UNITE 78 - DIGITAL GRAPHICS FOR COMPUTER GAMES EXERCISE

UNITE 78 - DIGITAL GRAPHICS FOR COMPUTER GAMES EXERCISE

Exercise

- File Extensions

A File Extension is the format that a file is saved in, example: a video and audio file like a movie/video would be saved as .mp4 which is suitable for a video and audio file.



If you were working in group on a game. An you were making a 2D house in Photoshop but you only had to draw, but someone else had to colour it in you would have to save it as .psd so that the person who is colouring it will find it easy to colour different sections, if you saved the file as a .png then the person colouring it would find it hard to colour different sections without worrying about the colour going on other section.

- Compression

Compression is reducing the size of a file. Compression is usually used when the image is going to be on phone so the size is not too big for the phone. 

If your were making a game for a phone then you would need to compress the image so it is not too big in size for the phone. If the game was photo realistic then the image would still need to be compressed so the phone is able to handle the image without using up all of the storage.

- Image Capture

Image Capture is how you capture an image or a video. To capture you would use a camera, mobile phone, scanner, or internet.

Image capture can be used for taking a picture of background as an idea for a image that you are making or using.

- Optimising

Optimising is making something better and improving it in Games it could be used for making and image better.

Image optimising could be used to optimise an image to make it look better and it also makes the size smaller. which could be used online if the image size is smaller then the image would load faster online.

- Storage Of Image Assets

Storage of image assets is in three sections File Size, File Format and File Name.

File Format is the way to store digital graphics such as Image in a format of .jpg. File Format is are made of Pixels or Vector Data and can be mixture of both..jpg is really popular as JPG normally have smaller size which makes it easier to transfer, this would help to transfer image files between team members quickly saving time of waiting for long time.

File Size shows how big or small a file is. In Game Designs size of a file effects the quality of a game. If you were making a game for a mobile phone then your games image size would be much lesser than a size for a PC or a Console. Some times a Bigger size image file would be harder to transfer to the team members which would waste the team members time who is waiting which would effect if the game is finished or not before the deadline. 

File Name is used for naming a file which is very useful in game design if you had made a drawing of a house which was going to be coloured in, you named it House 1 but you had other files name House 2, House 3. Then the person will have to go through all the files to see which one it is. So Naming the file correctly will make it easier for the person. 

Storage is also for storing files on USB, CD, Blue-RAY And External Hard drive. Storage allows the games assets to be stored in the Device.

LEVEL 3 GAME DESIGN UNIT 78 - DIGITAL GRAPHICS FOR COMPUTER GAMES IMAGE RESOLUTION/ QUANTITY P1 UNDERSTAND THEORY & APPLICATION OF DIGITAL GRAPHIC

LEVEL 3 GAME DESIGN

UNIT 78 - Digital Graphics for computer games

Image Resolution/ Quantity P1 UNDERSTAND THEORY & APPLICATION OF DIGITAL GRAPHIC

Picture Resolution

Resolution is the quality of the image. As the image becomes clearer, it becomes sharper more defined, and more detailed. This is because there is more information in the small space.

You can see what’s going on here. The more we increase the resolution of the graphic, the clearer the A becomes. Now let’s multiply the 10 by 10 resolution by 5 to get a 50 by 50 square.

 It still doesn’t have that crisp quality. To get that, we’ll need to increase the resolution even more. Let’s multiply it by 2.

This image is at full resolution.

You can make an image seem smoother than it otherwise would by using a technique known as anti-aliasing. This smooths out the jagged edges in text, or angled lines in your image. I've turned on anti-aliasing for this last 'A' and you'll see it appears smoother.

If you ever need to crop an image or make it smaller, never ever resize it back up to the original size! Doing so will kill the quality of the image, and you’ll be left with nothing but a blurry mess. Just remember that you can always go down in size, but once you do, it’s irreversible.

Pac-Man which was published in 1980. The image quality is 8-bit.

Half-Life 2 was published in 2004. The image quality is 64-bit.

Image Resolution

Image resolution is not how the image appears on the screen, image resolution is how your image will print.

8MP camera took this picture. This looks really good because this is small photo. Since the actual size will make it look blurry.

Intensity (Pixel Value)

Each pixels represents an image stored inside a computer has a pixel value which describes how bright that pixel is, or what colour it should be. The pixel value is a 1-bit number indicating either foreground or background. For a grayscale image the pixel value is single number that represents the brightness of the pixel. Pixel format is where this number is stored as an 8-bit integer giving a range of possible values form 0 to 255. Zero is black, and 255 is white. Values in between make up different shades of grey.

Anatomy of a Story

Anatomy of a Story

What are the elements that make up a story?

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2014 

Characters:

April O'Neil

Vern Fenwick

Eric Sacks

Oroku Skai / The Shredder

Bernadete Thompson

Karai

Taylor

McNaughton

Dr. Baxter Stockman

Dr. O'Neil

Dojo Ninja

Leonardo

Raphael

Michelanglo

Donatello

Hero: Main, Multiple, Sidekick

-          April O'Neil

-          Raphael

-           

Villain: Main, Henchmen

Main Villain:

-          Shredder

Henchmen:

-          Eric Sacks

Setting: Where is it set?

-          New York City

-          Cargo Docks

-          Sewers Of New York City

Atmosphere:

                                                                      

Theme/ genre:

Science Fiction, Action Film, Comedy, Adventure Film

Plot: plot, twist:

Eric Sacks is working with Shredder. April O’Neil’s father is the one who caused the fire to protect the mutagen and killed by Sacks.

Beginning:

April O’Neil catches the foot clan transporting chemical weapons and witnesses a person stopping for the foot clan. April O’Neil finds a mark left behind, which she thinks she has seen before. April O’Neil tries to tell the news editor about the vigilante but no one believes her. When shredder finds out about the vigilante he tells his henchmen to do anything to catch the vigilantes. Karai takes the train station’s people as hostages to get the vigilantes out. The vigilantes stops Karai and her people and leaves. April O’Neil follows the vigilantes’ and takes their picture.

Middle:

At Splinter's behest, the Turtles bring April to their sewer lair. Splinter explains April had saved them all from the fire and freed them into the sewers. The mutagen caused the five of them to grow and develop humanoid attributes. Splinter took on the role of their father, using April's father as an example. After finding a book on Ninjutsu in a storm drain, he proceeded to teach himself, then the Turtles, in the fighting style. When April reveals she told Sacks about her discovery of the Turtles, Splinter informs her that Sacks turned on her father and killed him.

Then, Shredder and the Foot Soldiers attack the lair, defeating Splinter and incapacitating Raphael while the other Turtles are captured. April comes out of hiding and she and Raphael plan to save the others. At Sacks' estate, he has the Turtles' blood drained in order to create an antidote to a deadly virus that Sacks hopes to flood New York with, believing he will become rich from people seeking his cure. Raphael, April, and Vern storm the estate and free the other Turtles. The group then escapes the compound in pursuit of Sacks.

End:

On a radio tower in the city, Sacks and Shredder plant a device that will flood the city with the virus while Sacks is preparing to convert the mutagen to healing factor. April and Vern subdue Sacks in the lab, while the Turtles are battling Shredder on the roof. During the fight, the tower's support beams collapse. As the turtles try to keep it from falling and infecting the city, April confronts Shredder with the mutagen. In the struggle, the tower collapses and the Turtles pull April onto it with them, while Shredder falls to the street and is confronted by police. Believing they are about to die, the Turtles confess their secrets, while Raphael gives an impassioned speech of his love for his brothers before they land harmlessly on the street. They vanish before the humans find them and return to the sewers, where they give Splinter the mutagen and he begins to recover.

Sometime later, April meets with Vern, who tries and fails to ask her on a date. The Turtles appear in a special modified "Turtle Van", and Michelangelo accidentally blows up Vern's new car with a rocket. As police respond to the explosion, the Turtles leave, but not before Mikey tries to serenade April with "Happy Together", much to his brothers' annoyance and April's joy.

Gamification:

1 Person. PS4, Xbox One and PC. Strategy, Action game genre. Choose a turtle from the four turtle’s, the turtle you select will have their own special power, example: if you select Raph his anger will rise every few seconds and when it reaches a certain number it will allow user to use rage and do twice the damage. Each Turtle will have a different special power .control the character to stop shredder, by figuring out where he is hiding what his plans are without letting any human know about them. With some cut scenes. Protect April O’Neil from sacks. Plus some funny dialogues from the movie. With the background as Photorealism and 3d models of the turtles, AI and people.

Duration: 1h 41m 

UNITE 78 - DIGITAL GRAPHICS FOR COMPUTER GAMES P1 Understand Theory & Application of Digital Graphics

LEVEL 3 GAME DESIGN

UNITE 78 - DIGITAL GRAPHICS FOR COMPUTER GAMES P1 Understand Theory & Application of Digital Graphics

COMPUTER GAME GRAPHICS

1.Pixel Art

- 2D Sprites is a computer graphics, a two-dimensional bitmap (BMP)that is integrated into a larger scene.Sprites is referred to independent objects that are composited together, by hardware, with other elements such as a background. The sprites can also be animated. the sprites are mostly made of pixels. 

- 3D Isometric Sprites is referred to a parallel projection where the viewpoint is rotated slightly to reveal other facets of the game environment than are typically visible from a top-down perspective or view, thereby producing a three-dimensional effect.

2.Concept Art

Concept Art is a form of illustration used to convey an idea for films, games, animation and comic books. Concept Art is good for this because it will show the basic concept of the design for a character or background, which could improve later on from the sketch to proper drawing or 3D model.

Concept art is developed in several iterations. Artists try several design to achieve their desired result for the work, or sometimes searching for an interesting result. Concept art also show the project's progress sometimes. Concept Art can be used for also showing it to a developer and which would give the developer the idea of how the final product would look like and show the developer how the character would roughly look like.

3. Texture Art

- Physical Texture is also known as actual texture, are the actual variations upon surface. this can include, but is not limited to, fur, wood grain, sand, smooth surface of canvas, metal, glass and leather. It can differentiates itself from visual texture by having physical quality that can be touched, which can not be used for games. For games Visual Texture is used.

- Visual Texture is the illusion of having physical texture. Every material and every support surface has its own visual texture. To create a wood texture for a game the texture needs to be shaded, dept needs to be added to make it more realistic.

4. Background Graphics

Background Graphics are the graphics that are in the background of a game, usually to add more effect to the game or to make it look better. Background graphics are usually colourful and have objects such as clouds or the sky in the background. To attract the player and make it look good.

5. Print Media Art

Print Media Art is the packaging, covers, posters, booklets etc of a game. Print Media Art is process of making artworks by printing normally on paper. Normally used for making covers only by the process of creating prints that have an element of originality, rather than just being a photographic reproduction of painting. Print Media Art also allows the game to be advertised on billboards, attracting more people to get the game increasing the profit.

Types Of Digital Graphics

1.Raster Images

- BMP

BMP (Bitmap Image) is a raster graphics image file format used to store bitmap digital images. BMP file format is capable of storing two-dimensional digital images of arbitrary width, height and resolution, both monochrome and colour. BMP has maximum image size of 32Kx32K and 2Gx2G pixels. 

BMP stores colour data for each pixel in image without any compression. for example, a 10x10 pixel BMP image will include colour data for 100 pixels. With using BMP format it will store image information and high-quality  graphics, BMP is often used for printable images. But using BMP will increase the file size.

- GIF

GIF (Graphics Interchange Format) is a Type of image for animated image. GIF supports up to 8 bits per pixel for each image, allowing a single image to reference its own palette of up to 256 different colours chosen from the 24-bit RGB colour space for each frame. This format is well suited for for simpler image such as graphics or logo with solid ares of colour. But GIF is less suitable for reproducing colour photographs and other images with continuous colour.

- JPG

This is the right format for those photo images which must be very small files, for example, for web sites or for email. JPG is often used on digital camera memory cards. The JPG file is wonderfully small, often compressed to perhaps only 1/10 of the size of the original data, which is a good thing when modems are involved. However, this fantastic compression efficiency comes with a high price. JPG uses lossy compression (lossy meaning "with losses to quality"). Lossy means that some image quality is lost when the JPG data is compressed and saved, and this quality can never be recovered.

- TIFF

TIFF (Tagged Image File Format) is a file format for sotring raster grapchis images, popular umong graphic artists in the publising industry and photographers. TIFF is felxible, adaptable file format for handiling images and data within a single file. TIFF may be edited and re-saved withouth losing image quality. TIFF also reduces the image is file format

2.Vector Images

- PSD

A PSD file is a layered image file used in Adobe PhotoShop. PSD, which stands for Photoshop Document, is the default format that Photoshop uses for saving data.  PSD is a proprietary file that allows the user to work with the images’ individual layers even after the file has been saved. The .PSD file format can be exported to and from Adobe's other apps like Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Premier Pro, and After Effects, to make professional standard DVDs and provide non-linear editing and special effects services, such as backgrounds, textures, and so on, for television, film, and the Internet. Photoshop's primary strength is as a pixel-based image editor, unlike vector-based image editors. Photoshop also enables vector graphics editing through its Paths, Pen tools, Shape tools, Shape Layers, Type tools, Import command, and Smart Object functions. These tools and commands are convenient to combine pixel-based and vector-based images in one Photoshop document, because it may not be necessary to use more than one program.  o create very complex vector graphics with numerous shapes and colours, it may be easier to use software that was created primarily for that purpose, such as Adobe Illustrator or CorelDRAW. Photoshop's non-destructive Smart Objects can also import complex vector shapes.

- AI

Originally, the native format of AI files was known as PGF - showing a close resemblance to PDF. Compatibility with the PDF file format was achieved when a entire copy of the PGF data was embedded into the saved PDF file. Likewise, this dual path approach is used in newer versions of Adobe Illustrator when EPS compatible files are created and saved. AI files are saved as vector images. This means that the image quality is not getting lost if the user enlarges the image.

- PDF

PDF (Portable Document Format) is a file format that has captured all the elements of a printed document as an electronic image that you can view, navigate, print, or forward to someone else. PDF files are created using Adobe Acrobat , Acrobat Capture, or similar products. To view and use the files, you need the free Acrobat Reader, which you can easily download. Once you've downloaded the Reader, it will start automatically whenever you want to look at a PDF file.

PDF files are especially useful for documents such as magazine articles, product brochures, or flyers in which you want to preserve the original graphic appearance online. A PDF file contains one or more page images, each of which you can zoom in on or out from. You can page forward and backward.

- SVG

SVG is a platform for two-dimensional graphics. It has two parts: an XML-based file format and a programming API for graphical applications. Key features include shapes, text and embedded raster graphics, with many different painting styles. It supports scripting through languages such as ECMAScript and has comprehensive support for animation.

SVG is used in many business areas including Web graphics, animation, user interfaces, graphics interchange, print and hardcopy output, mobile applications and high-quality design.

SVG is a royalty-free vendor-neutral open standard developed under the W3C Process. It has strong industry support; Authors of the SVG specification include Adobe, Agfa, Apple, Canon, Corel, Ericsson, HP, IBM, Kodak, Macromedia, Microsoft, Nokia, Sharp and Sun Microsystems. SVG viewers are deployed to over 100 million desktops, and there is a broad range of support in many authoring tools.

SVG builds upon many other successful standards such as XML (SVG graphics are text-based and thus easy to create), JPEG and PNG for image formats, DOM for scripting and interactivity, SMIL for animation and CSS for styling.

SVG is interoperable. The W3C release a test suite and implementation results to ensure conformance.

Gaming Platforms

GAMING PLATFORMS

1. Arcade

Arcade gaming started and video games where features on arcade machines in almost every public place such as cafe's. It introduced fairly good graphics and sounds quality in games which caused it to become so popular, the catchy theme tunes and gameplay is what continues to be a selling point for games even today. The best sellers of arcade gaming like Pac-man Mario and space invaders

Advantages: 

Disadvantage: 
1. Takes money to play.2. The longer you play the more money it costs.

2. Console

Console gaming is one of the biggest markets and cultures in gaming today, events like E3 and gamescon are hosted every year where gamers from all over the globe gather to celebrate console games old and new and to experience new releases and consoles. The market for 8th generation consoles is one of the most competitive markets there's been, launch parties are held for new consoles like the PS 4 or Xbox 1 as to show off the new developments and try to dominate the gaming market. There are also new features on the Wii U console, and the PS 4

Advantages:

1. A lot of mainstream consoles have online marketplaces to buy games from if you cant get to a store
2. Popular all year round as apposed to platforms such as arcade
3. For a reasonable fee most consoles have online play via internet servers.

Disadvantage:

1. Need a screen

2. Mainstream consoles can be expensive, newly released consoles can cost up to or more a couple 100 pounds3. As it is the most popular platform with the most features it can make people lazy in terms of other responsibilities.4. Can be costly to keep up with new game releases for each platform 

3. PC

PC gaming is a very diverse platform, it was one of the first platforms to be introduced and because you can install drivers and emulators you can play a wide range of games from different formats/platforms depending on the power of your computer. Gamers can also buy a tower case and then buy gaming hardware from websites and build their own gaming computer, although gaming computers can be bought already built and specifically design for gaming like "alienware". There is also the feature of multitasking as with all computers, you can use task manager  to browse the web, play music, watch a film and/or play games simultaneously (if you want to). This said, gaming computers normally have slightly different hardware to standard PC's with improved heat management, graphics cards, generally better RAM space and memory space for games that need more space to run.

Advantages:
1. Online marketplaces such as steam with accounts that can be accessed on consoles
2. Can be played on indoors with commuting like consoles
3. Compatible with many different game formats such as PS 1, PS 2, Nintendo 64, game cube, Nintendo ds, Gameboys etc.
4. Can surf the web and do other things whilst gaming

Disadvantages:
1. Performance of PC games depend on the PC itself, gameplay can be slow and laggy
2. Streaming can lead to viruses for inexperienced people
3. Gaming computers can be expensive
4. Tend to break and have problems more than consoles

4. Mobile


The earliest development in mobile gaming was the game "snake" which you could play on the earliest mobile phones which was a simple game with 8 bit graphics easy controls and high addictiveness. this lead to the mobile gaming industry based around the idea of gaming and playing simple addicting games in public places and on devices that can be carried around with you. Although mobile gaming has come a long way since the most popular amongst industries being apple products.
The most obvious feature of Mobile platforms in terms of games is that they are portable and can be carried around and played anywhere which can be useful when your on public transport or in a waiting room somewhere and have some time to kill. Also a lot of business and restaurant's offer free Wi-Fi so you can multitask browsing the web and playing games, whilst also staying connected to friends, also due to the fact a lot of apps and games are connected to the internet or require internet to play they feature servers where you can play with other people online.

Advantages:

• a lot of mobile platform games are free
• can keep you occupied for hours and is usable of public transport.
• games that need internet can be played in cafe's where there is normally free wifi

Disadvantages:

• although a lot of mobile games are free there are is level progression and power ups for difficult levels that cost money that people can end up paying a lot of money on over time
• modern phones can easily be broken and have cracked screens
• games normally aren't as detailed an as in depth as console games