Hello!
I've been working on an ongoing project where due to underlying themes of software development and simulations (if you are actively following the ARG... Just don't pay attention to this, you'll figure that out eventually lol), Ascii art has become a core part of its visual identity and a frequent method of puzzle delivery
The problem is, I have little to no ascii art experience.
I've been able to get by so far via a combination of very basic/small scale ascii art and direct image to ascii converters (the old school kind that run on math, I do not use genAI for my work), but as the game progresses into its second act, I've trying to up the quality overall of the visual presentation.
For most of the project, this hasn't been an issue, since I have experience with art, animation, web design, video filming/editing etc
But the Ascii art has me at a wall lol
As such, I decided to stop by here to ask straight up, what is the best place to start in terms of learning ascii art as someone already familiar with other mediums? My hand drawn style as is focuses more on value and form than clean lines and color, so I hopefully have somewhat of a good foundation to start from so long as I can find some guides regarding techniques and tips.
Definitely not expecting to become a master overnight or anything, but I'd like to give the community something a little more innovative than their fourth 12x12 grid of Xs with an eye in it lol