The Impact of Art in Video Game Design

2. Chapter 9 Art Composition

3. Objectives • Consider the impact that art has on video game design. • Assess how the art in a video game will be viewed or experienced. • Outline the elements of art and the principles of design that apply in imagery for video games as well as other art forms.

4. Art Influences • Image design is usually more art than science • A game artist is the specialist who creates the visual elements of the game • Specialists in art have strong skills in drawing, coloring/rendering, and sculpting/modeling • They should also have a strong background in art history and the cultural influences in art

5. Art Influences (Continued) • Art history and culture should be considered when creating game art • Historical periods of art include • Medieval • Renaissance • Mannerism • Baroque • Neoclassicism • Romanticism • Realism • Modern art • Contemporary art • An art movementis a particular dominant style or technique

6. Art Influences (Continued) • Cultural influencesare those characteristics unique to a geographic region or the people of that region • Common cultural influences in art are • Religion • Family • Government • Natural resources • Environment • Activities

7. Art Presentation • Presentationis how the art will be viewed or experienced • The medium is the material used to create the artwork • Tools are the devices used to create the artwork • A game artist may typically work with digital media and tools

8. Art Presentation (Continued) • Concept art, sketches, and mockups may be completed using traditional media and tools • The background of a virtual world may be a scene photographed from the real world • Motion-capture devices and 3D scanners are also commonly used to record the real movements of a person or to convert a real object to a digital model

9. Elements and Principles of Art • The elements of art deal with the individual features needed to compose artwork • The principles of design govern how to effectively combine the elements of art to compose a pleasing work of art • Traditional artwork is created without the use of computer technology • Digital artwork is created using a computer

10. Elements and Principles of Art (Continued) • There are seven elements of art • Shape • Form • Line • Color • Value • Space • Texture • Each of these elements details an aspect of a single attribute of an object • Shape is a defined area in two-dimensional space • Shapes come in two different varieties: geometric and organic

11. Elements and Principles of Art (Continued) Goodheart-Willcox Publisher

12. Elements and Principles of Art (Continued) • The assembly of 2D shapes to represent a third dimension is form • Form shows measurable dimensions of length, width, and depth for an object • A line is the path between two points and most often used as a boundary to create a shape • Lines can be straight, curved, looping, or organic

13. Elements and Principles of Art (Continued) Goodheart-Willcox Publisher

14. Elements and Principles of Art (Continued) • The combination of hues applied to a line or shape is its color • Colors are defined using a color model • The total spectrum of colors a given model can create is called the gamut • Value is the use of light and dark to add highlight, shading, or shadows • Value is also used to create contrast

15. Elements and Principles of Art (Continued) Goodheart-Willcox Publisher

16. Elements and Principles of Art (Continued) • The area or volume in a scene is the space • Space may be physical or virtual • Variations in form and color create texture, which is an uneven surface • Tactile texture is an irregular surface that can be physically felt, like sandpaper • Optical textureis creating variation in what you see

17. Elements and Principles of Art (Continued) • The principles of game design include • Applied action is movement • In game art, movement is typically done through animation • Movement • Emphasis • Harmony • Variety • Balance • Contrast • Proportion • Pattern • Unity

18. Elements and Principles of Art (Continued) • When a designer draws attention to an object, the object is given emphasis • Using similar elements is the principle of harmony • The purposeful absence of harmony to create visual or contextual interest creates variety • Objects arranged such that no one section overpowers any other part creates balance

19. Elements and Principles of Art (Continued) • Balance may be symmetrical or asymmetrical • An element of balance is proximity, or how closely objects are arranged • Proportionis the size of an object in relation to the other objects around it • In game design, proportion may be exaggerated to make something more noticeable or prominent

20. Elements and Principles of Art (Continued) • When an element is repeated, a pattern is created • In video game design, patterns occur in both visual layout and in gameplay • All of the elements and principles of art work together create unity • When something has unity,it appears as a single piece and not an assembly of different parts

21. How can colors be used in a video game to make the game more appealing to a particular audience? • What are some ways that movement can be shown or implied in a video game that does not have a lot of animation?