Theory
Animation - Color - Design - Ethics - Game Development
Theory and Principles Index
Digital Art and Design Principles are the foundation of good design. In these pages we take a look at theory and principles, well known and not so well known.
Theory - Introduction
What's so important about theory? This page presents an overview on why theory is important in the digital arts, and how theory can provide a solid foundation upon which to build more compelling work.
Animation
The Principles of Animation with visuals, and practical principles related to the laws of physics. We discuss camera techniques to bring your animations to life, such as Pushing the camera, pulling focus, aiming for silhouettes, and varying camera angles. The spider at right illustrates many of the principles of animation in action. See how the spider was made here.
Biomechanics
The way living things move is important not only when we want to recreate them in digital art or animation, but many new solutions and products come from studying biomechanical movement of bipeds, quadrapeds, birds, and insects.
Color
Color is perhaps the most important tool the digital artist or designer has at their fingertips. Color is equally important to the commercial designer, the game artist, the web designer, the interface designer, and the list goes on. If it involves a graphic expression of some kind, color is key.
Design
The Principles of Design and the Elements of Design are described with visuals. These principles and elements will make any digital designer stronger and at the same time more conversant in the theory behind what they do.
Ethics
Because there is so much potential for both good and bad in the arts, it seemed right to include some pages on Ethics. What ethical boundaries should we be cognizant of when dealing with digital content?
Game Development
Here we cover some of the more interesting aspects of game development, including How to Make a Video Game, which outlines the logical steps any game development process goes through, and makes design software & game engine recommendations.