Week 07: Intro to Art Direction for Games

An Art Director in general, keeps the overall vision of the game, and established the key standards and makes sre that all of the artists on his/her team, are of the same standard and level of skill. They partner with the creative director and put goals in place for the team i.e. deadlines, quality etc. They communicate a strong knowledge of innovative product technology & capabilities of the technology as appropriate to the goals.
The Art Director have a responsilibity to many people, such as the Creative Director, Management team as a whole, the Artistic team as well as the overall company. They have to ensure that the ideads are firmly communicated to the team and that the deadlines and quality are met by the team designing the game in hand. They have a great responsibility on thier hands and must ensure that it is dealt with.
Art Direction can be seen as being a creative role. They need to be able to create goals and express 'visions' to thier team, in the beat means possible. They also need to ensure that thier team is creating the game in the desired way, and if not, have the skills to show them the correct way to be doing it.
This differs in games to films in the way that Art Directors for games ahve a lot more responsibility to the consumer. The Art Director may have to take over the job of a team member in certain circumstances. A film art director wouldnt have to do this. This is why creativity is an essential part of Art Direction for games. Several qualities acress the board are needed to become an art director. You need to:

• Be Creative - to be able to create the right image for the game
• Be able to stick to deadlines - a VITAL part of the project. Meeting deadlines is essential as it can look bad on you and your team, as well as the overall company.
• Be Innovative - Fresh thinking, original, inventive, able to think in different ways.
• Be good at interpretation - You need to be able to interpret the ideas of the creators to give them just what they want, how the see it in thier mind.
• Good understanding of MMORPG - This is always needed, You need to know how to create different styles of games...and do it well.

Personally myself, i dont think i would like to be an art director, it seems like way too much work. As Rick Nath said last week, it can get boring. (and i dont like the sound of all the paperwork either) As good as it sounds leading a team, creating games and such, i dont think i would like it. I prefer to be told what to do rather than be telling people what to do.

Are any of you guys the same?