Thomas Gaynor - Unit 78 - Digital Graphics for Computer Games: HA1 Task 1

Task 1 – Technical Glossary

1. VECTOR IMAGES

Vector graphics are created graphic software and are made up of different shapes.

You can manipulate and edit each shape separately and put them together to create an image. You would be able to manipulate the shape, colour, size and position. By doing this and putting the shapes together you are able to make a new image.

Vector images are scalable images meaning that you can zoom in and out and they will not lose any of their quality since they’re made of shapes instead of pixels.

Also even large vector images only take up a small amount of memory.

2. RASTER IMAGES/BITMAP IMAGES

Raster/Bitmap images are made of pixels. This type of artwork is created by horizontal and vertical rows of pixels so when the images are enlarged the image becomes far more blurry and you are able to see the pixels individually which decreases the quality of the image. The files they show up file types include .psd, .tif, .jpg, .gif, and .bmp.

3. THE PIXEL

A pixel (picture element) is a colour on a computer that is displayed in a computer image; a pixel is only a tiny area they can also be called a bit. How big a pixel is depends on the size of the resolution. A pixel uses the RGB spectrum and is made up of Red, Blue and Green. When all of the different pixels come together it makes an image but when you zoom in the image which will allow you to see all the images.

4. COLOUR DEPTH

Colour depth can affect the quality and appearance of bitmap images. Pixels can be assigned different numbers of bits which is known as the bit depth or colour depth. The bit depth determines the amount of values and hence colours in the colour palette that are available to the pixel. The higher the bit depth means more colours.

Bit Depth	Number of Colours
1 bit	2 colours (usually black and white)
2bits	4 colours
4bits	16 colours
8 bits	256 colours
16 bits	65, 536 colours (High colour)
24 bits	16.7 million colours (True colour)

5. COLOUR MODELS

a colour model is a way of creating a full range of colours by only using the primary colours. there are two different models that can be used the first one is addictive and use light to display colour e.g. a monitor whereas the second 'subtractive' displays it by printing it out with ink

6. RESOLUTION

The resolution is the quality of pictures, the lower the resolution the more pixels that appear on the screen the worse the quality it looks. The higher the number of pixels, the better the quality of the image. The resolution depends on the size of the monitor.

7. ANTI-ALIASING

Anti-aliasing is a computer software technique to get rid of jagged edges, these occur because the resolution of the monitor can’t create a smooth enough line. When it is not smooth the jagged edges or 'Jaggies' appear, anti-aliasing is a technique to remove Jaggies by surrounding them with a shade of grey colour but this can make the picture fuzzier

8. ASPECT RATIO

This is the ratio of the two different dimensions on the screen, width and height e.g. 4:3, 16:9 and 21; 9 are all different aspect ratios. The ratio that the screen can handle is proportional to the images quality

9. FILE FORMATS - bmp, png, gif, tiff, jpg, psd, pdf, eps and ai

File formats is the structure of how information is stored, two images may look exactly the same on first glance but are two different files and that is because the information that makes them up is structured differently e.g.

BPM – Bitmap image

PNG – “portable Network Graphics” which are raster graphics

GIF – “Graphic Interchange Format” which is animated raster graphics
TIFF – Raster graphics

JPG – raster graphics

PSD – a Photoshop document which are designed for Photoshop

PDF – “Portable Document Format” which is a format to present documents and are independent of applications

EPS – “encapsulated Postscript Vector” an illustrator file that can also include text and not just images

AI – stands for Adobe Illustrator and works will it

10. COMPRESSION

Compression or data compression means to store data in a way that requires less space while still having the same amount of information e.g. a ZIP file compresses data making it far easier to send/receive and it will take up less space until it is decompressed

11. IMAGE CAPTURE DEVICES

Image capturing is the process of acquiring images from devices such as cameras and scanners, these are used to take images of the real world and edit them to make a digital version, these can end up being used for locations for games or character features

12. OPTIMISING

To optimize a computer means to make the best or most effective use of it. This can include getting rid of unnecessary apps that you don’t use deleting unnecessary pics and vids, clearing up your ram when necessary, compressing files to take up less space, use only software’s that you need and by making sure there are no viruses on your computer

13. STORAGE AND ASSET MANAGEMENT

This refers to how companies organize, manage, retrieve and distribute their media such as photos, videos, presentations and documents that need to be given to others. It’s all about storing data in the most effective method as to save both space and money; you need to create a good system to stay on track in a business

Links

VECTOR IMAGES

http://www.123rf.com/photo_12345610_vector-pack-of-various-isometric-buildings-with-tiled-elements-ready-to-use-for-city-building-game.html

http://www.123rf.com/photo_16240607_vector-pack-of-various-isometric-buildings-with-tiled-elements-ready-to-use-for-city-building-game.html

http://freecoolmathgames.com/driving/vector-stunt/

RASTER IMAGES

http://vector-conversions.com/vectorizing/raster_vs_vector.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raster_graphics

https://www.e-education.psu.edu/geog482spring2/c9_p12.html

THE PIXEL

http://www.easyelements.com/image-quality.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pixel