Communicating with an Artist

[GameStudioD]

A friend and I are working on a game together. I am programming & designing and my friend is doing the modelling & art. The artist knows 3D modelling programs and photoshop really well. However, I feel the art being produced is terrible and its driving me nuts. The obvious solution would be to get rid of the artist, but this is not an option. I am stuck in the situation until the project is over.

The artist comes to me and says: "Is this good?". I try to be positive... I do not like the art, but I cannot say that explicitly or the artist will take it personally. I know he can do better. I do what I can to suggest better ways of doing things. The artist makes the changes and it looks even worse. I almost feel he makes the changes intentionally bad just to say: "See, you are not an artist, you can't do any better."

How do you communicate with artists when the level of quality you are looking for just isnt there? How do you criticize art that took many hours to produce and still looks terrible?

[Daire Quinlan]

How do you communicate with artists when the level of quality you are looking for just isnt there? How do you criticize art that took many hours to produce and still looks terrible?

With difficulty ...

But seriously, it is IMPOSSIBLE to be in any way objective about your own artwork. The only way your friend is going to improve is with criticism. Hopefully constructive criticism. If not from you, then from somebody else. If I were you I'd encourage him to post some WIP on the cgtalk forums. The crowd there are quite supportive of anybody who seems willing to learn and improve their skills, and there are some fantastic artists posting their stuff there every day as well as beginners.

D.

[Farmergnome]

Ive had this situation happen to me before also, one major thing that is important to remember lots of people can use photoshop and 3d packages as they are fairly easy to learn the basics too, but to master them so you could model/texture/animate to a AAA comerical game level is a completely different thing. So dont set your expectations too high that you expect a ameteur friend(assuming that) to be producing ut2004 (or watever) quality meshes and textures, it takes alot of time and dedication to model texture and animate like the pros do.

[Reactor]

As an artist, I'd simply be honest and tell your friend you don't like his art. I worked with my programmer of a brother for our first game, and he told me time and time again he hated my webpage designs, models, textures, sounds and writing. Did I like him telling me that? Not at all. However, it spured me on to produce better quality work that he did finally enjoy. As Farmergnome mentioned, it's important not to be too unrealistic about things, since (and this is where I disagree with Pkeod) for most people, both 2D and 3D artwork can be very difficult to produce... at least, at a high level of quality. While any old bumb can load up Milkshape and slap a texture on it, high quality artwork does require a large amount time, effort and experimentation.

So, in my opinion be honest, but constructive as well. If he still won't listen (or be cooperative to the project) look for someone else. Your game will suffer otherwise, if you don't have an artist on board that is growing.

[Andy]

Just say him your honest opinion GameStudioD - try to stay constructive in your discussion together. This is not your fault if you don't like the results of his job (it could probably have some sense to show some examples to check if you are really objective enough - but this is up to you).

You both should remember that you are trying to make the product - not the love to each other.

REM: At least in our company I always get the right to make a critique to job of our Lead Programmer (even if I've never wrote any single string of code) and backward of course as well. - How could we work without this?

[Lerc]

If it's of any use. Take a look at some of the shots of the redesign of the Gus character that I wrote about in this article http://www.screamingduck.com/PlatformArticle.php?ArticleID=30&Show=ABCE

I wasn't happy with the the initial redesign of the head but it's a point from where I can look at it and say what it is that I don't like and what needs to be changed. The different images showing the progression of development show points where we exchanged images while discussing the direction that things should head. The final result is something that I think looks great.

Probably the key aspect is to know what you want. The answer to the question "Is this good?" shouldn't be "no'. You need to say why it isn't what you want and what direction it should move in.

A few days ago someone posted a link to some pixel artist forums. I took a look and some of the comments in the forums were good examples of constructive comments for even very beginner level artwork.

[gpetersz]

I have an 8 years friendship that was ruined with such a move (hiding my real opinion). I strongly suggest: be honest. Don't tell him that it is bad as hell, but tell him that it is not what you want, and (very important!) show him what you want (examples from others' work you like). There might be a bit of arguing but if you leave things as they are, it will hurt a way more and the arguing will be a way worse later.

[GameStudioD]

Thank you all for your feedback and suggestions.

I am learning quite a bit from this situation. On my part, I can communicate my vision better, have realistic expectations and better 3D art awareness. I can only control what I do, and I need to work hard at becoming a better game developer.

I went to the cgtalk forums and read many, many posts. I saw how veteran artists critique each other. They point out the postive points first and then focus on what can be improved. Rather than saying "it sucks", they back up their criticism with specifics and suggestions on improvements. My art vocabulary is lacking. I also have a better perspective of how long a good model takes to build. My artist gives himself unrealistic deadlines (not enough time), which is part of the problem. I will pick up a book on 3DSMax so I have a better perspective on modelling and be able to communicate to the artists in their language.

If anything, the stituation is a great learning experience.

[gpetersz]

Well... the critique "It sucks" never a good approach....

[Sirrus]

Even if he won't post his work on a site like cgtalk, do it for him.

If your worried about ruining the friendship, post some screenshots from your game even on a site like this - you are simply showing us what your game looks like, and we are commenting on it.

If the feedback is negative, its not coming from you, but from other developers whose opinions you trust. Show him the link. Theres no argument.