r/videos Mar 24 '24

A Japanese artist makes art using Microsoft Excel

https://youtu.be/OrwBc6PwAcY?si=FJte4Cqs7qOYAll_
203 Upvotes

30 comments sorted by

14

u/quequotion Mar 24 '24

I have seen Japanese people do things with Excel that were unnecessary, redundant, stupid, overly complex, and weird.

I have seen Japanese people make everything from "databases" to New Year's greeting cards to functional CPU emulators in Excel.

This man makes masterpieces, and finally, I get it.

Excel is not a spreadsheet program.

It is an everything program.

23

u/snmgl Mar 24 '24

"I set a goal. In 10 years I wanted to paint something decent that I could show to people."

Imagine having his patience in goal setting. Doesn't matter if you want to start your own business or a youtube channel. If you are willing to spent 10 years on it, you will most likely be successful.

6

u/repost_inception Mar 24 '24

There is actually a book called Slow Productivity about this.

2

u/snmgl Mar 24 '24

Sounds interesting, thanks for the recommendation!

6

u/asoap Mar 24 '24

I think this is the link to this guy's store.

https://shop.spoon-tamago.com/collections/tatsuo-horiuchi

8

u/DoctorOozy Mar 24 '24

aaaaaaaand they're gone

6

u/DesignerTex Mar 24 '24

"Yes, I am a fool." He doesn't take it too seriously and knows it's kinda odd. Yet the art turns out great. I was shocked!

38

u/Leetzers Mar 24 '24

Cool, but someone should probably show this guy adobe illustrator.

Seems he's working with vector art.

27

u/TheBatemanFlex Mar 24 '24

I feel like at this point it has defined his style which is constrained by these tools though. No?

It would be like if someone specializes in a very niche but tedious and limited medium and then recommending a different (albeit more flexible and practical) medium.

19

u/Shapes_in_Clouds Mar 24 '24

I feel like at this point it has defined his style which is constrained by these tools though. No?

Exactly. The dude doesn't live in a bubble, he's surely aware there are 'better' tools. A lot of artists find their creativity in a process defined by limitation. Greater flexibility and more options don't necessarily result in better work.

16

u/liforrevenge Mar 24 '24

Did you watch the video? The whole point is he didn't want to buy an art program.

-13

u/brainpostman Mar 24 '24

Someone should show him GIMP. Or Paint.NET. There are so many plugins for those things too.

13

u/sulphra_ Mar 24 '24

Or just let him use the thing he prefers ffs

2

u/Leeps Mar 24 '24

Inkscape for vectors

0

u/Ivesx Mar 24 '24

Even Inkscape should be somewhat of a revelation...

5

u/BellaRub Mar 24 '24

That’s so cool !!!

3

u/philmarcracken Mar 24 '24

getting flashbacks to the seating arrangement girl doing everything in excel post...

9

u/HotPumpkinPies Mar 24 '24

Why aren't there paint-by-numbers excel files?

22

u/TheBatemanFlex Mar 24 '24

So I thought that's what was initially meant by "paint in excel". I thought he was filling in cells on a HUGE spreadsheet. Its actually a little more bizarre if anything. He is using the Microsoft shapes, lines, and fills and just using the spreadsheet as a canvas.

I think there actually are excel files where you can fill in cells with the corresponding colors and create a picture.

2

u/witchitieto Mar 24 '24

Finance management material

2

u/R0ckhands Mar 24 '24

No one going to mention the subtitles?

2

u/-Appleaday- Mar 24 '24

What about them?

2

u/R0ckhands Mar 25 '24

White on a white background? They're practically illegible. Ironic on a video about making the best use of a visual medium.

1

u/-Appleaday- Mar 25 '24

Oh. Now that you mention it it I kind of see what you mean. I can read the subtitles just fine though personally, but I can totally see how it may be hard for some to read them.

2

u/gobrowns88 Mar 24 '24

Meanwhile, I struggle trying to get two sets of data on the y-axis of a graph.

1

u/TheRepublicAct Mar 24 '24

Excel is probably the most Goated office program.

-8

u/distortedperspective Mar 24 '24

And there I was years ago bored at work one day so I wrote a macro to do basically this in like 10min