An Introduction to Art Direction for Games

The job of an Art Director isn’t as glamorous as its title perceives it to be but that doesn’t make it any less important. They coordinate all the visual artists from concept artists to 3D modellers and track the process and guides the projects constraints and deadlines. A lot of people would presume that a position such as this would be a basic administrative job but it would be impossible for anyone without art knowledge and experience to do this job. An Art Directors job is not only administrative but it’s also to help and mentor younger artists on the correct ways to produce and finalize their work so it is ready for the next stage in the design process and this would be impossible without an art background to begin with. Some companies have gone as far as to create to separate positions, one of which is the Art Director and the second is what is known as a ‘guru’ who doesn’t deal with all of the management stuff and concentrates only on the artistic mentoring to other artists on the team. If I wanted to become an Art Director in the future I think that some of the key things I would need to improve or better my understanding of would be my organisational skills, a better understanding of team dynamics and my overall knowledge of different genres and styles of art. Although I am not particularly enthusiastic about administrative jobs since I am more of a hands on creative individual who loves to draw as a hobby and not just as a job. I would much prefer to be a guru so then I could pass on and advise others on new ways to do things.