UNIT 78 : Digital Graphics for Computer Games Exercise 1

Abstract

The art style abstraction focuses more on colors, shapes, and quirky designs, as you can see to the right. The colors it uses are a light blue, green, a golden yellow, dark purple, and you can also see the background is light purple, with large dark purple squares scattered on it, keeping to the abstraction art style, by making use of the shapes. You can also see that the spikes are triangle, and you have the blue foamy looking cloud on the floor below. You're the spiky looking ball. The game isn't just making use of the normal shapes, as you can see the game has made the circle (you) have a funky design too. This is just one level of the game Geometry Dash, each level has a different shape/color theme, on a different level the background might be light pink with dark pink circles scattered on it, or a green background with red triangles on it. The color also changes during the level as you progress further. https://www.Youtube.com/watch?v=hRJatj8IC7s this link is a perfect example, it shows you someone playing Geometry Dash, through levels 1 to 12, if you pay attention you will notice the colors change during every level, as you can tell from watching the video, each level has a different color theme and shape theme, one of the levels may focus more on circles than it does triangles. Geometry Dash was developed by Robert Topala, it was designed in 2013 for mobile and Steam and it was published by his company, RobTop Games, it can play on iOS, Android, Windows Phone, Microsoft Windows, and OS X. The games genre is Arcade and Music, and is a single player game. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geometry_Dash

Cel-Shading

The art style cel-shading, which can also be referred to as toon-shading is a type of non-realistic rendering, which is designed to make 3-D computer graphics appear to be flat. It has a more comic look too it, the concept art such as characters, vehicles and weapons, even the environment, looks like a colored in comic, a prime example of a cel-shaded game would be Team Fortress 2, and the Borderlands game series.

As you can see to the right, the image is very cartoon like, if you look closely at the image, you'll see almost everything is outlined in black, the woman, the rocks, and the robot. Cel-shaded games usually try and stick to more simpler colors, and try to avoid the bright neon colors. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LzGYm7H3tig If you watch this video you'll see that the artwork is fairly simple, and nothing too extravagant, everything has a fine black outline around it. The in-game interface, such as the mini-map in the top left corner of the video is also very simple. You can also see the experience bar and his level at the bottom of the screen which have a very simple design to it, and to the right of the experience bar you can see how much ammo he has in his weapon, which has the same design as the experience bar, in the left corner of his screen you can see a health bar, this looks identical to his weapon bar except they're both different colors. The combat in the game isn't over the top and the animations are fairly simple. As you can see in the image, the sky is just the color blue with no clouds in, even in-game seeing clouds in the sky is definitely not a common occurrence, meaning the game is pretty simple in the sky department. The game Borderlands 2 is only 32bit, meaning it's made to be played on the PS3, Xbox 360, and PC.

Exaggeration

Exaggeration is a playful art style that is used in various games. The art style concentrates on using very over the top graphics, which usually sends a message to the player that this game is NOT meant to be taken very seriously. Anime is also a widely used art style that is considered over the top and exaggerated. A game uses the exaggerated/anime art style is Catherine.

The image to the right is a screenshot of the game Catherine were the man has woken up to find a girl in his bed, as you can see his reaction is exaggerated and also priceless, his jaw is gaping and his eyes have widened in disbelief. You can also see how this game follows the anime art style because of how defined he is, check out that collar bone for example, and his jaw line is amazingly perfect. The concept art of this game is definitely very anime like, as you see in the background he has books or DVDs on a shelf, which is also very defined. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIWw3nuuADU After watching the video you can see the game is extremely anime like, and also unrealistic, like when he's asleep and views everyone as a sheep and has ram horns himself? Yeah not real kids. Almost all the reactions are very over the top, and especially when something "shocking" happens and his face gives you the most ridiculous look ever, like seriously, how does he do that? 

Photo-realism

Photo-realism is the style of art in a game, where the artist's are attempting to make the scene so realistic and defined, it could be mistaken for a real photograph. A great example of Photo-realism would be the new next gen game, 'Until Dawn' were all of the characters in the game, look just like their voice actors, (except the monsters of course).

The girl on the right is one of the main characters in the game, as you can see the in-game character has an uncanny resemblance to the voice actor. All the concept art in 'Until Dawn' whether it's a weapon, a vehicle or the environment, they look incredibly realistic compared to most other games. Until Dawn is a 64bit game due to how massive the game itself is, and can only be played on next generation consoles, or PC's that are made for gaming. The in-game interface only appears when given options, which you would then choose, you do not have a stamina bar, health bar, or an experience bar. Photo-realism helps add that feeling of immersion in a game because of how realistic the style can be.