I know you guys enjoyed my last year's post on the festival. But as this is a very busy second year at university, I have opted to just attend the game art festival which was approximately 2 days. As usual I went with my class at university. Despite the hype not being as intense as it was last year, there were some great talks and speakers. This post is about the highlights - which speakers/ topics I enjoyed the most etc. My favourite speakers were: Viktor Antonov and Dave Mckean. It was a very busy but an enjoyable two days. It was very welcoming to have these speakers from the gaming industry as they thrive in fine art media to create beautiful examples of concept imagery for game ideas. This gives me a strength sense of hope for the future generation of game artists. We should never forget our skills in drawing as they are the foundation to our inner selves and can be used to feed our imaginations.
Tales from Dunwall: An artist animation talk (1 Hour)
(Viktor Antonov from Zenimax studios)
"Think of the environments as characters. Dishonored's character is one of tragedy, harshness, a hell hole but lives alongside beauty. A broken character. Space is gameplay."
For me, I believe these words were wisely spoken. If we treat our environments as characters then we can build vast levels of mystery and design upon it, enabling us to create a script for the environment. It's all well and good having these great characters who hold supernatural abilities and tools with a complimentary storyline etc... but can the character truly feel themselves in an environment that doesn't reflect their attributes? Or strengthen the feeling of the story? These are questions that I believe all artists should consider in their work: people are the primary characters of-course but we should never neglect the other elements, especially ones such as this which relate to our practice. After-all, environments and objects are characters within their own right: each has a story to tell, each has a mystic and historic element that can add to the players experience through gameplay.
Antonov's career in games started in 1996. Throughout his career, Antonov has worked as a concept artist, illustrator and creative director while recognising the importance of fine art techniques and first hand sketches of pre production. Some of his early studies for the game consisted of charcoal and rubber. These pre-production sketches had to reflect realistic, contemporary Victorian architecture though these sketches were in black and white and were drawn roughly. Antonov believes that rough sketches show more storytelling an feeling rather than a piece that's fully rendered. The style of work created is largely inspired from gothic themes .i.e. churches, buildings, textures etc. With any game, the first few weeks is mainly dedicated to drawing and gathering inspiration.
Creating a new world
The inspiration for Dishonored derived from the works of Charles Dickens, Jack the Ripper and Sherlock Holmes. These were the main metaphors for the concept of Dishonored. It was crucial to capture oppression, death, rustic, feels of the 19th century. Remember the trams/ railways carriages in the game? These were originally 19th century horse carriages. Antonov discussed what type of pre production sketches are more valuable to game concepts. Concept art should be high in contrast, no essential detail, varieties, rough colour and few areas of the piece that show refining skills. Lighting plays a huge parts to any artist's work, no matter what technique or media. With oppressed types of atmospheres, you can introduce magic. Think about what defines a city. Consider viewpoints and perspective.
Dave Mckean Masterclass - Pictureville -
"You can't hate the years forever…"
Mckean is known for being a modern day version of the "renaissance" man. His love for art derives from his father, who was a frustrated artist who never drew professionally. From then onwards; Mckean drew constantly. At a time where Mckean was very sick, his mother would always buy him a comic book which brought him great comfort. Once he recovered; his love for graphic novel increased dramatically. Further relief was felt when Mckean expressed his interests of working with a wider variety of media while jokingly adding "if I used the same media everyday, I would go mad." During questions, a question was raised concerning advise for upcoming artists, the answer was suggested to the audience members that they should engage in travelling and talking to an array of people with different mind sets. Everything around him including sight, smell, sound and scandinavian music inspires his work. Another question was raised concerning the artists choice of materials to which he answered that he preferred working with odd papers of various textures but they had to be of good quality.
"I can't think on the computer. I have to think on paper. Stories should be about real life, how their brains work, how we interoperate them. That's my idea of fantasy."
My thoughts exactly!
