Kori chamberlain

Unit 78 Computer games

Research Exercise

Artistic Styles in video games

There are arrange of different types of artistic styles in video games to cel shading to abstraction.

Cel Shading
An example of games that have Cel shading in them are:

Walking dead Seasons, Borderlands/Borderlands 2, Dragon Ball Z Budokai and onwards.

This image is a good example of a cel shading image that looks like a comic. The thick lines and the flat colours give use the idea that the game wants the comic style to be shown in the game.

Cel shading is a style that uses flat colours to make its art look like comics or hand drawn images.

Borderlands main style is cel shading which has chosen the root of the comic look. In some cases the game can seem as if it was drawn and its being animated. 

Abstraction

The abstraction style of art normally employs a lot of lines and geometric shapes that don’t really resemble any real-life objects. For example geometry wars, a game which uses nothing but lines and geometric shapes.

Some other games that use the style of abstract are:

Tetris, Beautiful katamari, Geometry wars

This is an image taken from Geometry Wars and it clearly shows the bright unrealistic images. The shapes are lines and are geomentic shapes which suit the description of an abstract style.

This art style is mainly used for arcadey game titles but can be found elsewhere.

Photo-realism

There’s a big amount of games that work with photo-realism to a cartoon look. Sometimes different types of computer game graphics can be merged together.

Games like Call of duty or Untill Dawn are photo-realism which are trying to increase the intensity and the idea that it’s real.

In this game they are trying to get the style of photo-realism with maybe some other art styles put in the game as well.

Until Dawn is a great example of a game that uses photo-realism. This is a horror game which you can link with characters and the style brings out the atmosphere. 

Exaggerated

Exaggerated art styles are found in anime. These are when the art style is over exaggerated from real life for example: The weapon (props) can be huge for the character to actually hold it, or the graphics of the character aren’t realistic: The eyes, the hair etc…

For Example games that are exaggerated are: Batman, Tomb Raider etc.

Batman is a great example of an over exaggerated art style, the muscles of the character are not realistic and the shapes of the muscles are over the top. Most characters from this game have the same art style which makes the gamer start to use their imagination. The joker for example has an exaggerated mouth and figure.

In this image of the joker the jaw is abnormal and the skin of the character is trying to look evil so it try’s the exaggerated style to give it that feeling.

Pixel

Pixel games are usually found in games that are platform but can be found in some RPJ games.

An example of games that use pixel art are:

Sonic/Sonic 2 etc, Terraria

In sonic 3 it’s a typical platform game that has pixel as its main style of art. With very low pixels to 16 which will increase the lag for the game.

The latest games use up to 24 to 25 pixels as its better for the human eye. Which will make the game seem to flow much better.

Pixels help games seem more or less realistic depending on the amount that are in use. (The higher the amount of pixels the higher the quality)(The lower the amount of pixels give the opposite effect.

Types of digital Graphics

Unit 78 Digital Graphics in Computer Games

Types of digital Graphics

Raster Images:(bmp, gif, tiff, ipeg)

A Raster graphics are digital images created or captured (for example, by scanning in a photo) as a

set sample of a given space. A raster is a grid or x and y coordinates on a display space. A raster image file is sometimes referred to a bitmap because it contains information that is directly mapped to the display grid. Raster images are made up of 3 Primary colours (blue, red and green) 

This is a Raster image, this image shows the pixels within the image.

Vector images:(psd, wmf, fla, ai)

Vector Images is the use of geometrical primitives such as points, lines, curves, and shapes or polygons-all of which are based on mathematical expressions-to represent images in computer graphics. Vector graphics are not made up of a grid of pixels. Instead, vector graphics are comprised of paths, which are defined by a start and end point.

File Extensions:(Bmp, Png, Gif, Tiff, Jpg, PSD)
A file extension is a file that has been named through a certain way. File extensions helps an operating systems, like windows. A document that has been called "Myhomework.docx" would make the windows know that its that type of document and should be opened with Microsoft word, because of "docx"
Compression:(E.g. Lossy or Lossless)

Lossless and Lossy compression are terms that describe whether or not, in the compression of a file, all original data can be recovered when the file is uncompressed. With lossless compression, every single bit of data that was originally in the file remains after the file is uncompressed.
(All of the information is Completely restored)
This this technique is usually used on spread sheets and word. On the other hand, Lossy compression reduces a file by permanently certain information, especially redundant information. When the file is uncompressed, only part of the original information is still there

Image Capture: (Scanner, Digital Camera, Tablet etc.)

Image capture controls what happens when you connect your iPhone, iPad and digital camera to your computer. For example, you've noticed that iPhoto  always opens as soon as you plug in your iPhone. This action is actually managed in image capture, not iphoto.
The image capture allows you to use your scanner without any other software. Image capture can also be when you take an image through a physical device, i.e. A phone, which you can just take a picture.

Optimizing: (Target image output, Image bit depth, Image resolution, Image dimensions, Compression)

Optimizing an image is really just changing an images size or quality to make the image look better or worst depending on what is changed. Usually this is to give the best effect that the image can give for example: a difference in resolution can determine if the image will be better because of the amount of pixels within the image.
Optimizing can be also be used when trying to improve the efficiency of the image. 

Storage of Image Assets: (File Size, File naming conventions, Asset management)

The Storage of Image Assets is a very useful way to store things like textures, graphics and texts styles so that others can easily access them and assets . This is very useful within the game industry as most companies have lots of different teams who all need to access the same stuff. Being able to transfer files between colleges really speeds up production as you don't need to wait around for the files to transfer. This is important as it helps companies meet deadlines. Its also very important to which file you place your work in as it can affect the opening time.