Mechanics in Motion

All design starts in the conceptual phase, where it must soon be manifested into physical form to be useful. In the game art pipeline, this important first step takes the form of concept art. Later in the pipeline, concept art is what all the modelers reference so they know what it is they are supposed to be modeling. Trying to explain to the artist using language what visual concepts you want them to manifest is difficult, and if you are not familiar with the artist’s vocabulary, it can get messy very quickly.

Translating words and terms into visuals is terribly open to subjective interpretation unless you are familiar with the exact terms used to describe the visual world. The shapes and curves used in architecture, fashion and clothing, color theory and even the human form all have their own language. In fact, it’s one of the reasons art students are required to take a minimum of five art history courses in most schools. When you tell an artist you want a medieval fantasy setting, you are summing up an entire genre of fiction along with hundreds of years of architecture in one sentence. Do you mean Italian Renaissance architecture in the city of Florence? Or did you mean you wanted the angular Norman castles from the British Isles? Or perhaps you meant the elaborate Germanic style of the Neuschwanstein Castle? It’s the equivalent of saying to a programmer, “code me a fantasy RPG”. Who knows what you are going to get?

Ugggh…but I am not an art historian you say…

Don’t lose hope. The key word here is concept, and concepts are developed through research. Just because you cannot draw does not mean you cannot follow the same steps a concept artist or an illustrator would follow to develop his visual image. Good concept art starts from good reference material. I can still hear the words of my Illustration professor from my undergrad days “Don’t make it up. Use your reference. People will be able to tell if you make it up.” It’s true. Most artists are not savants with photographic memories— even if it seems like they are just drawing it all from their head, it probably comes from years of studying real life and reference images with a desire to understand how lighting, shape and form interact (that’s what all those daydreamers were doing when the teacher was explaining algebra). When an illustrator has something new to illustrate, he or she goes and gets reference material.

So, if you are making your own game and want to have some sort input on its appearance, it makes sense that it ought to be you that collects the reference material. There is an old maxim in the arts, “show don’t tell”. Its true on many levels, and you can use it in the concept phase; show the artist the kinds of images you like, don’t try and describe them. Once you have something in front of you, you can point to specific parts of the image and talk about what you do and don’t like about it.

So where does one acquire good reference material? The internet is an amazing tool, but sadly it is quickly destroying the art of good research. Please do not think you can go onto Google and do a few good image searches and have your reference images. Not only do you get the same few images everyone else has, but they are often not very clear and may have a limited amount of information. What’s worse, you may even make the blunder of getting an image of a well known place and not even realize it. Eilien Donnin castle for example is a great reference image, but you ought to know that it is in Scotland and was the castle featured in the movie Highlander (and a few more). Information on the internet is incomplete and sometimes inaccurate. Fortunately, there is a better solution. Back in the dark ages we used to go to places called libraries. These places still exist, and you can in fact use them for free, as they are supported by local governments. You probably pay taxes to keep one running, so use it. A college library is going to be one of your best sources if you have access to one.

Another great place is the book store. Some of the large chain bookstores like Borders have great deals in their discount sections. I am often amazed at how many big hardcover books with great reference images there are on sale for less than ten dollars. A few good finds and you can get a great deal of useful image reference that will set the groundwork for your entire art direction. I also love the children’s section, as they often have inexpensive books with very large and clear photographs that use visual aids to teach children about a subject. You can also buy calendars from the previous year for about a dollar or two, and there can be some great image finds in those. Your reference library will grow. I myself have accumulated four bookshelves full of visual reference material after years of this sort of collecting, and it makes my job much easier.

Finally, do not underestimate the value of your own personal photographs. Get a digital camera and take it with you wherever you go. It’s amazing what you can find. Once at a county fair north of my city, I wandered into a barn and found over twenty old steam powered tractors from the early 20th century— I happened to be working on a steam punk game at the time. Of course the great thing about having your own camera is that you can get in close and take pictures from all angles and perspective, gaining an enormous amount of detail. Your 3D modelers will love you, and in fact you might even find that modeling isn’t as hard as you originally thought once you have good reference images. Photographs are also invaluable ways to collect textures for your game environment as well (make sure to turn the flash off though, and keep your camera parallel to the surface and as still as possible, so as not to blur the detail.)

A word needs to be said on secondary source reference material. By this I mean concept images you use that other artists have created, or screen shots from other games. It’s inevitable that you will end up looking at what other games have done, but be very careful about just copying them. You ought to realize by now that they all followed the same process outlined above, using their own reference images, and then working from those to create their own original look and feel. Perhaps a bit more acceptable practice is to reference an artist’s work that has created an original look of their own, but not necessarily specifically for video games. The art of HR Giger (http://www.hrgiger.com/) might inspire an original looking game. In some cases it’s directly relevant; for example, the MMO Age of Conan looks very much like the art of well known Frank Frazetta, who illustrated much of the Conan fiction. The key idea here is that people who know art are going to be able to tell if you have copied someone else. At least don’t make the mistake of taking someone else’s artwork and calling it “concept art” when in reality, it’s just a reference image (unless it was created specifically for your game). But, if you are going to all the trouble of making your own game, why not take the time to generate your own look?