Self Evaluation

I have been asked to evaluate my own art work that I have produced in this unit, therefore I will be explaining the reason for choosing specific tools as well as how I used my knowledge and skills to overcome certain problems.

Generating ideas for creating logo designs was not really a big problem for me in this unit because I think I am quiet imaginative and creative, especially when it comes to designing things for games. Since that I play lot of games, most of my design were based on weapons as well as wolf because it is one of my favourite animal which I think is widely used for games.

At the beginning I have used wolf and mountains images from Google to create some logos which I would not be capable to draw either by hand or on the computer, this allowed me to generate some ideas for a logo. However I realised that I should not have used randomly images from Google because you cannot know whether you are allowed to copy images and modify which could be copyright issue. Therefore I have not used those logos containing such images for my final logo and splash art, instead I have research free images on the internet that you are allowed to use without any worries. The website that I have used is http://www.stockfreeimages.com/ . Below are the images that I have rejected:

(Edited: 29/05/14)

I cut the body to have only the head

This is the wolf picture that I got from Google Image

The head has been modified by adding some effects

This is the other image that I have not used

Since that I am designing a splash art for game company, real picture would not suit because most of games out there are 3D elements with texture making it kind of real but not as in the real world, and other games are based on cartoon or anime arts. Therefore I have modified a lot the images by adding effects so that they are appropriate for type of game like AvAlon.

One of the main tools that I used in this unit to create things is probably “Pen tool” from Photoshop, it allowed me to draw things such as sword and axe easily because I was able to modify the shapes and edge of those weapons freely and multiple of time without any worries (undo).

When editing in Photoshop you have layers where you add elements such as effects, shapes, or even other images, then you able to hide any layers in order to work on specific layer (to make editing easier). I took advantage of this feature that Photoshop gives because I am able to keep my changes and original separated by duplicating layers. This technique allowed me to get back my previous designs when I made changes that I did not like, which I would have been able to if everything was in one layer.

One of my favourite tools for modifying the shape of an image is probably liquify because it allows me to change freely any area of my images, which I think it adds them a special touch such as spiky outer or mixing colours and elements, or even completely change the images’ appearance. In addition to quick selection tool which I used mostly to remove some parts of images which I did not like or bits that were not appropriate for making changes, this technique was used for removing the body the wolf image, so that I can use only the head.

I used circle and rectangle into some area of my logos because I wanted to have prefect circles and rectangle such as black circle for the background of certain logos which were making them look more as a logo than just a simple image. Furthermore I was able to make them transparent which I used in my promotional banner to make an overlay colour above another image.

The reason I choose to make a promotional banner above others was because I am frequent with advertising banners because they are all over the internet, especially when I visit games’ websites. So I was more confident for my first splash art and I thought I will be able to create a decent banner for promoting my game.

For this splash art I had to choose my logo design and some rejected design to create the banner, so some decisions were required such as which designs were good for the banner, which layers should be kept and whether colour had to be changed, etc. Since that most of my designs were based on weapons such as swords, axe and shield, grouping and adding them into my promotional banner was not that hard. However some changes were needed, size was the major problem because all my design were supposed to be a size of 500x500 pixels and the banner size is 1500x500, so I had to resize the images to fit them appropriately to the banner and also in order to include more designs than 3.

To enhance the look of my banner I also modified some of my designs such as the shape of some images as well as some layers, some layers were not proper to other designs, mostly because of colours and some were kind of repetitive (similar to some designs).

In my opinion the thing that restricted my skills from creating decent designs was probably because of not having lot of knowledge and skill in Photoshop since it was the first time I was using it. However now I learned lot of skills and technique in Photoshop which I probably would have difficulties to learn if I was learning if on my own. 

Splash art

This is the promotional banner that I have produced for the splash art task.

(Edited: 27/05/14)

I believe that my promotional banner is kind of appealing for my audience because I tried to make my banner similar to other game promotional banner with the text that encourage people to join the game and with little information about the game.

I used several colours in order to indicate the important things about the game, and also with the intention to kind of force people to read the text fully or retain those words, so weapons, early middle age, spells and enemies.

The dark mountain at the background is for showing that there are dark forces (so enemies) waiting for you to fight and a vast land to explore or to fight in.

The grey black thing behind the logo is for making an effect like the logo was thrown or moved from right to the left at a high speed. Which could have a meaning of join now rapidly or the game is intense and you need fight with speed (so action).

In this banner there were more elements at the beginning but were hidden before constructing the image because having too many different element on the banner would have made it not beautiful. In addition to that there some element would not have suited the game that the banner was for. For example I think an orange shield would not fit the dark side atmosphere that I wanted for the banner to be in order to suit the game.

So, in my opinion this banner is quiet good for a beginner’s splash art, however I believe improvements could have been done, so that the banner looks more professional such as adding more effects like shadings, better colour usage, placing the elements (e.g. “Play Now”) in the right places, etc.

Prezi link

This the presentation about theory and applications of digital graphics technology (task 2) that I have created via an online presentation software called Prezi:
http://prezi.com/66-10fdpwq__/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy&rc=ex0share

Avalon Logo

This is the logo that I have created for the game Avalon, I think it meets its genre, early middle age weapons (2 swords and 1 axe) are included into the logo. In addition, I think it is quiet a attractive logo for a game. This logo has been created within the tools that were provided to me by Adobe Photoshop.

(Edited: 26/05/14)

As you might have seen, there are several games logo that have medieval weapons attached to it, this is done in order to say what kind of game it is. By simply looking the logo the first thing that will come to people’s mind might be an image where people are fighting with swords. So they will think instantly that the game is based mainly on a fighting or action game in the medieval era.

For example, you might have heard of Chivalry Medieval Warfare which is a game heavily based on the on the medieval era like the logo says (Medieval Warfare). In addition to chivalry which is about medieval knight system.  As you can see the logo is composed of a sword and text, they are kind of combined. This logo suit the game perfectly, this is kind of I was trying to achieve for my game logo.

Soulcalibur Lost Swords, is also a game based on action and swords but single player. As you can see this logo has also swords, however less visible and behind “Soulcalibur” but it is still showing its genre of game.  Lastly, most of Zelda games have swords with the logo which has been a successful game and logo design.

Raster vs Vector

Images:

Images can be from several things such photographs, paintings or images drawn on computers and upload online on websites as well as videos are made up of multitude of images. Compare to hand drew images, digital images have more advantages as well as some disadvantages, for example digital images can be resized and modified without affecting the original copy on a computer, however when doing these changes, the quality of images can decrease.

In computer graphics there are two types of images which are being used, they are Rasters and Vectors.

Rasters:

Raster images are mostly known as bitmap, bitmap images are made up of pixels which look like small squares which each contains a colour, these squares can be seen when you zoom in. Those squares are laid out like a table (or grid) where you can calculate the number of squares by counting and multiplying the first squares appearing across and down (e.g. 400 x 300). Pixels are referred to dots when talking about DPI (Dots per inch, or PPI Pixel per inch) which is for measurement of how much detailed colour information there is on a bitmap image (so resolution). Most common file extensions of Raster images are: JPEG, PNG, GIF, BMP, etc.

Advantages:

Compare to vector images, raster images can have lot of colours which enables images to have precise shading effect, so in another word raster images have rich details. Since that raster images are made up of small blocks of colour, precise changes can be made, each pixel’s colour can be change one by one.

Disadvantages:

One of the disadvantages of Raster images are that they have a large file size but it will vary on the type of file format you have saved in. The main drawbacks comes when you want to resize an image, there is no problem if you want a raster image smaller but not when you want it bigger. When the image is bigger you will be seeing a blurry or pixelated image, the image will lose its quality.

Vector:
Vector graphics uses maths to create an images which consist of shapes, lines and curves that are linked with points (dots), so it is comprised of path and they are not made up of specific number of pixels. Most common file extensions of Vector images are: SVG, EPS, AL, CDR, etc.

Advantages:
Compare to raster images, vector images have information of how dots have to be connected which are given to the computer, therefore when you want to resize an image, it would not loose it's quality. This quite useful when it comes to create a logo which might need to be resized in some publishing places like on a website and smaller on a product. So you can resize your image to any size without any problem, you would not have worry about DPI of monitors (maximum of 72 dpi) and printers (at least 300 dpi) since that vector images will always appear the same with the same quality. Furthermore vector images files take fewer memory storage than Bitmap files.

Disadvantages:
Compare to a bitmap image, vector images have to be drawn on a computer while bitmap images can be from photos. It requires skills and more effort to create a vector image as well as special editing software such as Adobe Illustrator is needed. Since that vector images are made up of solid areas of colour, they are only used for simple graphics like for creating cartoon images. Furthermore most Vector images' file extension format has to be changed to Raster in order to be displayed on websites because not all vector file format is accepted on the web.

Mission Statement

The company will be developing a game called AvAlon which will be based in the 5th and early 6th centuries, when men fought with swords and bows. However some magical elements will be added such as skills that allow a player to use magic and supernatural powers which will increase fun in the game. It will mainly be a PvP game where people will be playing as teams to eliminate opponent teams, so a multiplayer game. I think I would not add too much elements in the game so that it will be easy to pick up the controls and understand the game as well as to be user friendly. So only few equipment can be added to a character, maybe some crystals that add effects or adds skills to weapons, etc.

However the business and my games would not be recognised if there is not a recognisable and attractive object that people can remember such as a logo that every business have and must. Therefore the first thing that my business should do is that to create a decent logo that suits my business and my games as well as my business personality, the logo should be able represent what my business is, and what kind of game I produce. Since my game will be based on old weapons, my logo could have some weapons attached to it with other elements such as crystals and effects related to the games.

First time using Photoshop

This is my image that I have started to create from a tutorial called firefish. Several layers have been created and grouped, so that they can be copied easily. As you can see, copied shapes are being re sized in order to be different from the other.