image capture

Image Capture, Optimisation and Storage

 

Image Capture, Optimisation and Storage

What it means to capture a digital image?

This means to capture an image using a digital camera or SLR for editing from real life or your own work.

Image Scanners

An image scanner optically scans an image, text, handwriting or an object and converts it to digital image or a photo that can be edited in a variety of programs. This is great for artist and photo editors because this allows them to create better images quickly and easily.  

Key features

Image resolution measured in DPI (dots per inch), this is important because the better image resolution the better scan of the image.

Document scanners

Good for scanning lots of documents quickly and easily, not so good for images as they don’t scan in high detail. 

Smart Scan (mouse)

Low quality and not very reliable, but good for quick scan, this is great for notes and quick sketches.

Hand scanner

Portable, quick and easy to use but has low quality. This is great for notes and scans of images.

All in one

It has a printer, scanner and fax all in one. Good for fast scanning, medium quality and can be used to scan images.

Flat bed

High quality image, great for everything and High image resolution (DPI). This is the best scanner you can get as an all-rounder.

Digital camera

A digital cameras a camera that encodes digital images and videos digitally and stores them for later reproduction. This is a great tool for artist as they can take photos and carry them anywhere or send them to the cloud.

Compact Digital camera

These are compact, lightweight, cheap and easy to use. They have a low to medium image resolution (DPI), a small sensor size but they are card compatible because they use less data per image.

SLR

These are high quality and take high quality images. Used by professional to take highly detailed images for marketing, modelling and other Medias.

Phones

These are great for quick pictures on the go, but don’t have great image quality or image resolution.

Key features

Image resolution

Sensor size- the bigger the more light can get to the lens

Screen size- medium size

Video recording

Card compatible

Graphics tablets

A graphics tablet works by using magnetic field to map the pen to the screen, also sensing the pen pressure and relaying to the pc.

There are many different types of graphics tablets such as the intuos and the cintiq. The intuos is a pressure sensitive pad that maps to the screen. The cintiq is a touch sensitive monitor that lets you use a pen to draw.

Intuos

The intuos is a pad that is pressure sensitive that it’s great for drawing and handwriting. The intuos can be used on a professional level or entry level. The intuos has 4 programmable that can be used as quick keys. The strengths of the intuos is that it has a pressure sensitive pad and can produce fine lines.

Cintiq

The cintiq is a professional tool and is the best graphics tablet on the market. The cintiq is a touch sensitive monitor that is a copy of the pc screen and makes draw easier as you can see the image while drawing. The cintiq has 20 programmable keys. The weak points of the cintiq is the price and the weight.

Digital graphics optimisation

Digital graphics optimisation is when you take an image file and shrink in down for web use so it’s easier to load or keeping the file the same so it keeps all its detail for a poster or billboard.

Different ways to optimism

>By changing the image file type e.g. tiff, JPEG or GIF’s

This can help shrink the size of the file for web site images and image that you won’t resize, also you may want to make a image with full detail for posters and billboards

>Changing image bit death from between 1 and 42 for lest or more detail.

You would change the image bit death to change the colours death

This would make the file small or bigger.

>image compression and file size

Compression image would shrink the file size for storage or for a smaller less detail image

Asset management software

Asset management software is a way of storing files in one place and seeing who is working on it. This is a great way for companies to share work within the company. There are many asset management programs such as bit keeper, veracity and git.

Computer Game Graphic Types

Computer Game Graphic Types

 

 

There are many different use for art in computer games such as box art, 2D sprites, and concept art /art books, all unique to different games.

 

2D sprites

2D sprites are a flat image used in 2D games, this saves on memory and is easy to crate. Sprites are used in 2D as characters, items and objects within the games. To crate animation in 2D, games developers use a strip of sprites with the object moved a little each time.

 

Isometric Sprites

Isometric sprites are 2D sprites draw in a 3D way, to give the impression of 3D but is still 2D. Isometric Sprites are built the same ways as 2D sprites apart from you have to draw/design each movement and each view of the movement.

 

Concept art

Concept art is used in the games industry to give everyone a reference image to work from. A concept artist talks to the games designer and takes what he wants and draws what the game designer want be a weapon, character or an item.  

 

 

 

Textures

 

Textures are used to and colour and detail to a 3D model, to do this you start with a flat 2D image that is then wrapped round a 3D model. Textures are made from different maps, specula maps and diffuse maps. A normal map adds detail maps, specula adds light also high lights and a diffuse map adds colour to the model.  

 

 

In game Interface

The game interface or HUD is what you see as you play the game showing your health, ammo or what gun you are using. Even thought a game maybe 3D the HUD is usual a 2D sprites.

 

 

 

 

Printed media

Printed media is used to promote the game with posters and billboards but is also used in game case to make you want to buy the game. When you pre – order a game often you will get a art book or and poster which are great ways to make you want to pre-order the game.

File Types and Formats

File Types and Formats







In this blog I will be looking at file types and formats of digital graphics



Pixel



A pixels is a small square of colour on a display screen, one of many from which a raster image is composed of.



Image resolution



Image resolution is the detail an image holds. The term applies to raster digital images, film images, and other types of images.resoultion refers to the amout of pixels in are area of a imege. this is measured in DPI (Dot per inch),the higher the DPI value the more detailed the imege will be. Higher resolution means more pixels in a area , the lower the resolution the less pixels in the area.




Raster Images



A raster image is built up form pixels and is great for pictures because you can set each pixel to a certain colour but cannot be resized and because of this you wouldn’t use it for logo, maps or graphics a because you would need higher detail. Raster formats are JPEG, JPEG 2000, EXIF, TIFF or RAW



Vector Images



Vector images are made up from point’s to up make Sharpe line meaning the image can be re scaled to any size without being distorted but because the picture is made from points and lines you can change the colour of areas but vector images can’t do complex colours. Vectors are great for logos, maps and graphics.



As you can see from the picture bellow that raster image loss their quality when zoomed in, were vector you can still see the detail.

















Pixel colour intensity



Pixel intensity is the values of colour a certain pixel is. Pixel intensity is stored in two ways RBG which builds up colours for red, blue and green. CMYK uses Cyan, magenta, yellow and key (black) to build image, this is optimized for printing.



Compression



Lossless compression is a recreated version of the original file exactly where lossy compression gets rid of unnecessary parts to make it a smaller size.

Compression is useful because if you upload a massive file to your web page then it would take ages for someone to load the page, where if you compressed the image then the image is easier to load.



File types



TIF



The key features of a TIF file is that web pages don’t show them. TIF uses lossless compression they have from 1-bit to 48-bit colour, RGB, CMYK, LAB or indexed colour. TIF does not support transparency and animation. This filetype is best used for getting the best quality and maximum compatibility.



GIF



GIF file type is very good for web-graphics and has a smaller file size that JPG with graphics with few colours. GIF files use lossless compression GIF uses 1 to 8-bits. GIF files can hold transparency and animation. GIFs are best used for computer graphics that doesn’t have a lot of colours.















PNG



PNG files can provide transparency for 24-bit RGB images. This file type uses lossless compression it can also be indexed or RGB 1 to 42-bits, can support transparency and animation and PNG is used for getting the best quality.



JPG



JPG files can compress files to be very small but if this is done the quality will not be as good. JPG uses lossy compression and uses RGB, 24-bit or grayscale, 8-bit. This file type doesn’t support transparency or animation. This file type is used for compressing data into very small files.



BMP (Bitmap)



BMP does not use compression to store information. This file type can use either lossy or lossless compression. It is 32-bit and can’t support transparency or animation. BMP files can be best used for printable files while files like JPG and GIFs are used on the web.



PSD (Photoshop)



When you open a file in Photoshop that file automatically gets converted into a PSD file while it is in Photoshop. This file type uses lossless compression. It uses 32-bit and can hold transparency and animation. This file type is best used for editing graphics in Photoshop.

Graphics styles

Graphics styles 

 

Graphics styles are different art style used in media, these styles include Photo-realistic, Abstraction, Cel-Shading and Exaggeration. These styles are used to give games the own personality and look.

 

Photo-realistic

This style is meant to look realistic and give off a feeling realism, the style uses very dull colours and a realistic colour pallet. An example of this style is Battle Field 3, the game uses realistic colours to make the game look real. Because the colours are dull they give off a feeling of familiarity yet because it’s in a war torn world it give the game a sense of suspense. Games that use this style are far cry 3, battlefield 4 and forza.

 

 

Cel-shaded

Cel-shaded is a very comic book style where the designs have thick black lines, to bring out designs. An example of this style is Borderland’s 2, the game stands out more because of the blackout lines. The colours in borderland’s 2 are bright and warm and because of this they lift the player mood and give them the sense of happiness.    

 

 

Exaggeration

 

This art style is where everything is over the top and exaggerated. An example of this style is Gears of War because the characters are super strong and look bulked up, also able to carry anything. The colours in gears of war are dark and realist colour pallet it gives the player a feeling of suspense and terror.

 

Abstract

This style unrealistic and use’s bright block colours. This style uses non-complicated texture and looks very childish. The style gives of an odd mood because the non-realistic graphics, giving the player a sense of unfamiliarity due to odd shapes and charters. Games in this art style are minecraft, fez , rayman and sonic.