Written by TiMi

GameRes is published with permission from Tencent's Tianmei Studio Group

Some of the following is excerpted from Tianmei's game art setting collection, Tianmei Official Art Collection1.

Over the decades of game development, game graphics have evolved. From the earliest black-and-white pixels to today's near-realistic renderings, game art has become an important part of game production that serves the functions of narrative, interaction, and conveying emotion.

Game art visualizes the gameplay mechanics and worldview, and then hands the finished material to the programmers to create the game, ultimately building a world of gameplay, visuals, and emotion.

Everything we see in a game is the result of the hard work of game artists. Game art functions include UI Designer (UI Designer), Concept Designer (Concept Designer), 3D character (Character Modeler), binding division (Rigger), animator (Animator), special effects (Effect Artist) and so on.

Note: In the figure above, we take the art development process of a single product from Tianmei as an example, showing the positions that may be involved in the art development process of a game today. The R&D process for different types of games varies greatly, and the above process is for reference only.

The game art development process is divided into the following stages.

Phase 1: Determine the art style and set art quality standards

In the early stages of game development, the art team will discuss with the producer and the core team, and design a variety of art style solutions based on the game's gameplay mechanics, and use user research to validate the solutions, and ultimately, the lead artist will determine the most appropriate art style for the game.

In the early stages of development, the art team will discuss with the producers and the core team to design a variety of art styles based on the game's gameplay mechanics.

After the art style was determined, the art team needed to quickly find materials to verify the art production process in the form of schematic diagrams, so as to set standards for art quality.

During the game production process, the art resources need to be iterated over and over again to reach the initial art quality standards set by the team.

Phase 2: 2D art design

1. Game original design

Game original design makes the conceptual design more concrete and standardized. Based on the planning of the text, the original artist to design the entire game of the characters, scenes, props, etc., for the game art production process to provide standards and basis.

Original artists need to know how to use professional drawing software to create, and always need to grasp the cutting-edge technology to help them better output.

2. Game interface design (UI design)

Game interface design is not just art design, it needs to locate the user, the use of the environment, as well as the use of the way, is a scientific art design.

Game interface interactions are one of the ways that players get feedback from the game, and it is the job of the game interface designer to make the player's input behavior consistent with the actions in the game world.

Good game interface design not only gives a game personality and class, but also makes the game comfortable and easy to use, and showcases the game's positioning and features.

Phase 3: 3D art design

1. Game 3D character design

3D character design accurately produces the design intent of the 2D original drawings into a 3D model, and completes the effect of debugging in the game engine. 3D game characters, including characters, animals, and so on, is the style of the entire game screen an important reflection. The game is a great example of the style of the entire game screen.

3D character designers, need to have a strong knowledge of anatomy (human structure, animal structure, etc.), but also need to have the ability to constantly learn and research. Because only the timely update of production technology, 3D character designers can continue to bring players distinctive, diverse styles of character performance.

2. Game 3D scene design

In the game, a delicate, beautifully crafted scene can bring out the atmosphere of the entire game. 3D game scenes are the cornerstone of the construction of the virtual world, which allows the player to be better immersed in the game, immersed in the game plot.

Artists will create the elements of the game scenes, such as buildings, plants, and so on, and integrate and optimize these scene objects to ensure that the game runs smoothly.

Phase 4: Game Character Animation

The role of the character animator is to give the character a soul, and to design the character's behavioral movements and facial expressions according to the settings in the game.

Game character animators need to have excellent art skills, a sense of animation rhythm and experience in 2D and 3D game engine production, as well as strong self-learning ability, experience in the performing arts, software knowledge and motion capture technology.

Character animation design using the software mainly includes Maya, 3ds Max, MotionBuilder and other animation software.

Phase 5: Game special effects

Game special effects include the character's skill effects, such as smoke, fire, water and so on in the scene. The quality of the game's special effects will have a direct impact on the player's gaming experience.

A game effect designer needs to have a very rich imagination, and in the game needs to show the scene both logical and artistic influence. Art skills and the ability to draw by hand are also a must for a game effects designer.

Sixth stage: art resource integration

Art resource integration includes art effect verification and art performance tuning.

1. Art effect inspection

After the completion of the art resources, the person in charge of each art module needs to check whether the art quality meets the standard, and to coordinate and unify the style of the whole set of game screen, to coordinate the overall art effect, and to improve the quality of the core art resources, so as to make the game screen reach the optimal state that the players can experience.

2. Art performance tuning

Art resource producers need to consider the operational efficiency of the game. If the art resources are causing the game to run inefficiently, then the related resource producers need to optimize those resources, such as simplifying the shaders, the number of model surfaces, or reducing the number of particles in some of the effects, to make the game experience smoother.

During the game production process, from start to finish, in order to present a beautiful game fantasy world, the artists need to constantly communicate and negotiate with the planners and programmers. All of the creators have to be committed to making the game a great piece of work.