Jim Sachs

The Siege April, 1986
Scene from Defender of the Crown
(Fire elements were eliminated from the final game)

Color Intensity: The computer can display colors far more intense than those usually found in nature, so to achieve realism I try to set up the palette with mostly pastel shades. The sky is not nearly as blue, nor grass as green as most people imagine them.

The Bedroom June, 1986
Scene from Defender of The Crown

Single-Point Perspective If you simply must use perspective in a scene, try single-point perspective. All lines that travel into the scene in the third dimension would aim towards a single vanishing point, somewhere near the center of the screen, but horizontal and vertical lines remain unchanged.

Katherine May, 1986
Scene from Defender of The Crown

Faces When analyzed as patterns of light and shadow, the human face becomes no harder to draw than any other object. However, it is important to view your work with "fresh eyes" quite often. On the computer, this is as easy as capturing the image as a brush, then flipping it over. If the reversed image still looks normal to you, then it's probably pretty accurate.

The Island March, 1989
Scene from 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea

Distance Even on the clearest of days, air is not completely transparent - it's blue. The further away an object is, the more air to give it a bluish cast and rob it of its contrast.

Shipwreck May, 1987
Scene from 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea

Low Contrast An underwater scene is one of the few instances where I use low contrast - the darks are not very dark. Other instances would include fog effects and objects at great distance.

MultiMedia Original February, 1987; Updated June, 1990
Cover for Amiga World Special Issue & Amiga advertisement

Layering A sense of depth can be created without the use of perspective by building up several layers of objects. The light source and shadows are very important for this illusion.

The VideoCamera August, 1989
Screen from Amiga 500 Demo

Layout A great deal of time can be saved if an object to be drawn is laid out so that most of its lines are horizontal and vertical, following the natural axis of the screen. Because of all the smoothing of diagonal lines that would be necessary with perspective or angled views, a straight side, front or top view will usually yield a crisper image.

The Siege August, 1989
Screen from Amiga 500 Demo

Light Source The direction of light needs careful planning in every picture. A sense of depth and realism can only be achieved when all shadows and highlights are consistent. Pay especially close attention to the light sources on objects imported from other scenes.

Games August, 1989
Screen from Amiga 500 Demo

Anti-Aliasing In lower resolutions, diagonal lines drawn on a computer screen have a pronounced "stair-step" quality known as aliasing. By manually blending these jagged lines into the surrounding colors, we can eliminate much of this problem.

The Galleys August, 1988
Scene from Centurian

Resizing A sense of depth may also be created without the use of perspective by having different sizes of the same objects on the screen. Always draw the largest object first, capture it as a brush, resize it to a smaller size, then stamp. Be careful to line up the smaller images on the same plane as the original!

The Kawasaki May, 1986
Promotional screen for Images paint program

High Contrast Very bright white and dark placks are usually necessary for a computer image to stand out as an attention-getter, especially when viewed on a monitor in a brightly lit room.

The Porsche Original January, 1986; Updated August, 1989
Screen done for Painting With Light video.

Smooth Backgrounds If you want a very smooth wash of colors without any obvious pixels, try setting a range of five or six colors where the red and blue components change slightly from one color to the next, but the green does not vary. Not all desired color ranges can be accomplished this way, but it works well for sky and underwater effects.

Sachs Castle December, 1985
What my house will look like when completed.
(Recently renamed as Sachs Castle 1995)

Sky For outdoor scenes, try to use at least three shades of blue for skies, ranging from medium blue at the top to very light near the horizon. Horizontal bands or clouds can be used to break up the division lines between these colors.