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Echo is an alternative education program that connects professionals with young enthusiasts who want to understand the game development industry. Because we want to inform you about the diverse career paths, roles, and skills in this creative industry, we created RoleZ in Gaming: an educational campaign.

ArtZ in Gaming is a deep dive into the differences between Game Design and Game Art and the specific art-related roles.

Digital Art is a term that applies to any form of visual art created with digital technology. In digital arts, we use specific applications to perform the classical functions of drawing, painting, sculpture, or animation: digital 2D/3D, animation, or special effects.

Each field requires specialization depending on the industry: motion pictures, animated movies, or video games. Here, the Art team is well structured, and each member has a crucial role in creating a successful project

Artz in gaming

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ART DIRECTOR

The Game Art Director plays a key role in every game creation stage: from developing its concept to supervising and leading the production. The art director plays a key role as a leader for the entire Art team,  he is both a multi-level expert and the one who can handle management issues.   

He has a holistic view of all the project’s details:  characters, environment, visual coherence, and special effects.  

Source: career.iresearchnet.com

 

SKILLS:

  • Portfolio demonstrating production, artistic and technical skills
  • Strong knowledge in building design or environment art, as well as different art styles, techniques, and workflows in game development.;
  • In-depth knowledge of all aspects of asset creation including modeling, texturing, animation, production, UI and VFX;
  • Strong communication and leadership skills combined with a start-up mentality, strong determination and ownership of the product.

CONCEPT ARTIST

The Concept Artist is responsible for the style and the look of the video game. He is the first to draw and develop the characters, the environment, and the other elements of the game.  

Working on a brief from the Art Director, the Concept Artist’s sketches will help the other members of the project understand how the game will look.  

Another special skill required for a Concept Artist is that of a storyboard artist. This means that they must have both drawing and stage management skills.   

Source: www.screenskills.com 

 

SKILLS:

  • Strong drawing skills, with a specialization in concept design
  • Knowledge of anatomy and zoology, costuming, physical settings and history-related references 
  • Solid awareness of facial expression, pose, posture, gesture and movement
  • High-level attention to detail
  • Solid understanding of visual language – texture, color, dimension, perspective, shade, composition, proportion, spatial awareness, etc
  • Good communication skills, ability to explain concepts and support artistic choices
  • Knowledge of the animation and/or game development processes
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2D ARTIST

The 2D Artist, as the name implies, builds images, especially using 2D media art expression: drawing and painting. He will closely follow Art Director’s instructions for a coherent style and structure to the project. He mainly works with Photoshop & llustrator, while knowing how to use a graphic tablet is a must.  

 

SKILLS:

  • Excellent traditional artistic skills with a firm grasp of composition, anatomy, color theory, perspective, lighting, environment, architecture, creature/character, costume and graphic design
  • A strong sense of design oriented towards the stylized and cartooned. Ability to adapt to or generate a variety of potential styles as needed. 
  • Traditional animation experience is highly desirable as applied to exploring characters through posing and expression
  • Strong communication, excellent visual storytelling and written skills
  • Able to work in a focused team of designers, artists and programmers with diverse development cycles

UI ARTIST

The User Interface Artist designs and builds all aspects of a game’s graphic interface to help players easily understand the game and its features. In addition to his 2D drawing skills, the UI Artist needs Graphic Design and User Experience knowledge to build the structural skeleton and make the game easier to handle. 

 

SKILLS: 

  • Proficiency in Unity or other commercial game engines
  • Proficiency in Photoshop, Illustrator, or different visual design and wire-framing tools
  • Excellent graphic design skills with a sensibility to user-system interaction
  • Ability to present your designs and sell your solutions to various stakeholders.
  • Up-to-date with the latest UI trends, techniques, and technologies

3D ARTIST

The 3D Artist is responsible for modeling, rigging, animating or adding effects and can specialize in characters, environments, or props. Character artists are more interested in learning about anatomy so they can create realistic humans, stylized animals, or fantastic creatures. Environment or prop artists design every detail necessary for creating an environment that feels natural.

 

SKILLS:

  • Experience in game development, interpreting concepts, modeling and texturing assets
  • Software experiences such as 3ds Max or Maya
  • Experience in Unity
  • Superior eye for light, shade, color, and detail in crafting texture maps and materials
  • Ability to understand the needs of a project and stay within the style of the project.
  • Proficiently communicates with team members (Concept Artists, Art Directors), Production, Design and other departments

ANIMATOR

The Animator combines art and technology to create interactive animated images and environments for video games. He is responsible for the portrayal of movement and behavior, adding personality, emotion, and realism within a game.                                     

An Animator has both artistic and programming skills in order to be good at revealing attitude, emotions and mood through movement. 

Source: www.talentlyft.com 

 

SKILLS:

  • Experience in game development and animation
  • Software experience such as 3ds Max, Maya or Unity
  • Able to collaborate closely with other Artists (3D and 2 D Artists, Art Directors, etc.)
  • Ability to understand the needs of a project and stay within the style of the project.

VFX ARTIST

The VFX Artist creates  special effects that surprise players and keeps the action alive and intense: little particles that generate fire, dust, explosions, light rays that pass-through fog, steam or water splashes.  

VFX Artists have to be good at physics and math for a fun purpose: to understand how elements behave in different conditions and create realistic effects by using a range of programs and softwares.

 

SKILLS: 

  • Have an eye for engaging visuals, and understand motion, animation, scaling, and timing.
  • Understand every aspect of video production: staging, sound, and lighting.
  • Strong working knowledge of software tools, including but not limited to Unreal, Unity, Adobe CS5, and Adobe After Effects.
  • Excellent computer skills and attention to detail.
  • Good drawing skills and creativity.

TECH ARTIST

The Tech Artist is the wizard that puts everything together in the game engine. He acts as a link between the artists and the programmers working on a game. They are something of a hybrid between an artist and a programmer meaning that this role requires both artistic and programming skills.  

Knowledge of game engines is very important to be able to easily integrate scenery, objects, and characters. This function is also called “Level Artist”. 

Source: www.careerexplorer.com 

 

SKILLS: 

  • Expert knowledge of Unity 3D, Unreal, or other real-time engines & techniques.
  • Excellent understanding of mobile & PC platforms limitations,
  • Good scripting and skills in tool development in Unity 3D,
  • Professional level of English

Learn more about the gaming industry from experts.

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Massive thanks for all the help and precious insights go to Ionut Schmidt (UX Designer @Amber), Eda Mologani (UX designer @ Amber), V.L. & Pattern Mind Treat Studios.