optimising images

If you were going to save an image then send it over the Internet you wouldn't want to send a 10GB copy because it won't work so you would want to send a 1GB so they can be able to receive it and open. To make the files smaller you can change the size of the image and the quality and this will make the file much smaller. you could also change the DPI of an image and even the file type, but the numbers of colours in a image make the most difference to the file size.

You can make your job easier because if you have a lot of files to keep tidy you need to be able to sort them into tidy folders that can optimise your work place so you can see what file is the right size for the job your doing. Also if you need to find an image quick and you have named it this makes the whole prosses easier and if you have more than one file you need to put more than "1" after the file.

Printed media

Printed media comes in all different sizes and form as such posters, billboards, magazines and leaflets. The purpose of printed media is to attract and entice an audience who will later go on to purchase the products advertised so they make more money from spending.
Printed media must be attractive and colourfull to stand out and grab peoples attention to make them think that looks good or cool and make them buy it. Printed media needs to be short but detailed in text but large and defining in pictures or people will think that has to much to read it will take to much effort and time.

What is lossy and lossless compression

Lossy compressionLossy compression is the term used for an image file that loses quality every time it save so that the file size can be reduced dramatically.
The colours that are being removed can't be restored because what it is doing is instead of going "yellow, bright yellow, dark yellow, yellow, pink, bright pink" it's going "yellow four pixels along into one pixel then pink two pixels along turned into one pixel" it saves as much dater being stored so it can be sent across the Internet without having to be zipped.

Lossless compression
Lossless compression is where it allows the exact original data to be reconstructed from the compressed data. Lossless compression is used in such formats as ZIP files it is used for data that needs to be identical as the original data, there are formats like PNG or GIF that use only lossless compression while others like TIFF and MNG may be used with either. The lossless files are much larger than lossy due to having all the colours kept not thrown away.

Scanners, cameras and graphics tables

Scanners
scanners are a big help for games development because they are good hardware for scanning parts of a magazine that can be used for your own jobs.
The best type of scanner is the Drum scanner because it can do around 50 scans without need human interaction these cost around £5000 to £10 000 but they are around 6ft so you need to be an large business that has an large building with plenty of room. Due to their high price and size only the biggest company's can afford to have them. They are very good for posters and different large work to scan for everyone to see.

The second best scanner is the Flatbed scanner that is the most common around houses and small business that only need articles and pictures that are only A4 so these are not used as much as an Drum scanner that is for games developers and other large media business. The Flatbed scanners are usually connected to an printer so it takes up less room, they also use USB mostly but the Flatbed scanners that are on their own sometimes use wireless connection that allows you to have it in one room and find a book and just send the scans to an central computer in an different room and this easier than going into that room and scan it in there. The Flatbed scanner are usually priced around £30 to £300 this why they are more common than the Drum scanner.

The worst scanner you can get is the handheld scanner that is used by slowly moving it across the piece of work you want this is an bad way to scan because if your doing an A4 piece of work and jolt it will mess up the whole scan and you will need to start again. The handheld scanner has an very poor resolution that is around £20 so they are usually used at shopping centres and shops to scan barcodes.

The thing you need to take in the DPI (dots per inch) before buying an scanner because if you need to scan a high resolution image that needs 300DPI and your using an scanner using around 30DPI then you need to go out and buy another more expensive scanner and will be stuck with the old one.





Digital Cameras

There is allot of information to check before you buy an camera one including the amount of mega pixels e.g. one mega pixel is equivalent to one million pixels, the more mega pixels you have means the higher the resolution the picture will be in. Then you have to check what type of lens it has like an digital camera that has an digital zoom where it brings the picture closer to you unlike an Optical lens that uses optical zoom where the amount of piece of magnifying glass in the camera the better the picture and the magnified lens shows you the picture bigger but by being stuck out unlike digital that zooms in through an digital proses. Then you can get some cameras that are macro that is used for texture gathering that is good for photographers or games textures.

Camera phone

Camera phones use digital cameras that make most phones not very good for high detail pictures they range from £20 to £500, they are good for quick snaps that are for example if you see an fish that you would want in an game you take an picture of it then draw it up to better detail. An camera phones mega pixels range for 1 mega pixel to 5 mega pixels.

DSLR

These cameras are the best because they give you the best quality photos and are the very Best for texture artists to use because the mega pixels on these cameras are around 20+ and features optical lenses around 90 percent of the time just to make sure that all the photos taken are spent on. These cameras are also used by professional photographers and paparazzi but some times they are just used by people who have hobby's of taking beautiful photos.

Compact camerasThese are easy and convenient to use because they are very compact and usually have an good amount of mega pixels. It depends on the make and model but most compact cameras are £50 to £400 because some use digital lens while others use optical that makes a hell of an difference when it comes to the quality of photo you take.

Graphics tablets

Most graphics tablets are made by Wacom and cost from £50 to £3000. A graphics tablet is an input device which allows the user to draw on an computer programme such as Photoshop this is an much more accurate way to draw on an computer because its exactly like drawing with pencil to paper. Graphics tablets connect through an USB but don't lag and the more expensive you go when buying one the higher the pressure sensitivity will be and the larger drawing area will be.

In game interface

There is allot of detail that goes into in game interface that is more commonalty known as the HUD (heads up display) this includes the mini map, team symbol, score and crosshair.
The in game interface is a large part of game because if you get lost then you can wonder your eyes to the mini map and find the right way or if you have lost an enemy. The other help that an ingame interface is that when you run in to a firefight then you can keep an eye on your health and ammo count also on some games e.g. Borderlands the enemy's life level. If there was no in game interface games developers would have an almighty struggle to get custom because the gamer wouldn't be prompted when there is an door to open or a weapon to pick up and this would  make that games developer loss there sales then even worse their company if their game is that bad to play.

digital graphics

What is a pixel?
A pixel is a small dot of colour that in large doses that put together to make a low quality image. The pixel is the smallest addressable screen element that can be seen, each pixel has its own address and its address is it coordinates. Each pixel can have its own colour so it is a large file if you have a high resolution because there is so many different colours in each file.

What is a bitmap?
A bitmap is an image that looks amazing at the right size but when it is zoomed in on its quality fades in till all you can see is pixels. Bitmap images are usually used for Internet pictures that are small files that are quick and easy to download.

What is a vector?
A vector is an image that looks amazing at its right size but even if you zoom in to a section of the image the quality stays the same and doesn't show any pixels. Vector images are used for high detailed jobs like if you work in a taxi service you need to get the logo for a small flier and a large taxi size so you need an image that is not going to lose quality when zoomed in on.

What is a JPEG?
A JPEG is a bitmap image file because if it is used to much it loses quality this makes it a lossy image, but it has a small image size.

what is a PNG?
A PNG is a portable network graphics that is also an bitmap image that is used for Internet use and not for saving loads and has a lossless compression so you can save as much as you want without losing any detail or colour.

What is a GIF?
A GIF image is graphics interchange format that is a bitmap image that supports up to 8 bits per pixel that allows up to 256 distinct colours. This type of graphic also allows for animation that is a good thing to use for internet bloggers.

What is resolution?
The resolution of an image is the amount of pixels that image has, the more pixels/resolution of an image would make the image a higher quality e.g. HD image or now even a Blu ray image. The resolution of an image also changes if the image is for printing that needs 300 DPI (dots per inch) and an image that only needs to be on a computer only needs 72 DPI because it doesn't need to change size so it stays the same.

2D sprites

2D sprites are models that are made up of pixels that can be seen if you zoom in.
2D sprites also means you measure by 2D coordinates of an isometrics sprite.

3D sprites are where you can see around a corner. A 3D sprite also is measured by 3D coordinates one vertical, one horizontal and one depth.

job roles

Concept artist

Concept art is a baseline that is a rough idea or sketch for the 3D modelers and concept artists to use instead of just making their own idea that is wrong to the story line of the game and makes the whole situation fail. The modeler or artist will enhance and make changes to these rough drawings and make them game worthy.

Texture artist

Texture artists are a big part of the games development because they pun colour and texture on everything in the whole game. Texture artists work aside the concept artist because they need to get the colours and detail just right to the idea of the artist.

3D modeler

A 3D modeler is the person who makes the ideas from a concept artist into an animatable computer images that can be sent to the animator and makes sure all the the marks and all the extremely small detail.

The different types of graphics that are used in computer games

The first of these are cel shaded graphics.

cel shaded games include Afro samurai, Borderlands and the Simpson's game (DS version only) this is where the all the video games detail has large black outlines around it.

abstraction graphics are like some games because they have strange creatures with limbs that would never be normal in reality like resident evil games as shown in this picture.

exaggeration graphics are where something is made to be much larger that they are in life like gears of war 3 with Dom and Marcus with there arms about 4 times the size of an normal mans as shown here.

But on the other hand there is photo realism graphics that's goals are to make the scenery and detail as realistic as possible as in the games crisis and operation Flashpoint dragon rising.

what is 2D and 3D?

2D is a two dimensional image that has no layers so you can't see the characters front and can only go from one side of the page to the other and as you can see in the picture that there is no intense map detail or any in game roundness there is just flat rectangles and pixels so there is no need to be spending ages on the game you just need to make sure you have a slight resemblance to what it's supposed to look like.

2D is used in old video games such as Mario, sonic and metal slug, it is a simple style of graphics because it doesn't need depth but it does have height and depth and can be run by a piece of low quality hardware.

3D is a third dimensional image that has layers and depth as in call of duty and fallout games you see the alley in front of you and you can see your characters arms and guns as they shooting and reloading the weapon as the gun comes up to the screen you can see the magazine drop and the other can be entered.

Street fighter IV is a game that shows that there is no boundaries between 2D and 3D because this shows the player that you can use both at the same time. when you are playing games like street fighter or mortal kombat you can see that they use 2D to fight one on one till the players life goes down till nearly empty then you can do a super finishing move that changes the screen into 3D and shows the whole detail of the game.

my favourite box art

I like the box art of borderlands because it has a lot of detail of what’s to come.


It shows the psycho pretending to shoot himself through the head and the blood splatter shows scenes of the bandits in their car and spiderants chasing after them.

In the far background you can see a large mining ship that is controlled by a mental mercenary that tries to kill off the completion that comes to the area of borderlands that has nothing to do except taking over his lair.

I also like the box art because it could be taken as the psycho could be you pretending to shoot the memories of the horrors he has faced through his travels to find the vault of alien treasures. It also shows the clans sign you have when you start on the back.

The target audience is adults that are in to sin city sort of graphics but with colour. I think it does hit the target audience because it shows there’s going to be killing because of the person on the front is even pretending to shoot him self.