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| 7/28/99 |
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Let's say you're an art guy on Torment. What could you expect on a day to day and even a month to month basis? Well, you'd probably have to see (and smell) my socked feet since pretty much the first thing I do is take off my shoes when I walk in the office (my dogs get hot!) HAHAHA. Besides that, some things pop into mind.
Overall, we've taken steps not to pigeonhole any artist into one category. Wherever possible the artist is allowed to pick the job they want. Character animation, modeling, painting, etc is all handed off to pretty much whoever is available at the time. The idea is any artist can do any job. Obviously, we've had artists who specialize at certain tasks but there is a high degree of overlap in the talent pool. That said, let me give you an overview of how the art process for Torment works. Step One: The artist will look at the design for a spell/area/whatever with the actual designer. During this meeting they will normally laugh loudly and exchange a variety of solemn glances or smirks depending on what's being asked of them. At some stage a piece of paper will be brought out to record the whole conversation in stick figure form. Step Two: Artist will return to his seat and most likely spend some time figuring out some sort of process to accomplish this task. More stick figures may be drawn but most likely a semi-elaborate picture is hand drawn. The only time this tends not to happen is when it's very clear what the job at hand is (i.e. "I want an apple rendered." as opposed to "I want this neat ghoul thing that has these longs tusks and weird fang things all over it. You know!") Step Three: Artist will dive into Lightwave Modeler or PhotoShop and start bashing away. This is the step where people will do their first pass at something. Surprisingly, 70%-90% of the look tends to be hit in this pass. This is sort of the all out modeling or painting session. For me, this tends to be the part where I just go with the flow if I'm modeling and try and get the idea out of my head as fast as possible. Step Four: Refinement. Before the idea is passed back to the designer, the artist will spend a little time working out any kinks that happened in the previous step. This is just to get rid of any big boo boos or problematic stuff. It's like taking a step back and looking at your work objectively. This is where you swivel your chair to the guy next to you and ask "Hey! Whaddya think of this?" (Which is followed by a close scrutiny of the subjects pupils to detect any dilation whilst they view the masterpiece before them). Step Five: Re-Assessment. The artist normally goes back to the designer and gets a re-focus on the task. Making sure that everything is all A-OK. Maybe a couple more stick figures are drawn; maybe some drawings are made in PhotoShop on the art. Step Six: Artist will go back and finalize the piece. This is the point where headphones are put on and he merrily whistles while he works. By now, there's a clear picture of what's needed and all the focus is on hitting the goal. As you can see, there's quite a bit of freedom for the artist. I can't say that this happens all the time on Torment but it happens a lot. Does it happen all over on every project? Probably not, but that should give you an idea of how much potential input you have as an artist. Next week I'll talk about some of the tools we use. |