Are digital illustration and CG illustration the same concept?

Digital illustration includes CG illustration, and digital illustration is more generalized.

Development and present situation of digital commercial art illustration

Abstract: With the rapid development of digital technology, graphic design has gained great technical support, and artistic concepts and ideas have been released. Rich formal skills have stimulated the development and social application of traditional illustrations, and the exhibition space of digital commercial art illustrations has been expanded, bringing new visual experience and fashion style.

Keywords: digital art CG illustration commercial art

In today's highly information-based society, the concept of illustration in the field of design has become more and more broad. With the strengthening of commercialization, it is collectively called "commercial art illustration". The conceptual extension of contemporary commercial art illustration has been greatly expanded. Due to the application of new technology and new means, illustration has changed from a simple hand-drawn creation mode to a large amount of data storage and transmission mode processed by computer, and the latter will become the development trend of illustration.

From the perspective of modern design concept, illustration, as a way of visual communication and information dissemination, mainly uses images to artistically explain the expressed ideas. In the application of illustration, it requires both strong artistic appeal and practical functionality. Not only should we appreciate the beauty of art and modeling, but more importantly, we should convey the information of commercial culture and serve commercial activities. At the same time, we should conform to the commercial spirit and artistic characteristics and stimulate and influence people's actions and thoughts with visual images.

First, the development of digital commercial art illustrations

2 1 century, the western illustration art is not only a static plane image created by painting, but also has many schools from subject matter to social and commercial use, from production to concept. With the popularization and development of computer technology, traditional tools and materials such as paper, pen and pigment are rarely used for drawing modern commercial art illustrations, but are replaced by computer software, and the drawn illustrations have a new name, called CG Illustration. The trend of CG (computer graphics) has swept the world, and dynamic and three-dimensional technologies provide richer visual effects experience. It can be said that the whole western illustration industry is shocked by the digital technology revolution and is undergoing a new round of tests. Nowadays, commercial art illustrations, which are popular in foreign markets, have spread all over print and electronic media, business places, commodity packaging, film and television posters, corporate advertisements and even T-shirts, diaries and New Year cards, and have penetrated into all aspects of visual communication design.

For a long time after 1980s, China's traditional hand-drawn drawing technology was also challenged by photography. Photography technology is convenient and fast, and it has unparalleled efficiency and advantages in real reproduction, which makes illustration creation gradually focus on books and publications, and the application scope of domestic commercial art illustrations becomes very narrow. In the middle and late 1990s, with the popularization of computer technology, digital special effects can easily simulate hand-drawn effects in computers, and commercial art illustrations began to recover in the design field. Bright and gorgeous computer illustration style has become the most popular fashion, respected and loved by teenagers, and cutting-edge computer illustration designs are constantly emerging. In China, studios and companies specializing in commercial art illustration have begun to take shape. They cooperate with publishing houses and major advertising companies to provide professional illustration image design services. At present, many illustrations of popular magazines in China are digital products. It can be said that after years of low tide, the illustration art of commercial art in China has taken on a brand-new look and vitality under the impetus of digital technology and the stimulation of prosperous market.

Second, the status quo of digital commercial art illustration

With the development of digital commercial art illustration, the original book function of illustration is no longer the key point, but its original marginal functions, such as film and television animation scripts and cartoons, may occupy a larger proportion. At present, the process of market communication is rapid and the amount of information is complex. Only concise, eye-catching and clear communication can achieve better communication effect. Modern digital commercial art illustrations tend to be freehand brushwork and simplified graphics, which conforms to the characteristics of the information society. Simple and strong images are more convenient for people to identify and remember.

Illustrators in Hong Kong and Taiwan have been looking for their own industrialization path. Taiwan Province Province has experienced different creative forms from comics and picture books to children's and adults' picture books. Digital commercial art illustration has become a symbol of the maturity of urban popular culture.

The United States is a country with a very developed illustration market, and appreciating illustrations has become a habit of society. American realistic illustration once dominated the world illustration art with its exquisite skills and rich themes. The illustration market in the United States has been very specialized, which is divided into children's category, sports category, science fiction category, food category, digital category, pure artistic style category, humor category and other professional types, and each type has a special illustrator. In recent years, under the influence and promotion of the film industry, American digital artists have created more amazing visual myths.

Japanese commercial animation has a huge market and operation team, and animation is an important branch of the illustration industry. Before CG technology entered the field of illustration, hand-drawn animation had become one of the important industries in Japan. Today's younger generation is more and more inclined to use computer digital technology for creation and synthesis.

In South Korea, with the game industry climbing to the second pillar industry of the national economy in recent years, illustrations, especially digital illustrations, have sprung up everywhere. With the popularity of Korean games in China, the game characters designed with digital illustrations have won more market space, and many wonderful digital design works have emerged.

CG is a very attractive word, and it is also the work and ideal of many people now. In the future design, the creative ability of "image" may be the most test of strength. The creative forms of commercial graphics and images are more and more diversified, and the world of application is wider and wider, which requires practitioners to have rich imagination and solid modeling skills, and the works they create conform to the principles of commercial design to adapt to the changes and development of society. Illustrators all over the world are trying to create new visual experiences of this era and are sensitive to this era.

Third, the digital means of commercial art illustration-hardware, software, external equipment

Computers have changed people's visual appreciation, communication and thinking habits. Designers' hands are liberated from repetitive and monotonous work, and the cost of creativity and inspiration is highlighted. The level of computer operation directly affects the quality of the final design. The prospect of design art is that computer technology is more and more developed and software level is more and more advanced. The simplicity of operation skills shortens the learning time of design art, and only superb technical means and quality will be valuable. The digital means of making commercial art illustrations mainly include computer hardware, software and external equipment.

Computer hardware includes motherboard, graphics card, monitor, etc. Due to the continuous upgrading of equipment, it has brought higher data computing ability and processing technology. Computers used in art design, whether PC or MAC, have very powerful operating systems and graphic design functions.

The application software of commercial art illustration includes 2D and 3D graphic image design software, such as Photoshop, Freehand, Illustrator, Coreldraw, Painter, 3Dmax, etc. Commonly used external devices include digital cameras, printers, scanners, handwriting boards, etc. With the rapid development of digital technology, the prices of digital products and related accessories are getting lower and lower, and their functions are becoming more and more powerful.

The traditional hand-painted effect is usually natural and casual, which retains the material, texture, texture and brushwork, directly reflects the author's personality and is rich in humanistic affinity. The combination of computer technology and hand-drawing makes the hand-drawing simulation effect save, output, print and copy in the form of electronic files, instead of pigments, paper and brushes. Computer drawing is rich in color and easy to modify and store. Using it can not only improve efficiency, but also create many new styles and be widely used.

Fourth, the design style of digital commercial art illustrations

Due to the characteristics of computer drawing, digital commercial art illustration design has formed a unique digital illustration style, which mainly includes the bright style of vector illustration, the optical illusion style of computer synthesized image and the virtual style of CG illustration.

1. Vector illustration

Vector illustration is an increasingly popular illustration style in recent years by virtue of the powerful functions of vector computer drawing software and brushes, as well as the efficient combination with hand-drawn pressure-sensitive pens. Of course, with the rich resources of computer library, many commercial graphics and small illustrations can be directly extracted and modified from the library, but vector illustrations made by sketching, processing and coloring have gradually become the favorite of young illustrators and designers. Many people are full of interest and pursuit of skill exploration, and vector illustration style can be said to be a relatively fashionable popular style at present.

2. Computer synthesized images

Using computer to process pictures and synthesize photos and images is also a popular style of advertising illustration. Computer synthesis technology has long been confused with reality. The magical special effects of computer make virtual reality, make fantasy come true in front of us, and achieve amazing visual effects.

3.CG illustration

CG illustration mainly refers to the painting style created by using the latest digital image technology language, mainly including comics, game characters, movie virtual images and so on. It is the most advanced illustration design form. This trend is in full swing around the world, and countless CG lovers have created a large number of CG characters to explore the transcendental sensory imagination world. In foreign countries, CG designers have served a large number of major film companies and game and animation companies, and role and film special effects design has become a hot industry.

We have quickly entered the era of digital art and new media, and images and graphics have shown a strong position in information dissemination, playing an important role and becoming a popular means of communication. Computers have powerful data transmission and processing capabilities, and provide many effects and functions that cannot be achieved manually. However, computer is a material existence invented and manufactured by human beings, and ultimately it needs to rely on human spirituality and sensibility to play its role. After all, digital tools are just a powerful tool. The key of art design is to control the computer to establish the communication mode of artistic expression and information graphics through human thought and subjective will.

* Project team members: Su, Zhou, Peng Zhijun undertook some data collection work. Thank you.

References:

① Su: Commercial Painting, Shaanxi People's Fine Arts Publishing House, Ann, 2000. /② Wang Shouzhi: History of American Illustration, China Youth Publishing House, 2002.

Yi Shu China Communication University Advertising College

Excerpted from: Decoration 0 1, 2005 by Yi Shu.