Assembly Line Art.

[ErikH2000]

I'm wondering what people think of this approach--particularly artists. I'm just musing a bit, and don't plan to run out and do this anytime soon. I also expect that this idea isn't particularly new and professional artists have come across it in one form or another.

You have your list of art assets to complete for the game, and divide up the labor into individual tasks spread across all the assets. For example:

* sketching
* inking
* scanning and masking
* flat-coloring
* shading

Each task would have some documentation and example work to follow. For example, the inking task might specify line weights to use and show kinds of cross-hatching that are wanted for the style.

Why do it this way?

* efficiency (an artist working on one task for a number of pieces will switch context less often and perhaps get more done)
* consistency (having the process spelled out will crush people's individual styles and bring them in line with The Correct Way. ;) And it's more likely that one artist will handle one task for all the art pieces, so that the style will be the same.)
* specialized (can hire some less-qualified people that are good at just one part of the process)

Why not do it this way?

* artists get bored working on just one task
* artists don't like following a documented style
* finished pieces are less valuable in artist's portfolio because they are collaborative
* first three points result in needing to pay more money to attract artists
* some opportunities to make art better require involvement of an artist at more stages of its creation, i.e. an artist might choose a certain composition during a sketch with a specific coloring in mind later.

So what do you think? Anybody worked this way before or managed artists like this?

-Erik

[Fost]

So what do you think? Anybody worked this way before or managed artists like this?
This is how many major studios work. It's also pretty much the only way to get a team of artists to work well together when there's deficiencies in their abilities which vary across the board.

It also becomes mind numbingly tedious for the artists :) but that shouldn't be your problem if they are being contracted in. I was lucky at one point to manage a team of artists who were all extremely versatile and it was heaven - I think you get the best work out of someone when (if they have the ability) they can design, model, texture and animate a model. If you can work like this, you probably have a highly talented in-house team, and so probably aren't an indie developer or are just extremely lucky. Otherwise, production-line workflow makes a lot of sense from a team management pov.


Now that I'm lone artist at Moonpod, I've found that productionlining my own workflow can be of use: i.e, list a set of models, do all the concept art then do all the models, then texture them all, then animate them all, and so on. Just because you can 'get in the groove' of one particular task.

I mentioned this briefly in an old dev diary:
http://www.moonpod.com/board/viewtopic.php?t=1279

[ErikH2000]

This is how many major studios work. It's also pretty much the only way to get a team of artists to work well together when there's deficiencies in their abilities which vary across the board.
Thanks, Nick. It is helpful for me to at least know that this approach is already used a lot.
It also becomes mind numbingly tedious for the artists :) but that shouldn't be your problem if they are being contracted in.
I felt like I might have a harder time finding artists to work in this kind of process, because they would be less motivated to do the work. But I also find that it doesn't work well to depend on people to be creatively motivated in the first place. It seems that structuring art requirements loosely to serve as an incentive works a tiny little bit, but doesn't go very far.

-Erik

[ErikH2000]

Follow-up question...

Are there documented art workflows out there that are useful to look at and borrow ideas from? Like what kind of keywords am I Googling for? Or maybe I should be reading a few books. What's this stuff called in the real world so I can go find it?

-Erik

[gpetersz]

Go for "artwork tutorial", maybe add different methods you are after (anatomy, background, action etc.).

Also, visiting artists' forums instead of programmers' ones :p will help.

I mean: at epilogue (http://www.epilogue.net) you'll find many tutorials.
Also at http://www.gfxartist.com but you'll have plenty of tutorials at
individuals artists' sites (www.robertocampus.com or www.goodbrush.com).
Also at http://www.polykarbon.com , just to line up few.

You can find great information at: http://www.fineart.sk about anatomy and traditional style "workflow".

Also, there are other "workflows" as well. I many times use the version you mentioned (sketch, ink, scan, block, shade), but many times it is differently, either the inking is also done in Photoshop, or I start sketching in Photoshop, right with blocking in colors. Sometimes I even do it absolutely differently.
I make a nude model in Poser (usually when it is a tricky angle or something, I learned this techique from Roberto Campus, see his website above) and overpaint the figure (so sketching is done in a renderer app this way).

Examples on sketch, ink, scan, block, shade:
http://www.easternraider.com/gallery/displayimage.php?album=10&pos=5

Examples on blocking in PS (you'll see it gives a more painterly effect, at least for me):
http://www.easternraider.com/gallery/displayimage.php?album=13&pos=4

Examples on the Poser way (i am still not as good in cleaning up the renderer style "smoothness" as Roberto):
http://www.easternraider.com/gallery/displayimage.php?album=13&pos=7

You will recognize the difference, I bet.

Hope it helped!