This comprehensive manual teaches the art and craft of creating compelling graphics for video games in a wide range of media, both traditional and computer generated. The author also describes software that imitates the traditional media of paint, pen, and pencil. He goes on to discuss in detail how game genre defines the type of characters to be portrayed, whether human or fantastic, and he shows how to render appropriate facial expressions that will define a character's personality. Next, he discusses methods for creating environments--jungles, arctic landscapes, the ruins of lost worlds, and many others. He also instructs on mastering illustration and rendering techniques, among them, layering with paint, using filters to produce a painted effect, and digital composing. A gallery of examples from successful illustrators serves to inspire beginning artists. More than 350 instructive illustrations in color and black-and-white.