Artistic Styles

L3 Game Design

Unit 78: Digital Graphics For Computer Games

Artistic Styles

Photo Realism

Photo realism is basically where the game's graphics are designed so well that they look realistic as if you have just taken a video on a high end recorder.  Some example of games that use this are Battlefield, Last of us and Uncharted. These games do this because it makes the player more immersed and sucked into the game play, it makes the player more involved into the story line. Last of us only has a campaign so you cant play multiplayer what so ever, so they focused on photo-realism hugely to make sure that their campaign is as good as possible.

Abstract

Abstract is practically the complete opposite of photo-realism as it does not try be real at all, it uses a lot of shapes and lines that doesn't really resemble anything really. The abstract art does not resemble anything as it just tries to paint an image in your head using anything. Many video games use this to make the game stand out with very bright colours and many shapes. Games that use this would be Tetris,geometry dash and geometry wars. These games use this art style because they try and make the game as fun as possible without putting any major detail into it.

Cell Shading

Cell shading is basically the shadow of the character or the environment within the game. It gives of a comic book like feel with the bright colours it uses and goes well with the theme they are trying to create. In fact it was actually used for animation. Mostly games that use this are going for a comic book feel with the game. Games that use this effect would be Legend of Zelda, Pokemon games and Dragon ball Z. 

Exaggeration

Exaggeration is usually used in a lot of Anime games and isn't supposed to be taken seriously due to how much they exaggerate how the character looks. This is mainly used in Anime because they always make there characters have big features such as eyes, they do not try make the characters look realistic at all and make them look more cartoon. Games that use this sort of art style would be Final Fantasy 7, Fifa street 3 and Dragon ball Z.

pixel

Pixel is used in a lot of games, usually all the games that use the art style pixel are 2D. usually these games are not very realistic at all and are very campaign based. Pixel games are usually games where you just run through levels and only have to use a couple of buttons and come up against bosses.

Games that use this would be Terraria, Hotline miami and Rogue legacy. these games are very surreal and retro which is why using the art style pixel excels in these types of games.

Film Noir

Film Noir is quite a popular art style used in several games. This style uses things such as lights and shadows to portray how a character is within the game as well as create an atmosphere. Film noir usually makes it so that if the character is wearing black then they are a bad guy within the game and if there wearing white it means they are a good guy. Also when one of the characters look into a mirror or a window and see their reflection usually they would use a shadow to cover up half their face showing that they are two-faced. Games that use this would be Wolf among us, L.A Noire and Max Payne. They use this design extremely well because it helps portray the characters within the games whilst creating an intense atmosphere.