2D & 3D Graphics
Introduction
When a person loads into a website or views an advertisement they will have about
15 seconds to get an impression from it. If you cannot manage to give an impression
in that time period you can consider your work to be a failure so it is important that
the graphics art you put into your work is detailed. Creating good looking graphics for
2d and 3d is a challenging task and could take a long time to master and use but you
can reduce the time and have better results if you follow efficient and specific rules
for graphics design. In this worksheet I will be going over into details about 2d and 3d
graphics and how they work.
What is 2D Graphics
2D graphics is the most common animation type used worldwide for many purposes.
This graphic design type generates back to many decades ago when technology
wasn’t much advanced since they were simpler to create and more visually appealing.
2D Graphics can only be moved in 2 different directions: horizontally and vertically,
but you can still move them in different axes. You cannot add a depth filter into the 2d
character to make it look like its closer or farther away since as previously mentioned
2d graphics are simple and easy to appeal in the human eye. Every graphics that you
will create has to appear like a flat surface, shapes like circles are possible to be made
and displayed but 3d objects like spheres cannot be added since that will defeat the
whole purpose of “2D”. Generally, there are 2 associated types of 2D graphics there
which are
▪ Bitmap is created by many different squares of pixels that could be in different
colours that in the end will form and image. During the old times bitmaps only used to
have 2 colours: black and white but today they can have any colours depending on the
format the final picture is exported into. Bitmaps can be created with different apps
like Adobe Photoshop, Pixlr, Paint and etc.
▪ Vector also known largely as object-oriented graphics are constructed and created
using mathematical formulas using shapes colours and placement. Rather than using
pixels like bitmap, vector consists of shapes, lines, texts, curves that when joined
together will make a final picture.
,What is 3D Graphics
A 3D graphic is a computer-generated image that uses computer software to create
object in 3d space that can be edited in the X-Y-Z scale (width, height, depth). They
can be rotated and be viewed in many different angles as well as be able to scale
them larger or smaller. Depending on the software used those 3d object can also
allow rendering to be applied to them which makes them look more realistic or
animated depending on the rendering style setting. The earliest known 3d graphics
was created in 1974. As technology has advanced on the last couple of decades 3d
graphics are becoming very easy and common to create or see. We mostly use them
in websites, games, movies, animations and etc. 3D shapes can be create based on
vertices, lines, curves, and edges. When these are all added together they will form a
thing known as polygon. When the polygons are connected together the mesh is
created which is the final design of the product.
What is the purpose of digital graphics
As previously mentioned 2d and 3d graphics can be used everywhere to make
something look better or more appealing. Currently both of these graphics are majorly
used everywhere ranging from social media, websites, movies, news, education,
documents, presentations etc. Using graphics in such places make the work look
better and more informative. Some reasons we can use graphics include:
Educate
Graphics can be used to educate people in different topics in ways that include
magazines, newspaper, textbooks, books, posters and etc. They can also be used in an
online way into websites to educate users about different things or even be used in e-
books. Those graphics can also be used online by companies to give information to
their employees about workplace safety or what to do in different situations like fire
evacuation or ongoing hazards. A good example of graphics use in education can be a
geography book showcasing how the water cycle in the nature works by using images
and text which will make the understanding better for every student.
Inform
Usually both graphics and text are used together to inform readers about something.
This can range from street sign to posters. We see street sign everywhere that use
images in them but also text. The information can also be put in leaflets and then
distributed to other people and inform them. Making a good-looking graphic mixed
with text can attract a lot of readers and makes them more intrigue to read the
information displayed in front of them. A good example of graphics in information
would be a set of rules set for a swimming pool area on where people on the pool will
,be informed about certain rules on what to do and what not to do in the pool
grounds.
Promotion
Using graphics to promote different services like, music, games, movies, events is also
a very popular use of graphics. This can include posters, flyers, billboards, and online
graphics. Many websites can also use graphics to promote a product sale or share
posts in different social medias to let people know about their latest offers to attract
new customers and viewers. Creating a good looking promotional graphic poster can
be a hard task and you will need to use creativity and also high-quality images as well
to make everything as appealing as possible to the wide audience. You can also see
promotional poster that use graphics n stores on where they are used to promote
new upcoming price reduction for foods and etc.
Advertise
Corporations and businesses can use graphics to advertise their products online and
real life. Especially they can use 3d graphics to create an object shape of their product
and share it online so people can have a 360 view of that product. Those adverts can
obviously be shared everywhere but mainly you will find them in social medias like
YouTube or Facebook but also, they can also appear in TV on your favourite show. The
advert can be only for a specific product or just promotion a whole company, event,
or music video
Entertainment
Magazines, book, comics, amines and etc are designed to entertain audiences through
a collection of images and text that have been added together. In comics the graphics
are usually made from computer but the artist has to draw every frame of it. Adding
graphics in books can make it more entertaining and informative depending on the
type of the book. Entertainment also includes video games even if they are 2d or 3d.
Legal Consideration of digital graphics
Whenever you create 2d or 3d graphics or any type of graphics it is important that you
are focused on the legal requirements that might follow when you create such
graphics. Most of the times when a poster is created you will be using multiple images
together and join them all in one photo but it could happen that one of those images
you have used is a copyrighted image which could mean that your whole poster can
be copyrighted just cause of that 1 image no matter how small it is or it may seem to
you. Some legal requirements when creating graphics, you may have to consider
include:
, Copyright
Copyright Design and Patents Act is a government law which gives the creator of a
work the full rights of owning it and have the options to sue anyone who has used
their work without their permission. In the graphics world this can include images,
videos, fonts, audio and etc. If you would happen to take the work of someone else
you will firstly need to see if it is allowed to do it and if yes you will still need to fully
credit the author of the work. This law also forbids you on stealing someone else idea
and claiming it as your own, it is very common today that a lot of poster ideas are
copied from other ones. When creating graphics, you will also need to sometimes use
different fonts to display a text but you need to make sure that the font you are using
is copyright free and if not, you will need to also give credits to the original author of
the font.
Privacy
The privacy act included in the 1998 data protection act is a set of rules which is
designed to protect personal data stored on computers or in some organised paper
filling system. Even though this act is mostly aimed towards computers and the handle
of data it is also important for graphic designers to respect that law and not give out
personal/confidential information about a person when they are creating a poster or
any type of graphic. An example of that would be a graphics designer putting an image
of a person in a leaflet or whatever they are designed, if the image put there is against
the persons will, you can get sued for it and possibly get fined or even face criminal
charges and serve prison time for it.
Accessibility
The Equality act of 2010 is yet another type of laws set to protect groups of people
against discrimination or favouritism. Article 14 that refrains creators from creating
offensive and discriminatory imagery that could offend certain people or minorities. In
total this article provides 8 characteristics that we should not discriminate against
being:
• Race and Ethnicity Age Sexual Orientation Religion and beliefs
• Parenting Status Disability Gender Marriage Status
This also includes the use of offensive symbols which everyone finds offensive and
should definitely not be displayed in a animation where mostly kids will watch. In case
your animation is offensive these set of laws apply within, which can sue you and
possibly shutdown your animation studio. It’s not just about the law it should be basic
