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Focusing On Visual Arts

By Jason Della Rocca

This iteration of IGDA-Montreal's GameCafe set visual arts as the
core focus, looking at the "pure", "biz" and "tech" elements of art
as sub-themes. Given the more narrow focus over previous topics, the
turn-out was a slightly smaller ~35 (interestingly, many of which
were not actually involved with art, but wanted to learn more (eg, a
programmer who works with artists all day, but doesn't "talk their language")).

For the "tech art" portion, much of the discussion centered around
reinvention of art/production pipelines for the new demands of
current consoles. There was also a heavy emphasis on building tools
to automate more and more of the basic stuff (eg, populating a forest
with trees) so that an artist can spend more polish time on the stuff
that really matters (eg, the one tree that blocks the player's path).

Not surprisingly, the "biz art" discussions focused on the topic of
outsourcing/offshoring - the challenges, pros/cons, processes, etc.
This lead to the question of middleware and tool standards to ease
the process of ramping up external partners plugging into a project's
pipeline. More pressing was the issue of cultural compatibility with
the need to rely heavily on concept art and specs so that you get
what you want/expect. For more detailed notes, check out the post from topic moderator Chantal Fournier.

On the "pure art" side, discussions revolved heavily around the
debate over realistic vs stylized graphics. While some argued that
stylized graphics are easier to handle as you can break/bend the
rules of reality, others argued that non-realistic graphics are
harder because it actually requires real talent to come up with
something that's appealing and cohesive. Many games were referenced
in the discussion - from Team Fortress 2's move away from realistic
graphics, to BioShock's art deco style to Zelda's transition to
cell-shading in Wind Waker.

One of the high level conclusions was that, more and more, games are
creating their own unique visual styles. As the medium of games
continues to evolve, game artists will become bolder (and better
skilled) in exploring these new and unique styles rather than
borrowing from other mediums.

Sameer Arshad (McGill) chats with Ben Houston (Exocortex) over
pub fries before the formal action started.

Isabelle Marazzani (marcom consultant), Mike Hawker (Mikeware)
and Tim Miner (Champlain College) listen as table host Chantal
Fournier (Studio Qitsune) leads the "biz art" discussion.