Game art design

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Game art design is a subset of game development involving the process of creating the artistic aspects of video games. Video game art design begins in the pre-production phase of creating a video game. Video game artists are visual artists involved from the conception of the game who make rough sketches of the characters, setting, objects, etc. [1] [2] [3] [4] These starting concept designs can also be created by the game designers before the game is moved into actualization. Sometimes, these concept designs are called "programmer art". [5] After the rough sketches are completed and the game is ready to be moved forward, those artists or more artists are brought in to develop graphic designs based on the sketches.

Contents

The art design of a game can involve anywhere from two people and up. Small gaming companies tend to not have as many artists on the team, meaning that their artist must be skilled in several types of art development, whereas the larger the company, although an artist can be skilled in several types of development, the roles each artist plays becomes more specialized. [6]

Overview

A game's artwork included in media, such as demos and screenshots, has a significant impact on customers, because artwork can be judged from previews, while gameplay cannot. [1]

Artists work closely with designers on what is needed for the game. [7]

Tools used for art design and production are known as art tools. These can range from pen and paper to full software packages for both 2D and 3D art. [8] A developer may employ a tools team responsible for art production applications. This includes using existing software packages and creating custom exporters and plug-ins for them. [9]

History

Video game art development began when video games started to be created. When game development started, the game artists were also the programmers, which is often why very old games like Pong lack any sort of creativity and were very minimalistic. It was not until the early 1980s that art began to become more developmentally intricate. [10] One of the first video game artists who contributed more shape and two-dimensional characters was Shigeru Miyamoto, who created Mario and Donkey Kong. [11]

Starting in the early 1990s, art requirements in video games were allowed to increase greatly because there was more room in the budget for art. Video game art began to be in 3D around 1994, before which it had mainly been 2D art design. This required the artist and programmer to work in congruence very carefully, in the beginning, due to the foreign nature of 3D in video games. [3]

As the hardware of video games and technology on a whole advances, the ability to develop art for video games increases exponentially. [5] [12] In more recent years many games have developed a much more realistic art design where some artists choose to have a more stylistic approach to the game. There are some games that aim for realism, modelling characters after real actors and using real film to create the back-up the artistry to make it as real as possible, like in Until Dawn. [13]

Video game artist

There are several roles under the art development umbrella. Each role plays an important part in creating the art for the video game. Depending on the size of the game production company, there may be anywhere from two people and up working on the game. The fewer people working on art design, the more jobs people will have to create the different facets of the game. The number of artists working on a game can also be dependent on the type of game being created. For most games there are many roles that must be filled to create characters, objects, setting, animation, and texturizing the game. [11]

Video game artists must use the same design principles that any other kind of artists use. This adds to the aesthetic value of the art created for video games. The greater understanding of these techniques adds to games to make them have a unique experience. [14]

Lead artist / art director

The art director/lead artist is a person who monitor the progress of the other artists to make sure that the art for the game is staying on track. The art director is there to ensure that all the art created works cohesively. They manage their team of artists and distribute projects. The art director often works with other departments in the game and is involved from the conception of the game until the game is finished. [5] [15] [16]

2D artists

3D artists

Compensation

In 2010 an artist or animator with less than three years of experience on average earned US$45k a year. Artists with three to six years of experience earned US$61k. An artist with more than six years of experience earned $90k. [31]

A lead artist or technical artist earned $66k with three to six years of experience; and $97k with more than six years of experience [31] and an art director with six and more years of experience earned on average, $105k a year. [31]

See also

Notes

  1. 1 2 Bates 2004, p. 171
  2. Moore, Novak 2010, p. 85
  3. 1 2 Bethke 2003, p. 45-49
  4. Chandler 2009, pp. 23-26
  5. 1 2 3 Rogers, Scott (2010). Level Up!: The Guide to Great Video Game Design. United Kingdom: John Wiley & Sons. pp. 13–14. ISBN   978-0-470-68867-0.
  6. "Getting a Job as a Games Artist". www.cybergooch.com. Retrieved 2016-02-22.
  7. Chandler 2009, p. 23
  8. McGuire, Jenkins 2009, pp. 116-118
  9. McGuire, Jenkins 2009, p. 281
  10. Bethke 2003, p. 45
  11. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Rogers, Scott (2010). Level Up!: The Guide to Great Video Game Design. United Kingdom: John Wiley & Sons. p. 14. ISBN   978-0-470-68867-0.
  12. "The Art of Video Games". Smithsonian American Art Museum. Retrieved 2016-02-22.
  13. "Creating the atmosphere of Until Dawn". MCV. 23 November 2015. Retrieved 2016-02-22.
  14. "Gamasutra - The Aesthetics of Game Art and Game Design". www.gamasutra.com. 30 January 2013. Retrieved 2016-02-23.
  15. 1 2 3 Bethke 2003, p. 46
  16. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Getting a Job as a Games Artist". www.cybergooch.com. Retrieved 2016-02-23.
  17. 1 2 Moore, Novak 2010, p. 86
  18. Bates 2004, p. 173
  19. McGuire, Jenkins 2009, p. 280
  20. Chandler 2009, p. 24
  21. 1 2 Bethke 2003, p. 49
  22. Moore, Novak 2010, p. 88
  23. 1 2 Bates 2004, p. 176
  24. 1 2 3 Bates 2004, p. 175
  25. 1 2 Bethke 2003, p. 48
  26. McGuire, Jenkins 2009, p. 283
  27. 1 2 3 4 Bethke 2003, p. 47
  28. 1 2 3 Moore, Novak 2010, p. 87
  29. Moore, Novak 2010, p. 90
  30. McGuire, Jenkins 2009, p. 286
  31. 1 2 3 Fleming, Jeffrey (April 2010). "9th Annual Salary Survey". Game Developer . United Business Media. 17 (4): 8.

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