Pixel Art Fire Hydrant

This week we learnt the "old school" way of making art for games - how to do pixels and create an isometric perspective in Photoshop. It was a good exercise in that it was interesting to learn what went into creating games such as Mario, Pac-Man, and modern examples like Fez and Hotline Miami.

Starting with the basics, we learnt how to make a square, going in blocks 2x1 pixels. Once one line was created, it was a simple copy-paste and voila! A square! After that, copy the square, move it below the other, draw lines to connect and we had a cube. Like I said, the basics.

Next was circles, which were a little more difficult but manageable. However, a shortcut was made apparent - create an ellipse, fill in a one pixel wide line all the way around the inside, and move it where it needs to be.

Next came a proper task - to recreate a fire hydrant. The class was given a reference image, and let loose with their new teachings.

Here are my results - not exactly like the one in the reference but I feel I have captured the lighting well and maintained the recognisable form of it.