The most important thing for an artist who wants to make games is to understand that there are very clear style rules in the industry that are dictated by the market. Some graphics are popular and for sale. And there are deviations from the “as I see it” style that may or may not work.
However, the level of investment in one game is quite high, so either enthusiastic developers who make a dream game or very confident professionals who clearly understand what and why they are changing can afford to risk the visual component.
Therefore, unlike commercial illustration, where you are valued for style and personality, it is important to match the overall style of the project, especially when working in a game outsourcing studio.
Video Game Outsourcing
Game artists who are engaged in gaming outsourcing in some way become full-fledged staff of the game studio. Their task is to prepare the art so it can easily go to work for a programmer or animator. Many artists have a hard time going through this stage at the beginning of their careers.
For example, it is difficult for beginners to understand what rules should be used for slicing so that the animation is smooth and without unnecessary holes and tails. Or how to correctly arrange the states of the button so that it does not jump up and down when pressed.
Here you need to understand by what principle the developers work with your art. You need to understand the process a little and communicate a lot with the team. Art outsource with a talented group will be a lifeline in creating games and save time and perhaps a large share of the budget.
Outsource Game Design Process
Implementing a game outsourcing studio is a multi-step process for every company that wants to reorganize its activities to reduce costs. The enterprise considers cost reduction in the long term. Therefore, it is very important to calculate the feasibility of this decision and all possible risks before delegating certain responsibilities to the contractor.
The artist most often collaborates with the game designer. The latter is a kind of father of the game, the link between all the professionals in the team. They will tell you what needs to be created, in what quantity, and according to what rules.
Well, in terms of the visual part, all art is accepted by the art lead – the main artist on the project. So for an ordinary fighter on the artistic front, the main employees are the art lead and the game designer. A smart artist in the work process will approach the programmer and the animator with the question of what form to transfer the art to for convenient work. In general, as elsewhere, the more communication, the better people within the process understand each other.
The hardest thing for people in this industry is not to panic about the quality of their work but to bite the bullet and invest 10 hours into working on it. And only then judge whether there is progress or not. There is no place here for the commonplace image of an artist lost and hovering in the clouds. You need to be able to work efficiently and quickly. At the same time, communicate with employees and even with customers. You need to be able to find out what lies behind the words “make it more beautiful” and not be discouraged by the fifth rejected option.
This is how style is created, which is often not noticed in the process of creating art. Now users or gamers see a beautiful game picture but do not notice that the artist may have created a new style or genre. These styles once included:
- Steampunk
- Dieselpunk
- Cyberpunk
- Anime, etc.
Artists and Game Outsourcing Company
Customers are often looking for handyman artists, such as an artist-animator-modeler. Generally, the larger the firm, the more likely it is to focus on one thing. On the other hand, you often have to do everything from sketches to interfaces on smaller projects. So it’s more of a matter of personal preference.
Professionals with experience already work in their style and select orders for themselves. But they rely on the fact that they are in the subject and know what is in demand and what their type is suitable for.
Currently, there is only one area where supply greatly exceeds demand: gaming outsourcing. For some reason, the direction of a concept artist has become very popular among applicants. It seems to everyone that this is very close to creativity. So you can let your imagination go free. But in fact, the artist in the game outsourcing company is a very high-level professional with some engineering thinking, capable of producing dozens of thoughtful, realistic, and working options for ideas.