Unit 78 - Computer Games Design - Types of Digital Graphics

Unit 78 - Computer Games Design
Types of Digital Graphics
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Raster Images - A raster image will come in several formats, such as; BMP, GIF, TIFF and JPEG.
Most computers today are bitmapped displays, where each pixel on the monitor corresponds small numbers of bits in memory. Refreshing the screen is simple, you just have to scan the pixels and colour them correctly.

Alot of computer images are stored in a raster graphics formats or some other compressed version. Attempting to re-size the original image will cause a loss of resolution.

Vector Images - Vector images also come in different file formats, like PSD, WMF, FLA, and AI.

Unlike raster images, vectors are not made up of a grid of pixels, but are a set of paths with a start and end point, along with other points throughout the path, curves and angles. "The paths can be used to create simple drawings or complex diagrams." http://techterms.com/definition/vectorgraphic

Also, since vector images are not made up with a specific number of dots, they can be scaled to any size without losing resolution. 

File Extensions - File extensions are used so that the user of the computer can make out which file type is which. File extensions consist of BMP, PNG, GIFF, TIFF, JPG and PSD. The last part of the file name is used to indicate the type of file, so that the computer can use the correct program, when you want to execute the file.

As we can see in this image the file type is a .txt file which only contains text, but you could change the file to a .bat file and if you have the correct code within it, you can execute a command to open up cmd (Command Prompt) and launch a short animation, or can send a command to shut down your computer.

Compression - Compression is used on files to reduce the code size, so that it takes up less disk space. Compression software allows you to compress any file, to reduce the size of the original.

Image Capture - In short. Image capture controls what happens to your iPad, iPhone etc. once it's been plugged in to your computer. Typically though, this sort of process, when you plug a device in certain programs open, it's because that's what you've told your computer to do when said device is inserted. Usually the command will be stored somewhere in the OS. The chain of communication looks something like this: Plug phone in > OS recognize device > OS Runs driver for device > OS loads any preferences for device (running a certain program etc) 

Optimizing - When you optimize something, say your computer, you're cleaning out trash (grimeware) on your PC to increase it's performance speed.

Storage of Image Assets - This has three main factors; file size, file naming conventions,  and asset management. 

File Size - An image file size is measured in bytes. File size uses image file formats to store and organize digital graphics. they can be made of either vector data, pixels, or they can merge together.

File Naming Conventions - The main file formats that are used for printing, scanning and internet access/use are TIFF, JPG and GIFF. Although, TIFF cannot be used to browse the internet.

Assets Management - Digital assets management systems have computer software and hardware built in that helps the process of digital assets management. Digital asset management is made out of management tasks and decisions surrounding the cataloging, storage and distribution of assets.