2D art refers to images, drawings, and artwork created in the two dimensions of width and height. In the modern era of gaming which is mostly dominated by 3D games, 2D art is still the preferred art style for many developers. The visual aesthetics and ease of creation that 2D art offers has made it a great choice for many types of games such as platformers, puzzle games, 2D indie games, and mobile games. In this post, we will explore the most common 2D art techniques for creating 2D games. Let’s dive in.
Pixel Art as a 2D Art Technique
Computer images are made of small graphical units called pixels. Pixel art refers to a 2D art creation technique that involves drawing art by coloring individual pixels in different colors one by one or in batches to create shapes and characters. With the rise of video games in the 80s, pixel art was the primary method for creating game art. Artists used programs like Deluxe Paint and devices like Koala Pad to draw pixel art directly inside computer programs. With the introduction of better 2D art software such as Photoshop in the 1990s, this type of art became even more popular. Pixel art is an inexpensive and relatively easy technique for creating game art. That is why it is still featured in many indie 2D games. Fez, Celeste, Super Mario and Stardew Valley are examples of pixel art games.
Vector Art in 2D Games
Vector art is a type of computer graphics that is resolution-independent. Meaning it can be scaled up or down without losing quality. This is considered an advantage over pixel art. Vector graphics can be created inside programs like Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Animate, which allow artists to define points, lines, curves, and shapes that form the vector graphics. Modern games that aim for a high-quality and polished look, often choose vector art. Games like Monument Valley, and Angry Birds are examples of games built with vector art.
Hand-Drawn Animation and Frame-by-Frame Techniques
Hand-drawn traditional animation involves drawing separate images for different frames in an animated shot. Hand-drawn animation is a much more challenging and difficult way to create art for 2D games. It is mostly used for animating characters and effects in 2D games. Consider character animations in a 2D platformer game. This type of animation is often seen in video games that emphasize storytelling. Cuphead has a similar style to animations created in the golden age of American animation by companies like Walt Disney.
Digital Painting for 2D Game Backgrounds and Assets
Digital painting is a 2D art technique that involves the use of graphics tablets to draw and paint images. Digital painting is used widely as a technique for creating background images and 2D assets for games. Examples of such assets are skies, mountains, landscapes, cities, streets, trees, furniture, and props. 2D artists use programs like Adobe Photoshop to create digital paintings. Digitally painted assets are also used for UI elements such as cards, shop items and more. These images are used for visual storytelling inside games as well.
Parallax Effect and Layering Techniques in 2D Games
Parallax effect is a simple but cool technique that is used to create the illusion of depth by using layers of visual elements that move at different speeds. This creates a perspective effect where distant objects move slower compared to the ones closer to our eyes. Side-scrolling platformer games make heavy use of this effect since fast movement and backgrounds are an integral part of their design. Using this effect, background elements like mountains are drawn on layers that are far from the camera and move with a lower speed, while props like bushes or street lights that are placed on layers that are closer to the player and camera move at a faster speed.
Using Lighting and Shadows in 2D Art
A powerful technique used in 2D art is the use of shadows and lighting. Shadows can make flat 2D images appear three-dimensional. Artists can make some parts of the objects darker or lighter to create the illusion that they are far away or closer to the light source or. This tricks our eyes to think that some parts of objects are either not facing the light source or are further away from it. This powerful technique is fundamental to creating art that mimics 3D depth.
Tools and Software for Creating 2D Game Art
2D game art can be created using a variety of tools and software. Let’s explore the most commonly used tools in a typical 2D art pipeline.
Graphics Tablets
In this digital era of art creation, graphic tablets are one of the most popular tools among 2D artists. These tablets connect to computers and allow artists to draw directly inside computer programs. Wacom is a well-known graphics tablet producer and its products are usually found in all art studios around the world.
Adobe Photoshop
Photoshop is the primary software used in a 2D game art pipeline. It can be used for drawing, editing and painting 2D art. Photoshop is mostly used for hand-drawn or pixel art creation. It is probably the most known graphics tool of all time.
Adobe Illustrator
Adobe Illustrator is a vector graphics software that is used widely in 2D art creation. It is a design program that allows artists to use specialized vector tools such as pens and contour editors to create vector graphics easily.
Toon Boom Harmony
Toon Boom Harmony is a powerful animation tool that allows artists to create complicated 2D vector art. Toon Boom has an advanced node-based rigging system that makes it possible to create feature-quality 2D animation. Toon Boom is mainly used by large studios and has been used to create popular TV shows such as Rick and Morty and Final Space. Toon Boom Harmony also has specialized tools for creating hand-drawn frame-by-frame animation.
Aseprite
Aseprite is a popular pixel art and sprite animation tool that is used widely among game developers. Aseprite is a unique tool for pixel artists, as it provides them with advanced features such as onion skinning, layer organization, playback modes, pixel-perfect strokes, shading mode, tiled mode, and many more tools catered specifically to pixel art creation and animation. Aesprite also allows exporting animated GIFs, sprite sheets and texture atlases that are very useful in a pixel art game.
Krita
Krita is a free and open-source 2D painting and animation program used widely for creating 2D game art. Its extensive features like multiple brush types, drawing assistants, stabilizers, texture packs and vector libraries along with being free of charge have made it a popular choice among 2D artists.
Closing Words
2D games have been a popular form of entertainment for the past 40 years. The nostalgic and retro feel that comes with 2D art takes players to the early days of video games in the 80s and 90s, in spite of the fact that they might not have lived in that era. Today, 2D artists use more efficient tools and software to create art, enabling them to create high-quality 2D art that bridges the past and modern game eras. It seems that no matter how advanced or realistic 3D graphics become, 2D games continue to remain a popular and fascinating form of entertainment among gamers all around the world.
