Mac- on ARTS

The invention of the computer is perhaps the critical achievement in the technological evolution of the human race. Through computing (and the internet) we have brought the world – and the peoples of the world – to our very fingertips. And the power and flexibility of computing has adapted itself to every application—especially entertainment: Just as the television rapidly became “must-have” entertainment in every home, computers have become our most engaging and captivating playmates.

Almost from the very beginning, computer games have played a crucial role in bringing astounding computing power to the common people. The yearning for better entertainment has fuelled a race for not only more powerful CPUs every year, but more sophisticated graphics and sound cards—both of which are necessary for the best and most immersive experience in what are increasingly complex and realistic game worlds. Even so, rarely can contemporary hardware realize the latest game’s audio and visual potential to the fullest.

(That said, there is an interesting movement among very small ‘casual games’ such as those produced by SandLot Games, to combine an excellent game with excellent game art, but without requiring the staggering computing power necessary for 3D animation, thousands of details, and attention to physics. An excellent example is Tradewinds Caravans, which uses a library of hundreds of beautifully illustrated male and female characters).

Increasingly sophisticated computer graphics and animation software and technology have also allowed man to realize their flights of fancy in a way that was once the sole province of movies and television, and share it worldwide. Early game art  involved static pieces of art, little more than scanned artwork to represent people, places, and things– though the artwork is of much higher quality and produced by veteran artists under strict art direction (such as Baldur’s Gate, Icewind Dale, and especially Romance of the Three Kingdoms XI–which boasts almost 1,000 beautiful historically inspired illustrations of male and female warriors, courtiers, and commoners in a feudal China setting). Since then, video games have quickly taken imagination and player engagement to new levels with lifelike animation and attention to light, shadows, gravity, and other laws of physics.

Science fiction and fantasy has always captivated adults and children alike, and video game makers have cashed in on the ability to vividly represent in digital art and digital animation what was once described in words and left to vague imagination. Where once words in books had to excite our minds to fill in the blanks, now computer games challenge us to take in all the sights and sounds. And the truly original and innovative game art and concepts in some games expose us to new sights and even new ways of thinking.

Fantasy stories have enthralled us for centuries with magical and supernatural themes, creatures, and settings; and timeless favorites drawn from mythology and classic stereotypes continue to be re-envisioned in countless ways by different artists and in different games, making the familiar at once identifiable yet new again and again.

With the computer to bring fantasy artwork to life with digital art, video game makers were quick to realize that all the beautiful and incredible artwork could only be enhanced with compelling, touching, thrilling stories. And with the interactivity a computer allows, game players can feel they are part of the story, and indeed determining its outcome with not just choices, but with varying combinations of strategy, strategic and fast thinking, experimentation and problem solving, and of course (but not always) good hand-eye coordination – typically with escalating levels of challenge, forcing the player to grow and improve.

Throughout this evolution, however, the highest quality in digital art and sound for the most vivid experience of fantasy artwork and fantasy game worlds has been foremost. Perhaps as never before, people judged books by their cover, so to speak.

Storytelling combined with increasingly realistic digital reproductions of human protagonists have tried to catch up with the sense of identification and investment we have when we are caught up with the characters in a well-written novel. The lifelike characters – how they move, how their faces display emotion, how they wince with pain – all contribute to an immense involvement on the player’s part, and many games were quick to adopt a first-person point of view for even more immersion when 3D became mainstream.

And combined with the interactivity and choice available in computer games, people could participate in a story as never before. In such games as Heroes of Might and Magic V, players from all over the world engage in discussions of how to best ‘build’ a powerful or simply interesting character, combining considerations such as game play strategies and innovative and unexpected combinations. And some games offer much more choice in how the heroes develop, sometimes orders of magnitude more. All further enhanced by dynamically changing the character in the game with artwork for weapons, amour, and other equipment.

As in movies and television, art and story direction is an invisible component that affects us immensely even though we may not be consciously aware. Even in the early days of computing, the better games showed strong art direction, and with storytelling and the visual experience increasingly important, the art departments of larger video game companies are typically overworked and must outsource simpler or less critical artwork. Just as on the static covers of fantasy novels you can expect to see fantasy art involving unrealistically gorgeous and buxom women, and ruggedly handsome men with flat abs. In a computer game there will need to be more variety to populate the game world with more than just heroic-looking protagonists, however, and in fact, in some games (such as Spellforce), players can choose an “atypical” look for the character they will control. In Spellforce, the game developers were careful to add a mix so that your hero can be old, scarred, and even balding – not necessarily the most traditional look in a starring role – adding to the sense of control, involvement, and “ownership” of the game experience.

Even if you do not play computer games, you can still at least experience and enjoy the beautiful artwork through screenshots and fantasy art wallpapers. Women fantasy art predominate, of course, but also popular are “cool” looking characters of all sorts — typically characters decked out in a stylish combination of fantasy weapons and armor. And as with contemporary fantasy artwork that finds its way onto the covers of novels, there’s a gratuitous amount of bare skin, enough to be sexually evocative, and sometimes just a skimpy piece of clothing away from soft pornography.

Jacquelyn P. Muller, AVP - Public Relations, (412) 995-7262
Devra Pransky, PR Specialist, (412) 995-7685

(PITTSBURGH - September 12, 2005) The Art Institutes announced
today that it will assist both domestic and international
students from universities in New Orleans, southern Louisiana,
Mississippi and Alabama universities, which have been closed for
the foreseeable future due to the devastation caused by
Hurricane Katrina.

The Art Institutes will make available both on-campus and
online courses that might be able to permit dislocated students
to progress in their academic careers during this semester of
disruption. Students at a university forced to close by
Hurricane Katrina may register at any of The Art Institutes 31
locations across the nation for courses, on a space-available
basis, for the fall semester.

The Art Institutes will waive tuition for dislocated students
who have already registered and paid tuition at their home
institution for the fall 2005 semester. If dislocated students
have not yet paid their tuition at their home institution, they
will be assessed the lesser of the current published tuition and
fees at the home institution, or The Art Institutes’ published
tuition and fees for the fall semester, as determined by the
school president.

“The Art Institutes strives to assist college students who have
been affected by Hurricane Katrina,” says Dave Pauldine,
president of The Art Institutes. “The Art Institutes offers this
initiative as a way to reach out to the students in the Gulf
Coast region whose lives and education have been impacted by
Hurricane Katrina and do what we can to assist those students.”

The Art Institutes is a group of 31educational institutions
located throughout North America. Offering a broad range of
programs including: audio production, culinary arts, culinary
management, fashion design, fashion marketing, graphic design,
industrial design technology, interior design, media arts &
animation, multimedia & Web design, photography, restaurant
management and video production. Not all programs are offered at
all schools.

The Art Institutes operate in Atlanta, Arlington, VA (as The
Art Institute of Washington), Boston (as The New England
Institute of Art), Charlotte, Chicago and Schaumburg, IL,
Cincinnati (as The Art Institute of Ohio - Cincinnati), Dallas,
Denver, Fort Lauderdale, Houston, Las Vegas, Los Angeles (as The
Art Institute of California - Los Angeles and California Design
College), Miami (as Miami International University of Art &
Design), Minneapolis, New York, Orange County, CA, Philadelphia,
Phoenix, Pittsburgh, Portland, San Diego, San Francisco,
Seattle, Tampa, Toronto , Vancouver (as The Art Institute of
Vancouver, York, PA (as Bradley Academy of the Visual Arts) and
The Art Institute Online, a division of The Art Institute of
Pittsburgh.

Students seeking additional information about The Art
Institutes’ initiative can view the policy in its entirety at
(www.artinstitutes.edu/katrina) or call the National Admissions
Information Center at 1-888-328-7900.

The Art Institutes (www.artinstitutes.edu), with 31 education
institutions located throughout North America, provide an
important source of design, media arts, fashion and culinary
professionals. The parent company of The Art Institutes,
Education Management Corporation (www.edmc.com) is among the
largest providers of private post-secondary education in North
America, based on student enrollment and revenue. Student
enrollment exceeded 66,000 as of fall 2004. EDMC has 71 primary
campus locations in 24 states and two Canadian provinces. EDMC’s
education institutions offer a broad range of academic programs
concentrated in the media arts, design, fashion, culinary arts,
behavioral sciences, health sciences, education, information
technology and business fields, culminating in the award of
associate’s through doctoral degrees. EDMC has provided
career-oriented education for over 40 years.

Website graphics Design will undoubtedly play an important role in marketing your site, and therefore a very efficient and effective way to boost their sales. It is very likely that your graphics give the customer the possibility of his first impression of your site and it is very important that a comprehensive and coherent picture of your site is created. The quality and positioning of the graphics that appear on its website those are essential to be attractive and professional. If all else fails in the design of your website, using professional-looking graphics can serve only to improve your site.

Positioning
Obviously, in launching a Web site, you’re trying to get across a message to the public, either informative or strictly sales. In either case, the contents of a website should be easy to read. One way to achieve this is by breaking with the text in good condition and relevant graphics, ensuring that the viewer interest is maintained while your message. The graphics should be complementary to the text and Aid to convey the message. The visitor must be able to look at a web page and instantly know what to expect from the rest of the site, remember that first impressions count only once, so that count. Web site graphics and location play a vital role in web design to the point that could make or break your website.

Image formats
In general, the formats used for the site are either JPG or GIF graphics, because Load faster than most others. The JPG format is used mainly for photos and GIF format is used mainly for buttons, logos or menu bars. A word of warning about working with graphics in JPG format. This is a lossy compression format, which means that every time the image is edited and saved, it loses a small amount of quality. The best way to avoid this is to edit the image in the native format of the image manipulation software you’re using, and then save the final version in JPG format.

Size Matters
Each time someone visits a website, web page that is downloaded to your computer, which means that its graphics are downloaded as well. There are two very important factors that come into play here if the site contains large graphics files. The first is that if the viewer is using a slow Internet connection, the graph will have plenty of time to unload, causing the viewer to lose interest and probably leave. The second is that the graphics could use a lot of bandwidth, meaning that if there is a lot of very large graphics files on the site, and that the site becomes popular, then the cost of operating this site may escalate. Therefore, if your graphics are more than 50kb, and then think seriously about reducing their size. I will cover this in more depth in my next article, but there are two points you should consider. One of them, stop thinking in inches or centimeters and think in pixels, as this is what your website is measured two inches, screen resolution will not be much better than 96 pixels / inch in most computers, and why use a chart that has a resolution of 600 pixels / inch and, therefore, six times larger?

Abstract
Professional web site graphics are attention grabbers and make your site stand out in the crowd. They can improve your site and increase the popularity and thus generate income. A good website to add graphics to the professionalism of your website, which in turn attracts viewers to return. On the other side of the coin, poor quality or poorly positioned graphics can cause your site more harm than good. Large graphics files can cause web pages to load slowly, losing viewers and potentially damaging its business. Working with graphics is a long time and an art form in itself. Therefore, it might be more practical / economic, sometimes paying a professional to modify / build graphics that you want.

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