Synopses & Reviews
(back cover)
What better way to turn a creative hobby into a career than
to get a job in video game designÂ--as an artist!
In this practical compendium of techniques for drawing, painting, and computer graphics, the emphasis is on the art skills used throughout the games industry.
Learn the essential steps for building a complete scenic environment from thumbnail sketches to finished color illustrations
Discover how to conceive, sketch out, and bring to life your own dynamic cast of charactersÂ--from a band of heroes on a mission, to the flesh-eating monsters out to stop them
Get an inside track on how the game design business worksÂ--and understand the pivotal role of the thousands of artists being hired each year
This book is designed to inspire a new generation of artistsÂ--explaining the art essentials such as composition, perspective, linework, and rendering for real-life results, and advising on the pure creative process of coming up with ideas and getting them down on paper.
Bill Stoneham has been a professional fine artist for 30 years. He has worked in both feature film and effects studios and for the last 20 years has been creating art for computer game companies such as Lucas Arts and Eidos, among others.
Synopsis
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 creates art for computer game companies, including Lucas Art and Eidos, and has worked in both feature film and effects studios.