Why your games must offer cinematic realism

In today’s Develop feature, Black Rock Studio’s David Jefferies takes a look at the increasing importance of convincing cinematic realism in games, and offers a wealth of advice on how such high expectations can be satisfied.

While many assume the quest to replicate the look of the silver screen is purely a pursuit of photorealism, there are in fact a wealth of other techniques that can help developers replicate the look of the cinematic movie.

"What is it that filmmakers do to their summer blockbusters to make them so unmistakable?" asks Jefferies, adding: "One of the first things to note is that viewers expect film to exhibit certain characteristics, and those expectations were formed in the movie heyday of the 1940s and 1950s."

Jefferies goes on to detail a range of techniques to replicate Hollywood’s use of slow shutter speeds, motion blur, vignette framing, colour correction and other post-production techniques.

To read more about how you can implement cinematic realism into your games, click here.