The 2D game art tutorials by 3DBuzz on YouTube have been very helpful for learning the practical uses of many of the tools, along with keyboard shortcuts for many of them. The person who made the videos does a very good job of introducing a tool slowly, but then, as you go on, expecting the viewers to know how to use to tools. While he does make errors, some intentionally though others are not, he turns them into lessons as he shows how to solve the problem.
An incredibly useful tool is the warp tool. While it's fairly simple, it can be very helpful. It technically is a sub-tool of transform, but an important one nonetheless. It allows for easily faking diversity of a background made from copying and pasting the same few trees over and over again by letting you make slight changes to the overall shape of them. It's a different way of changing shapes that is easy to do and takes very little time. Not only could it help with diversity, but it could easily be used to try to even out a lopsided figure or just make adjustments as needed. It's an easy way to change things slightly, either to fix them or to make them look unique. My favorite tools that he has used are the burn (for shadows) and dodge (for highlights) tools. In the past, I always did highlights and shadows in their own layers which were just set to a low opacity. These tools have the same effect as doing so, but are a bit easier to use and allow you to shade directly on the layer. While having the shading on different levels could be useful if it needed to be erased, the burn and dodge tools are better than opaque layers because they look more feathered. On a layer with low opacity all around, all of the shadows will be the same color, and it would take multiple layers of shadows and multiple layers of highlights to look realistic. With the dodge and burn tools however, it is easy to have diversity by just clicking multiple times for the shadow or highlight to automatically have a higher opacity. This tool will definitely help make lighting look more realistic.
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We've spent a lot of time learning how to use both Illustrator and Photoshop. While learning Illustrator, we were given two weeks to use tutorials from a website to learn the basic tools. However, what I found to be most useful was the one day in class after our hands-on quiz where Mr. B showed us how to use all of the tools that had been on the quiz. While a lot of it had been covered in the video, there were a few things, such as how to adjust the number of sides on a shape and how to move the vertices of a shape, that I had somehow missed while going through the tutorials. Both of these tools were very helpful, and it is likely that while watching the videos, I saw one on making shapes and figured that I already knew how to. It was nice to have an actual teacher in the room show us all of the useful information in one go, since it can be easy to omit a lesson with how long the list of tutorials is.
For Photoshop instead of video tutorials, we were given four assignments to complete in two weeks following the instructions on a website for each. I think each assignment was equally helpful, except maybe the black and white colorization one. When we had to make a beetle advertisement, we learned how to use quick mask and the clipping mask to make selections and hide things, as well as how to change layer opacity. The only new skill introduced in the colorization assignment was how to add filter type things to the color. The Warhol assignment taught how to select similar things, as well as how to adjust canvas size. Lastly, we had to put items on a stage and create reflections for them, teaching us how to duplicate layers, use the transform tool, change layer opacity, and how to use the feather effect. This was my favorite assignment because I used items from Portal, so I had fun with it. The feather tool also is very cool and should come in handy. I think the next assignment we have, following a video tutorial to make game art, will end up being the most useful, because so far it seems like it will teach a lot. Overall I could use a little more attention to detail. A lot of people tried to be pixel perfect, but I didn't go quite that far for most things. While it isn't always necessary to do so anyway, it can be important. Other than color in a few instances, I think I used the design elements and principles fairly well for the most part, but some more observation as well as trial and error will be necessary to see what works and what doesn't. My last post was about vectors. This post focuses on the other kind of image/program: Bitmaps. Though similar, Bitmap programs, such as Photoshop, are used for more realistic pictures thanks to their wide array or colors and "pixel perfect" design. I like bitmap images because of that, although making/ editing them can be tedious work since specificity is key, though it's worth it for the finished product.
I prefer using Photoshop rather than Illustrator, mainly because of the tools. It's nice to have a classic eraser tool again, rather than Illustrator's eraser that is more like scissors because it splits things up. We hadn't really explored the brush tool of Illustrator thoroughly, but it seems like in Photoshop it is much easier to just draw with the paint tool to make a shape or to color something in. I like how specific I can be in Photoshop with the quick mask feature being used to clarify selections, though it does take a while. I like bitmaps better because I have used more bitmap programs, and it feels closer to traditional art. There's a different logic needed in order to use vector programs which will take a little while to adjust to. I see why Illustrator would be useful, but I prefer Photoshop myself. Bitmaps programs could be used for texturing things in video games since they can be extremely specific and realistic. Most game art from the cover of the box to promotional images to art in the game could be done with bitmap programs. Bitmaps could be used a lot more than vectors, though vectors would still be needed for logos and other such things. Using both according to the strengths and weaknesses of each would yield the best results. |
AuthorHi, I'm Abi, a DSA student who likes games, drawing, writing, and acting. Archives
February 2020
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