This comprehensive manual teaches the art and craft of creating compelling graphics for video games in a wide range of media, both traditional and computer generated. The author also describes software that imitates the traditional media of paint, pen, and pencil. He goes on to discuss in detail how game genre defines the type of characters to be portrayed, whether human or fantastic, and he shows how to render appropriate facial expressions that will define a character's personality. Next, he discusses methods for creating environments—jungles, arctic landscapes, the ruins of lost worlds, and many others. He also instructs on mastering illustration and rendering techniques, among them, layering with paint, using filters to produce a painted effect, and digital composing. A gallery of examples from successful illustrators serves to inspire beginning artists. More than 350 instructive illustrations in color and black-and-white.
About the Author, Bill Stoneham
Bill Stoneham creates art for computer game companies, including Lucas Art and Eidos, and has worked in both feature film and effects studios.
Stoneham, who has been creating art for computer game companies for 20 years, escorts readers through the process of designing video game characters, environments, and narratives from the beginning steps of pencil sketching through final digital 3-D modeling. The fantasy drawing styles here do not break any new ground in gaming, but learning the process of professional game design will be illuminating to many gamers. This guide, with tons of illustrations on every page, will strongly appeal to older teenagers and young adults, especially those considering a career in gaming design.
