Week 7: Art Directors

In the games art industry, there are different levels of artist in the hierarchy. Art Director is at the top of the list and is what we will all hope to aspire to. While they are not at the top of the chain, they still hold alot of responsibility which could essentially make or break a game. Gamers are always looking at how a game looks and are very upset when things seem out of place or just plain wrong and it is the job of the Director to make sure the gamers are kept happy.

We can say that an Art Director is responsible for the look and feel of all the elements in a game. They will decide how buildings and streets should look, then proceed to describe this to the artists below. As these elements are being created, the director will overlook production and suggest ways
to improve what is already there. For example; if a building doesn't look run down enough, they will come up with solutions
 of how to overcome this problem. It is their visualisation that the game needs to meet, so they are supposed to improve anything which doesn't live up to standards. In this respect, it is fair to say that they are the most creative people on the team. Coming up with the visuals for an entire game will take alot of research and imagery and therefore will take a very imaginative person for the task.

Art Directors are expected to be skilled at public relations so that they may interact with their team in a respectful manner and also to communicate their ideas successfully. In addition to these, it is important that a director have some connections within and outside of the industry. Considered that an Art Director will be required to know what things look like, it is useful to seek help from people in the know rather than guessing or even to see what objects and scenery look like.

One Art Director from the games industry is probably interchangeable with the other forms of industry whether it be screen or print as they are fundamentally the same. They will be trained to communicate ideas, with people and how to visualize images and scenarios. However it may be difficult to place a Games Director into film due to the differences in software and in principles. Films generally being 90-120 minutes long while Games can be anywhere from 20-40 hours long. This could cause problems since a game director may have been working in alot lower quality in films and other restrictions. At the core, I think Art directors are interchangeable between industries with minor discrepancies.