So as the end of the year approaches, I have come to the realization that, I'm about to lose access to a lot of my files. I'm talking files from up to 7 years ago, they're all going to disappear in a puff of smoke unless I transfer them. This is because I'm gonna be kicked out of schoology, my school google drive account, and possibly even my laptop because it is getting old and I'll probably get a new one before college. Soooo, this means it's time to transfer files, and part one of that is finding old work from schoology and putting it on my personal google drive or a flash drive, so I decided I'd share some of that work from my first Sci-Vis class with you here. That's really all I have to say about transferring files, here's some of my old work: I think it's pretty nice holding on to old artwork so that you can see how far you've improved. I won't save every single piece of art from schoology, but I'll save a few like these so that I can remember where I started, and how quickly I can grow when I set out to learn new skills. Hopefully I'll have enough storage for all of these files.
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In this post I am going to cover the basics of many different file formats, because I learned a lot about them from the resources we were given since I did not have much prior knowledge. The formats I will cover are TIFF, JPEG, GIF, and PNG. First however, it's important to address the two main forms of image compression: lossy and lossless, two different ways to compress images. Lossy reduces the image quality in order to also reduce file size and permanently alters the final image. Lossless on the other hand does not reduce image quality, but also can't have quite as small file sizes. For the formats below, TIFF, GIF, and PNG all use lossless, and JPEG uses lossy.
TIFF - Tagged Image File Format. I had never heard of this format before. They have large file sizes, but are extremely easy to transfer from one platform to another. They can use either of the compression methods listed above. These could be useful to keep an uncompressed back up file when compressing something but also wanting to keep the full sized image. The full sized image would be of good quality, and for game design they could easily be used for advertisements. JPEG - Joint Photographic Experts Group. These are made specifically for photographs, and can maintain quality even when being compressed for the most part. This is because this format is designed to keep the important details and discard the less noticeable ones as it is compressed. This makes it very nice when an image needs to retain it's quality while still reducing the file size. However, file sizes are usually a little bigger. In a game, this would be best for anything that needs to looks very realistic, likely either reference pictures or advertisements. It also is what is typically used for scanned images which could be useful for game art. GIF - Graphical Interchange Format. GIFs use lossless, but they also reduce the amount colors in an image to just 256 different colors to save space. They don't looks as nice when printed, but are fine for computer screens. They are commonly used for animation, which could be incredibly useful for a game, such as to animate a character and their walk cycle. The simplistic colors likely will not hurt the game since most game's graphics aren't overly realistic. Also, GIFs use lossless compression which would be extremely nice since a game designer wouldn't want every mob's walk cycle to be such a big file that they ran out of room on their computer before they could finish the game. PNG - Portable Network Graphics. PNG is similar to GIFs and TIFFS but in some ways even better since it was designed to replace them, though it hasn't quite yet. All compression to the images can be undone. Like GIF, it's also good for more cartoon-ish art, but has many more colors. However, it doesn't have support for animation. PNG is the format that is supported by more recent internet browsers, and lets the artist keep exact details. This makes it perfect for most game art since it keeps details while still not needing to be photo-realistic. OTHER - There are a few other formats, but for the most part they aren't very important. BMP is a file format owned by Microsoft that practically no one uses and that would be almost useless. The RAW format is strictly for camera storage, and the file has to be converted once put on a different device. The most important of these miscellaneous files are the PSD, PSI, and other such formats for Adobe digital art programs. They're useful because they keep layers separate allowing for ease of editing, although they have to be converted to be used anywhere outside of Photoshop (or whichever program it is from), and it's recommended to convert them anyway just to have a backup file. The two main file formats right now are JPEG and GIF, though the latter is expected to be replaced by PNG. For a game, it seems that PNG would be the best format to use because of it's wide array of colors and ability to keep details even of less realistic art. |
AuthorHi, I'm Abi, a DSA student who likes games, drawing, writing, and acting. Archives
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