game art for teens

[...]... as an artist in this dynamic and exciting field If you need help or just want to talk, you can e-mail me at les@alpine-studios.com This page intentionally left blank chapter 1 Getting Started in Game Art C reating art for games is fun and exciting This book is your gateway to the fascinating world of game art development In the following chapters, you will learn how art is made and used in games You... important In traditional art, artists work mostly with the reflected light of a painted surface For games, artists work with pure light as it is displayed on a screen instead of painting on a canvas This fundamental difference takes a little getting use to, particularly in the area of color A game artist uses colored light to create images Most other forms of art use reflected light For example, when a... these programs Figure 1.4 A typical digitizing tablet Using Painting Programs Game artists use painting programs to create 2D art for games 2D art is often created by the artist from scratch instead of through manipulation of other art or photographs Both Corel Painter and Alias SketchBook Pro are great programs for creating art They both have very powerful features that allow you to use tools that simulate... every single step to every process in something as complex as game art development The best way to use this book is to become familiar with the The best way to begin any discussion on game art is to clarify how art is displayed in a game Most people play games on a computer, handheld device, or console game system The pictures we see in games on these systems are made up of small, colored square dots... could gain any instruction in art was from books I loved reading about artists and I loved the step-by-step instruction books Now, after years of success in commercial art, I felt it was time to help the young students who are looking for guidance with their dream of becoming game artists This book is designed to give realworld instruction with solid examples of game art creation The chapters are full... and retouching Some artists use them for creating art, but I find painting programs work better for the former purposes The CD for this book includes a link to the CorelDRAW suite; one of the programs in the suite is Corel Photo Paint This is an excellent program for working with photographs or drawings Finishing the Character Sketch Because Photo Paint has some very powerful tools for color adjustments,... Chapter 1 ■ Getting Started in Game Art Now that the door is more uniform in its lighting, you simply need to touch up the problem areas on the bottom of the door Photo Paint has a very effective tool for touching up a photograph, called a Clone tool The Clone tool basically takes a selected part of a picture and allows you to transfer that part of the picture by painting it into another part of the picture... precisely, a pixel could be defined as How Art Is Displayed 1 2 Chapter 1 ■ Getting Started in Game Art the smallest controllable segment of a display Back when computer games first came out, the resolution of video -game pixels were very low and appeared as big blocks of color As technology has advanced, the size of pixels has shrunk to the point that in some game systems it is difficult to see a single... artist uses in drawing If you are serious about doing art for games, I highly recommend getting a digitizing tablet because it helps make the drawing and painting process on the computer more natural Don’t worry if you don’t have one, though You can still complete the projects in the book because all of the art programs used in the projects work fine with a mouse 4 Chapter 1 ■ Getting Started in Game. .. typical of those used in early PC games The character is 32 pixels high Notice that the pixels are very easy to see Figure 1.2 shows a scene from a PlayStation 2 game Notice that the pixels are so small that they are very difficult to distinguish as small blocks of light As new game platforms continue to become more powerful, Figure 1.1 This game character for an old PC game is 32 pixels high The pixels . in Game Art C reating art for games is fun and exciting. This book is your gateway to the fascinat - ing world of game art development. In the following chapters, you will learn how art. Painting Programs Game artists use painting programs to create 2D art for games. 2D art is often created by the artist from scratch instead of through manipula - tion of other art or photographs Chapter 1 ■ Getting Started in Game Art Photo Paint Programs A photo paint program is designed for photo manipulation and retouch - ing. Some artists use them for creat- ing art, but I find painting