6 Reasons Games Are The Best Way To Learn Painting

[@AdamDuffArt]

I love the fact that you made this video - so well said

[@vik1450]

Watching you and Boro truly is the best art combo there has ever existed. Hands down.

[@seosoup8306]

@@vik1450 I agree, it's really wholesome!

[@distructed1878]

Mom: "Get away from those god damn video games!" Me: "But moooom, I am learning to paint!"

[@monsterfukk7737]

I would love a video of you showing these ideas. A few minutes of you playing any game, finding good screenshots and then using them as references for a piece!

[@vik1450]

I feel like the more you know about painting and art in general the more you can utilize games as references. First you might start just looking at the perspective or the vibe of the screenshot but as you advance you can even use the textures themselves or the placement and colour scheme of elements to guide you through your own project. And there is such a huge variety of styles in games that you are pretty much guaranteed to find something that suits the project.

[@bioluminosity]

I am so glad you covered this, I was just thinking about it last night!

[@ThatPash]

Finally someone is talking about this part in art consumption and the positives, I'm so sick of people having such a, well, disrespectful view on games. Thanks Boro you have my approval :D

[@redandblack641]

Sonic Unleashed and Generations helped me understand how reflected light works in painting, and things like PBR materials, ambient occlusion and depth of field actually taught me to paint in "passes", where there's a shadow layer, a light layer, and AO layer, a diffuse layer using various blending modes.

[@xmoreno3366]

👏👏👏👏✨✨✨✨👌

[@gian.4388]

Dishonored is probably the best game for this purpose It's basically a series of big oil paintings but in videogame form, also being highly interactive and with a great story

[@voro_738]

Yes!! And it's aesthetic is just incredible! I'm replaying DH1, and I'm take a bunch of screenshots for painting

[@bowlinbowlinbowlin]

Aaaah i forgot about dishonored! I need to continue it hhhhhhh

[@captainryker301]

The points made in the video make sense and I agree entirely , but it might have been worth mentioning that playing for to long could hurt you more then help you in the long run. I know first hand that a game could give you a distraction to avoid your own art when your struggling in your art journey

[@имяреккек-ю7х]

That's a really nice fist you got there, man. It's really nice.

[@GingerPowder]

My favorite game Dishonored has concept art from one of my favorite artists, Cedric Peyravernay, and man his paintings are incredible

[@Yumenoki99]

Having gotten a lot of sea of thieves character commissions a while ago I agree that studying from games is amazing! I wonder if Wlop did that with final fantasy? Hades is really inspiring my character art lately, the style feels so refreshing!

[@Karin029_]

Damn! Reason #2 is a really good and creative point. Never would've thought about it that way.

[@javannapoli2018]

YES. I just finished playing through the two Ori games last week and the environments in those games are beautiful, definitely something I'm coming back to learn from one day.

[@fabricionicoletti4006]

I thought you were being ironic at the first bit, but dude, you made so much sense! Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this topic! Much love!

[@amarimochi]

I've been loving the art from Genshin Impact. Different places are based on real world places (Mondstat is mostly germany and Liyue is China), I keep taking photos in game or getting inspired just running around (Like Liyue has this section of winding steps, bridges and platforms going to many rooms and stuff and I just love it)

[@chlorox01]

I do the same thing, that game is so full of charm and creativity, its hard to not be artistically inspired by it!

[@SylvesterLazarus]

Confession time: When I started digital painting for the first time, I used a... game... called "3d Se*villa" to create references. It has easily customizable, poseable, and anatomically... detailed characters. It's somewhat outdated and I use Daz Studio instead now if I have a really hard character pose that can't be done with some photos and my imagination, but it was a really great thing to have back then.

[@SylvesterLazarus]

I forgot to add, it wasn't for lewd pictures. I didn't make any that was more than like a single nipple showing up.

[@samwilbur6155]

Love your videos and personality, felt i needed to justify playing some games this week so felt specifically drawn to this one haha! And actually the wingfox tutorial you showed as a sponsor is exactly what my current project needed! I've been searching for a good blender / photoshop workflow tutorial! Perfect!

[@eryseayliid1535]

The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion + unofficial Texture Pack mod taught me how to plan out landscapes :D

[@genevievebui-sin5607]

I'm not into gaming but I love the people behind the makings especially the concept design the sheer work it takes to make them is amaziny

[@chlorox01]

Idk why I never thought of "painting polygons". I've always had issues thinking of objects 3-dimensionally, but I can definitely think in terms of polygons. Wow you really just changed my whole approach to painting, thank you!

[@tigran2210]

Кодзима - гений! Keep up! Everything you said actually make a lot of sense! Very good points!

[@JROtoons]

Thanks for the tips. I don't play games much, but I can see where you're coming from.

[@RenaissanceX2]

Another great video. Would love to see a follow up where you show how you would personally use video games to learn an improve your art.

[@25tigerblue]

The mug fist gave me one punch feels. On that I do agree with you like journey, darksouls' or the witness and a lot more have a lot to show and give in idea to express.

[@CaptainFishEye]

ive actually have been doing this for awhile, but its nice to hear that im not the only one who does use games for references

[@sneekyalexa2657]

I suppose I should put my rdr2 screenshots to use afterall. This was a really interesting view on using gaming for painting!

[@gage8545]

Man, I’m glad you made this video. I’ve used the screen capture feature on Xbox for a couple years now to capture photos I’ve taken in photo-mode in various games, all with intentions of doing studies of the screen captures. Maybe I’ll start using these this year.

[@TheArtofKAS]

Loved the topic. Nearly done with my first playthrough of Cyberpunk and the shear amount of reference I have with landscapes and my own characters is breathtaking (😤) Definitely worth studying video games in this regard

[@yuli3873]

Such a cool and original video Boro, thanks! Could you make a video about practice routines and starting painting for beginners? Like a survival guide for artists, that would be awesome

[@greyareaRK1]

'Honestly, dear, the porn is for figure drawing.' Film production is VERY hierarchical by nature and tradition, but it can be more collaborative occasionally depending on the producers and director. Game production is more collaborative by nature, with a flatter hierarchy, again depending on who's in charge. User mods really change the dynamic, using the gaming industry's greatest strength to add immeasurable value.

[@n1941]

Most of my gameplay in Satisfactory, is standing on a rock and looking out to the horizon just to see the landscape, the change from day to night is mesmerizing. I highly recommend

[@arispk]

It's ironic that we learn to accept liking aesthetically "perfect real world" from the constructed digital medium, even more than the real world itself. Maybe I'm too philosophical. Thanks for the thought provoking video.

[@chlorox01]

Its probably because the "perfect real world" in video games is exactly that... perfected. Artists don't have to go and tweak things to be more compositionally pleasing or change colors because the game devs already perfected it for you. References from games are already aesthetically pleasing and thus leads to less work from the artist to try and make their art aesthetically pleasing. The real world is not always as pleasing, so It takes the artist an extra step to turn their reference into something more aesthetically pleasing. At least, those are my thoughts on it.

[@sloppynyuszi]

The video game medium is amazing and it’s always inspiring how they put some of these amazing worlds together. Just a few counter points for your case. - if you look at the overall pie chart of gaming income, it comes from in app purchases from mostly mobile games. These epic one time purchases of games that come to PC or consoles are the lesser margins. If you are going to work in games, your job is most likely going to be creating assets for some crap people can buy in their game. Drawing concept art for something like cyber 2077 is highly competitive position. - when I was art directing, I always told my teams to separate reference and inspiration images. Reference is real life and knowledge, get that from documentaries and an image search. If you use other people’s art as reference you will most likely just copy. You only use that when you in a hurry and you working on an imitation game. - your best bet for reference will always be real life. Best sci-fi art is somebody discovering something weird in real life and mashing it up with something more familiar. EG, one of those weird microscope creatures or under water ones rampaging through a city. Or something.

[@Mimi-wv5rg]

I actually do some of my art in minecraft, screenshot it and add additional edit and painting

[@viimorte8487]

Yes! I was using this way of learning!

[@babooshkakitten2469]

I'm playing AC Valhala, and my god.. that game is just incredible. I've only played it for around am hour (trying to find all the goodies lmao) just in the first section and man.. I cannot wait for more!!!

[@Ehh97]

I have been drawing for years and I grew up playing video games, and I CANNOT understate how much games have helped me understand how to create an environment. Video games have taught me more about art and world building than any other medium and I will fight anyone who says "videogames arent art"

[@STICKYArt]

Video games are what inspired me to get into art! So yea makes sense video games are great for expanding art!

[@Dismiazs]

Me playing 8hours a day : "I'm learning" For real tho, I started to think this way when I tried genshin's photo feature. The game is very beautiful and I like the style.

[@sinachiniforoosh]

Been using SIms 2 screen shots as references

[@EyekooDrawsStuff]

"ASMR Blooper" XD Well said, man. Really enjoyed this video, and think those are all solid points.

[@oofshapedhuman4974]

Reminds me when I used sims when designing a house I was going to 3D print.

[@juha-matti]

Thanks for such an interesting topic! I've been playing computer role playing games for years, some which have been running over a decade, and as an amateur artist as well I have always wanted to be able to draw or paint my characters or heroes from the stories I've lived through them, and kind of having a more tangible memento from those memories. Ultimately I would even like to 3d model something like that to have my adventures on display as well. :)

[@karldarwin1253]

my GPU: dont watch this video. please.

[@annakhudorenko9596]

Great points! I totally agree

[@Sewius]

I still come back to LaTale for inspiration and character creation. I have a great frog cup that your boxing globe one reminds me of, they look fun but are so awkward to drink from.

[@taipanbrown1286]

I used smash ultimate and Skyrim as references when painting, Its truly underrated using this medium as a reference. I also believe that you can use 2d games as references as well especially for style studies like pixel art. I also think real life models help a lot when looking at lighting and how real light interacts with the shapes, I have a Pokémon model I use when I paint that Pokémon.

[@vlentinivanov4309]

You: Games Me: Anime

[@xmoreno3366]

a few Weeks Ago , I Was Thinking How I Can Learn light From VideoGames , This Video Help So Much ❤️ Sorry For My Bad English , I'm Latina

[@nahoj.2569]

I've used Bloodborne to learn from its gothic landscape design and disgusting monsters; and i've also taken pics of TLOU2's characters (The gallery is a godsend for this) to get more insight into character rendering. Gaming is somehow an underutilized medium for learning art even though it uses all forms of it. (Like Bloodborne's epic and stressful boss music or TLOU2's beautiful landscapes)

[@JasSinghOnline]

So far GTA V, Skyrim, Witcher 3 and I'd say AC Valhalla have been the best for me, they have the most realistic/satisfying atmospheres and detailed worlds that have been very carefully crafted by the artists.

[@CyberneticPhoenix]

I never thought of taking snapshots or photos in a game... Why I never thought of that?! It’s genius! Imma try that now

[@bohdan_lvov]

Interesting thing about games looking in the "current" artstyle is that they've been in development for years before release which means artist on this project are so skilled that can envision what will be the trend in the next 3-5 years, which is astonishing !

[@BoroCG]

Yeah well, most things are in development for a while, so pretty much everything in consumer world is delayed quite a lot comparing to what world-class designers and Artists come up with. It's always been this way, so yeah, don't miss out on following best artists on ArtStation and Instagram as well :D

[@acrabdevis]

Me who loves games like Rimworld and Factorio: "Ah yes, of course"

[@BoroCG]

Ehehe

[@SylvesterLazarus]

Helps you develop and polish technical skills that help you with complicated art projects. I should've played more like those instead of Killing Floor and GTA.

[@RoxaneLapa]

Love this. I bought Hunt:Showdown purely so I can have could swamp reference. :D

[@user-oz1ny]

best enabler ever i love you

[@Therealmrmeow]

Great points!

[@LillenArt2]

I'm learning 3d to improve my 2d paintings :)

[@kevinpopescu9741]

That hoodie is super nice! :D

[@dhiatamaputra1953]

I do use photo taking feature in games as reference, nice vid

[@ciankiwi7753]

6 reasons why games are the best creative medium

[@sebo641]

Interesting. I do sometimes sketch scenes or characters from movies (like to try and get an action scene) but never from a game. Will try

[@deniel25]

Dude, i felt like you were reading my mind, when you mentioned there’s almost no game celebrities i thought of Kojima and then you mention him, then you talk about dynamic muscle movement and i thought of TLOU2 and then you mention it.

[@bohdan_lvov]

And about muscle simulation - of course it's not perfect and there's still a long way until this will look perfectly correct, but first steps are already made in The Last of Us 2- vimeo.com/436609239 Check this awesome breakdown where even HORSES have their muscles simulated in real time.

[@BoroCG]

Idk if you noticed, I literally mentioned TLOU2 in text in the video. That game definitely has some insane detail in anatomy, and your video shows it pretty well

[@bohdan_lvov]

@@BoroCG Oh, missed it, apparently

[@3polygons]

Ehm... As an illustrator myself, I can't agree... with all respect. I have been constantly noticing how game screenshots, models, scenery... are way to often taking too many "artistic licenses" . When I want proper references for something even slightly based on historical stuff (but the same with current time stuff), I need to dig for really serious references. Museums (online sites), photos of the real thing, or certified replicas , tested to be accurate. Otherwise, you don't know where they are deriving to wild artistic take on it. Even more, often you need exact colors, and the entire screen capturing of it, the gamma of the user's monitor (yours or who took the capture you found) and the game engine itself might be making a strong variation of the original color. Particularly important in stuff like flags, clothing/uniforms , etc. Let alone when they filter all to give it a "gritty atmosphere".... References stuff, if done seriously, one needs to be doing almost history research (or based on photos of the real thing, if it is a vehicle, etc). That is, the same procedure that good (emphasis on "good") game studios did to make the art (but heavily derived from it...). Besides that, often the shapes and details in a character's clothing or environment derive so much from reference, that you might be copying direct takes of the artist interpretation of it, instead of actual reference detail, thus, leaving a clear trace of where you are taking your reference from (often frowned upon by critics and artists if these references are other artists' work, as are often borderline with uglier behaviors, I know, not the case here... but why risk it) At last, but not least... the same that I told someone asking me recently for advice...using other artists' work as a reference is IMO not the greatest idea, besides you must generate your own style, it's because one might mimic and replicate their faults and horrid errors! And yup, I'd agree with several titles being quite realistic making this a bit less of a problem, but... too many games do make many concessions to "style", and even *worse* , way too many characters are modeled badly, with wrong proportions, let alone rigged "terribly". This can lead to very bad habits, if taken for granted any of that is "correct". Even triple As are having main characters with terrible joint bending and bad muscles torsion very, very often. So, as the characters are all time "posed" characters out of their T-pose (or the 2 other usual standard poses), this makes them not a good reference. I would agree tho that games are good to "get inspired" as in... it's full worlds, and the atmosphere can energize you as a creator... But as actual reference, even slightly... not really, I'd love to agree, but I can't...

[@Phantomyre]

If only my parents could have understood this years ago. But late is better than never.

[@dodecahedron1382]

Yeah, imagine if Grigorovich respected the mod community, wouldn't that be crazy

[@javannapoli2018]

Who's that?

[@dodecahedron1382]

@@javannapoli2018 The head of GSC Game World, the company who made Stalker

[@alan-sleep]

nice preview) I think you should've add the outline to the thumbs as well

[@BoroCG]

Done. Thanks for the tip!

[@alan-sleep]

@@BoroCG awesome, mate, take care, and thanks for the video as always)

[@michaelleachim6262]

You should have told that to my mother as i was a student!

[@Ceilvia]

Laughs in my Sky: Children of the Light environment practice collection

[@astronautgamer9199]

ýes. that game is awesome

I love photo modes xD

[@convolution223]

Interesting idea. I don't know why I never thought of using reference from games before. Probably because I play mostly old games or indie ones that aren't photorealistic. But hmmm... maybe this is giving me the excuse to get Resident Evil on PC or Cyberpunk. You're a bad influence Boro hahaha ;)

[@stillstymied]

Aw I miss the borrrrrodante! I have mixed feelings on this. On the one hand, games are amazing sources of art. On the other hand, I think a lot of artists end up with similar looking work?

[@berbaas9048]

I have been very interested in using photos and elements of them for concept. Could we have some discussion on these techniques?

[@andrietteb]

Very inspiring

[@xmoreno3366]

Thanks

[@beatrizmiranda7340]

To make an contrast to that reason on what comes to celebrities, normally people can't name an game designer or developer from their head like a cinema star so people are toxic and super negative if they dont like something on the game, because they don't attach the game that they are playing to something that people have made and spend thousands of hours developing.

[@bohdan_lvov]

I agree with every point except the one about celebrities - who the heck doesn't now Gabe Newell, John Romero, John Carmack? It's not even to mention Sid Meier who's putting his own name in the names of his games for the last 20 years or so. I think the key difference is that those people became famous when feedback loop from consumers were already established so they literally can't afford to be not nice to their audience which is a good thing. Of course, tabloids aren't that eager to share the details of their personal lives as about kino celebrities at the time being. From another perspective it's clearly visible that "game celebrities" fame is much more livelong since a good chunk of mentioned names didn't produce any games of their own for 20 years but still are remembered.

[@BoroCG]

Yeah well. There are famous people in the industry, but no elitist garbage

[@Nogardtist]

ironically some games landscape came out from concept art sure you can use 3D environment as a reference if you can afford and hardware can run it not at 4fps xD

[@nombnomb5648]

You had me at the title

[@nadavy111]

thank you for the interesting topic :) *** a side note about the section when you speak to the camera at for example - 11:09 , the camera movement feels a bit dizzying, instead of "dynamically moving" from side to side - on the horizon axis I write it cuz been noticing it in you last vids and a its a bit annoying, for me at least cheers and happy new year!

[@BoroCG]

Interesting. Do you feel the same way when it's panning from left to right? Or does it happen to be only in this right-to-left motion?

[@nadavy111]

@@BoroCG no, when panning left to right - horizontal, its perfect and gives the slight movement needed to break the "still" image. a little trick I learn is to shot a bit back - so you have the extra room to "crop" the image and pan it without extra gear, but a tiny digital crop. Thank you for the reply and care, I thought to bring it up but wasnt sure 🙏🏻

[@renealbrechtsen9743]

You should make a video where you use video games for some art :)

[@wille3578]

I have a few questions. Can you trace from a screenshot that you have taken from a videogame? KZbinrs use content from games to make videos so are the rules the same for digital artists that want to use game content for their art?

[@metoox]

i finally found a usage to the F2 key in minecraft...

[@bohdan_lvov]

*Game on, dudes!*

[@Synchronized_11]

This past December, when I saw my first play-through of Assassin's Creed Valhalla, I came to the same conclusion.

[@hamza92m]

Hey Boro! Cant wait till u drop the black widow and move to the next big painting...Also when r u gonna work on some Outlandish Curiosity?

[@BoroCG]

Same, can't wait.

[@Kazaki000]

As a gamer, I can confirm everything :)

[@NickRatRadio]

What? uh huh, YES!

[@MiguelPartosa]

I love you boro

[@davedm6345]

Nice video, my Zero = 0 of your list will be Guide tutorials like Art Academy Atelier Pokemon etc, from Nintendo there are reall GEMS of art study, why they no making new games Art Tutorial based? like WTF those games are very DOPE.

[@VKTRUNG]

Thank you, I'm gonna use this as an excuse to play games

[@Sky-de7oy]

I really recommend Final Fantasy XIV :D

[@bohdan_lvov]

$69 for a course? *Nice*

[@BoroCG]

Niceee

[@Lettu-]

Kinda off-topic, but did u get that 4K 120Hz monitor yet?

[@BoroCG]

Gave up on it. Too expensive, and had dead pixels 3 times I tried to purchase it. Happy with this much cheaper 4K 60Hz replacement

[@Lettu-]

@@BoroCG Alright. Thanks for the info!

[@lokeyartist]

So this doesn’t apply to Minecraft?

[@BoroCG]

Minecraft RTX

[@Rubbe87]

some use it for perspctive.

[@chlorofoto]

yyyyes.... im doing a photo study

[@Huguillon]

I love your videos, but this kind of content is so particular for each people... I mean, I wish I could paint like Rafael, and I pretty sure Rafael never play a video game

[@Kolba_Team]

That aaaa u make like Apetor but he make that after vodka 😂🤣