Walidul Amad Islam12c

Graphics styles reportDate of submission:

• In this presentation I will be discussing the use of graphic styles and colour theory. Firstly there are 4 different graphic styles within gaming. These are, photorealism, Uncanny valley, Abstract and Cel Shaded. Secondly There are many differences between them and in this presentation I will explain what each graphic style has to offer and what graphic style people would use for different genres of games. Lastly I will be explaining and showing colour theory, the use of primary and secondary colours.

Color theory is a form of practical guidance to color mixing and the way it effects specific color combinations.The colours which are measured to be warm colours are red orange yellow. The ones considered to be cold are blue, white and purple. Colour theory outlines these.

Digital graphics, art styles and video gamesColour wheel

• Warm colours such as red give an impression of fright and danger. Blood is the colour red, blood is usually associated with pain. Red also is associated with stopping.

• Warm colours are often seen in glamorous places across the world. For example a lot of holiday resorts have the bright colours of the sun (Yellow/Orange)

Warm colours

Cool colours are colours like blue, green, purple and cyan. Cool colours give the impression of calmness. Usually blue is considered the ally force on video games. Cool colours signify cooler environments in rooms.

Cool colours

Monochromatic

• Monochromatic colours are all the colours tints, tones, and shades of a single type.

• You can make tints by adding white and shades.

• You can add tones by adding a darker color, like grey or black

• Complementary colours are sets of colours that when mixed in the right amounts, make white or black.

• When placed next to each other, they create the strongest contrast and underpin each other.

Complementary colors

• Analogous colours on the colour wheel, these colours are end-to-end. with one being the dominant color, which tends to be a primary or secondary color, and two on either side complementing, which tend to be tertiary.

Analogous Colours

Colours are changed based on the environment and atmosphere in games, for instance if the environment was a desert the makers of the game would use warm colours rather then cold colours. For places which are cold, the producers would use cold colours.

HOW DOES COLOR THEORY RELATE TO GRAPHICAL

STYLES IN GAMES?

Photorealism The graphic style of photorealism is used mainly to make games look realistic. The purpose is to make the game as close as possible to real life imagery. Photorealism is mostly used for adventure, RPG and action games.

Uncharted 3 Uncharted 3 is an action adventure game, it’s biggest asset is that the visuals of the game are extremely close to real life. This is one reason as to why this game has been so successful. The rain, boats and sky as well as the character look real and authentic. The reason photorealism is used is because if any other graphic style was used it would not work. Photorealism goes into depth and detail for example uncharted 3 the photo on bottom left shows the city scape, Cel shading and other graphics styles can’t do this. This sets the tone of the game, making it feel as real as possible when playing. The Last Of UsThis game has been rated 10/10 by many game reviewers/ publications for example by IGN, Official PlayStation Magazine (UK) and Computer and Video Games. As you can see the details on the characters face are extremely precise and very human like. Also the background looks as if it could be a real place.

Uncharted & The Last Of Us

The authenticity in the visuals is really what attracts and maintains peoples interest, for games such as uncharted and the last of us. The graphics of these games are exceptional and life like which is beautiful to the human eye. The level of detail is astonishing, it’s what

the main aim of photorealism games are. As you can see the cuts and bruises are very life like. Games such as uncharted and last of us have really hit the mark with their graphics.

You can see bruises, scars and cuts on his face, indicating that he’s just had some sort of conflict or accident. The detail in these things are what photorealistic games are all about.

Call of duty

Call of duty is another game which uses photorealism, as you can see there is a great level of detail on the mans face. His facial hair and his facial features are life like.

One disadvantage of photorealism is that sometimes it looks so real but not exactly, like natural human beings, it causes people to realise that it’s actually fake.

Photorealism also takes up a lot of memory and disk space, meaning consoles have to install the content. One example of this is Gta 4.

Cel Shading

• Cel shading it opposite of photorealism, it focuses on 1 or 2 colours to give an impression of hand drawn work. Cel shading is used in games such as Zelda the windwaker, Pokémon and jet set radio

• The image in the middle is hand drawn and the image on the right is a 3D rendered version. There's a clear difference between the 2

Cel shaded for games • A prime example of Cel shaded game is Zelda

windwaker. The reason they use bright colours and hand drawn images is because it reach's out to the target audience of children. Also this is very effective and very useful to reaching out to the target audience because kids love bright colours and find it very attractive. This is also beneficial as the tone is set to be happy throughout. When dark colours are shown it is something different to what has been seen before, meaning the audience are hooked on and keen to play on.

Cel Shading

• Also another example of Cel shading game is jet set radio. They use very bright colours, yet have a distinctive look to it. The art style of the game reflects the style of the game, as the aim of the game is to graffiti on walls to mark territory. Graffiti like Cel shading is very cartoony.

Cel shaded in genre

• The genre that Cel shaded is used in is adventure games such as Zelda, jet set radio and Pokémon. Cel shaded is used in adventure games mainly for the younger generation.

Exaggerated

• Exaggeration is often used in games like the final fantasy series.

• Exaggerated game styles exaggerate objects such as weapons, villains and other objects.

• Exaggeration is used often in adventure games targeted at older people.

• Exaggeration is when the game goes over the top in certain elements of the game, when objects are larger then life.

Exaggeration in games• Prime example of exaggeration is final fantasy. As

you can see in the image below the sword is larger then life, and considerably larger then the character holding it. Another exaggeration of this game is the fact that no human would be able to lift that sword. The hair of the characters are very spikey, which is very unrealistic because no ones hair can be that spikey and stay in place like that.

Exaggeration in gamesStreet fighter is another game which uses exaggerated graphics. As you can see both men are extremely muscular. No human can be physically as big as ken (guy with white hair). This attracts the target audience because some males aspire to be physically strong, and being physically strong goes with the genre of fighting.

Exaggeration in genres

• Exaggeration is usually used in adventure/ fighting games, like Tekken, Street fighter, final fantasy and batman arkham city. All these games contain fighting in them.

Abstract• Abstract graphic style is completely different from

the other 3 graphic styles as it has very little similarities and a huge amount of differences. Abstract games don’t focus on to detail like photorealism and exaggerated. Abstract games use basic geometric shapes, abstract games originally started because the makers could not make the game how they wanted to so instead they used simple shapes. Abstract games use are usually very colourful.

Abstract games

Geometry wars uses abstract art style. As you can see there are many simple shapes, of many different colours. In the image you can see the enemies are represented as shapes rather then spaceships. This is visually appealing audience as the colours stand out .

Abstract games

• Abstract games are usually used in puzzle games like Tetris. The shapes are simple and are all different colours which stand out to the audience members. The shapes are easy to draw and there is very little detail on them.

Abstract games

Games that use the abstract graphic style are:Snake, Tetris, Geometry wars, Geometry wars 2 and space snake. They’re usually in arcades like the game space invaders.

Conclusion

• This report has analysed colour theory, digital graphics and video games in a lot detail. I went over how the games genre and graphic styles compliment each other and how well they work.