Keep the Bottlecap

02.22.2016

Outside of freelance work, I occasionally find the time to enter the weekly art contests at Pixel Joint, an online gallery for all things pixel (of which I am a moderator).

Last week's challenge celebrated the 25th anniversary of the classic game, Lemmings. The rules stipulated a limited palette, one derived from the original Lemmings sprite:

Lately, I've committed a healthy amount of time exploring the wastelands of Fallout 4. In fact, when I spotted a pack of cigarettes in the gutter my first instinct was to collect it, since I need the cloth to build beds for my settlers. The post-apocalypse is a tough place.

A pinup poster in the game caught my eye, channeling the vintage format to advertise a fictional soft drink. With its bold, simple layout and plethora of specular highlights, it suited the contest's required palette. Plus, the nuclear-waste green reinforced Fallout's setting.

Because I decided to enter the contest a few hours prior to its deadline, I had to finish the piece in a single sitting, which took 4.5 hours. I could have shaved off more time if I re-sized/indexed/traced the logo text instead of replicating it freehand, but cutting that corner felt antithetical to the spirit of the competition.

I tried to apply the campsite rule to the original, abandoning the standard Z-shaped composition in favor of something more customized to the elements. To keep the lines crisp, I made a conscious effort to use only one midtone at a time for anti-aliasing.