Samuel Watts L3 Games Design Unit 78 - Digital Graphics For Computer Games: HA1 Task 2

Task 2

Photorealism

Photorealism is when an artist attempts to create an image or art work that will look realistic to the audience, Artist will often use pictures taken by a camera (they could also use an image off the internet) and try to recreate the image/images to produce a piece of photorealistic art e.g. taking a picture of the Eiffel tower then using their art skills to recreate the picture making the Eiffel tower look as real as possible even though it is only a painting. It can make people believe that they are looking at the actual picture taken by a camera when in real fact it could be an actual painting created by an artist. To get a photorealistic picture correct the artist will have to take into fact many elements such as reflections, lighting, shading, the weather etc. and use a technique that will try to make each one be the best quality and as realistic as it can be.

Many games have used photorealism to make the player feel as though they are playing a real game. Take for example the 2013 game the last of us created by naughty dog. They will have taken pictures of locations such as Boston, Jackson, beaches and roads and buildings in the United States as well. They would have also taken pictures of people, possibly the voice actors and recreated the locations and characters through drawings. Some art used in the game would have been used through images online and others could have been made through drawing that started off as cartoon style and turned to photorealistic as no such thing as a clicker (a zombiefied enemy) could have been drawn from photo as they aren’t real.

Every inch of the game would have to look realistic, this even means the small features had to have big detail such as hair, eyes, teeth etc. Due to hardware and software however, there will be limitations such as the ps3 will not show as much detail in the game as a ps4 will. This means no matter how much detail they put into a game they will have to limit their artistry to the power of the hardware, especially when it comes to video games.

Other video games which use photo realism are: GTA, Uncharted, beyond two souls, battlefield, the witcher etc.

As for paintings, they do not have limitations as they are usually done on a canvas giving the artist the most amount of detail that they can include. The only limitations when it comes to this is how good the artist is at recreating photos. Take for example the pictures below:

Do you notice how the first picture still looks cartoony and though it was drawn compared to the second. This shows how each artist is limited due to their own drawing power, the first still looks quite realistic with the lighting effect on the table being astoundingly good but when looking at the second one you can’t tell that it is drawn whereas in the first one you can.

Cell Shading

Cel shading can be misspelled for the term ‘cell’ shading or toon shading, Cel shading is a technique used to make drawing or animations look comic book like, it is quite the opposite of photorealism. It uses a system of creating a 2-D animated object/objects and uses shading to give it a 3-D effect. The way that cell shading is usually done is through 3 easy steps:

1. Creating a 3-D model

2. Tracing over that model and giving it a basic 2-D texture

3. Shading the object/objects to give it that 3-D look again

It isn’t a popular use in video games but is seen in quite a few with one of the main titles being in the 2k games 2009-2014 game series borderlands, as you can see the characters do not look real in any way, they all look quite cartoony and comic like, this is due to the cel shading which allows for this unique look. However, borderlands doesn’t use a 2-D effect with its characters, enemies, environments etc. They have to model them to be 3-D and add the effect of cell shading.

Other games which use cel shading are: crackdown, legend of Zelda the wind waker, madworld, sly cooper, most anime games, ultimate spiderman etc.

Abstraction

Abstract art explores the relationship of forms, colours, shapes and lines. “Abstraction indicates a departure from reality in depiction of imagery in art” meaning that it uses a visual representation of the four elements stated at the start to create a world or imagery that we are not used to. Abstract art is not objective to anything, it is simply what the artist wishes to paint to show his/hers emotions, environment, people anything in a non-realistic manner, they are allowed to paint the imagery as they please using random shapes, colours, forms ad line to get the desired effect.

Abstraction can be found in games such as ‘shoot ‘em ups.’ An example would be the 2003 game created by bizarre creations: geometry wars, which uses abstraction as a heavy influence in its game as seen it is made up of many shapes and colours which give it its overall effect. It can be quite messy and chaotic but that is one of the main elements that makes something abstract.

Other games which use abstract art are: tempest 2000, Tetris, Mario, cube runner etc.

Exaggeration

Exaggeration is where something is used in an excessive manner, this can range through many sub sections such as humour, stories, overeating and just normal expressions in day to day life. In art it can be done in many different ways. You can draw caricatures of people having over exaggerated facial features such as freakishly big noses or heads or making them smaller and under exaggerated. You will see this art style used by a lot of people on the street who will paint a simple caricature of you with exaggerated features.

In video games exaggeration art style is used a lot in graphics and gameplay, especially in anime based video games. One game created in 1997 by a company known as square called final fantasy vii can show this exaggerated art style with the characters having swords as big as 7ft which the character can easily lift, this shows exaggeration through the physical appearance and scientific fact of that sword being too heavy to pick up. Also the style of the character’s hair and body features can also show exaggeration.