An introduction to Art Direction for Games

What does an Art Director do?

An art Director can basically be described as the person that directs the art of a game. But there job is more complicated than that as said in an article, "Art directors are generally responsible for setting the visual tone, quality, and style for the game. They are at least indirectly responsible for every object, texture, level, character, and effect that appears in a game." So the Art Director has a lot of responsibility they are the 'quality control' for the games, they need to make sure that the games environment is believable.

Do you think its a creative role?

The Art Director role is a highly artistic job because as the art director they have to be aware of different environments, which includes the textures of the different objects in that certain environment because they will then have to replicate them in the gaming world, so they will definitely have a very good understanding of different shading and art techniques to carry out a realistic visual gaming experience.

How is art direction in Games similar to or different from Film, for example?

They are very much similar, The first piece of evidence I have that leads me to think this is both of the roles involve having to make the action on the screen as real as possible, so that the audience has a better experience whilst watching or playing the finished produce. Also you are making sure that the other people that are under you are doing their jobs effectively, and everyone is working in harmony to get to the required goal.

What qualities do you think you'd need to develop if you want to become an Art Director in the future?

I think that the most important skill that a outstanding Art Director has to have is he or she must be a first-rate artist. This is important because they will have to have a good understanding of textures, shadows, sizes of different objects and much more. This skill is extremely important because if the art director does not have a good concept of art then the work that is done on the games will not be of the quality expected of games of today. Also an Art Director must have good communication skills, this is so that when they are telling the other artists to do certain tasks there will be no mix up with the instructions.