Task 7. Time spent wishing. Is time wasted.

Well first I wanted to elaborate the fact I am not an artist. Therefore if I get some of the finer details in terms of understanding the workload of the typical artist you can understand why. Also I hope that even though the majority of the class are in games art us electronic games tech people get the chance to meet a lead programmer and do a blog on the programming side. Though I will admit the talk we had was pretty interesting, except for the never ending questions on things I didn’t have a clue about, it let me get a wider perspective of what art work goes into making a game and the process of producing this final art work. Anyway woke up to Amanda leaving which still feels like I dreamt it then again by a fire bell which lasted for a minute ……annoying.

The first two links described the responsibilities for an art director, being the leader of an art team setting out weekly and daily tasks along with the overall task. Communication seems really important for art directors as I see programmers being able to complete their task then put it with another person’s piece of code with little to no manipulation. While for artists there’s the importance of getting the same style of art and lighting on a piece before they can be put together and look authentic. It also seems that Photoshop is a industry standard therefore anyone looking for an art job should be sufficiently comfortable with using Photoshop, which now explains the ridiculous price tag.

I especially enjoyed reading “Day in the Life: Phillip Bossant, Executive Producer and Art Director” as I feel this gave a real insight in the day to day running of an art directors job. It also highlights all the additional work that an artist must go through in order to produce a realistic game as possible. Again I would imagine that most programmers wouldn’t need this extra research as programming is just a set of rules and standards though I wont deny its creative side as one problem can be completed in different ways depending on the programmer sometimes.

It also seems that getting promoted in the games industry seems to be quite difficult. It also seems that your overall job doesn’t change you just get harder sections of art and in the art directors case you lead a team of artists as well and then get a Entry-Level Artist, Junior Artist, Intermediate Artist, Senior / Lead Artist or Art Directors salary. It also seems that in the games industry it seems that jumping between companies and even freelance work seems to be the norm in order to fulfil your wants by working on games that will inspire you not just one genre.

The Art director is in control of a team of artists and sets tasks for the artists to complete weekly or daily. I personally feel the creativity of the role is fairly limited as you have to follow a set of guidelines set by the producers. I think the main qualities of an art director would be good communication, the ability to research what you are working on effectively, be willing to travel not only the world but also between different companies in order to obtain more job opportunities and I believe that producing a high quality portfolio is also a defining point when aiming for an art directors position.

Woohoo Guild Wars are running a weekend event so its time for doing my washing and playing copious amounts of Guild Wars in order to get my first rare green weapon.