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書名： Mobile Game Design Essentials
作者名： Dr. Claudio Scolastici David Nolte
本章字數： 1155字
更新時間： 2021-07-23 14:16:06

The game artist

The game artist is responsible for creating in-game art: characters, animations, game objects, backgrounds, environments, and game interface.

No need to say, artwork is very important in a videogame! Graphics are the most prominent characteristic of a videogame and they are also important from a marketing point of view. Most of the time, customers are attracted to a title by its visual characteristics. When judging a game from its preview, if gameplay is unavailable, the game is judged solely on its visual appeal.

In the early days of computer videogames, a single artist could cover all the graphic needs of a game. As time passed, it required more people to be involved in the creation of the graphics for a title, and this lead to the creation of groups of artists as part of the development team.

In a mobile team it is very likely that graphics will be made by two to three people with a separation of duties, such as one artist on 2D graphics (concept, sprites, game interface, and textures) and one or two on the production of 3D assets (models, animations, 3D environments, and lighting).

Brushes and canvas

Game artists need several tools. First and foremost, an artist must be able to draw and sketch, using pencil and paper. Once the sketches are approved, there comes the time to create real assets for the game using dedicated software. The most important tools for a game artist are image editors, such as Photoshop, Paintshop, Illustrator and modeling software, such as 3D Studio Max, Maya, Blender, and Zbrush. We will talk about them in the chapter on game graphics.

Forms of art

The production of graphic assets for games involves many different activities. We will delve into the details of the operations related to the production of graphic assets for mobile games in the next chapter of the book. For now, let's just have a look at the main duties of the game artist.

2D graphic assets

The 2D graphics are the foundation of any game. Videogames were born 2D and 2D graphics are always required, even for 3D games. The following list describes the main fields of 2D graphics for games:

Concept art: This consists of sketches, storyboards, and free hand drawings that reproduce key aspects of a game, such as the main character, the villain, relevant game environments, and crucial game mechanics. Concept art is mainly used to convey the look and feel of a game: the ability to convey maximum content with minimal complexity is a key factor for creating optimal concept art.
Sprites: These are 2D representations of any game object of a title. The ability to draw convincing characters and objects using few pixels is a talent that is fundamental to those who want to be proficient with 2D assets creation.
Backgrounds, terrains, and tilesets: These are the construction blocks for any bidimensional game. Tilesets, in particular, are very important, because they save system memory for your game.
Interface: Any game, whether it is 2D or 3D, needs an interface to provide the player with relevant information during gameplay (score, lives and energy, ammo), as well as menus and presentation screens for the game. The artist takes care of creating the assets for the game interface.
Textures and materials: 3D objects and characters need to be improved with 2D graphic assets that add details to a model and make its surface interact with the lighting environment of the game engine. The artist is accounted for creating these assets.

The following figure represents a concept design sketch for a space ship, taken from the material for a space shooter made by one of the authors:

3D graphic assets

The advent of 3D and the improvement of mobile devices hardware offer the opportunity to mobile developers to create beautiful 3D titles for the mobile market.

The following list describes the main fields of 3D graphics in games.

Models: 3D characters and game objects must be modeled with dedicated software. Actual games and mobile games too tend to make extensive use of 3D graphics, so it is very important for a game artist to be proficient with 3D modeling and for a team who wants to develop mobile games to have at least one guy good at that.
Animations: Animations for game characters are usually made with the same software used to model them. Characters' animation is crucial for a game's appeal, because everyone is good at evaluating if an animation is good, especially for humanoid characters, thanks to their experience of the real world. An inferior animated character immediately stands out from the rest of the game to ruin the player's experience.
3D environments: These are crucial elements of a polished game; it is very important for a game artist to be capable of depicting believable worlds that make the player feel immersed in the game action.
Lighting: Though mobile games don't usually rely very much on player's immersion, the use of light and colors is very important to produce nice game levels. It is thus important for a game artist to have at least some basic understanding on how to use light to convey emotions.

A typical mobile game development team can rely on just two or three artists. Consider the previous list as a reference to evaluate candidates for the position of an artist, based on their proven skills.

Art schools and creative types

The artists should study the basics of fine art: art theory and history, composition, color and form, and space and light.

Art schools and academies are the institutions of choice for those interested in becoming artists. These are schools that provide their students with the necessary courses on life drawing, graphic design, color theory, photography, animation and technical drawing, anatomy and the dynamics of movement, among others.

Naturally, a good art school is only the first step. Then it is necessary for these people to practice as much as they can and get proficient with their tools to develop real assets for games.

As for the artist's character, there is no need to explain that an artist has a creative nature and as such, creative types may not be comfortable with discipline. On the other hand, artists who want to work in the videogame industry need to balance this aspect of their personality to complete their daily tasks.

They must be analytical as much as they are creative, and fight their innate tendency to chaos to allow the other team members to work effectively with them and keep up with the project schedule.

Finally, artists must be capable of putting their creativity at the game's target audience service, sacrificing their personal taste, and possess a thick skin to deal with the daily criticism that their creativity will undergo during the development of the game.

More about the game artist and the creation of graphics for games can be found at http://www.gamecareerguide.com/features/413/game_art_and_animation_an_introduction.php.

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