What is 2D Game Art? And Their Types

At that point you might or might not knew about the name of the art which you were creating, although you know, now! Those were all 2D which were mostly known as two dimensional art.

What is 2D Art?

Well, 2D art refers to two dimensional, which is solely related and associated with flat shapes and objects. In short we may say that it is an art in which the composition contains the dimensions only of length and width and does not have any depth.

A Splash of history

2D art is relevant since the pre-historic era. Have you ever thought of that? People have been creating 2D art freely in every part of the world. This art has also been used in board games and different form of entertainment. Although, the assets of 2D game art came into existence through cut scenes, mechanics and from the animation sequences as well.

How Many Styles are There in 2D Game Art?

There are different types or styles of 2D game art. Do you remember the first computer game which had a very simple shape and very poor level of detailing. Do you know why? It is because at that time there was a limited amount of capabilities in terms of graphics of both software and hardware. But as the technology improved, the designers were able to put more variety and more creativity on their work which resulted in the large magnitude of 2D styles which is presented in the games today. There are several 2D Animation courses in Kolkata where you can learn the know-how of Animation designing.

2D Pixel Art

It is one of the most popular styles of this field. “Pixel” represents a basic shape which will create a tiny part of an object or a character or even a pixel art drawing or even a digital image. These hundreds and thousands of pixels are amalgam together to form a single character or an object. Mostly people connect the pixel art animation with the early video games but till now it is still popular among the people. Few examples of the modern day pixel art games are: owlboy, fez, to the moon etc.

Vector Art

One of the famous 2D art styles in terms of the “ art variety”. Although, in this technique it does not split the images into pixels but it relies on mathematical algorithms, and also storing the data in polygons, lines, dots and even on colour data as well . Those who are familiar with the know how of making the vector art, do praise it as the file size of the image are relatively smaller from those of the pixel-based ones, and it is of higher quality when they do zoom it or while enlarging the images. This art style can also be sorted into one’s own individual style, along with the characteristic of having a high quality and the resolution. Few examples of the vector art games are: Red Alarm, Ghost Trick or The Banner Saga.

Cutout

This cutout art style is mostly found in stop motion animation. Although, some video games have utilized an extremely unique style. this style imitates pictures on paper that are cut out and imported on a new plane/medium. Few examples of the cutout games are: Paper Marlo, Don’t starve, Sega Heros etc.  

Monochromatic

The portmanteau of two words “Mono” which means “one” and “chroma” which means “colour”. This monochromatic game art is where design, background, graphics and setting is on one hue. For example, in one of the famous video games named Limbo everything is in gray and black. Monochromatic game art has a unique setting where lightning, depth and mood all intersects together to create effect, pattern and contrast that uplifts the ambiance and emotions life fear and hope as well.

Cel Shading Art

One of the relatively new style of art which is in a high demand in the game development community. Although it looks like 3d art but in this type of art attempts to make 3D models which looks like objects of 2D flat or paper like. In this art both the objects and the characters maintains a high level of details but the thing is they loose their volume. Few examples of Cel Shading Art are: Ultimate spiderman, X- man legacies, Pokémon X & Y.