha
Since you’re familiar with the series and seem really passionate about the art I was wondering if you’ve ever heard of the creator Lordiban. They’re a smaller creator but have been consistently making Phoenix Wright fan trials for years. If you wanted to help out with the art I’m sure they’d appreciate it
GIMP defintly has these functions including color ones
I've always liked the 2d style the older Ace Attorney games had, especially Investigations. Wish they had used it more instead of jumping to 3d
you could have saved some tedium on the color hex codes by using the Swatches toolbar tab to create your palette, saving the palette from there and then loading it in the indexed color dialog
i am not a wise person 😎