Brief

 Unit 78: Digital Graphics for Computer Games

To be able to create concept art and a plan for a video game.

Client Brief:

The brief we have been given is to make a 2D sci-fi platformer/ scroller with an implement of maths or puzzle to give the player a challenge. What we haven't been given is the artistic style and what type of audience we have to do the game.

My brief:

For my game I will be doing a space themed game with a spaceman who has to find different parts to fix their spaceship using maths to find codes to open the doors to find the parts, but you will also have robots that are stopping you from getting these parts and you have to fight these off with certain weapons you find outside in creates, they can be heavy firepower or a small wrench to fight off these robots.

Art Style: Pixel
Characters: 1 main character called Apollo Agent 56 (or for short AA56)
Enemies: Robots bigger the part harder the enemy
Type of game: Scroller for the player to find different parts

PEGI:
My game will be rated 12 and up because of the violence in it, i have researched what the age rating is for scroller shooter games and it is 12 and up because I don't want to teach a 4 year old that shooting robots is good and how to shoot a fire arm.

Inspiration:
I got a lot of my inspiration from old 80's films and pixel games like super meat boy and Saturn 3 (Old 80's sci fi film) which gave me the idea of the robots chasing down someone but then i realised i could have it in space like the game Dead Space as that is set on an abandoned space ship and you are trying to find your way out but you have really weird aliens everywhere, so i decided to change the aliens to robots and we now have the game Desolate Space. I got my name from a CS:GO skin named Desolate Space and i felt like it would fit my game perfectly.

Royalty Free:
I used one royalty free image in my title screen that's because i needed to find a cool 80's retro style back ground, but i couldn't find one which was free so i looked around and found one which was royalty free. What is royalty free? royalty free is where you are allowed to use that image because the maker or the photographer is allowing you to use that image so it gets out there, or they are just feeling generous.

Mood board:

Sprite Making:

This is the start to my enemies and they will be robots that fly around via a small antenna on the bottom of his body which is connected to a satellite that they are controlling the robots and make them attack AA56 by squirting acidic oil on him.

This is some kind of shark shape which is a cosmetic skin for this weapon,






I coloured in the robot and shaded one side of his body and head and added a small antenna at the bottom of his body for the satellite to move the robots to control the ship whilst AA56 tries to recover the engine parts and kill all the robots.











I coloured his eye in which has a white background with a small black pupil to make it seem human-like, I added this feature because I want the robots to have as much human detail as possible to make the movement as real as possible and make the robots fight as human as possible to make it feel like you are fighting a random dude on the street.

This is going to be my home screen, I have gone for an 80's kind of retro look and a sci-fi kind of aspect to it, to keep the gamer interested. I have used bright colours and a nice big font so people can read it nice and clear, I have used a big basic font with a nice gradient with the right colours as the back ground or a little lighter to make it stand out.












This is my finished astronaut design, it is like my other drawings which i am proud of, i haven't had time to animate the astronaut to walk or jump like my concepts have been.

















This back ground concept art is my final one, I have added some fine detail into the windows and added some planets and a few stars including a satellite which controls the robots that you have to fend off from killing you.

This is my jumping animation, i did this because i wanted to make my character move about in the game and make it seem realistic as possible to make the player seem like you are the actual character itself in the game.

This is my walking animation drawing, i have made him walk so they can get around different places and get to areas where some people cant.























These are my robot designs, i have drawn a few i like but i have decided to go with the top one as it suits the whole satellite theme very well with all the antenna's on their heads to make it seem like they are getting controlled to manoeuvre around the ship to attack the astronaut.

 These are my HUD designs, i have added a health bar and different arrows for where the player has to go if he is near a part to fix the engine so he can get out of there.

 The different arrows show him which way he has to go, if the arrow is pointing up then he goes straight, if its pointing right then he has to go to his right where there is a door.

This is my finished robot design, i have gone for the ones with antenna's as it would seem the most realistic as they are getting controlled by a satellite so it acts like there are a small car to a remote control.

This is my finished SMG design, i have added more detail into it as i have added different colours and a new design on the weapon, i also added a small switch where you can change into single fire mode or fully auto where it has a fast fire rate but uses a lot more ammunition, i added a grip to it to make it more realistic as well as a holding belt for when the character has to hold parts for the engine and carry them back.










Evaluation:

What went well:
I am pleased with my final sprites and how they have came out, they suit my game very well and the colours suit the characters and the weapons as well, they all fit the theme as well as it is a sci-fi game robots are well known for sci-fi films / games which is where i got some of my inspiration from, I also love how my hud came out, its really simple but it suits the game well as my game will have a lot of detail to the back grounds and items the character has to carry.

What didn't go so well:
Im not pleased on how I didn't get to do my background, i tried a few times but my PC decided to turn its self off half way through doing the background which really annoyed me so I decided to leave it as i got really far and didn't want to start again at 2am in the morning. I am also annoyed i didn't get to design any of my parts for the engine so that the character had nothing to carry except a small SMG to fend off the robots.

Conclusion:
In all i am very pleased with how it all came out and how i have done my sprites and how they fit so well with the game genre, i am also pleased with the home screen as well as it took me a while to do that and how it came out is brilliant.

Year 1
Unit 78: Digital Graphics for Computer Games
P2 Be able to Generate Concept Art Ideas for Computer Game Graphics
Legal & Ethical Considerations
Research and answer the following questions.



What is copyright law?

- The current act is the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. The law gives the creators of literary, dramatic, musical, artistic works, sound recordings, broadcasts, films and typographical arrangement of published editions, rights to control the ways in which their material may be used.


What is intellectual property?

- Intellectual property refers to creations of the mind: inventions; literary and artistic works; and symbols, names and images used in commerce. Intellectual property is divided into two categories: Industrial Property includes patents for inventions, trademarks, industrial designs and geographical indications.


What is the Equality & Diversity Law?

- This is where it has to not be racist or sexist in any game or photo or video you have taken, this is because the way they are portrayed in media, so if you took a picture of a celebrity coming out of a random house or her friends house, she could be portrayed as doing something rude e.g. sleeping with them or doing something with them, but we wouldn't know as the media is portraying them in a different way than that celebrity is.


How are female characters represented in Games?

- More females these days are being represented as quite strong in some violent games and like first person shooters, they are becoming more manly like but in some games they are becoming more slutty and wearing very skanky clothing revealing a lot of skin in some games like GTA and Saints Row the 3rd and 4th.


What is PEGI?

- PEGI stands for Pan European Game Information, this is where it sets age rating for every game that has been on the market and giving them an age rating so that little kids don't buy a 18 rated game and get scared by it and get told off by their parents.


Who are the BBFC?

- PEGI version but for films this is called the British Board of Film Classification was set up in 1912 by the film industry as an independent body to bring a degree of uniformity to the classification of film nationality


What are the ASA codes of conduct?

- Advertising standards authority this means that you have to stay loyal to your customers and not give false information or give a certain race in your adverts and then they ask why you have chosen a certain race, it has to be fair an accurate, for example you have a bleach bottle that says it has 99.9% of killing germs they then can't have it at 100% as it would false information and then therefore not being the right information and then selling out.


What is Libel?

- This is where it is a false statement where it affects the customer.

Sprite

This is a piskel that I drew for a target that josh set me and I created it is a replica of a Sans from Undertail.

Unit 78 Types of digital graphics:

Pixel:

A pixel is a minute area of an illumination of a display screen. In images you have a lot of pixels with different colours to create the image that you have. A pixel is not a little square it only exists at a point. For example in a coloured image you might have a pixel with the 3 primary colours to make up that image. These pixels are found in raster images because when you zoom into a raster image like a PNG or JPEG you will see all the different pixels in a raster image.  



Picture resolution:
A picture resolution refers to the number of pixels that are on the image, for example if you have a 1920x1080 is the height and width in pixels to get the about of pixels that are in the photo all you have to do is times 1920 by 1080 which is 2,073,600 pixels which would be about 2 Megabytes of storage which would be saved as a raster type of file.

Image Resolution:
Resolution refers to the number of pixels in an image. Resolution is sometimes identified by the width and height of the image as well as the total number of pixels in the image. For example, an image that is 2048 pixels wide and 1536 pixels high (2048X1536) contains (multiply) 3,145,728 pixels (or 3.1 Megapixels).

Intensity:
Simply put, pixel intensity is how many pixels are in a certain area. Imagine a single dot, it doesn't make a picture but it does, 2 dots make the eyes to a very simple cartoon, 3 dots are a triangle, 4 dots are a rectangle or a square depending on how they are arranged, The more pixels you have in a image the more complex it becomes.



Vectors and Raster files:
The difference between vector files and raster files are that vectors are larger and not compressed files compared to raster files which are more smaller and are compressed files. 


Raster Files:

GIF: A lossless format for image files that supports both animated and static images.

BMP: Short for "Bitmap." It can be pronounced as "bump," "B-M-P," or simply a "bitmap image." The BMP format is a commonly used raster graphic format for saving image files. It was introduced on the Windows platform, but is now recognized by many programs on both Macs and PCs.
Tiff: TIFF (Tag Image File Format) is a common format for exchanging raster graphics (bitmap) images between application programs, including those used for scanner images. A TIFF file can be identified as a file with a ".tiff" or ".tif" file name suffix.

JPEG: A JPEG is a type of compressed file for photos.

Vector Files:

PSD: A PSD is a layered file that is used in Photoshop. PSD stands for Photoshop documents, this is the default format that Photoshoppers use. The files allows the user to edit the image with different layers and continue that after the file has been saved.

WMF: Windows Metafile (WMF) is an image file format originally designed for Microsoft Windows in the 1990s. Windows Metafiles are intended to be portable between applications and may contain both vector graphics and bitmap components. It acts in a similar manner to SVG files.

FLA: An FLA file is an animation project created by Adobe Animate, a program used to draw and publish interactive animations. It contains graphics, video, text elements, audio, and other assets. FLA files are often saved as .SWF files for use on the web as they are view able in most web browsers with the Flash plugin.

AI: Adobe Illustrator Artwork (AI) is a proprietary file format developed by Adobe Systems for representing single-page vector-based drawings in either the EPS or PDF formats. The .ai filename extension is used by Adobe Illustrator. The AI fileformat was originally a native format called PGF.

Level 3 Games Design

Unit 78:

Digital Graphics for Games Design

Pixel Art:
As pixel art in game design, illustration, and other media has made quite a comeback in recent years (likely due to nostalgia and an appreciation of a beautiful, if sometimes tedious, style of artwork), it's a great time to ask the question: “What's the deal with pixel art?". Considering that everything you are viewing on your monitor, tablet, or phone is comprised of many, many pixels, the often asked question is “how is this not pixel art?” It's art, it's made of pixels, so surely all digital art is pixel art. While technically correct, when talking about “pixel art”, we're focused on a specific style of artwork most often employed within the gaming industry.

The game world is fully 3D (objects can move in the x, y and z direction) how ever all sprites are created in a fixed isometric perspective, and the camera looks down at the game at a fixed angle.

Reference - Mary Winkler. (2016). What is Pixel Art?. Available: https://design.tutsplus.com/articles/what-is-pixel-art--cms-21759. Last accessed 28/09/17.



Concept Art:
Concept art is a illustrations used to convey ideas for games, movies, comic books and animations before it is set for a final product. What is concept art? Concept art, often referred to as visual development, is the initial design used to develop the look and feel of a project. The project can be anything from animated films to, in our case, video games. Visual development artists will use the story and characters to build a basic concept that is used as a guideline for an entire project. Most of the time a concept artist will make a rough sketch, and after given the okay by the project manager, will move onto a 3D modeller or illustrator to turn into an even more accurate visual representation. Not only do the concept artists take the story to create a model of interpretation for the game, often the concept art relates such a strong feeling of the world that some story elements are created based off the art itself.

The picture to the right is concept art from Assassins Creed. If you have played Assassins Creed you will recognise this hidden blade which is a common weapon the character uses. This is a perfect example of how important visual development is to the final project. It accomplishes many things with this simple graphic. It gives the feel for the time period or world, it shows how the weapon is deployed, and it gives a perfect guideline for the next phase of development to know exactly what they are creating.

Reference - Jon Raymond. (2014). CONCEPT ART: WHAT IS CONCEPT ART AND WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?. Available: http://artistryingames.com/concept-art-concept-art-important/. Last accessed 28/09/17.



Texture Art:
Texture art or texture mapping is usually a 2D digital painting which is overlayed onto a polygon mesh of a 3D sculpt to give to illusion of texture or surface quality. It's most common in the production of models for games or films. In the gaming industry, while it's important in the process of producing the initial game, they also play a big part in modifications (mods). Mods might be created by the same company who made the original game as 'addons' or 'extensions'. Otherwise they might be made by enthusiasts as an extra customisable option. An example of this is in 'minecraft' or 'zoo tycoon' and many other games, where anyone can take the texture files and edit them to change the textures.

Reference - Ellie. (2013). TASK 3 - GRAPHIC TYPES. Available: http://unit78ed.blogspot.co.uk/. Last accessed 28/09/17.



Background Graphics:


Background graphics are the part of a game we don't always dedicate much attention to, as they're exactly that. In the background. But this does not make them any less important. Background art needs to match the rest of the style of the game as to not look out of place, but it also needs to blend in and not be too distracting.There are many types of background art, and they have evolved along with games. Many 2D fighting games in the 90's had beautiful, detailed pixel backgrounds. They're not as common today but still appear every now and again.
As well as complete backgrounds to act as a backdrop, background graphics could also include 2D tiles, 3D building and prop/other assets, cut-scene backgrounds, environment art, and level backgrounds. Assets for the backgrounds could be made using either traditional or digital methods- though digital is usually the preferred method (Using programs such as Photoshop, corral painter, paint tool sai etc).

Although not exactly background artists, layout artists (in charge of the background, lighting and camera angles), and storyboard artists (who draw the panels that correspond to the script) all work in the same sector, are reliant on one another and their jobs may even overlap on occasion.

Reference - Ellie. (2013). TASK 3 - GRAPHIC TYPES. Available: http://unit78ed.blogspot.co.uk/. Last accessed 28/09/17.

HUD (Heads Up Display):
A heads up display or (HUD) is used in a lot of games and it is used to display certain things that your character has, for example, in Call Of Duty: Black Ops 2, there is an ammo count in the bottom right hand corner of the screen and there is also a score indicator, a kill feed and many more items on the screen to help you when you are in game. This is an annotation I did in Photoshop for the game Counter Strike : Global Offensive.

Print Media:
Print media in games are things like advertising posters you see on billboards and big banners in stores, and this can also be the game case cover, these can be vital in the game industry as they need to be popping with colours and have good art work so that the gamers will buy your game and you make good sales. It is also used for the booklet inside for the manual so players know how to play the game when they first start up the game, this art work is less detailed as it is on the front cover of the game case or an advertising poster as they don't need to be very detailed as they are only a manual.

My games system: Then and Now.

My first ever gaming system was a GameCube, it was a very simple game system compared to the one I have now and that is pretty beast. I now have a custom PC with a GTX 1070 with an AMD processor. It was expensive compared to the GameCube. ,My GameCube you wasn't able to go online and play with friends like you are with my PC and it was very small and compact compared to my PC. To play with friends on the GameCube, you'd have to have more controllers to come and play on the same console.

Old: 21 November 2001

New: 1st December 2015

The reason why I both like these games of because they are a very good game at first and still are when you play them a few months after not playing it for a few months. There are still a few pros and cons to both of the platforms, more on the GameCube than the PC but they are still pretty fair.

Pros: PC

1. It has a lot better specifications than the GameCube.
2. It has an internet connection to play online and to talk with friends over discord.
3. It is a lot faster and has better graphics than the GameCube.

Cons: PC

1. It can counter more problems than the GameCube.
2. It has more components you need to make the PC work compared to the GameCube.
3. You cannot download games if you do not have an internet connection
4. You have to have the right components to make your PC run all perfect.

Pros: GameCube

1. You didn't have to have a lot of ram to run the games you had to play unlike you do these days
2. It is a lot less expensive than my current gaming system.
3. Its smaller than a PC.

Cons: GameCube

1. It has a lot less games to play 
2. You have to have your friends over (If you have any) to play a game together
3. It has no online multiplayer to play with.
4. It has a lot less storage than a PC.

Favourite Games:
Some of my favourite games from the GameCube collection are (Listed in order)

1. Super Smash Bros
2. Super Mario Sunshine
3. Simpsons Hit and Run
4. Mario Kart : Double Dash
5. Luigi's Mansion

Some of my favourite games from the PC collection are (Listed in order)

1. Rainbow Six Siege
2. Fallout 4
3. Counter Strike : Global Offensive
4. Left 4 Dead 2
5. Dead By Daylight.

Specifications: GameCube

Brand: Nintendo
Media: Nintendo GAMECUBE disc
Processor: IBM PowerPC "Gekko" - 485 MHz
RAM: 24 KB 1T-SRAM
Graphics Processor: ATI Flipper
Sound: Stereo

Specifications: My PC

Brand: Fierce
Processor: 3.8GHz Quad Core AMD Athlon X4 845
RAM: 8 GB
Graphics Processor: GTX 1050 TI

Story

Beginning:

Alexis Texas, a highly known hacker for the Al-Qaeda, has hacked into the American government and retrieved all the files for the nuclear codes and have taken down our defensive system. We have deployed a highly train team of specialised men and women to take down their bases in different parts of the country and eliminating all of the Al-Qaeda henchmen and taking down their servers.

Middle:

As they enter all the buildings, the men and women have certain skills;
Glaz, a highly trained sniper ready to take targets out at any range in any type of biome.
Sledge, a LMG holding, hammer wielding boss ready to break through anything in his way.
Recruit, a newbie that's ready for action and ready to get stuck in anytime.
IQ, a very silent but deadly, with a heart beat sensor, that can see through walls and floors.
Fuze: a highly powerful cluster grenade that he can put through walls and clear rooms faster than you can blink.

End:
After the operators have cleared the building they will achieve a medal of honour for the heroic actions and will be rewarded highly with highest threat put in captivity.

Level 3 Games Design

Unit 78:

Digital Graphics for Computer Games:

Artistic Styles:

Photo realism:

Photo realism is where you make an image from scratch and make it look like a real photo that someone has took. This can be imported into games with the newer graphics and want to make them realistic as possible, for example, Battlefield 1, Call of duty World War 2 and many more games that are coming out this year or in the further year.

Here are 5 reasons why designers use photo realism:

 reference -Steve's Digicams. (2016). 5 USES OF PHOTOREALISTIC RENDERING.Available: http://www.steves-digicams.com/knowledge-center/how-tos/video-software/5-uses-of-photorealistic-rendering.html#b. Last accessed 28/09/17.

1. Architecture

In architecture, renderers were previously used to add the layers, to make a finished picture by hand. Now, it’s done on the computer, and generally it’s much more cost-efficient. Additionally, by building a 3D model and adding animation, clients have the opportunity to see their project from every angle, including overhead and inside. These ‘fly-by’s’ help visualize exactly what the client is in for, and it’s less expensive to make corrections on a rendering than an actual building.

2. Movie and Television Special Effects

There’s hardly a dramatic film or television show currently airing that doesn’t use some form of photorealistic rendering. Sometimes they’re more obvious, like scenes with cars that turn into gigantic robots or thousands of battling warriors. Other times, it’s more subtle, where the effects may simply add texture to the scene, like clouds and shadows. It’s also used for removing things from scenes that shouldn’t be there (like an airliner soaring through the sky behind a Roman period piece or an aluminum ladder from an ancient pirate ship).

3. Video Games

Rendering has made tremendous strides in the area of video gaming. In the last 10 years, the graphics in video games have gone from clunky and slow to smooth and extremely realistic. Driving emulates actual driving (only, generally faster.) The cars look much more like real cars, and the backgrounds often incorporate real backgrounds. Fantasy games display battles where characters and settings look real. Sports games, modeled after real moves and plays, look more and more starkly realistic.

4. Simulators

Flight time can be costly, as it involves expensive airplanes, but potential pilots have a new option in that they can use a less costly simulator. The risks are minimized, too. Simulators don’t have accidents or catch dangerous up-drafts. Another potentially risky area that simulators have helped newcomers is in driving, in particular race driving. The other cars are virtual, as are the threats, and to roll a simulator is far less likely.

5. Design Visualization

One realm where photorealistic rendering seems to be exploding is in design visualization. Just as it’s more cost effective to change a virtual building than an actual one, when companies seek to bring out a new product, it just makes more sense to utilize a computer artist or designer who can give a perfect visual model, available for market testing or in-house research-and-development. This applies to things as small as food packaging to cars, or as large as popular theme parks and their rides.

Anime:

Exaggeration is used in games, mostly in RPGs, this art style is used for anime and manga typically, this art style is where the artist exaggerates many things within the game, mostly games with a Japanese influence, for example, in the game "final fantasy 7" the character "cloud" has a huge sword.

Reference - http://ragingflame62.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/exaggeration.html

One of anime’s distinctive features is the type of plots in which it appears. These plots tend to be far more complex than the plots of regular animated cartoons or many other animated projects. For instance, an anime plot typically develops over the course of dozens of episodes, and a single storyline can take more than 50 episodes to fully develop. In addition to complex plots, anime characters are often complex themselves. Other types of animation allow for characters in which only one or two personality traits are developed and emphasized. Anime character design, however, frequently develops characters that possess many layers. This art form develops these layers and personality traits in order to present a multi-faceted person. In addition, there are also often many main characters in a storyline. The result of these features is a rich field of fascinating characters that interact to tell a lengthy story.


Reference - http://showmetheanimation.com/features/animation-styles-what-makes-anime-unique/






Cel Shading:

Cel Shading is a style of computer rendering that replaces the shading gradient of conventional rendering with flat colours and shadows (as seen at right). In layman's terms, it imitates the look of hand-drawn artwork and animation. The style was codified with the Sega Dreamcast game Jet Set Radio.

While the style is not exclusive to Video Games, it is often used there since this is the only way to produce a hand-drawn look via computer polygons. In other media, Cel Shading can be useful to render specific items in a hand-drawn production, if a given scene would be too difficult to animate by hand, such as a rotating object or an Epic Tracking Shot traveling down the length of a massive vehicle. There are also animated series produced exclusively via cel shading, usually for similar reasons. When mixing cel shading with traditional animation, it's important to calibrate the renderer to avoid visually clashing with the rest of the production (i.e. being too detailed or smoothly animated).

Reference - http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CelShading





Pixel:

Pixel art is a form of digital art, created through the use of software, where images are edited on the pixel level. The majority of graphics for 8-bit and 16-bit computers and video game consoles, as well as other limited systems like graphing calculators, is pixel art. Creating or modifying pixel art characters or objects for video games is sometimes called spriting, a term that arose from the hobbyist community. It was used a lot back in the day when video games were first being developed and they didn't have the technology to make 3D / photo-realistic games like we do today.