OPRR Flash Depth Activities

Search Extension

In-depth analysis of the trend and development trend of NFT pixel art

AIONews

2023-03-27 20:00

Read this article in 31 Minutes

AI summary

View the summary

Original title: "In-depth | Analysis of the Trend and Development of NFT Pixel Art"

Original author: aionews

It is said that fashion is a circle. At the beginning of 2023, some people noticed that the fashion trend in the NFT circle has returned to pixel art. Pixel-style NFTs are firmly at the top of the hot lists. Like the basic styles that will never be eliminated in a woman's wardrobe, the avatars composed of small squares on the top of the list seem to say: All classics will become eternal. This principle also applies to Web3.

At present, CryptoPunks is booming and is known as "one of the pioneers in the NFT field". The price of popular NFTs has soared to unprecedented heights.

In the ever-changing popularity list of the BTC NFT track that has recently exploded, we can see that pixel-style NFTs can occupy 30-35 of the top 64 NFTs, easily occupying half of the market. (Data source: Ordinals.Market)

Behind the fascinating pixel-style NFT

In June 2017, the studio Larva Labs launched the pixel-style NFT CryptoPunks, and in 2022, Yuga Labs, the parent company of "Boring Ape", acquired it. CryptoPunks can be called the ancestor of NFT. CryptoPunks issued a total of 10,000 NFTs, each of which represents a different "punk-style" pixel-style avatar. On the CryptoPunks website, each punk pixel avatar has its own profile, showing their attributes, ownership and sale status. No. 3100 and No. 7804 were both sold at 4,200 ETH on March 11, 2022. According to the ETH price at the time, the transaction price was approximately US$75.66 million. CryptoPunksm #5822 was sold in the market at a record-breaking price of 8,000 ETH in February.

Since CryptoPunks was the first NFT to be worshipped by players, the pixel style has become one of the genes of NFT, and has been quickly turned into a template by profit-seekers. CryptoPunks has conquered today's NFT market. In the past two years, various pixel-style NFTs have emerged, including Worldwide Webb, CyberKongz, Yubo Randos, Meebits, ApeGang, and BitCats. The number and market value of pixel-style NFT digital artworks continue to increase. So far, pixel-style NFT digital artworks rank among the top in terms of quantity and market value in many NFT markets, becoming one of the important categories in the NFT market. In the NFT field, waves are rising, and pixel-style NFTs have expanded a new narrative in Web3.

When buying pixel-style NFTs, what exactly are users buying? It is the buyer's recognition and fascination with the value of pixel style in NFTs, and a high recognition of the artistry of the NFT market. Digital art is different from physical art forms, and the high prices pursued by fans in the market are more like the cry of performance art.

The book "The Value of Art: Money, Society, and Beauty" once mentioned: "If you pick out any period in history, you will find that the current taste is jointly determined by people in the art circle such as dealers, collectors, critics, and art museum curators."

The emergence of digital art has enriched the form of display of artworks. Some users have seen the value of digital art, and people's value carriers have found a new breakthrough.

The cohesive power of pixel-style NFT

"The Kingdom of Wind, developed by PLAYING CHUCKLEFISH, gave me a feeling of returning home, which was an unprecedented experience for me. After the first reveal in 2018, I was immediately attracted by the Zelda-style adventure elements, colorful narratives, and complex and diverse character relationships. But most importantly, I was amazed by the gorgeous scenes and high-precision environments built by pixel art." Pixel artist Extremely OK Games mentioned the charm of pixel style in an interview.

Pixel style is an art classification of NFT, and the essence of NFT is ownership and ownership certificate. The New Yorker made a vivid metaphor for the relationship between NFT and artwork: For artworks, the function of NFT is similar to that of museums marking the source of artworks, stamping artworks with proprietary seals, and then they can continue to be freely circulated on the Internet.

NFT's online seal makes it marketable and has identity social label attributes. Pixel-style social symbols have strong cyberpunk characteristics and construct a unique crypto art aesthetic. When people buy pixel-style NFTs, they are also paying for the attributes they represent.

There must be some investors who believe in the appreciation space of pixel-style NFTs, and some players are addicted to the experience brought by pixel-style NFTs: when they own pixel-style NFTs, they can show off their avant-garde and futuristic sense. The unique style of NFT maximizes the attributes of social currency. Social currency refers to the use of people's willingness to share with others to shape their own products or ideas, so as to achieve the purpose of word-of-mouth communication. American marketing consulting firm Vivaldi Partners once divided social currency into six dimensions: sense of belonging, communication and discussion, sense of identity, value, advocacy, information, and knowledge exchange.

NFT, as a topic of conversation in social situations, is a "high-scoring product" in the above six dimensions, and naturally reaches "madness" in the circle. The famous bestseller "Madness" talks about the value of social currency. Just like people can use currency to buy goods or services, using social currency can get more praise and more positive impressions from family, friends and colleagues.

For people, owning pixel-style NFT is to add multiple labels to their own personality: cyberpunk, high value, futuristic, scarce, etc. This extreme sexiness of topic has created a phenomenal social wave, allowing more people to voluntarily participate in it.

At the same time, the financial liquidity and unique classification of NFT have enabled a large number of people interested in it to condense into a new community force, with pixel style being the first to bear the brunt. In the new generation of networks, people have an increasing demand for a sense of identity. The collection value of pixel-style NFTs allows them to be transferred as social commodities.

The uniqueness of NFTs enables owners to uniquely identify their identity information. People with similar NFTs quickly form communities, seek a sense of identity within the community, support their favorite NFTs, find common circles, and obtain relevant knowledge and information in them: I own a scarce cyberpunk NFT, and I also have membership in the OG club in the NFT field. This has taken the social currency value of pixel-style NFTs to a higher level, attracting a large number of interested people to invest in it.

CryptoPunks community members

Worldwide Web3 community members

CyberKongz community members

A glimpse into the counter-cultural attitude behind the pixel style

In the late 1990s, pixel art was gradually regarded as a synonym for "rough" and "hard" by the gaming industry and was no longer favored. However, pixel art has not been eliminated, but has become a unique style and cultural symbol. The reason is that pixel art itself uses simple elements to express the theme content, has unlimited creative space, and has a unique artistic style. Pixels do not express information through realistic techniques. On the contrary, the simple and clean visual effects of pixel style can effectively reduce visual information overload, thereby improving the efficiency of information transmission.

The reason why pixels can become pixel style is that it is retro at the least and trendy at the most. In 2017, Matt Hall and John Watkinson, founders of the software company Larva Labs, developed a program that can generate thousands of random characters that do not seem to belong to the mainstream aesthetic type at the time. Not long after, Larva Labs launched what we now know as CryptoPunks, a collection of artistic images composed of irregular pixels. In addition to human images, these pixel images also include non-human images such as green-skinned zombies, hairy apes and blue-skinned aliens, all of which are equipped with accessories that show off their personality.

The two founders said frankly that CryptoPunks was inspired by the London Punk spirit: "They (these images) must be a bunch of unsociable and non-compliant people. The London Punk movement in the 1970s feels like the right aesthetic, and the dystopian cyberpunk spirit represented by the movie "Blade Runner" and William Gibson's novel "Neuromancer" also had an impact on this." In their view, there was a noisy anti-establishment spirit in the early days of the blockchain movement, which is exactly the atmosphere they want to reflect in their punk appearance.

Due to the characteristics of pixel art, the facial details of pixel-style NFT characters are blurred, and only the outline can be seen, full of a constrained sense of the future, and the highly saturated bright colors give NFT a punk coat. The stereotype of low-resolution pixel art has long been forgotten, and players see a more open interpretation space behind limited visual resources. Artists depict images through restrictions and simplifications, and convey emotions and ideas through pixels, in order to oppose works that overemphasize the quality of the picture but are flashy. Abstraction and symbolism are the common points of pixel-style NFTs, and are also the attitudes pursued by Web3 players.

Previously, there were many people who expressed the view that "pixel art is dead", but in today's NFT world, there are still a large number of artists working hard to create near-perfect pixel works. The continuous emergence of pixel NFTs is the most powerful rebuttal to the above view. Many pixel-style NFT projects have swept the Web3 world with their own interpretations, constantly interpreting classics with creativity and communication power. People often question the uniqueness and value of pixel-style NFTs. But CryptoPunks wants to express much more than that - in the words of the founder, investing in NFTs like CryptoPunks allows everyone to express their true self in the role of this new art form.

Is the pixel style of NFT world returning by chance or necessity?

Pixel art is a kind of digital graphics drawn by the principle of pixel dot matrix. It first appeared in electronic games in the 1980s. Due to the technical limitations at that time, the game screen could only be presented with rough small squares. Childhood memories "The Legend of Zelda", "Super Mario" and "Contra" are representative games of pixel style, accompanying the growth of the 80s and 90s generations. Then it is not difficult to understand that the reason why other styles are difficult to replace pixel style is first of all - retro feelings.

Russian-American scholar Svetlana Boym wrote in "The Future of Nostalgia" that "this nostalgia is prevalent all over the world, and more and more people are eager to have a community emotion of collective memory and a kind of continuity in a fragmented world." In an era where there is no social and no Web3, the NFT in the wallet is the business card that knocks on the door of each community, representing the aesthetics and taste of the holder, and is also an excellent topic for social introduction.

The pixel style undoubtedly carries the childhood memories of most holders - even for those who are post-00s who have little experience with the mosaic version of "Super Mario", "Minecraft" may be their favorite. You don't have to worry that the other party doesn't understand death rock, nor do you have to think that the cute style will be out of place. The pixel style has a unique advantage and can quickly evoke the common memories of a group of people. Friendly, worry-free, happy, as if pulling people back to a specific era, as soon as the bell rang, they went straight to the game hall in groups of three or five, and were quickly drowned in the voices of people intertwined with sweat and spicy strips. The former hardware limitations have become the tears of the times, and the retention and continuation of the pixel style proves that there will always be people who miss it. Web3 provides us with a way to miss it, so why can't we just admit that we just want to miss our childhood?

In addition to sentiment, pixel style can indeed quickly open up the market. It is much easier to use pixels to create NFT images of various elements and accessories than other types. NFTs are limited in size and low in quality, which is why we often feel that NFTs themselves are very pixelated. If the number of colors used in the image is reduced, the file size will also be smaller, and the image will be more adaptable to various screen sizes and resolutions, and effectively compatible with various devices.

Pixel-style NFTs can be produced in a few minutes, and there is more flexibility in design. Artists can easily create a large number of non-repetitive NFT works. Correspondingly, compared with other types of NFTs, pixel-style NFTs are usually cheaper, have a larger player base, and have more controllable operating costs. This relatively low price has promoted more people to participate in the NFT market and contributed to the growth of the entire NFT market. Although the reserve price of the popular project CryptoPunks is relatively high, it does not prevent a large number of players from flocking to the pixel style.

However, you should know that pixel art is not as simple as the "mosaic" we understand. Early pixel paintings were obviously jagged and had a small number of colors. Today's technology has long broken through the limitations of resolution and the number of colors, and the various painting forms have made the definition of pixel paintings more flexible and free. This means that artists need to use aesthetic factors such as modeling, composition and color in a limited canvas, repeatedly consider the arrangement of units, and maximize the role of each pixel unit. The seemingly simple NFT pixel works also contain the technology and experience accumulated by artists over the years. So far, do you think that buying NFT is a good investment?

The colors presented by the early pixel style were limited to the RGB color display of the electronic game screen, and the color selection was limited to 56 types. Therefore, game developers usually choose high-saturation primary colors, low-saturation transition colors and shadows for matching. Red and green contrast with blue and yellow contrast is the most common combination, which brings a strong visual impact to gamers and makes the brain secrete exciting and happy dopamine. Later pixel art works such as puzzles, cross stitch, and Lego continued this color rule, and pixel NFTs are no exception. The visual tension of pixel-style NFTs can bring users a sense of excitement and curiosity (of course, it will also remind them of the pleasure of playing games when they were young), and it is also so eye-catching in the rows of avatars on the hot list.

Throughout history, can NFT style determine market value?

At the beginning of the creation of CryptoPunks, Larva Labs retained 1,000 avatar NFTs in the project, and the remaining 9,000 NFTs were distributed free of charge to users with Ethereum wallets.

The subsequent market for CryptoPunks was almost hyped to sky-high prices, and the collections gradually flowed into the hands of whales. The top 5 holders of CryptoPunks are primarily original collectors, who still own 14% of all CryptoPunks to date.

Top 5 Collectors of CryptoPunks

Changes in the types of NFT collectors who purchase CryptoPunks over time

The evolution of NFT collectors’ transactions over time also shows that the proportion of transactions by “legendary NFT collectors” in the total transaction volume is getting smaller and smaller (in terms of ERC721 token transactions, legendary collectors mean the top 0.1% of collectors).

Changes in the types of NFT collectors who buy CryptoPunks over time

The whale gameplay breeds more black-box operations and insider trading, and the number of wallets does not represent the number of real players. The authenticity of buyers and sellers and the flow of funds may have become a financial game, and the market with high-priced circulation is definitely not the domain of ordinary people. However, artistic style cannot avoid the coercion and control of financial forces, and the hype mechanism makes the transactions in the market half true and half false. After Beeple’s “One Shot Fame”, the media revealed that the buyer was Meta Kovan, the founder of Metapurse. Metapurse led the issuance of the token B.20 associated with Beeple. At the same time, the same buyer with the ID metakovan also participated in the auction of Beeple's works in December 2020 with wallets under 11 different names.

NFT Artworks - Carnival Games from the Top of the Pyramid?

On the other hand, with the participation of more artists and creative teams, the popularity of the NFT market has become more diversified. CLONE X, Prime Ape Planet, NFT Bored Bunny, HAPE and other popular NFT styles are far from the pixel style.

The high-speed entry of refined images and 3D technology has caused a diversified explosion in the NFT market. Mainstream artists have begun to join the NFT track, and digital art has gradually paralleled the market. With the addition of multiple art styles to the market, the art styles and even the art system of the NFT market will also evolve and explode in a diversified manner. Not only picture art, but also various forms such as video and music are entering the NFT market.

Beyond the popularity of pixel style

Art is an evolving medium that explores new corners of human experience and imagination based on the past as new styles and technologies become popular. Just as those mosaics and stained glass led to LCD watches and Pong, the pixel art of the past is influencing current creators and creating new cornerstones for the future of games. "From ancient Greek and Roman mosaics to stained glass, to cross-stitch, weaving and beading art, to dot matrix printers and cheap LCD displays on the front of public transportation buses or rice cookers," describes Christina-Antoinette Neofotistou, a pixel artist with decades of experience, "the placement of discrete points on a grid represents an image that will not disappear soon."

For creators, the popularity of art is like a sudden east wind, with which they may be able to break through the limitations of their circles in the early stages and tear open a corner of the real world. However, with the increase in the number of entrants, crypto art cannot provide the ideal completely decentralized fair and just market, and its financial attributes make it inseparable from the eyes of whales. In the future, whether NFTs with more styles and gameplay can give diverse answers, we believe there will be more room for imagination.