welcome to my midlife crisis this is the

story of the new key art for Pixel

washer which for reasons we'll get into

I decided to photograph in real life I

bought tiny toy pigs adorned them with

3D printed goggles and power washers

then of course meticulously hand painted

an environment of models for the pig to

power wash all this when I'm trying to

ship a game as a solo Dev because I love

over scoping in this video we'll cover

the process I followed the final results

and whether or not you might want to try

this approach for your game part one get

some models first things first I needed

some models to photograph which means it

was time to go shopping and you can't go

shopping without a shopping list mine

including this stuff a pig goggles a

power washer objects to wash stuff for

the pig to stand on an environment to

exist in and a sign with letters that

spell pixel washer so I wandered around

Michael another hobby stores looking for

an assortment of you know stuff to wash

I didn't really have a specific idea

just yet I more wanted to browse to

peruse and wait for something to speak

to me eventually I gathered an

assortment of exterior objects including

fences houses and some foliage to make

the scene look more

organic probably my favorite purchase

was this wooden model house which has

lights you can turn on and off Good

Times part two prove the concept now

that I had some stuff to shoot it was

time to prove the concept first I set up

what I had so far and I took some very

strange slow motion video of that

because I'm still learning how to use my

camera more on that later next I took

some basic photos to answer the question

is this going to work or not at this

very early stage I like to think about

the process as sketching lightly on

paper I'm not trying to bolt anything

down yet I'm just you know drawing

lightly and exploring at the end of this

quick test I felt like the concept was

proven with just a little bit of effort

I could see that this project could pan

out but there was still a big problem

problem the pig just wasn't quite right

part three find the perfect Pig finding

the perfect Pig took a fair amount of

trial and error I bought a few different

kinds online to try them out the first

was a big pack of cute little bright

pink piggies I thought these might work

because they came in lots of different

poses but they didn't have the right

feel for Pixel washer next I tried

experimenting with 3D printing and I

want to thank Ashley for donating time

material and shipment and patience to my

little project here I sent Ashley some

3D models and she shipped me some cute

piggies goggles and power washer guns

which I'll talk more about in part five

I didn't end up using these models in

the final shoot but having access to 3D

printing having something tangible in my

hands this was definitely helpful for

getting the project to The Next Step

overall I hadn't found the right Pig yet

so I tried to think outside the box

instead of buying intricate plastic

models or printing them I bought a box

of squeaky toys and I kind of felt like

like these were

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perfect but this pig wasn't my little

pixel just yet because we still needed

goggles cool part four procure the

goggles finding the right goggles ended

up being really challenging and one of

the most difficult parts of this process

I shopped a lot looked at random toys

Barbie dolls and anything I thought

might have accessories or otherwise some

kind of sunglasses or anything

appropriate that I could glue to my pigs

then my wife discovered that our local

library has a place called Creation

Station with 3D printers and lots of

other Hardware available to the public

for super cheap one time they charged me

literally 25 cents to print a bunch of

little objects so I emailed them some

goggles models and we were off after a

few days they sent me a photo of the

printed goggles and I went to pick them

up they kind of looked like they were

melting into puddles but that's just

some leftover bits of material from the

printing process and easily removable

right away they were looking quite

Dapper on my little piggy so I grabbed a

squeaky toil glued on some goggles then

positioned it carefully so that they'd

stay on while drying part five make a

power washer pixel is made up of three

components the pig the goggles and the

power washer with 2/3 of those in the

can it was time to focus on the power

washer now that I knew I had easy access

to local 3D printing I needed some

models so I downloaded some royalty-free

everyday objects and began kit bashing

stuff in blender now I'm primarily a 2d

game developer main examples being a

Wizard's lizard and now pixel washer so

I'm not terribly experienced with 3D and

especially not in blender blender is

notoriously difficult to learn and I

don't know what I'm doing so I tried to

just focus on the bare minimum things to

learn to get my models made first I

tried to Simply extend the nozzle of a

water gun that looks like a classic

Super Soaker style water gun this was

with mixed results because again I don't

know what I'm doing I also combined the

handle of a clamp and like a giant

crayon or something but uh no that was

wasn't working lastly I tried combining

the handle of a hacksaw with an enlarged

TRS cable like you'd find on a pair of

headphones I stumbled my way through

blunder to slice and dice and rotate and

shove these things together naturally

this model had a lot of issues that the

printing service pointed out but after a

few rounds of emails we got them printed

successfully even though they weren't

perfect these ended up being the power

washers that I moved on to the next

stage part six compose the scene we're

not done yet but let's take some photos

anyway I wanted to have have something

to work with and I wanted to further

test out the concept so I took over my

dining room table laid out all the stuff

I'd gotten so far and set up my camera

on a tripod I also like to have portable

colored lights on hand that I can place

anywhere and adjust freely first I began

taking pictures starting off with shots

during the day it was really interesting

seeing the cast Shadows move across the

scene as the day went on and the Earth

and Sun did their little dance I liked

the look of the natural light but I

wanted more control over the amount of

light and where it hit the scenes so I

also took some photos at night with lots

of different lighting effects I knew I

need some photos with the sign and

without the sign so I took both next I

tried a bunch of dramatic lighting tests

ranging in Hue brightness and placement

I know I said that I proved the concept

earlier but I think this step is what

really solidified the concept in my mind

and made me want to keep pushing forward

at this point I was in I really liked

this project so after doing a few more

test shots I landed on some favorites

they are place holdery works in progress

but I still think they have a lot to

offer in fact I liked one photo so much

I ended up using it on my steam page for

many months it even printed it in my

book how to make a video game all by

yourself part seven test the colors next

I took some of my favorite photos from

the shoot and brought them into clip

Studio paint so I could determine what

colors to use I did it this way because

it is much much easier to change the

colors using software before committing

to physically painting so I carved out

sections in the image with the Marquee

tool these sections included the house

its door windows walls and the fences

then I colorized those sections with

different color schemes I played with

very different looks for the house some

kind of drab some very colorful I wanted

a generous range of contrast so I could

make obvious comparisons eventually I

whittel them down to just four options

and with input from my wife decided on

the one with a very bright bold scheme

pixel washer is a colorful Whimsical

game I wanted the colors to match that

look and feel part eight pink paint the

models now for the fun part my goal When

painting this scene was to be quick and

dirty to make it good enough which made

this process enjoyable it was so

satisfying painting a little bit each

day letting it dry working on my game

returning to the scene applying another

coat Etc the house was easy and fun to

paint this was probably the most

enjoyable object to work on I knew it

didn't need to be perfect because it

would be in the background and we'd only

ever see it from the front face which to

be fair had the most tiny bits on it and

was the most challenging to paint but I

genuinely enjoyed painting the house now

when I'm at Hobby Stores I find myself

eyeballing other similar objects that I

might find an excuse to paint so I

wouldn't be surprised to see more photos

like these in the future eventually I

did find a water gun model that I liked

even better than the previous one after

some cleanup they ended up looking

pretty cool the power washers were a bit

more challenging to paint for sure

because they're so tiny but it was fun

coming up with color combinations for

the guns I ended up going with two blue

ones with with various shades of blue

and black and a green one for good

measure the goggles were easily the

hardest to paint they are so small and I

knew they would get more scrutiny than

other objects because they're on my

protagonist's face some photographs will

focus on the pig's goggles specifically

so the viewers eyes will be drawn to

them that means they can't be complete

garbage they did end up being pretty

much complete garbage but I think it's

fine it's fine it's fine next I started

painting the signs now these were

totally optional because in most of my

promotional Mater material I overlay the

pixelated pixel washer logo instead of

using a diagetic one so I didn't need

these signs but I wanted to make them

because I thought it would be fun and

maybe useful naturally the signs ended

up being more work than almost anything

else the letters needed lots of coats

and precise painting and again they

weren't even necessary which reminds me

of game development it's like I overs

scoped this project and ended up cutting

a big chunk of the work Game Dev

problems accomplished game development

seeped its way into the real world

here's a final thought about this part

that I had while applying a second layer

of coding to my objects if I had known

from the beginning how much work this

was going to be I might not ever have

started which again reminds me of game

development or bookwriting or any other

large project I think the takeaway is

that when starting on projects allow

yourself to think that it'll be easier

to finish than it will be this helps you

charge forward and figure it out as you

go

part nine take final photos before we

get into the final photos you might be

curious about the camera I used which

was the Canon EOS M50 if you want to

know more about this camera you can read

my guide Matt's Canon EOS M50 guide on

rto.com before I could take my photos I

first had to create a Contraption to

hold the power washer gun so pixel

wouldn't have to after trying a few

things that didn't quite work I ended up

using a PIN to clamp the gun plus a

couple of magnets to weigh the pin down

this worked great so I made one for each

of the three guns now that I had

everything in its place or me and plus

if you're trying to sound like a fancy

Chef I was ready to set up the shop I

cleaned up the paint and prepared to

take over the dining room table for

another indeterminant amount of time

after remembering my unwieldy 20x 30in

Blue Sky foam board I summoned the sky

and was getting closer to shooting

eventually I had a nice cozy little

environment that was fun to exist

in the next morning I wanted to take

advant of the sunlight so I rotated my

environment to face East the sunlight

was pretty intense but it lit up all the

little details quite nicely the downside

was that my door actually cast a big

Shadow over the whole set which made it

difficult to get the exact shots that I

wanted that same morning I decided to

experiment with my camera a bit so I

tried some of the various settings and

filters it has including black and white

fisheye lens whatever that is something

else and a toy miniature effect which I

really liked it ended up using a lot

the takeaway here is to experiment play

around with your tools and see what

they're capable of some of their

features might surprise you later that

afternoon when the sun disappeared above

the roof I took some shots that were

free from the tyranny of the

Shadows again I tried some effects

because why not and while the angle

wasn't quite right for the final images

I was really happy with the overall

direction of this shoot lastly that

night I got to control the lighting

exactly as I wanted and finally got the

shots I was looking for everything

really came together in the end and I

was happy to finally complete this

project and restore my dining room table

to its previous usable State this means

we're finally ready to make some steam

capsules part 10 generate steam capsules

with this last batch of photos I took I

was able to generate all the assets I

needed for steam these images are now

live on Pixel washer steam page so when

you have a minute take a look in

addition to the standard key art I now

have a variety of photos for all the

various sizes of capsules banners and

other promo images on need as I promote

my game these are going to be great to

have on hand for presskits trailers

stickers and whatever else so after

hearing about this process you might be

wondering why do this why not hire an

artist or make some art myself I do have

a good reason Us game developers we're

really making software right games take

ages to make and for the vast majority

of their development we are tied to our

computers to make that software

sometimes I crave tangible solid objects

we live in a digital world but our

fleshy human hands want to grab a hold

of something to squeeze it to feel it in

our fingers to linger upon its surface

this is one of the reasons I wrote a

paperback book

specifically give me something real to

hold in my human hands my toy models

squeaky pigs and hand painted wood

pulled me away from the computer to

which I'm otherwise forever anchored

they allowed me to step away and get my

hands dirty also the desire to take

photos like these was deep in my bones

as I was inspired at an early age this

is a deep cut but did you ever see the

Nintendo Power Magazine that featured

Super Mario 2 on the cover they

photographed a handcrafted scene made

from what looks like clay including

mushrooms King warts and an odd carrot

carrying Mario an impressionable

8-year-old might not ever forget

something so cool and original so my key

art photography approach is kind of an

homage to Nintendo and the many other

games that did this including Ghouls and

ghost and Bubble Bobble for a whole

series dedicated to this kind of artwork

see touchy game art

lastly I just wanted to be creative for

the bulk of pixel washers levels I'm

using asset packs available from sites

like itch or Kenny it was tempting to

Simply hire an artist for the key art

and maybe I will someday but I also

wanted more of my own fingerprints to

come through in the game or at least its

promo materials being inspired to do

this procuring the models preparing them

and even photographing them each step

allowed me to flex my creative muscles

and remind myself why I enjoy wearing so

many hats this is one of the reasons I

wanted to make games in the first place

games are made up of art of gadgets of

sounds of music of world and of course

gameplay which brings it all together my

desire to make games is rooted in the

desire to do lots of different creative

things across different mediums and

pushing me out of my comfort zones so

when I should be programming sometimes

doing something that feels like the

opposite of shipping my game feels like

exactly the right thing to be doing also

this was just a fun project it's got

pigs and paints and pictures and

procrastination

post project pondering so I know these

photos aren't for everyone I've actually

already received feedback from friends

at respect there's probably a keyart

approach that would help sell the game

better the thing is though I don't

really care because I wanted to do this

for myself I'm pleased with the result

and that's all that matters for now I do

want the game to be commercially

successful or whatever so down the road

I plan on commissioning an artist to

make more capsules then I can run an AB

test which is an experiment where you

determine which image people will like

better it might be that in the end

players just want to see pixel art in

the capsule or maybe a traditional

illustration will be what players prefer

I don't know but I am curious so someday

I'll find out in the meantime I've got

these photos I'm really happy with them

and I think that they make the game

itself kind of more interesting pixel

washer is a game about washing 2D pixels

specifically but with these photos we've

got a very different 3D way to think

about the concept and to look at the

game Pixel waser now also so proudly

joins the ranks of the games I grew up

with that took this physical photography

approach and I think that's pretty cool

lastly an obvious question is would I

recommend this approach for your game

yeah I mean this approach obviously

isn't for everyone it's time consuming

requires many steps and might not even

save you money sure the raw materials

could be less than 100 bucks but what

about your time paying an artist might

get the job done faster and better than

many days or weeks of this approach

could yield for you however I personally

enjoyed this process and I'm happy with

the results you might be a good

candidate for this approach if you are

not in an immediate hurry to have key

art want an excuse to get away from the

computer enjoy procuring little toys and

models enjoy painting and managing

objects and have a knack for lighting

and taking

photos here's one cool thing about this

approach now that I have these models I

can easily make like holiday themed

photos by adding a little Christmas

cheer I can help promote the game and I

can do this for any other holiday or big

event as long as I want to drag around a

bunch of toy models everywhere I go pack

them up put them in boxes carry them

around put them in

storage lug them around my whole life

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