Learners will develop practical skills in drawing game concept art. They will understand how concept art is used within games and will use a variety of drawing media to develop skills in observational drawing. Learners will also develop skills in using digital graphics software to be able to convert and digitise concept art for use in games.
Understand the types of digital graphics file formats used in games.
Pixel: picture element, image resolution, intensity.
Raster images: compression (lossy, lossless), file extensions (bmp, png, gif, tiff, jpg psd).
Vector images: points, lines, curves, polygons, file extensions (eg eps, ai).
Bit depth: sampling, bits per pixel (BPP), monochrome, 256, highcolour, truecolour.
Colour space: greyscale, RGB (red, green, blue), YUV (luminance and chrominance), HSV (hue, saturation, value).
Image capture: scanners, digital cameras, resolution (pixels per inch), storage (memory, file size, asset management).
Optimising: target destination, bit depth, resolution, dimensions, intended image output.
Explain bitmap and vector graphics and their use within computer games.
Explain a range of graphics file formats and their different characteristics.
Explain the impact of file formats, compression techniques, image resolution and colour depth on file size and image quality.
Be able to draw concept art for games.
Stimulus: client brief, own brief, from market research.
Ideas: brainstorming, moodboards, thumbnail sketching Legal and ethical considerations: copyright, ethical issues, e.g. confidentiality, representation (race, gender, religion, sexuality), decency, libel, intellectual property.
Graphics specification: client brief, audience, thumbnail sketching, visual style, e.g. colour, style, composition, typography, technical considerations, e.g. file format, file size, optimisation, intended output.
Constraints: client brief, target audience, legal issues eg original intellectual property (IP), franchised IP, ethical issues eg decency, representation e.g. race, gender, religion, sexuality.
Sources of ideas: e.g. direct observation, narrative, photographic, cinematic, explorative research.
Drawing styles: direct observation, stylised form e.g. cartoon, manga.
Anatomy concept art: anatomy e.g. characters, creatures, development study drawings, final piece.
Environment concept art: environment e.g. plants, buildings, terrain, development study drawings, final piece.
Object concept art: objects, machines, vehicles, weapons, development study drawings, final piece.
Research ideas in response to client brief.
Draw preliminary designs using appropriate drawing techniques and styles.
Apply shading and colour to preliminary designs.
Be able to digitise concept art into game graphics.
Image capture: scanner, digital camera.
Workflow: e.g. slicing images, optimising (bit depth, resolution, dimensions) Menus: open, save, new, import, export, edit, view, help Image settings: size, resolution, width, height, colour mode, background, transparency, aspect ratio, file name.
Drawing tools: tool options, brush, pencil, duplicate, clone, fill, text, line, stroke, shape, zoom, guides and rulers, grid, snap, palettes, e.g. colour, gradients, layers, object, brushes, history, actions, size, resolution, layers, e.g. copying, saving, arranging, flattening, colour selection, e.g. foreground, background, colour swatch, eyedropper.
Editing tools: selection, e.g. marquee, lasso, magic wand, magnetic lasso, deselect, transform, e.g. scale, rotate, skew, flip, cut, copy, paste, crop, trim, erase, undo, fill.
Advanced tools: effects, e.g. layer effects, filters, channels, image adjustments, e.g. brightness and contrast, hue and saturation, colour balance, gradients, transparency, invert, masks, paths, e.g. vector paths, converting text to paths, image slicing
Create digitised versions of concept art using appropriate technologies.
Apply industry tools and techniques to develop digital variance for both bitmap and vector concept art.
Export final digital graphics using appropriate technologies.
Be able to evaluate and refine digital game graphics.
Present: to suit purpose, layout eg symmetry, format.
Annotation to drawings: purpose, idea sources, reflective comment (compared with original intentions, fitness for purpose, aesthetic qualities).
Poster montage: development studies, final piece, annotations.
Legal and ethical considerations: copyright, ethical issues, e.g. confidentiality, representation (race, gender, religion, sexuality), decency, libel, intellectual property rights.
Present digital game graphics to client and peers.
Refine digital game graphics in response to feedback.
Explain the legal implications of using, creating and editing digital graphics for games.