A game artist can get involved in the aesthetic side of the most sensational games. It includes creating stunning environments, building striking characters, and many more. Hence, game art is not just a part of the game design; it is the pulse and rhythm that captivates the player and taps into their experiences.
The gaming industry is quite a vibrant sector that is growing potentially. If we look at the market, it’s worth is expected to be over $321 billion by 2026. Surprisingly, billions of people around the globe are into video games.
However, with such growth, the need for skilled game artists is on the rise. But this space can be challenging to maneuver—more so if you’re an aspiring artist. Consequently, deteriorating career indecision has increased to a point where only 36% of learners have confidence in landing their future occupations.
In this guide, we will outline what a game artist does, the skills needed, and the types of game art. We will also cover how people can enter the industry, continue to find and create rewarding jobs and prepare for future advancements in-game art.
Game artists are powerhouses of creativity that present gaming visuals to make the experience immersive. A game artist’s primary job is to develop and implement concepts and visuals of the game, such as characters, locations, or backgrounds. They create concepts and bring characters, environments, and objects to life, presenting visions that make a video game beautiful.
| Game artists transform imaginative ideas into vivid, interactive worlds. By mastering visual elements, they shape the look and feel of a game, making the gaming experience engaging and immersive for players. |
The space of game art is diverse, including various specialisations, each with its unique contributions:
To be a successful game artist, one should have a combination of artistic and technical abilities. These skills are critical when illustrating initial ideas or developing 3D models for gameplay, as proficiency in them will define the work and its compatibility with game designers. Now, it is time to discuss the primary skills every future game artist has to develop.
Drawing and painting are some of the main elements of the foundational work of game art. It doesn’t matter whether designing characters, settings, or items; a good understanding of anatomy, perspective, light, and shadow makes a design convincing. For example, poorly implemented characters interfere with the game’s graphics and lack depth, easily disrupting players’ immersion.
Mastery of these basics allows you to visualize an idea immediately and create it with precision. Further, it aids in design cycle acceleration and game aesthetics in general. It also gives more space to adjust the brush to the given art style
Cognition of colour is not limited to the aesthetic aspect. It defines the mood and gives a player an understanding of the progress of a game. Applying fundamental concepts such as color theory intensely impacts a player and his emotions. In contrast, composition efficiently directs the players’ attention to what is relevant during the scene.
If the author understands the color theory, one can prevent problems such as the mixing of information blocks. With the right color theory, one can focus on the important points – objectives or enemies.
For example, the player’s eye guidance is smooth in well-written scenes and helps avoid problems, which makes scenes as a whole better to play.
Many avid gamers opt for Adobe Creative Suite for 2D art and Blender or Maya for 3D art and animation for digital game development. These tools help create game assets, turning ideas into actual game elements. However, game artists should be pros with these tools; only then can they create smooth and delicate characters that are high in quality.
These tools can be manipulated to allow you to produce a piece of artwork, redesign it, and share it with the world. This also enhances your teamwork, ensuring your model and designs fit into the game for the rest of the team. Without this technical expertise, your work may be substandard, or it may take you a very long time to complete a game project.
Every game artist should have a comprehensive knowledge of game engines like Unity or Unreal Engine to showcase a game’s control. It is not about creating attractive graphics but effective assets. Implementing this can be done with little to no problems, such as the assets being slowed down or glitching.
With the right game engine knowledge, you can optimise game assets efficiently, eliminating the game system’s overloading. For instance, a failure to optimally design a three-dimensional model may lead to a slow game, which may not be what players want.
If you understand how game engines work in terms of visuals, it’s easy to minimise these problems by changing the texture polygon size or lighting to create an FPS that will keep the player glued to the game.
While game artists are all about designing great-looking concept art, they must also ensure that these concepts fit into gameplay mechanics, the story, and the overall game. Collaboration with other team members can be very useful in achieving this.
Designers work on defining gameplay from start to end and the game’s mechanics. Also, the players and their experience while playing the game matters. So, the game artist’s work is based on these regulatory notions about the gameplay.
For instance, if a designer outlines the concept of fast-phased action, the artist must ensure that the characters, setting, and stage design portray this kind of energy. If no signal is given, the assets can interfere with gameplay and ruin the entire feel of it for the player.
| Collaborating with game designers ensures that game art aligns with gameplay mechanics and storytelling. This partnership ensures that every visual element supports the pace, theme, and overall experience of the game. |
While artists work on what players see, programmers guarantee that what players see works. Game artists need to coordinate with programmers to understand where and how their assets will be showcased, be it 3D or 2D. If you fail to communicate clearly, it causes inconveniences such as the glitch, a broken animation, or, in extreme cases, poor performance.
Animators are involved in animating static assets. Game artists give static concepts, and animators give these concepts life. For instance, when painting an image, a character is drawn well, but when modeling takes over, that character has to smile, fight, or leap. These roles are complementary to ensure the character moves in a way that complements its design and the game’s aesthetic.
The journey toward becoming a game artist begins by having the right education base. It’s better to discover that here first, often starting with Digital Art Courses, which let you grasp general classes, including drawing, color, and basics of software like Photoshop, Illustrator, etc. These courses prepare the students with skills that enable them to make excellent visuals for games.
However, for those with additional interests in game art, there are more comprehensive solutions, and that is a Game Art Diploma program. These programs aim to train students in skills such as modeling, texturing, rigging, animating, and so on. From a pragmatic perspective, students can develop their hands-on skills while acquiring theoretical knowledge, especially designing focused on industry requirements.
| The path to becoming a game artist involves mastering both creative and technical skills through education and practice. Formal courses in game art can help aspiring artists gain the tools needed for success in the industry. |
Learning 3D modeling and animation is a step that every game artist needs to attain. The process comprises developing and polishing characters, places known as environments, and items known as assets, using stages that include modelling, texturing, and rigging. Animation supplements such models with interactivity that turns them into game avatars. Techniques for animating characters and objects are important knowledge for everyone who wants to work in this specialization.
While most game artists freelance, some positions are available within a game studio. It is clear that always keeping in touch with the professionals of the field and the current trends is vastly important for one’s career. It helps the artists stay relevant in this field due to its nature, which is characterized by changes in trends now and then.
It takes a certain amount of passion, a positive attitude, persistence, and growth to become a successful game artist. The internet creates different learning opportunities, and working with the right trainer can turn talent into a fruitful career.
It isn’t easy, and there is a lot of work to do, but if you apply yourself and are willing to grow and change, there is a way to find opportunities in the vast and constantly growing field of game art. Follow the muse and never get bored again; plenty is out there waiting to be created digitally.
If you are planning to make a move in the gaming industry as an artist, welcome to MAGES Institute, your place to outshine in your career. Get in touch with us to choose the right career path.