Camera's

There are different type of camera's including camera phones, compact camera's and DSLR's. A camera phone cost's from £20 to £600 and is used by mainly friends taking quick snaps of each other or someone needing to take a quick picture at an unexpected moment. These are generally quick and easy to use and carry around however the quality is generally not very good due to it using a digital lens zoom. This is poor quality because this is where the camera uses software to zoom instead of optical zoom where the camera uses the glass to zoom like binoculars. The compact camera cost's from £50 to £300. They are quick and easy to use and carry around and are lot better quality than camera phones. Allthough they are better quality than camera phones they are not as good as DSLR's. They use optical and digital zoom and typically are 10 megapixels plus. The DSLR is the best cameras you can get, they range from £300 to £5000. Then a further price of around £5000 is needed to buy a lense which is sold seperatly from the camera. These are generally used by proffesional photographers who need to get picture's with details in quick times e.g. the press. These are very high quality however they are very expensive and are a lot bigger than other camera's, and not very easy to carry around. They use optical zoom and are generally 20 megapixels plus and are very high quality. These are the best camera's.

Scanners

This transfers what ever you put on the scanner onto the computer as an image. There are different types of scanners including flatbed scanners, negative scanners, hand scanners and drum scanners. The flatbed scanner is generally used for home use and is usually combined with a printer and ranges from £30 to £300. The disadvantage of this scanner is that it can only scan A4 pieces of paper at most. A hand scanner is small and handheld and scans as you move it over the paper. It is generally poor quality and costs £20 plus. A negative scanner is used to scan negatives and costs around £100 and up. A drum scanner stands up tall and is high quality, it costs from £5000 to £10000. Generally the more money you spend on a scanner the better quality and the higher dpi it is.

Graphics Tablets

These plug into your computer through a usb connection. It is basically a screen which you can control with a pen and draw on and it is sent to the copmputer and the image you are drawing will show up on the screen as you are drawing it. There are many types of tablets ranging from around £50 to £3000. They are all different sizes and usually bigger is better. Some tablets it is possible for what you are drawing to appear on the tablet screen as well as the computer screen so you can see what your drawing like your drawing on paper. These are the best tablets and start at around £1200. Tablets have different levels of sensitivty, for instance some you may have to push the pen really hard to and others you may just have to hover the pen over the tablet.

           
   

File Types

JPG- This is used when dealing with image file types. It is most common image format for camera's, and is mostly used for websites or within e-mail messages as the files are so small. They are not very good for printing and cannot be resized or changed without loosing a lot of quality, however most programmes are able to display, use and save this file type.

GIF- This is similar to jpg and is used when dealing with image file types. This is also a raster file. They are highly compressed files, which unfortunatly means they shudn't be used for graphics with gradients such as photo's.

PNG- This is mostly used to store graphics for web images and the final distribution of images as the files arn't compressed as much as jpg's. This is also a raster file. This supports true colour which is 16 million colours, a real qadvantage. Unfortunatly some programmes to do not run this file correctly and tend to save and print darker than they should.

PSD- This was created by and is used in Adobe Photoshop. This is a vector file and is great for use of Adobe programmes although not many other programmes recognize it.

TIF- This is an image file type, and is a raster file. When you save this file there is no loss of quality. A disadvantage is that the files tend to be very large. The smallest file is still to large to send as an e-mail.

BMP- This is an image file format used to store bitmap digital images. This is a raster file This works well with windows programmes, however is uncampatable with other platforms.

AI- This is an Adobe illustrator file which is a graphics design programme. This is a vector file. A ai file is usaully an original file so you know it was originally used for developing your design. This cannot be brought into other applications unfortunatly.

EPS- This can contain both vector and bitmap data. If the file only contains vector data it can easily be enlarged or reduced without loss of quality.

What is Lossless Compression?

Lossless compression is where all original data in the file remains there after the file is un-compressed. This is generally used for text or speadsheet files as losing bits of information would be a problem.

What is lossy compression?

Lossy compression reduces a file by perminately removing certain infrmation. Usually redundant information. When the file is uncompressed only some of the information will be there however the user may not notice as redundant information was took away. This is generally used for sound and video files as a loss of information will not be noticed by most users.

What is resoloution?

This refers to how much detail the image holds, they are measured in dpi (dots per inch) or ppi. 320 dpi for printing, or 72-100dpi for on screen.

What is Vector?

These are made up of mathematical co-ordinates, they are generally smaller file sizes due to only co-ordinates and numbers being stored in the file. These files can be enlarged to very big sizes without distortion. It is generally used for cartoons, maps, signs, diagrams, etc. It cannot be used for photo's.

What is a bitmap?

This is an image file format used to store digital images. They are generally used for photographs as they reproduce colour accurately. Unfortunatly when you enlarge them they tend to loose quality quite badly, they also have quite large file sizes.

What is a pixel?

Pixel is short for picture element. It is a single point in a raster image. It is the smallest addresable screen element and the smallest unit of picture that can be controlled. Each pixel has its own address.

Printed Media

This is such things as box art, posters, CD's, manuals. These promote the game and make you want to buy it and also tell you about the game and tell you what is involved in it.

In Game Interface

This is such things as menu's in the game and where everything on the game screen is placed, e.g.maps, certain buttons on the side/bottom of the screen etc.

Textures

This is a top layer that goes round a model to provide an image. It is done by creating a 2D image and then wrapping it around a model to form a layer. This is usually done by using photoshop. Textures are used for everything in a game, not just the characters but also the floor and the walls etc.

3D ISOMETRIC SPRITES

This is an image made from pixels that has the appearance of looking 3D. They do this by making the image viewed at an angle. A known game that uses this is sims.

2D Sprites

A 2D sprite is an image created through pixels made to create a 2D image. A known game that uses this is streetfighter.

Concept Art

This is where a design or idea is formed through sketches to get a basic idea of what design is best. Through this, characters; weapons; armour etc. are created. Artists can create hundreds of different designs for every one idea as they keep developing their designs further and further until they feel they have created what they were looking for. Concept art can range from basic 2D sketches to fully coloured detailed images. Concept art is basically blueprints of designs. The purpose of concept art is to supply designers with 2D sketches of evrything that is wanted in the game.

Digital Graphics

Photo Realism- This is basically where a game has images as close to reality as possible,e.g. if you were playing a game of football it would look like you were watching it on tv. Everything that you see would be as close to reality as possible and at no point would you look at the game and think it looks like a game. A famous game that has this is Gran Tourismo 5. Every car in this game has every detail that a car has in real life.

Cel Shading- This is the opposite of photorealism, it is where images in the game are made to look hand drawn, or to look like a cartoon. It is often done by having a black line around every object to make them stand out and to mimic a comic book sketch. Two games that include cel shading are The Legend of Zelda and Prince of Persia.

Exaggeration- This is where a character or object is exaggerated, not to look distorted but to show what they are doing, e.g. running fast, skipping, or showing how they are feeling, e.g. if the character is happy, they will shine, if the character is worried make it look frantic. Exaggeration is not just about characters and objects but also about choosing the right colours for emotions, and the sound can also be incorparated sometimes. A famous game that includes this is Pokemon.

Abstraction- This is where ideas from the real world are put into games and turned wierd and un-real into something that people have never seen before. Example siclude, Pokemon and Lemings.

2D and 3D

What is 2D- This stands for two dimensional. This means they are flat images. You are given a hEIght and a width but no depth. These were firstly used due to not having the capability to create 3D games. They are typically used for mobile phone games portable devices e.g. gameboy, and old consoles e.g. playStation 1. The typical genres where 2D games are used are arcade, driving and fighting. Some 2D  games are:- Sonic the Hedgehog, Pac Man, Space Invaders, Mario, Streetfighter, Worms.

What is 3D- This stands for three dimensional. This means that you can go forward in the game instead of side to side and can peer round corners etc. This is used in modern consoles e.g. Xbox 360, Playstation3, and the PC because you need a powerful console to display 3D graphics. This generally is used in all game platforms allthough some games do like to stay in 2D, mostly arcade games. Some 3D games are:- Call of Duty, Gears of war, Forza 3, Grand Theft Auto IV, Final Fantasy XII.W

Dead Rising Box Art

This is good box art as it shows clearly the details of the zombies and how many of them you will be fighting. They are reaching out as if they are nearly touching you like you are getting pulled in. They are all facing and looking towards the person looking at the cover so it gives the appearance of you being in the game being attacked first person; it makes it seem that the main character is you so there is no need to show an alternative character. It shows two floors and an elevator so you’re shown you have got lots of space and straight away see that you are in a shopping centre. The name of the game is clearly shown without covering any crucial pictures of the area or the characters, while subtly having spots of blood on the corner of the title to show that the game will be gruesome. Also the main font of the title is good how it is all up and down in big block letters with a reflection underneath as if its hitting the floor. The artwork does a good job of selling the game because it shows exactly what is in the game and get’s the target audience interested which is mainly teens to 30 year olds. The one thing I would change about the artwork is that I would show a few weapons that you would be able to use.