Artistic Styles of Computer Games




Screen Shot of the Gears of War Environment
 

Photo - Realistic

Photo-realistic is where the game is made to look as realistic as possible. With use of textures, shading and attention to detail. this adds a realism that many games today try to improve continuously, some of todays games even imitate real life landmarks to add a realism to the game.
Most FPS and RPG games use this style to make the game experience
as real as possible.
Another reason photo-realisitic gaming
has become majorly popular is the
challenge to the game producers, as

The use of textures, shading and light makes it look very realistic.








Screenshot from " The Legend Of Zelda - The Wind Waker "

Prince of Persia screenshot

 

        Viva Piñata Screenshot
        
  Fable Screenshot



 
 
 
 

Plants VS Zombies (Abstract game)

Hexic (Abstract Game)








 

technology moves on the photo realism is getting better and better, which makes competition between game developers.































Cel Shading

Cel Shading is where non-photorealistic rendering is a type of non-photorealistic rendering, aimed to give the appearance of hand drawn graphics. this is often used to imitate a cartoon or comic book style, it is often recognised with having a thick black line around features of the drawings.
This style of game design makes games stand out and look different from the games of today, as many feel a good game must appear as photo-reaslistic as possible.
 Cel Shaded games stand out more in todays gaming industry.

This image (right) is a good example of using Cel shading on a photo-realistic background, which makes the game extremely appealing to both game type audiences.














Exaggeration

Exaggeration is where the style
of the game is very over the top. From the size's of the Characters,Environment's and other aspects of the game are slightly or majorly out of proportion.
The style of an exaggerated game has many defining features, alot of the game seems no as many aspects of the character(s) are enhanced to the size of their hands and feet to armour, weapons and surroundings throughout the game.

 

 
 
 
 
 
 












 
Abstract

An abstract game isn't used often in the gaming industry and is mainly used by independant game manufacturers. It is difficult to describe the definition of an abstract game as they're many different opinions on the subject. However they mainly consists of randomness, simplicity and a themeless feel where aspects of the game are not characteristics of anything in the real world.
Examples of these are Plants VS Zombies (right) also Hexic (right) both very popular games on Xbox 360 Live Arcade.
As you can see there doesn't seem to be any rules to keep to, as many abstract games are simple however very addictive, the repetativeness throughout is combated with the difficulty level as the game pogresses. This is what makes abstract games very appealing to non "hardcore" gamers as the simplicity is easy to grasp and the player can have hours of fun.

Compression & Image Capture

Compression

Compression/Date compression is used on file formats to decrease the amount of data so more room is saved.

Compression in image files is used to reduce the size of the file, many image films are designed to compress information in any possible way as they can varie drastically in size. When a file is compressed it can save up to 50% less disc space than the original file.

Image compression is either lossy; information can be lost permantly to decrease file size, or lossless; some of the information can be returned.





Lossy

Lossy compression is a method used to compress data however some of the data will be lost as it reduces the number of colours within it, often reducing the quality. Nevertheless the file is reduced in size.

 

Lossless

Lossless compression is a method used to compress the data, however lossless compression unlike Lossy compression allows an estimation of the exact original to be reconstructed to its orignial state.



504kb Original before compression

34kb Image after compression

The image's of the Owl show the extreme difference compression can make. As you can see the (above) image is crisp and clear with defined lines and colours, as it contains more information. However the image (below) is pixelated, due to compression to make the file smaller so it has lost information in places.



Image Capture


Ways of capturing digital images:- Digital Camera
- Scan / photocopy
- Phone Camera / uploading
- Drawing Tablet
- Capture card
- Tablet computer (ipad)



Optimisation


Optimisation allows an image to maintain the quality needed despite the size, it is used to allow aspects of games and websites to load high quality images with a small image data. This is done by following the 'power of two' rule.



Power of two rule

These rules are simple yet very afftective, they apply to all game associated images. This rule makes sure the image's conform to a series of regular dimensions. This usually means deviding down or doubling up by two, Making sure all the images in a game are in proportion to each other, resulting in quick loading smooth game.

The images (above)(right) is an example of what would happen if a texture was placed on a 3D shape without using the power of two rule. A/B are uneven with parts of the 3D shape still visible. This would look poor in a game and would make it take twice aslong to load.







 

 

 

 



Pixels, Raster + Vector Graphics

PIXELS

Pixels, short for picture element, are the smallest possible components of a digital image. Each pixel has the positional information and intensity information. The intensity of each pixel is changable. When pixels are used in a coloured image, a colour is represented by three or four component intensities like red, green and blue.
The resolution of a display device is the amout of distinct pixels in each element that is shown. Usually mentioned as width x height this signifies the amount of pixels in a given area.



RASTER GRAPHICS

A raster graphic is made up of pixels, also known as bitmap graphics, raster graphics are resolution dependent as they cannot increase size without losing the image quality, which doesn't make it ideal for photographs. It contains larger file sizes than Vector graphics as the vector graphic doesn't carry as much detail, this is why raster graphics are mainly used for photo-realistic images and photographs, they are used extensively across the internet.

VECTOR GRAPHICS

Vector graphics are completely dependant on geometrical primatives such as curves, points and lines. They work by leading through control points around the X and Y axis. Each fragment can be changed in colour, thickness, shape and fill of colour. It doesn't affect the size of the file as all the information is in the image, and it describes how to draw the image. This process is used alot for illustrations ,logo's and fonts for business's as it can be resized without loss of quality however there isn't a large amout of detail to start with.

Types of Digital Graphics

Digital Art Types


Concept Art

Concept art is an illustration used to develop characters, items and  the environment of a game. It is used to plan the story/characters and other aspects of the game, before anything is made as making the game by trail and error would cost much more than planning it.

Background Art

This is where background images such as; Distant horizons, trees, grass, water, fields, sky and mountians to make them appear more realistic to the user. It allows less polygons to be used as the image is used to immitate more polygons which can be replicated as many times needed in the background therefore there will be no need to use more polygons. This means saving more room to be used for other aspects of the game.

Texture Art
 This is where a 2D image is wrapped around a 3D shape to make it appear more realistic,
 with the colour, shadow and detail of the texture adding realism to the game/animation.


Grass Textures




Water Textures

Pixel Art

 Pixel art is a form of digital art, that using raster graphics, it's mainly used in older games, like Mario for the Nintendo 64, Sonic for the Sega Megadrive, calculators and mobile phone games.

Interface Art

Interface art is a 2D image layed over the game, it's mainly used for the HUD (heads up display)
which is the health bar, buttons, start menu's and the main map of the game.



Zelda "OoT" Start Menu



Print Media Art

Print media is used to advertise the game, from the 
outside of the game to images on the internet and any other form
of advertising for the game. It is used to draw your eye to the game,
and make it appeal to the audience its directed at.




The cardboard cover that the game was in.

Main character from Zelda "OoT" advertisement