Part 6. Artistic Styles

Photorealism

Photorealism is an artistic style that renders realistic textures and environments. Photorealism is conveyed through the use of proportions realistically accurate, and textures that are also realistically accurate.

There are games like Far Cry 3 which are photorealistic, more games are LA Noire, Call of Duty, and the FIFA series.

LA Noire is a good example of a photorealistic style used in a game, the game shows photorealistic characters and environments which make you believe you are in LA. The use of textures and lighting within the game looks more believable than games such as Borderlands, a cel-shading style game, or Final Fantasy, an exaggerated style game.

Cel-shading

The cel-shading style is meant to convey a hand drawn image style. The cel-shaded style looks as though playing through a comic book. The style is great for games that have been made from graphic novels or comic books. A good example of this is the Walking Dead game. The game is based on a comic book and television show, but adopts a cel-shaded style.

The cel-shaded style renders 3D models with textures that make the models look 2 dimensional. Some cel-shaded games have thick black lines around the models, the cel-shading technique happens to have a limited amount of shades of light depending on the depth of view.

The game Borderlands 2 is a type of cel-shaded game, the technique of cel-shading fits well with the game style, as Borderlands is a type of comical and strange game. Though not all games follow the cel-shading technique though being comical or strange. 

Abstract

Abstract games follow a different style than photorealistic or cel-shaded. The style consists of powerful colours and shapes that make the visuals bizarre and out of this world. Osmos is a good example of an abstract game, the game is full of wonderful colours, and based around a singular cell organism.

Like photorealism, abstract art styles follow visual styles to make the game stand out more, the more realistic a game the more you can immerse yourself in it but with abstract, the more colours the more you want to explore your environment and gaze at the stunning visuals.

Exaggeration

Exaggerated art styles follow and are influenced by art styles from Japan in particular. Japanese art can be either anime art or manga art. Anime comes from the name animation, and manga is from the Chinese characters which translate into  “whimsical drawings”.
The exaggerated style is very popular within the Japanese games. Titles such as Final Fantasy, Naruto and Dead or Alive are good examples of exaggerated games. The styles of Final Fantasy although follow proportions that are realistic, over emphasize weaponry.