Task 1 - Research Document

Steampunk is a sub-genre of science fiction that features steam-powered machinery, especially in a setting inspired by industrialized Western civilization during the 19th century.

 Steampunk works are often set in an alternate history of the 19th century's British Victorian era or American Wild West, in a post-apocalyptic future during which steam power has regained mainstream use, or in a fantasy world that similarly uses steam power.

Steampunk perhaps most recognizably features retro-futuristic inventions that people in the 19th century might have imagined them, Such technology may include fictional machines like those found in the works of H. G. Wells and Jules Verne, or the modern authors Philip Pullman and Scott Westerfeld, Other examples of Steampunk contain alternate history-style presentations of such technology as lighter-than-air airships and analog computers.

Fantasy Steampunk settings abound in table top and computer role-playing games. Notable examples include Bioshock infinite, Myst, Guns of Icarus, Dishonoured and Rise of Nations: Rise of Legends.

Task 2 - Finished Concept Artwork

Task 3 - Evaluation

Evaluation

The project is about  creating a character for a steampunk genre there were three characters to choose from a hero, heroine and a villain.

The character profile I picked was Henry Drayton, which I picked based on previous research on the Steam Punk genre.  I created a mind map and mood board providing ideas for my character using this research.  From this I produced hand rendered sketches with plans and target dates to produce the work.

I created my finished pieces by using two programs called adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator.

The tools that I used in Adobe Illustrator are:-

Pen tool which I used to trace a photo of myself. I also used the free transform tool to resize parts of the character to add realism to the character.

The tools that I used in Photoshop are:-

Lasso/magnetic lasso tool to remove backgrounds from collected images from the web to form the character.  I also used a tool called warp so that features of the character was curved in the correct way, for example a moustache curved to the curve of my mouth.

Initially there were problems with the computers going too slow due to problems with different classes saving their work which meant that we were delayed but once this was resolved were able to continue using the computers to produce our finished designs.

When first using the programs I had never used some of the tools before and was unsure of how they worked but once shown by my tutor I was able to use these competently.

 If i was to improve my final piece i would add more detail to the clothing and more effects to it.

This project i learned how to use adobe software, being able develop ideas has improved. 

These screen prints show the process my final piece went through when creating them in Photoshop and illustrator using various tools like the warp tool to help make the moustache and beard from my hair. 

The Difference Between Vector and Raster Images/Graphics

Understanding the differences between Vector and bitmap images/Graphics 

Bitmap

Bitmap is a collection of images using tiny dots called pixels.  Each pixel is a very small pixel that is given a colour and can be moved around to form an image. When zoomed in you can see the tiny pixels individually.  

You can use adobe Photoshop to edit bitmap graphics by erasing or changing the colour of individual pixels. The human eye is not able to see each individual pixel so we perceive a picture with smooth gradations. 

When you change a bitmap graphic, it tends to lose its quality, if enlarged too much it can look unnatural and blocky and if you reduce the size it reduces the quality of the image and loses some sharpness.   The resolution of the image improves when the cells are smaller and closer together and bitmap graphics look more realistic.

The advantage of bitmaps is it is more universal, they can be read by most bitmap based software such as jpg and png.

Vector

Vector Graphics use mathematical formulas to draw lines and curves that can be edited by using a program called Adobe illustrator.  Each individual line is made up of either a vast collection of points with lines interconnecting all of them, or a few control points that are connected using Bezier curves, this gives the best results.

Vector graphics are more flexible than bitmaps because they can be easily re-sized, e.g. if you zoom in the quality remains smoother. Using vector graphics produces realistic images and 3D perspectives become more realistic. Vector images can be more scalable, as a bitmap image shows the individual pixels and the images can be made smoother by redrawing the formula.

Most vector images tend to use less memory than bitmap images because bitmaps y have to store colour information for each individual pixel which forms the image whereas  vector images just have to store the mathematical formulas.

There used to be a home gaming system that used vector graphics called Vectrex as well as other various arcade games.

http://www.prepressure.com/library/file-formats/bitmap-versus-vector

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/vector_graphics           http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitmap

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/dida/graphics/bitmapvectorrev1.shtml

http://etc.usf.edu/techease/win/images/what-is-the-difference-between-bitmap-and-vector-images/

http://www.animationpost.co.uk/tech-notes/bitmaps-vs-vectors.htm

http://www.colourgen.com/products/what-is-the-difference-between-vector-and-bitmap-images

Task 2 - Artistic Styles

Task 2-artistic styles

Photorealism

Photorealism is an artistic style in which an artist attempts to create a painting so precise and accurate that at first glance it can be mistaken for a photograph.

Photorealistic graphics in a game is used to make the game look life like as you are seeing it in real life such as Fifa, assassins creed, Grand Theft Auto, Watch Dogs, Tomb Raider, Need for Speed, Call of duty, Batman Arkham city. 

Cell Shading

Cell shading is a type of non-photorealistic rendering designed to make computer graphics or appear to be hand-drawn.

Cell shading is often used to mimic the style of a comic book or cartoon.

Cell shading is used in Video games to give objects a hand drawn or cartoon-like appearance.

Abstraction

Abstraction is a process by which concepts are derived from the usage and classification of literal (real or concrete) concepts.

Abstractions may be formed by reducing the information content of a concept, typically to retain only information which is relevant for a particular purpose. 

Exaggeration

Exaggeration is used in games, mostly in RPGs, this art style is used for anime and manga, and this art style is where the artist exaggerates many things within the game. For example the final fantasy character has a big sword to show that he is strong and powerful.

Exaggeration can be used to show emotions, as some characters have bigger eyes when sad and strong characters are more muscular.

Task 3 Computer Game Graphics

Computer game graphics

Pixel art

Pixel art is a form of digital art, created through the use of raster graphics software, where images are edited on the pixel level. Graphics in most old (or relatively limited) computer, console, graphing calculator and mobile phone video games are mostly pixel art.

It is also important to notice that the creation of app icons is also Pixel Art, since not all of them are made as vectorial graphics; there is still several stock icons created pixel by pixel.

Pixel Artists usually work in two different styles of Pixel Art, which are Isometric (using 30° angles) and Non-Isometric views (front, side, top perspectives).

Isometric view                                                                   

Non-isometric view

Games:

Minecraft-                              

                                               

Concept art

Concept Art usually represents the art in the development process of games or movies, in which will ultimately define the final look before going for final production.Therefore, concept art takes place in what the industry is calling, pre-production phase. This is  the initial investment for the production which is to ensure the direction and plan is solidify before entering the next stage of investment. In any case the pre-production is deemed not projecting to where the producer or director is going, the project may be cancelled or re-evaluated at any time.

Communicating concept can be done literally, verbally or visually. Sometimes a rough concept will be given, and concept artists are responsible to refine and developed the concept further.

Concept can be of Character/Creature Design, Environment Design, Key Art and Props/Vehicle Design.

Texture art

Texture is the perceived surface quality of a work of art. It is an element of two-dimensional and three-dimensional design and is distinguished by its perceived visual and physical properties. The use of texture, along with other elements of design, can convey a variety of messages and emotions.

Every material and every support surface has its own visual texture and needs to be taken into consideration before creating a composition. Materials such as canvas and watercolour paper are considerably rougher than, for example, photo-quality computer paper and may not be best suited to creating a flat or smooth texture. Photography, drawings and paintings use visual texture both to portray their subject matter realistically and with interpretation. Textures in these media are generally created by the repetition of shape and line.

Background graphics

The area of a display screen of the game that is not covered by characters and objects. The background is like a canvas on top of which characters and objects are placed.

Background graphics is the space the player plays in, such as an open world game that has buildings, mountains, deserts, trees and other environment types for the player to play in.

Background graphics can also be used to create an atmosphere for the player especially in 2d game like the one below.

Print media art

Print media art is basically the cover of the game to sow what the game is and what it is called and what the game is about. Print media art is also used to advertise the game.

Task 1 - Technical Glossary

Task 1 - Technical Glossary

Pixel

In digital imaging, a pixel is a physical point in a raster image, or the smallest addressable element in a display device; so it is the smallest controllable element of a picture represented on the screen.

Each pixel is a sample of an original image; more samples typically provide more accurate representations of the original. The intensity of each pixel is variable.

The more pixels used to represent an image, the closer the result can resemble the original image. The number of pixels in an image is sometimes called the resolution, though resolution has a more specific definition.

This example shows an image with a portion greatly enlarged, in which the individual pixels are rendered as small squares and can easily be seen.

A photograph of sub-pixel display elements on a laptop's LCD screen

Resolution

The term resolution is often used for a pixel count in digital imaging, even though American, Japanese, and international standards specify that it should not be so used, at least in the digital camera field. An image of N pixels high by M pixels wide can have any resolution less than N lines per picture height, or N TV lines.

But when the pixel counts are referred to as a resolution, the convention is to describe the pixel resolution with the set of two positive integer numbers, where the first number is the number of pixel columns (width) and the second is the number of pixel rows (height), for example as 7680 by 4320.

An image that is 2048 pixels in width and 1536 pixels in height has a total of 2048×1536 = 3,145,728 pixels or 3.1 megapixels. One could refer to it as 2048 by 1536 or a 3.1-megapixel image.

File Formats

Bmp

The BMP file format is also known as bitmap image file format or simply a bitmap, is a raster graphics image file format used to store bitmap digital images, The BMP file format is capable of storing 2D digital images of arbitrary width, height, and resolution, both monochrome and colour, in various colour depths, and optionally with data compression, alpha channels, and colour profiles.

Png

Portable Network Graphics is a Raster graphics file format that supports lossless data compression. PNG was created as an improved, non-patented replacement for Graphics Interchange Format (GIF), and is the most used lossless image compression format on the World Wide Web. PNG supports palette-based images (with palettes of 24-bit RGB or 32-bit RGBA colours), grayscale images, and full-colour non-palette-based RGB images. PNG was designed for transferring images on the Internet, not for professional-quality print graphics.

Gif

The Graphics Interchange Format is a bitmap image format that supports up to 8 bits per pixel thus allowing a single image to reference a palette of up to 256 distinct colours. The colours are chosen from the 24-bit RGB colour space. It also supports animations and allows a separate palette of 256 colours for each frame. The colour limitation makes the GIF format unsuitable for reproducing colour photographs and other images with continuous colour, but it is well-suited for simpler images such as graphics or logos with solid areas of colour.

 Tiff

Tagged image file format. It is graphics file format created in the 1980's to be the standard image format across multiple computer platforms. The TIFF format can handle colour depths from 1-bit to 24-bit. Since the original TIFF standard was introduced, people have been making many small improvements to the format, so there are now around 50 variations of the TIFF format. Recently, JPEG has become the most popular universal format, because of its small file size and Internet compatibility.

Jpeg

JPEG is a compressed image file format. JPEG images are not limited to a certain amount of colour, like GIF images are. Therefore, the JPEG format is best for compressing photographic images. So if you see a large, colourful image on the Web, it is most likely a JPEG file.

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.

PDF

It Stands for Portable Document Format. PDF is a multi-platform file format developed by Adobe Systems. A PDF file captures document text, fonts, images, and even formatting of documents from a variety of applications. You can e-mail a PDF document to your friend and it will look the same way on his screen as it looks on yours, even if he has a Mac and you have a PC. Since PDFs contain colour-accurate information, they should also print the same way they look on your screen.

 EPS

It Stands for Encapsulated PostScript. EPS is a PostScript image file format that is compatible with PostScript printers and is often used for transferring files between various graphics applications. As the name implies, EPS files contain PostScript code, which is used for storing font and vector image information.

 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.

COMPRESSION

Compression, or data compression, is used to reduce the size of one or more files. When a file is compressed, it takes up less disk space than an uncompressed version and can be transferred to other systems more quickly. Therefore, compression is often used to save disk space and reduce the time needed to transfer files over the Internet.

IMAGE CAPTURE DEVICES

The use of using digital cameras or scanners to capture images in a digital format. The resulting files are then further processed to arrive at a final image.

OPTIMISING

Modify to achieve maximum efficiency in storage capacity or time or cost.

STORAGE

The professional discipline that involves working with, in or on any aspect of planning, delivering, operating or supporting for one or more Storage Asset Items or any and all solutions put in place to deal with such Items.

Sources that I used to help create a technical glossary:

http://www.techterms.com/

http://www.wikipedia.org/

http://www.dpbestflow.org/resources/glossary

http://www.if4it.com/SYNTHESIZED/GLOSSARY/S/Storage_Asset_Management.html

http://www.scrabblefinder.com/word/optimising/