Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 1.9
New technology allows artists to draw directly on the screen.
(Photo courtesy of Wacom Technology. All rights reserved.)
If you are serious about creating art for games, I highly recommend getting a digitiz-
ing tablet because it helps make the drawing and painting process on the computer
more natural. Don't worry if you don't have one, though. You can still complete
the projects in the topic because all of the art programs used in the projects work
with a mouse.
Most video and computer games today use 3D art to create the game experience.
To really understand how to create 3D art you first must understand how it is used
in a game.
First of all, the image you are viewing on a TV or computer monitor is not really
3D because the display is a flat surface made up of pixels, as we discussed earlier.
The images you are seeing are really pictures of a 3D game world viewed in rapid
succession. In other words, the game system is processing a virtual 3D environment
and creating images of the environment, which it sends to the display for viewing.
It is actually a very complex process that takes a lot of computer processing power.
Let's break it down a little so it is easier to understand.
