HA1 Task 2-Artistic Styles

       ·         Photorealism

Photorealism was an American art movement that began in the 1960s, taking photography as its inspiration. Photo-realistic painters created high quality images that referred to the reproduced image. In games photorealism is basically where the game looks indistinguishable from a photo. For example The Last Of Us is a photorealistic game as it looks like a photograph. The problem for games is that the game has to be rendered in and this requires alot of processing power.

The last of us remastered uses a photorealistic graphic design which makes the game look good. this graphics style attracts people to buy the game. Personally I enjoy playing games with a photorealistic art style more than any of the others because the realistic graphics add a deeper sense of immersion to the game, unlike games which use abstraction.


·         Cell Shading

Cell shading is a type of non realism rendering designed to make 3D computer graphics appear to be flat by using less shading colour. This gives the image a cartoon look and has been used in many games such as borderlands, Legend Of Zelda remastered and Crackdown.

Borderlands 2 uses cell shading to give a different aspect of looks to there game, this is why it stands out in the fps market and why it attracts people to buy the game. I think that this graphic style is good for games which are more fun than serious. For example it fits Borderlands because its a game about fighting strange enemies in a post-apocalyptic world.


·         Abstraction

Abstraction is when an image is made up of shapes and colour that are non representational. Its focused on shapes, colour and movement. These types of games usually have no story line and are usually indie or mobile games. Games which use abstraction include Tetris and Geometry wars. 



Games that use an abstract graphic style are usually made by indie developers. Most of the more well known companies are able to put  more money into there games and get a higher quality graphics style such as photorealism. In my opinion, games which use abstract graphics styles tend to be mobile games, I don't really enjoy these games as there is no storyline or actual characters and I prefer it when games have an entertaining story.

·         Exaggeration
Exaggeration is typically used in anime/manga video games, this is where the artist exaggerates many things in the game. Also the music adds to the exaggeration as there is usually some thrilling music during points in the game, such as fight scenes. This mostly happens in games with a Japanese influence such as the Final Fantasy games.

I enjoy games which use exaggeration as the art style is very intriguing and usually have a powerful storyline. The Naruto Ultimate Ninja series is another example of an exaggerated graphic style in video games.