Chapter 2 ■ an IntroduCtIon to Content CreatIon: 2d new MedIa asset FundaMentals
optimization work process. We will thus be covering all of the 2D (X,Y data representation) new media forms
in this chapter with the exception of 2D vector illustration, which is closely related to 3D vector rendering,
which we cover in the first part of Chapter 3.
Game Design Assets: New Media Content Concepts
One of the most powerful tools that you have to make your game content professional and visually desirable
to your customers is the multimedia production software that you downloaded and installed in Chapter 1.
Before I get too far into this book, I need to spend some time providing you with the basic foundational
knowledge regarding the four primary types of new media assets that are supported in Java via the JavaFX
multimedia engine. These include digital images, used for sprites, background imagery, and 2D animation;
vector shapes, used in 2D illustration, collision detection, 2D shapes, paths, and curves; digital audio,
used for sound effects, narration, and background music; and digital video, used in games for animated
background loops (birds flying through sky, drifting clouds, etc.) and highly optimized video playback. As
you can see in Figure 2-1, these four 2D genres, or areas, are all installed in your games using the JavaFX
Scene Graph. There is one other new media area that I like to call Interactive 3D (i3D). i3D, which we will
cover in the next chapter about OpenGL ES, brings real-time 3D rendering to Java 8 and 9.
Since you’ll need to have a technical foundation before you can create, or properly implement, any
of these new media elements in a Java game design (or programming) pipeline, I am going to go over core
concepts for each of the four new media areas. The only two that are related conceptually are 2D animation
and digital video, as each of these involve using the fourth dimension of time and use frames, so I’ll cover
Figure 2-1. How 2D or audio new media assets are implemented in Scene Graph using JavaFX 9, Java 9, and
NetBeans 9