Graphic images are stored in many formats for many reasons. In business, this may be for technical support and product design reasons, competitive reasons, and security reasons. But the main reason is image quality and usefulness. Some image formats are quite large because they retain a lot of image...

Look really closely at the computer-generated images in Figures 3.46, 3.47, and 3.48. See those jagged edges on the letters? Those are actually the pixels we have been talking about. They look really jagged if made from a solid color. But using various shades of that color and gradually blending the...

Images can also be displayed in games as opaque—halfway between solid and clear (like our ghost image). This is done by looking at each pixel in the image and the pixel directly under it and creating a new pixel that is a blended value of the original pixels (see Figures 3.44 and 3.45). Figure 3.44...

Finally, some games use a specific position on the color palette to determine what color will not render or be clear. Remember, the computer cannot see color, only the numbers. This method for masking has the computer looking at the position on the palette, not the color, to determine transparency. Usually...

Masking can also be achieved by dedicating a specific color to be rendered as clear or transparent. This color is usually an ugly green or purple that most likely will not be used any other time in the game art

A mask is a special image that is used to “mask” off portions of another image. A mask works like a stencil. Since an image is square or rectangular, the mask allows the edges to be any shape, as the game will render the masked portions invisible (see Figures 3.41, 3.42, and 3.43). Figure 3.41 ...

In the previous section, we looked at some basic information related to editing an image. This obviously only scratched the surface of what we’ll need to do in order to create graphics for a game. Sprites Sprites are small pictures of things that move around—characters, buttons, and items in your...

During the development of your project, you will have to manipulate images in order to get them to fit your needs. The basics of image manipulation are similar to the text editing you may have done in your word processor. Commands such as Cut, Copy, and Paste are common. We will also look at Skew, Rotate,...

On the CD A computer video card can display a certain number of colors at a time—16, 256, thousands, or even millions (see Figures 3.18, 3.19, 3.20, and 3.21, and see the Color Gallery in the Figures folder on the CD-ROM for the color versions of the images). The number of colors is called color depth,...

When working with most interactive content, you need to understand how color works in the computer. You will need precise control over your colors in certain situations in order to achieve certain effects and accomplish some jobs. In games and Web sites, you often have to set precise color information...