Graphics Styles

Graphic Styles

    The graphic style of a game decides the art style of the textures and assets used. Graphic styles vary from hyper-realistic to really wacky cartoon textures in order to help mould a general idea of what the game is going to be like.

Photo-realistic

  The photo-realism graphic-style is the closest to real life as you get in the video game world. It uses photos of the real world as a reference for the texture in game. Games that use this graphic style consist of: Battlefield 3, Crysis 2 and Beyond Two Souls. This style makes the game more immersive as it looks closer to real life.

 

Abstraction

 

 The abstract graphic style has shapes and objects that look the most unrealistic. It is usually very cartoony, having bright colours and shapes that vaguely relates to characters and objects. Many of Jackson Pollock’s paintings use this style. In the games market it is usually used in games aimed at a younger audience as it is very colourful and bright. Examples would be Loco Roco and Limbo.

Cel Shading

Cel-shading is similar to abstract although it is usually more realistic. A key feature of cel-shading is the bold, black border around objects. This makes the textures within the border stand out more. Games that use this style are: Borderlands, Team fortress 2 and Cel damage overdrive.

Exaggeration

Some games have an exaggerated graphic style, this means that some aspects of the characters are disproportionate such as the eyes and arms, much like caricatures.  Most JRPG’s such as Tales of symphonia use it, having giant eyes. Gears of war also has exaggerated graphics with the characters having giant feet and torsos. These giant proportions can make a character look really strong or cute.