Painting
on Polygons:
Looking For Employment
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Vol.
2, Issue 8
January 12, 2000
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Another
tip is that relocation is essential. If you want to work as an
artist for a game company, you need to be able to relocate. To
be efficient, most companies want you right there. Yes, there
are some companies who will work via the Internet, but those are
few and far between, and most wont touch you unless you are damn
good and have some experience. With the economy as good as it
is right now, however, there are still some companies who need
the help so badly that they will resort to working remotely, but
again, unless you have experience it is doubtful that they will
give you much of a look. They usually find it to be a serious
pain to deal with someone from across the United States and try
explaining things over e-mail (not to mention the cost of long
distance telephone called now and then, airfare, and even hotels
to bring the artist to their headquarters every now and then).
I know this, because Ive done it. I was working on the Gameboy
Color version of Polaris Snocross (not released yet) and one of
the programmers was trying to explain to me about a certain perspective
that he wanted a particular jump to face and it was quite difficult
to communicate this over a series of e-mails. If I were sitting
right there he could have just held a piece of paper up and shown
me. So, you can see how little things like this are annoying and
slow the whole process down. Thats why game companies will
tend turn their noses up at people who want to work remotely.
Plus, they really want more of a team setting. And it is hard
to be part of a team when you rarely see the person.
This weeks
critique is on the work by Scoll (scoll@hyperjump.de).
He is a beginner and Im always happy to help out beginners
since this column is designed for everyone of all levels. Lets
take a look at the picture he has sent in:
(Click
to enlarge)
The first
thing I instantly noticed that I liked very much is that he has
a loose line. If you look closely, you will see where he goes
out of the main line sometimes and redraws over his original lines.
This is very good when sketching because it isnt always
good to commit to a line right away. This way, if you draw lightly
at first, you can redraw over areas which need to be better defined.
When Im sketching I rarely use an eraser, but I draw very
lightly at first -- drawing and redrawing over lines until I have
something well-defined.
While
were on the topic of lines, Scoll also uses some line quality,
but I would like to see more of it; some lighter lines that are
very, very light and also darker ones that are thick and very
dark. If these are used correctly it will drastically make the
lighting look more realistic. Even an idea to try might be to
make one side of the face much darker than the other. Or better
yet, maybe drastic downward lighting that would cast sinister
looking shadows under the eyes, nose, mouth, chin, and chest.
That would make considerable difference to the mood of the drawing.
On thing
else to keep in mind are proportions. The shoulders and chest
need to go out a bit on either side. The head is a too large for
the body (or the body is too small). One way to think of this
is that the shoulders are about three heads wide. Of course, this
depends on the type of creature you figure or whatever you are
creating, but it a good general rule to follow.
There
is something that I would like to applaud Scoll for. He took the
step to add some action and interest in his picture. I like how
the drawing suggests that the creature is looking down at you.
If it were at a flat, eye to eye level perspective then I dont
think it would have been nearly as successful.
As a beginner,
sometimes its hard to take the step to let your work get critiqued
so Id like to thank Scoll for submitting his drawing. Im
always accepting drawings for critique, so if you have something
that you would like to see appear in a future column and hear my
artistic drivel, please send in your art to: flat@iserv.net.
And, as always, Im accepting general questions too. Whether
it be traditional art, something about the game industry or something
specific to a program like Photoshop, Illustrator, or 3-D Studio
MAX.
Rick "Flatness" Grossenbacher works on Gameboy Color
games for Vicarious Visions.
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