The term ‘captain’ greatly describes the role of an art director, as someone who is very much a team member, but who also carries the burden of profound responsibility in dictating and finalising the visual outcome, quality and overall ambiance of a game.
A flare for creativity and awareness of detail within a game are of paramount importance to an Art Director’s skill. The ability to create a sense of reality in both the environment and characters of a game is vital to the end product in terms of its relative success or failure. Thus, a good Art Director is aware of each individual prop and the notion that the smallest feature can depict the overall nature of a surrounding or character. Using colour, texture and tone to portray a positive or negative aspect, for example, an enemy/team mate or good/evil, is a potent method in quickly establishing the mood of the player. Such commitment to the realism of a game conveys a sense of authenticity and is certainly a praised quality by all game-players alike, who are able to feel more ‘involved’ in a game that is so realistic. Furthermore, in order to achieve this, an Art Director and his team may have the opportunity to work with Subject Matter Experts, who aid the artists in creating a game that represents the subject, as closely as possible, e.g. the detailing on army outfits and weaponry.
The Art Director, who is ultimately responsible to the Producer, works in tandem with both the Creative Director and Design Lead to set and the standards for a game, with insightful knowledge of technics and technical limitation requirements. In addition, an Art Director must work in close conjunction with the Game Designer and Lead Artist to sculpt the game world. Although the Art Director maintains the responsibility for defining the visual direction of the project as a whole, the lead artist must work to interpret the Art Director’s vision. In this way, a sense of unification in mind-set and target is essential for a ‘successful’ game result.
An excellent Art director must have tree major characteristics: creativity,
confidence and competence. Thinking outside the box and the ability to arrive
at new methods and approaches will help in aspiring designers. Confidence will
help project a positive image in addition being open to risk is crucial so a
great deal of self confidence is needed to complete certain tasks. The creative
industry is a competitive one. Industry participants need to wrestle with their
full capacity to remain in the industry this is where competence is vital. The
rules and responsibilities of an art director are certainly parallel to those
of a game art director in terms of their roles and responsibilities. The most
important of these roles is having the capability to bring directors aesthetic
vision to life, in this way, a film art director is also responsible for delegating
tasks to members of a production team, much in the same way as a game art
director.
