Choosing the Look: Art Paradigms and the Factors That Define Visual Styles in Video Games
By: David Nam
Supervisor: Chad Walker
Masters of Interactive Technology degree conferred July 12, 2007
Thesis / Project completed: July 8, 2007

The first impact a game has is in its presentation. It is here where the majority of players will base their future decisions on, so the desire to make the best first impression is increasing the complexity of creating impressive visuals. The first decision an art director must make is to identify what style will be used to create the aesthetics of the game. With the ever increasing progress of technology, the impetus for photorealism is stronger than ever. With the ability to emulate reality almost flawlessly at hand, the choice of using a stylized approach almost seems irrational. However, an artistic vision can be crafted to invoke certain emotions not possible with photorealism. This project explores the elements that define three particular styles and presents them as alternatives to photorealism.

With this project, I have outlined the techniques necessary to develop three distinct styles, each a progressively further departure than that normally found in current video game titles. These techniques were employed with a typical art production pipeline, to demonstrate the feasibility of using these styles in current video game development. Each style was chosen to cover a range of different styles and serves as an illustrative sample of possible choices available to developers.

Early research for the project focuses on existing style models used in the video game industry, while production research involves specific techniques such as post-processing effects, non-photorealistic rendering solutions, and shader development. As a result, the final product is a series of three discrete scenes, each suitable as an art style for use in a three dimensional rendering engine. From this project, I have gained a better understanding of traditional artistic skills of composition, lighting, and form, but also the technical aspects of computer generated art to represent those traditional skills in the digital realm.

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