Changing HUES
Ezine Spring 2022
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Table of Contents Table of Contents
6-7 The Drive To Digital Sydney Condron
12 - 13
AJaveria Click Forever Maheen
18 - 19 4 | Changing Hues
4-5 Meet the Editors
8 - 11 Twelve Principles of Animation Sydney Condron
14 - 17
The Art of Gulab Jamun
Javeria Maheen
Art on the Austin Street Jonah Plasse
Evolution on the Easel Jonah Plasse
24 - 25 The Art of Games Aedan Ramos
26 - 29 The Battle of 2D vs 3D
30 - 31
Aedan Ramos
Intro to Music William Floyd
35 - 37
20 - 23
32 - 34
The Flow William of Music Floyd
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Meet the Editors Aedan Ramos is very passionate about video games. He likes to play them in his spare time, with Super Smash Brothers being one of his favorites, and is interested in pursuing game design as a career, though he enjoys physical games as well. Aedan plays many trading card games, or TCGs, and has collected over a thousand cards himself.
Jonah Plasse is an enjoyer of 2D animation. He even made an animation for his LASA application. For the future, he’s considering medicine or programming as a career. He also enjoys video games and strategy board games and was born in New York City.
William Floyd is an avid fan of video games. His favorite video games are Terraria and Battlefront II and he plays them during his free time. He also has a newfound love of programming and after he graduates, he would like to be a software engineer.
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Sydney Condron is very enthusiastic about art. Her preferred media includes digital and computer-based art. She also enjoys drawing and creating stories in her free time and is currently working on her own selfpublished webcomic. In the future, Sydney would like to go into zoology and work with wild, and possibly endangered animals.
Javeria Maheen thoroughly enjoys reading. She likes to read since it takes her to a different world where her problems aren’t real. After she graduates, she wants to become either a doctor, lawyer, or politician. She has also lived in eight different places before middle school.
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Drive to Digital The
The artstic community is seeing a rapid shift towards online creation
By Sydney Condron
Y
ou sit at your desk while scrolling through a social media platform. Thumbing through the passing images you see drawings made by a variety of artists. Vibrant colors, unique brush strokes, and moving graphics catch your eye. These touches could not be done with a simple pen and paper; some other element must have been added to give the pieces their extra flair. Art has seen one of its most rapid shifts in the past decades due to the introduction of digital media. In recent years, artists have been able to make art in an entirely new way that never would have been considered before; on a computer. Starting in the 1980’s, artists were able to investigate this novel technique, but they were walking an unpaved trail. One of the pioneers of this medium was Nik Ainley. Now a professional freelance artist who has worked with many large companies such as Pepsi, Nike and the NFL, Ainley was never a traditional artist. He stumbled upon Photoshop while getting his physics degree at Imperial College London, and his passion only grew from there. “When I started this, about 20 years ago, the digital art scene was a lot smaller, a lot more niche than it is now,” Ainley said.
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Ainley was self-taught since there was no one ahead of him to provide lessons. Throughout college, he played around with many online programs such as Photoshop and built an understanding for digital methods of creation. “We were just making it up as we went along, not trying to do what traditional artists were doing, but doing things that you could only really do with digital art programs that hadn’t been done before,” Ainley said. As the online artistic community grew, others began to take up the medium. Erik Johanssen is a photographer who has worked in Photoshop for 20 years to manipulate images and create surreal landscapes. His works have been featured around the world in numerous exhibitions. Johanssen said that he had a large interest in computers during his youth, so when he got his first camera he decided to mix the two devices into one end product. “Over time, it became a hobby, and then it became a job,” Johanssen said. However, not everyone has been happy with this transition. The
general unease about technology has deterred some from the new medium. Ian Ingram is a freelance traditional artist who has had his work featured in many exhibitions, such as Ash and Oil in Los Angeles. Ingram is now starting to dabble in digital media. He admitted that originally he was adamantly against the idea of drawing online. “I’m sure you’ve noticed that culturally, we are all fairly active screen participants,” Ingram said.
“There was a sort of part of me that poo-pooed the ubiquitous screen, and for a long time, I thought it was a negative cancer growing in our culture.” Ingram stated that he was upset at the idea of his son being on electronics constantly, but realized “that was not going to be a fruitful path for my interaction with my children.” It was then that he decided to approach the medium with a more open mind in an effort to connect with his children.
Now Ingram greatly enjoys an online style and has tried many different techniques, including 3D softwares. He said that the various tools and programs have created a new type of inspiration that he never would have encountered on his own. “It’s like the limitations of each medium leads to my creative thirst,” Ingram said. “It looks for ways to push the limitations into areas of transcendence.”
Person using Friend Swede tablet. Photo courtesy of Digital Trends.
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Not only do the various programs provide more inspiration, they have also allowed for more opportunities and creation possibilities for artists.
“The programs will never come up with the idea or the artistic side of it.” Ainley claimed that anything can be art so long as the creator puts their time and effort into it. It may be made in a different way than most other art, but digital art still has the same intention behind it that traditional art does. Ainley also stated that traditional artists are avoiding the fact that their own tools aid their craft and make it easier to create.
Ian Ingram stands in front of his paintings for the showcase of his art called “Ash and Oil”. From left to right the paintings are Inseparable Thieves, Of salt and Faith, and To Burgle or Burrow. Photo taken by Stefania Rosini. “I think that it’s leveled the playing field, where you don’t have to spend 20 years developing a craft to create a convincing reality,” Ingram said. “Almost anyone who can afford a computer or an iPad now have at their disposal the ability to create a convincing enough reality that ideas will flow through that visual channel with much more efficiency, and we will get great, wild new ways of seeing the world as a result of that.” This leveled playing field is a subject of heavy debate. Many traditional artists say that the software does all of the work without any effort from the artists. Some even go as far as to call these tools cheating. “It’s kind of true in a way, but also complete nonsense,” Ainley said.
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“Traditional artists, they use just as much technology as we do,” Ainley said. “Just because paper and pens and paint brushes were invented a long time ago doesn’t mean they aren’t technology as well.” Ingram shared this mentality as well, claiming that there is “no such thing as cheating” when it comes to art. “These artists also get their canvas made by somebody else, the paints that are the brightest reds are manufactured in laboratories far away,” Ingram said. “You’re standing on the shoulders of so many giants that came before you. If you’re a purist and you want only your creative spirit, and your creative hands to be the thing doing the expressing then then you have to struggle to not have any element of cheating going on in your painting.” Ingram was against the idea of placing restrictions on what an artist can or cannot do, saying that it would dampen one’s creative spirit. “If you put a roadblock up that says ‘this is cheating,’ well, you’re only limiting your access to the thrilling tidal wave of new imagery coming at us.”
Ingram also addressed the rampant romanticism of realism in art. He said that those that are overly obsessed with having an entirely realistic rendition of a subject might have a better time pursuing photography where you can achieve that effect instantaneously.
downsides, especially as some try to appeal to larger audiences. “I was starting to do stuff that I thought other people would like, not what I would like.” Ainley said.
“If your interest is just making something that looks real, then photography will really appeal to you and your creative spirit will find fulfillment in that medium,” Ingram said. The creation of digital software is not the only change that technology has brought to the artistic community. Online communication and social media have had major impacts on the way art is shown and created. “It’s the primary way everyone is seeing art,” Ingram said. “Especially after the pandemic, when we were all closed off from going to see museums, who is going to see me outside anything, right? So the images suddenly flowed into our homes and into our hands.” Art can now be broadcasted to massive audiences that likely would have never seen the piece otherwise. This can also lead to many business opportunities for artists. Ingram stated that social media is the primary way he grows his business and that the secondary way is “so far down on the list that it’s not even worth mentioning.” “I do commissioned work once in a while, and these requests, they always come from someone that has seen my work in a super random place, some blog, or somewhere online,” Johanssen said. An abstract digital piece by Nik Ainley titled Only This and Nothing More. Courtesy of Shinybinary.
However, the growing online presence of artists have some
Behind the scenes of Johansson’s Stellantis. Erik directs his subject to allow for the creation of an illusion of them holding a star in their tweezers. Photo provided by Erik Johanssen.
“I’d often find that when I posted stuff online, I could never predict what was going to be popular and what wasn’t. I couldn’t understand why often it would be the more generic stuff, I guess it had more mass appeal. But that was influencing me and sort of pushing me down that road of doing stuff with more mass appeal.” Many changes have been made to art recently, and it will continue to change as time passes. These transitions have both beneficial and harmful aspects, but, as Ingram said, “It’s an overall positive because it is happening. I think that it’s just fun to watch. And since it’s happening, it’s great.”
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Of
The
Twelve Principles
ANIMATION
Straight Ahead and Pose to Pose Two methods of animating keyframes, where main poses are drawn first, and pose to pose when frames are drawn consecutively.
Exaggeration Features are stretched and expanded to add more life and appeal to movements.
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Appeal Characters and objects are designed to be interesting to look at.
Slow In and Out Movements ease in and out to create a more natural acceleration.
Timing The spacing of objects between frames during an action.
Secondary Action
Smaller actions are added to complement the main movement.
A nifty guide to the key elements of animation By: Sydney Condron
Squash and Stretch
Objects will squash and stretch to show their impact and weight.
Solid Drawing Characters and objects are made to appear 3D.
Anticipation Draws the viewers attention towards a movement or action.
Staging The composition of a frame is arranged for the viewer to easily see the movement.
Arcs All natural movement happens in arcs, so this has to be translated into animation.
Follow Through and Overlapping Action Looser parts of a character or object will continue to move after the primary action.
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A Click Forever
The past, present and future of one of the world’s most By: Javeria Maheen revolutionary inventions
“I think that [photograhy] captures a wonderful moment in their life and builds a rapport and connection with that person that lasts, if not forever, a very long time because they have these photographs to look back on.”- Daniel Nugyen 14 | Changing Hues
A
s you put your eye to the viewfinder and see the world in a whole new way, you change the settings to suit your landscape and click the button. The whole camera shudders because of the noise. In the blink of an eye, you’ve just managed to capture the beauty of this world in an everlasting way. You open your eyes before gazing at the screen. There it is, an exact replica of what is standing in front of you, the only difference being that it’s portable. As your eyes continually linger, you can’t help but imagine what other images people have taken on this revolutionary item, and the images people will capture decades into the future.
“In some ways, this makes better photographs because, on a computer, you realize the light in the computer shines from the back,” Charlesworth said. “So it makes the photograph brighter; it makes it easier to tinker with a photograph, change the brightness, change the contrast, eliminate things and so on - all of which was much more difficult when the photograph was printed from a negative onto a positive on
Though the technology for the camera was created in two different places, the most famous version was in France in 1826 by inventor Joseph Nicephore Niepce. Niepce ended up creating the first functional version of the camera for potters to speed up their ability to transfer the design to many items and be able to massproduce those items. Niepce’s camera ended up leading to what we know today as photography.
PAST Michael Charlesworth is a professor at University of Texas. He teaches 18th and 19th-century British and European Art. He is the author of three books and writes articles about a variety of topics from the panoramic representation of landscape to photographic history. Charlesworth said that over time, the photograph has gone from being formed physically to being almost fully digitalized.
people have done some research on this. They found transcriptions in court where one of the lawyers was patiently explaining to the judge how to look at a photograph back in the 1870s, or the 1880s. From about then and until about 1980, photographs were customarily used. In the era before photography, you really didn’t have that kind of pictorial visual evidence.”
Handycams like this were the 'past' of phtography. Photo courtesy of Javeria Maheen. a piece of paper or card.” Though technology and purpose have changed over time, the significance of photography is just as important now as it was when it was invented. “For a while, photography was understood or was thought to be faithful,” Charlesworth said. “In recording what was in front of the camera, it became something that could be considered evidence in courts of law… because photographs are so easily changed. But for a while they say,
Photography has also played a crucial role in one of the most horrific events humans have done, the world wars. “Photography was used in wartime to find out what the enemy is doing, to find out where to bomb, or otherwise try to interfere with the enemy’s purposes,” Charlesworth said. “This really started in the first World War because that was soon after airplanes were invented. For the first time, we had aerial photographs. The people who did the real hard work on [aerial
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photography] were the French, as their interpretation was well ahead of anybody else’s. Then, during the second World War, it was used again, now even in Korea and Vietnam. Until the 1960s, when they began to replace [aerial photography] with satellite photographs, you didn’t have to send a spy plane up if you’ve already got a satellite higher up and out of reach of the enemy.” Though photography has been a military weapon, in many ways it has evolved extraordinarily in the past decades. Today, the purpose of photography can be used for many reasons.
Student films using an Handycam. Photo courtesy of Javeria Maheen
“I think [photography] has a really wonderful positive effect,” Nugyen said. ”I do everything from corporate headshots to commercial advertising and I help brands find their identity visually. I consider myself a portrait photographer - so taking portraits of people and families. I think [a portrait] captures a really wonderful moment in their life and builds a rapport and connection with that person that lasts, if not forever, a very long time because they have these photographs to look back on.” Along with his passion for photography, Nugyen would like to take photographs of big, global issues. “Absolutely, I’ve thought about it several times,” Nuygen said. “My father was a bomber pilot. I come from that type of family and frustration, and it’s always intrigued me. I wanted to become a photojournalist or a wartime photographer… Maybe I’ll do that one day. But I also love to capture some street stuff and some global issues.”
This drone is an example of the "future" of phtography. Photo courtesy of Javeria Maheen
PRESENT Daniel Nugyen is one of the owners of an Austin-based company called Fotohouse. He has devoted his career to the art of photography and spoke about the effect photography has on people.
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FUTURE There are many aspects of photography that allow photographers the freedom to experiment and create their own specific style. Someone who has found his own unique style is Alex MacLean, an aerial photographer and pilot who has won various awards for his prestigious photographs which have been displayed all This Sony Camera is an example of the "present" of photography. Photo courtesy of Javeria Maheen
over the world. His photos have recently evolved to become more accessible in the form of drones. Alex MacLean is a aerial photographer who has an understanding of howthe future of photography will be like. Courtesy of Alex MacLean
“Drone photography [will come next] because it’s so accessible to so many people,” MacLean said. “One thing about drone photography where there’s an advantage with the plane is that I can fly higher than a drone. I can go where I want, see what’s around and I can do long trips, whereas [with] a drone, you’d be driving the car and then sending it up and you wouldn’t be seeing what you’re getting.” MacLean has worked on a multitude of projects with the most memorable being about climate change and its effect on sea-level rise. “One of the book projects I did was about sea-level rise in the East and Gulf,” MacLean said. “It was a way of looking at climate change because at the time, six years ago when I did the project, climate change was being denied. The one thing that you couldn’t deny about climate change is the sea-level rise - that was just a fact. But now, [experts are] saying it’s gonna be up but the foot on these coasts by 2050.
Daniel Nugyen is a local photographer who has an understanding of how it is to get into the photography business and has a big take on modern photography. Courtesy of Daniel Nugyen
No matter what happens it is obvious that photography has been a big part of the way we experience the world and it will continue into the future.
OH SNAP IT'S THE END!
Michael Charlesworth is a professor at the University of Texas st Austin Texas who teaches 18th and 19th Century British and European Art. He brings a studious perspective to the table and has a understanding about the past of photography esspecially how photography shaped the world in the 19th Century. Courtesy of Michael Charlesworth.
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The Art of
By: Javeria
This is my family’s version of a popular Indian dish. It’s made for special occasions or if you just need a sweet comfort food.
Gulab Jamun
Maheen
STEP 1 SUGAR
Mix sugar and four cracked cardamoms into a pot. Then pour some water and boil the water until slightly sticky. To check if the syrup was made correctly, cool it and then touch with your finger. If it’s not correctly made, then the syrup will not be absorbed into the Gulab Jamun.
STEP 4 When all of your dough has been fried, leave it in a colander to drain the excess oil. When most of the oil has gotten out, put the spheres into the sugar syrup from before and serve either hot or cold.
ENJ
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GHEE
FLOUR
SEMOLINA
MILK POWDER
BAKING POWDER
MILK
STEP 2 Put flour, semolina, milk powder, and baking powder in a bowl together and mix. When thorughly mixed, add ghee (clarified butter) and mix the milk in slowly. Mix until it’s in a dough form.
STEP 3 Roll the dough into tiny spheres roughly one inch diameter. While you are rolling the dough, heat up your choice of oil. To test if the oil is hot enough, drop a tiny bit of dough into the pan: if the dough bubbles right away, then your oil is ready. When the oil is ready, drop in three to four spheres in and fry until golden brown.
OY!
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By Jonah Plasse
How street art in Austin has evolved into its own unique scene.
T
he chemical smell of the fresh spray paint on the wall. The sound you hear when you press the can. This one moment is the culmination of hours and hours of hard work, but it was all worth it for you to show who you truly are and express yourself through art.
the general public, they didn’t like what we were doing, and it was really the fact that we were using a spray can,” Nordstrom said. “There was a stereotype that graffiti was gang-related, and we were a bunch of criminals, which was kind of true, but a
Street art was popularized in the U.S. in the 1980s and Austin was not exempt. The art form has allowed individuals a medium to show their creativity while advocating for social reform, creating under an alias, or simply expressing who they are as an artist, with just a can of spray paint.
It’s definitely gone from something that was outlawed and looked down upon to something that is now pretty well accepted. - Nathan Nordstrom
“When it came to
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Nathan “Sloke” Nordstrom, a professional graffiti artist in Austin who’s been producing graffiti since the 1990s, said that, ‘In the past, graffiti was widely unaccepted as an artform in the city.
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“There wasn’t really much support at all, it was mainly underground,” Nordstrom said. “The only people that really seemed to be into it were the people, the graffiti writers. We had to deal with the cops, we had to deal with citizens that thought they were heroes. The general opinion was that it was looked down upon.” Betsy “B Kay” Askew has been a street artist in Houston and Austin for nearly a decade. She argued that, nowadays in Austin, there is less of a community associated with street art than there was in the past.
lot of us were artists too. We did it because we loved it.”
“There was more of a community with street art,” Askew said. “It used to be where we could all get together in big warehouses, and have parties and do art, and we’re not able to do that anymore because it’s too expensive to live and do those fun things.”
Nordstrom also noted that street and graffiti artists received very minimal support for their art from the public when he joined the art community in the 1990s.
Though she does miss the past street art community in Austin, Askew acknowledged that there are some positive aspects of the scene that weren’t there before.
Collection of multiple artists’ works at E 7th St. Photo courtesy of Jonah Plasse
She noted that the community has gotten much more accepting of other artists, rather than just their own work. “There’s not as many fights,” Askew said. “There used to be a lot of fights if you went over somebody’s stuff, there’d be backlash from other artists, and nowadays it’s a community of everybody accepting each other.” Nordstrom also notes that being a street or graffiti artist has improved in the eyes of the general public. “It’s definitely gone from something that was outlawed and looked down upon to something that is now pretty well accepted,” Nordstrom said. “I think street art is a little more accepted than
graffiti art. But it’s definitely changed, I would say it went from underground to mainstream. The art community has grown, and though much of the medium is now business-oriented, Nordstorm sees a lot of talent in the future of Austin street art. “I think there’s a lot of potential,” Nordstrom said. “I think that more and more people are trying art, and that’s a good thing. But I think it’s geared more towards business now, It’s more about
art jobs. But in the future, I think anything’s possible, and I think there’s a whole new generation of artists coming up that are very talented. I’m excited to see what happens.”
An art piece painted by Nathan “Sloke” Nordstrom in Austin, Texas. The piece depicts his tag, “Sloke.” Photo courtesy of Nathan Nordstrom, Sloke One
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Mike “TRUTH” Johnston, who’s been a street artist in Austin since 2010 and before, taught art abroad for 12 years, also has high hopes for the Austin street art scene and likes the direction it’s been moving recently. “Life’s not a competition, but it’s really cool when you go to say Miami, where their street art scene is so strong and vibrant, like Los Angeles,” Johnston said.
in Austin is relatively small compared to that of some other cities. “The Austin graffiti scene’s always been pretty small,” Nordstrom said. “It’s just always been a small group of people doing it, and nowadays, there’s a lot of younger kids that are getting into it. I think that there’s experienced graffiti artists here and then there’s a lot
I think a lot of it could use more practice,” Nordstrom said. “I think a lot of it looks pretty bad. But, at the same time, that’s how a lot of us start up. We all gotta start out somewhere. So…I think that Austin can definitely hold its own, compared to other cities, it’s just the scene’s really small.”
Photo of graffiti art at E 7th St Photo courtesy of Jonah Plasse
Street art in Austin is unique and is different from other places. Nordstrom said that the scene
of beginners. A lot of the stuff you see on the street, for the most part, is done by beginners.” Nordstrom, however, also states that the community’s relatively small size and large number of beginners could be a positive thing and that it shows a lot of promise for the future.
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Johnston, who was an art teacher in China and Kuwait, also compares being a street artist in Austin to being one in other places. He says that in Austin, and America in general, artists have many more freedoms and liberties with what they can create than in certain places. “When we were in China and Kuwait, those were two
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“And I think Austin is becoming one of those cities where people really enjoy going on little tours and going around the city, seeing what kind of art we do have here. So obviously live music’s the big thing, but art and street art is maybe becoming a number two.”
My hope would be that more people would get involved because there’s definitely plenty of walls and color in this city. - Mike Johnston
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places where the government really had a strong presence, if you will,” Johnston said. “And so there wasn’t a ton of street art at that time in between 2006 and 2010. So I feel like here, in that regard, we have more freedoms than what I was seeing in those two places.” Truth also added that, despite the U.S. having more freedom, artists in some other places seemed to have more artistic liberties.
Askew shared her hopes for the future of street art in the city, stating that she hopes for the medium to be more accessible to everyone, and for the community to grow. Though he was originally skeptical of outside artists coming into Austin, Johnston has similar hopes, stating that, in the future, he wishes for more outside people to become part of the street art community and introduce new and diverse styles and beliefs.
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A painting done by Mike “TRUTH” Johnston in memorial of Austin Musician, Draylen Mason. Photo courtesy of Mike Johnston
“Whenever artists from L.A. or Chicago were brought in to paint a mural, my first thought was, ‘We have enough talent here in the city,’” Johnston said. “But then I think my perspective shifted. It’s cool that you have these
outside influences and people… it kind of diversifies the street art landscape. My hope would be that more people would get involved because there’s definitely plenty of walls and color in this city.”
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“Just through Instagram, and looking online at different examples of what art looks like in Europe, those folks are even more free than what I would say the scene is here in Austin,” Johnston said. “Because what we find when a client comes to us, so many times, they want almost the exact same thing... in Europe, you’re gonna see those artists are painting and creating whatever their heart desires, and it’s inspiring to see just the range in what people are creating. And… in Austin, for the most part, I’d say people are kind of still playing it safe.”
There was a stereotype that graffiti was gang-related, and we were a bunch of criminals, which was kind of true, but a lot of us were artists too. We did it because we loved it. -Nathan Nordstrom
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Evolution on the Ea Ease sell
By Jonah Plasse
PREHISTORIC Any art made prior to our recorded history and advanced civilization is prehistoric art. Much of the early cave art was made with red and black pigments or with engravings.
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ANCIENT GREEK The art created by the Ancient Greeks between around 1000 BCE and 100 BCE is Greek art. Greek Art was created using many mediums, and much was used to show society’s accomplishments or honor gods.
MEDIEVAL Much of the European art created between 300 CE and the start of the Renaissance in 1400 is Medieval Art Much of it was used to depict religious iconography and contained elaborate patterns and colors
A guide to art styles throughout history. From the prehistoric ages, all the way to the present, and possibly the future?
IMPRESSIONIST Impressionist art was created during the Impressionist art movement in the 19th century. Impressonist art consists of small and thin brush strokes and is characterized by its accurate depiction of light and its qualities.
POP Pop art is an artistic movement created in the 1950s in the United Kingdom and United States. Pop art draws from sources in pop culture and depicts them with bright and “poppy” colors.
MODERN Modern art is a term describing a wide range of styles that range from late 19th century to present day. The styles are mainly associated with experimentation away from art of the past, pushing the medium into the future.
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Art of Games The How artists create art and atmosphere in video games. By:Aedan Ramos
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A Drawing of a scene of an ancestral tree in Ori and the Will of the Wisps by Bozenka Chadzynska based on a concept by Jeremy Gritton. Image courtesy of Bozenka Chadzynska, Moon studios.
s you slowly walk through the swampy forest, you see gray trees swaying in the wind like skeletal hands grasping at the sky. The mist and dark leaves swirl around you, a silver veil obscure your features from prying eyes, and your cloak billows behind your body. You swear you can see small critters scuttling around in the undergrowth. Ripples on the dark, boggy water tell of unfathomable creatures beneath. You hear a rustle behind you. Your hand drops to the blade at your side. With one fluid motion, you draw your weapon, slicing through the shroud of fog enveloping you, and turn to face the disfigured insectoid beasts charging toward you. Since the 1980s, artists have been working to create scenes like this one in video games. They do this to help build the atmosphere of a game in conjunction with the music and design teams. As the technology for creating game art evolves, video game artists are able to create more diverselooking games in many different styles. The art of games comes in many different forms and they each have their own merit. Jeremy Gritton is a video game artist of 17 years who has worked at Activision Blizzard and now works at Moon Studios. Some previous games he has worked on are the StarCraft games and Ori and the Will of the Wisps. In Gritton’s opinion, it’s important for game artists to pay attention to every detail, even if the players don’t. “I don’t really have an expectation that people playing will scrutinize every little detail in the world,” Gritton said. “On the art team, we certainly do. Part of my job is to go over the scene. For example, I’m telling artists, ‘Oh, this rock should have two mushrooms instead of three.’”
He believes that this is because every detail adds up to create an atmospheric environment.
“I think that the important thing, more than all the little detail work is just the mood and the vibe that’s created from the atmosphere in that scene.”- Jeremy Gritton Another important part of creating atmosphere in game scenes is the color and design choices in each area. You want to make sure that each area is unique and intriguing so it doesn’t get stale. “We try to identify how we create a variety,” Gritton said. “I think visual variety is so important for the player, it’s how you keep people interested. No matter how nice the certain area looks, if there’s just too much of the same thing, it loses its luster. You always want to be throwing new looks at the player.” It’s also important to make sure to separate all the different and contrasting areas
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so moving between them doesn’t feel jarring. “It’s very common that if you don’t put enough of a buffer between areas and blend them properly it is jarring,” Gritton said. “You switch too harshly. You have to make sure that you’ve carved out a space that’s role is to blend between… the two looks.” Another key part of creating good and immersive scenes is the background and foreground. Background and foreground give a game, especially a 2D one, a sense of depth and separation and make it seem like the world exists beyond the single plane the character is on. “When you get really close to the camera, the shapes are just silhouettes,” Gritton said. “And so it kind of creates a little bit of a vignetting effect on the scene. And then as you go into the background, the contrast is much lower than it is in the center layer. And what that does is that, combined with depth of fields, which also will blur the background, it softens that background enough that it creates a degree of separation between the background and the central layer.” It is also important to keep characters in context or those will also feel jarring, according to Nick Wozniak, an artist at Yacht Club Games. He has been doing art for games for over 15 years and worked on the game Shovel Knight.
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King Knight in his castle in Shovel Knight. Photo courtesy of US Gamer.
“There’s always a context. You never make a character outside of context. So you have to think like ‘well, it’s going to be in the ice level. And the ice level has a lot of blacks and a lot of deep purples. So if I make this character super white, it’s going to stand out way too much.’ It’s kind of a holistic approach of thinking about how the context of the character works with the world that it’s in.”- Nick Wozniak
Additionally, when animating 2D “retro” style characters, it’s important to find a balance between smooth and choppy. “It’s very iterative and we go back and forth,” Wozniak said. “We had one enemy with a 6 frame flying animation. When I showed it off, everyone said ‘It’s too smooth.’ So we cut it into 3 frames and in that scenario, that was the right call.” When making art for a game, designers and artists share ideas to inspire one another. “Sometimes, design will have this idea for a gameplay mechanic,” Gritton said. “They’ll say ‘we really want to do this.’ Then one of our concept artists will paint some concepts for how that could look. But then we’ll also have ideas that just come purely from the art team. The artists might say, ‘I have this idea for this creature, and it would look like this,’ and the design team might get really inspired by that concept.” Hannah Kennedy, a video game concept artist who has been working at Obsidian Entertainment for nearly 6 years adds to this, telling about how there is often a lot of back and forth about specific things in concepts.
“I’ve had to draw weapons, where there was a lot of back and forth between me and the weapon designer because I didn’t do a good job at defining the places where everything hinges,” Kennedy said. “For example, where did the bullets actually go in? Where do they fly out, information like that. And they could just come to me and be like ‘Hey, I think this hinge is impossible.’ And I’d be like, ‘you’re probably right, man, let’s figure it out.’” It’s also important to have other hobbies and things you enjoy because you can draw a lot of inspiration from those things.
games right at the beginning. But I think it’s actually really beneficial to maintain and care for your interests outside of games because better games are made when you have people that are pulling an influence from other ideas.”
All of these factors come together to help make a game immersive and atmospheric and, as Gritton said, “create a certain mood for how they experience the space.”
Concept art of goblin wizard by Hannah Kennedy for the game Pathfinder Adventures. One of her hobbies, fashion, allows her to make creative and intricate clothing designs like on this goblin. Drawing courtesy of Hannah Kennedy, Obsidian entertainment.
“I think the more interests that you have, and the wider scope your interest outside of games are, it’s more likely that you’re going to get ideas of things that haven’t necessarily happened in games before,” Kennedy said. “I love pulling stuff from games as well, that’s definitely a part of my interest and my literacy, doing this job. But I tend to discourage people [from focusing too much on games.] There are a lot of people that get really enthusiastic about wanting to get into the industry and love games and wanting their whole life to be
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The Battle Of Looking at the statistics to see which art form of games is more popular By: Aedan Ramos Percent of games in the top 50 that are 2D: Number of 2D games in 2021’s top 10:
1
Total sales of 2D games in top 50 most sold games:
505,727,095 Game title
Rank
Total sales
Tetris 3 143,000,000 Super Mario Brothers
6
58,000,000
Pokemon gen. 1
8
47,520,000
Pac-Man 12 42,071,635 Terraria 30 | Changing Hues
15
35,000,000
Sources:
Digital trends Wikipedia Game Radar Time magazine Washington Post GameRant Percent of games in the top 50 that are 3D: Number of 3D games in 2021’s top 10
9
Total sales of 3D games in top 50 most sold games
1,272,130,000 Game title Minecraft GTA V Wii Sports PUBG Battlegrounds
Mario Kart 8
Rank
Total sales
1
238,000,000
2
160,000,000
4
82,900,000
5 75,000,000 8
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ntro to
usic
How Musicians Choose Their Path By William Floyd
John Billings has been playing the bass guitar most of his life, well before joining the Monkees. Photo courtesy of EveryoneLovesGuitar.
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Y
ou’ve been playing nearly your entire life. From when you first picked up an instrument, to playing in front of hundreds of people. Even through all the changes you and music have gone through, it still brings you the joy you hope to bring to others, whether it be rock, pop or hip hop.
family, but also a band formed by him and his siblings when he was only seven years old. “My career chose me,” Cowsill said. “I didn’t choose it. So I never was a kid who said I want to be in the music business, I just grew up in it, so it was different for me than other people. And I’m glad that I did. I love playing drums and I love singing and I love doing what I do.”
“My career chose me, I didn’t choose it” John Cowsill
Music has always been a major part of a society’s culture, and that’s no different in the United States. However, music is only as good as those who perform it. Despite all their differences, all musicians are united by their love for music. Even so, how and when they first got into music can vary between them. Beyond that, due to how wide of a variety of music there is, they also have to choose their genres and instruments at some point.
An example of a musician born into music is John Cowsill, a member of the Beach Boys. The Cowsills is not only the name of his
Cowsill has played with many bands, but throughout all of them he’s kept a strong focus on rock music. In addition, he’s stuck with the drums and singing from when he first started doing music with his sibling to now in his 60s. “I thought [drums] were the coolest looking instrument I ever saw in my life. I loved the colors of them,” Cowsill said. “And people still pay me to
John Cowsill has played the drums for The Beach Boys since 208. Photo courtesy of Ludwig.
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hit things with two sticks, which is an amazing thing.” After the Cowsills band, Cowsill eventually moved on to the Beach Boys. Though he’s occasionally worked for some other bands, he’s been with the Beach Boys for over 20 years now.
large factor in her choice. “[The guitar] was very melodic, and also portable, so I could bring it to my friend’s house for sleepovers and stuff, which I did a lot, and you can’t bring a piano to your friend’s house,” Peterson said.
“One day, I got a call saying, ‘Hey, what are you doing?’ From their musical director. And I Vicki Peterson founded the Bangles back in 1981, said, ‘I don’t know, why?’ and even after a few hiccups it’s still going. I hadn’t heard from this Photo courtesy of 30a. man in a long time. And Eventually her he said, ‘Because we need small group in high a drummer temporarily.’ And so I went out with school transitioned to the Bangles, though the them for about a week of gigs,” Cowsill said. “They members changed a bit. Although the Bangles said, ‘Do you want to come on full time?’ And then I have broken up a few times, Peterson came back said, ‘Yes, I do.’” every time it did, and while she’s stuck with rock mostly, the exact subgenre has varied. Cowsill’s siblings aren’t his only musical family either. His “My best friend who was playing wife, Vicki Peterson, is an with us, she was a bass player. accomplished musician She decided while she was in as well, founding her school that she was falling own band, the Bangles. in love with anthropology Though she didn’t have and history. She as early of a start as decided to go her husband, she’s out and get still been doing music her master’s for a long time. She degree and started at nine years realized that old and did some she couldn’t smaller performances do both,” in her teenage years. Peterson said. “So now, “When I was in high it was just my school, I got together sister and me. Then with my best girl friend,” we met, we put an ad Peterson said. “And she in the paper, and we met and I started writing songs our friend Susanna, and she together. And then we kind of wanted to be in a band above roped in my little sister. And we everything, as well. That’s how it started playing little shows around town, became the Bangles.” and schools and junior high dances and that kind of thing, middle school dances.” Lastly, there’s John Billings, who plays with the Monkees. Billings started professionally Peterson has been playing the playing quite a bit later than the other two, guitar throughout her career. getting his first gig in his late teens. Though she did try out the piano when she was 11-years-old, the “At that point, I just enjoyed it, I guitar’s portability played a loved playing music as a young
“It was just my sister and me. Then we met, we put an ad in the paper, and we met our friend Susanna, and she wanted to be in a band above everything, as well. That’s how it became the Bangles.” - Vicki Peterson
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teenager. And then at 16, I auditioned for and got a job at a theme park in Richmond, Virginia called Kings Dominion,” Billings said. “And I loved it. I had a great time, didn’t think anything of it. And then I did again the next year, and I did again the next year.” He picked up the guitar from his grandfather who used to be a bluegrass musician, and then moved onto the cello and then to the bass when he went through elementary and middle school.
videographer so I actually got a corporate gig working for them doing their videography. And that hobby has put food on the table at my house.” Music has always and will always remain a core part of society. However it’s form can be shaped by those who perform it. No matter where their journey begins, musicians can leave a large impact on those they play for.
“At that point, I just enjoyed it, I loved playing music as a young teenager.” John Billings
“I got a guitar book when I was a little kid, ‘Ehlers Chords’. In fifth grade, I started playing cello and orchestra,” Billings said. “And then I learned to read from that. And when I was 14, that’s when my father got me electric bass guitar because I wanted to be like Gene Simmons. I stopped playing cello years later, and now I’m just a bass player.” However, music isn’t Billing’s only profession. Shortly after Billings started learning the guitar, he started shooting photos, then eventually, filming. When he wasn’t on the road with bands, he filmed and edited. “And then coronavirus struck, just when things got pretty dark for my family,” Billings said. “I got a call from a professional job company called Pearl Drums and they were needing a
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Flow of Music The Rise and Fall of Music Genres Over Time
By William Floyd
1946
1922
1961
The Chordettes
Creole Jazz Band
Jazz
Blues
A lot of America’s early music came from the black community, such as the blues, jazz, rhythms and blues, and even rock. Information courtesy of the Telegraph.
Swing 1935
Count Basie Orchestra
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The Beach Boys
Country
Pop
Rhythms & Blues Rock 1957
The Beatles
Folk
1981
1971
The Bangles
The Eagles
Rock has over 30 subgenres, which contributes to its massive popularity and variety. Information courtesy of Brian Clark.
Electronic
Disco
On July 12, 1979, a sports promotion went massively wrong, leading to thousands of disco records being destroyed along with the field when attendees stormed it. This massively hurt disco’s popularity. Information courtesy of Mikala Lugen.
2001
My Chemical Romance
Christian
Hip Hop 1992
Blink 182
2010
One Direction
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