3D Game Art: A Complete Guide to Understanding 3D Digital Game Art

3D game art is an umbrella term for the video game assets you see while you play the video games. To explain more on it, 3D game art encompasses game environment, game characters, game objects, props, SFX, and VFX. 

Why Is There So Much Emphasis On The High-Quality Graphics For 3D Game Art?

The core purpose of 3D game art is to give the ultra-modern and realistic feel to the players so they can immerse themselves in the game. From sound effects to the visual effects, high quality game art is always emphasized. 

 

With special reference to game graphics, the outlook of game environment, props, and characters is crucial for achieving the same high quality consistency throughout. For the game designers, 3D game art gives them a wide ground to play in and apply their skills to the game art. 

 

Furthermore, in 3D game art, game designers have to look for many details such as lighting, texturing, rendering, baking, and so on. While working on 3D game art, the game designers have to achieve the level of accuracy while playing with their creative mind. Moreover, the first look at the 3D game art has to speak for itself as it connotes directly to the realistic look. To achieve the set benchmark, 3D game designs and designers have to maintain the high-resolution graphics.

3D Game Art Design Techniques 

To create stunning 3D game art, a lot of effort goes in. From technical knowledge, skills, creativity, to the application of tips and tricks - 3D game art techniques have a lot. Here is the quick overview of the techniques for optimizing 3D game art performance that you should know for creating 3D game art:

High-poly Modeling 

This technique for creating 3D game art entails developing a high number of meshes or polygons to create high graphic models that capture details. As compared to the low poly modeling, high poly modeling caters to more detailing and intricacy of the game art. As we know that for 3D game art, highly realistic graphics are required - only high poly modeling can dwell into the details that a 3D game would need.

Advanced Lighting and Baking

To make the game graphics look ultra realistic with the proper lighting, the game artist must have the ability to utilize the lighting techniques seamlessly. 

 

Emitting the light from different sources and directing them at the right objects calls to the art of lighting and baking. There are different kinds of lighting used in the game art such as spotlight, floodlights, area lights, and so on. 

 

Honing the technique of lighting and baking is extremely important to put life to the animations or graphics of the game while stimulating the storytelling in a more coherent way. 

 

Hence, a 3D render would only look as realistic as it needs to be only if the lighting is done properly.

High-resolution textures

Such textures come as the layer over the 3d models to make them look realistic and gain the lifelike creation or look. Furthermore, some games have HD textures packs that aim to provide the better skin to the games, however, they might affect the game performance.

Despite the fact above-stated, high resolution textures can take your game art and game to the next level as players would be able to feel the details.

Motion Capture

As the name suggests, motion capture is the process of capturing the movement of the characters and then converting them onto the computer augmented characters. 

 

Sometimes, the game art and the chemistry of the characters require the motion capture for story based games. Using high-end technology and machinery, the movements and actions are captured while the face of the character is replaced with the computer-generated character’s face. 

 

The most well-known examples of the motion capture game characters include Resident Evil 2, God of War, L.A. Noire, Uncharted Series, The Last of Us, and many others. 

 

Here are some examples of the motion capture in games: 

Tools And Software For 3D Game Art

The best 3D game art tools and software available are ZBrush, Blender, Maya, Autodesk 3ds Max, Houdini, and LightWave 3D. 

Understanding game engines for 3D game art

Game engines play an important role in the development of 3D game art and 3D games. With the advancement in technology, game engines and their features have made it easier for the game devs to upskill their game art development while speeding up the flow using pre-built assets in the game engines and toolkits.

Modern Gaming Engines 

With the passage of time and technological advancements, many games engines have been built with different sets of features. However, the main responsibilities of any game engine are to maintain the balance of physics such as immersion that entails simulation quality and computing power limitations to achieve the desirable results without affecting the game performance. 

 

Best 3D Game Art Services | InvoGames 

Are you on the lookout for a 3D game art studio who can create top-notch 3D games for your next project?

 

We offer 3D game art design services to create realistic 3D game art and 3D games that make the players feel immersive with high quality graphics on high-end technology. From stylized 3D game art, 3D environment, 3D props, to overall 3D game assets, InvoGames promises to deliver a diverse range of game art to make your next project a hallmark. 

 

Got some ideas and want to bring them to life? Please do not hesitate to contact us at [email protected]