Do You even Lead? Your vision of perfect Art Director
polycounter lvl 8
Hello fellows! I hope the topic fits into technical talk cuz it's about work xD I know there where few similar topics before but I didn't get much information from them.
I would like to start open discussions about your ideas and observations about leading other artists. I would love to hear what's your experience when you where directing or was directed by other artists working on the same project. I know how many awesome artists visits Polycount and I hope I will catch attention of these who where working in companies and know how it looks from inside, what's working, what's not.
How you can help your coworkers to improve? How you provide feedback so they still can feel motivated and catch deadlines with hi quality work.
Do you ever got feedback like giant checklist with even unimportant details, or just saying "nope, it's not looking how it should, start everything over". What kind of feedback work best for you? (I'm speaking about professional feedback not about clients who don't know what they want :P)
Especially when you're working in a group where everyone is on different levels and you don't want them to hate you just help them be better, create something amazing. You can't just overpaint everything because you have your own tasks and you care more than when you critic on forum "You made some progress just draw a lot and you will be great!" no, they have to fit in style and provide it on time. Should you interfere or just give up?
I read somewhere "you should manage not micro-manage" but what's that mean?
Or maybe you know any resources on this topic like articles or interviews with Art directors?
I will appreciate any response!
thanks
I would like to start open discussions about your ideas and observations about leading other artists. I would love to hear what's your experience when you where directing or was directed by other artists working on the same project. I know how many awesome artists visits Polycount and I hope I will catch attention of these who where working in companies and know how it looks from inside, what's working, what's not.
How you can help your coworkers to improve? How you provide feedback so they still can feel motivated and catch deadlines with hi quality work.
Do you ever got feedback like giant checklist with even unimportant details, or just saying "nope, it's not looking how it should, start everything over". What kind of feedback work best for you? (I'm speaking about professional feedback not about clients who don't know what they want :P)
Especially when you're working in a group where everyone is on different levels and you don't want them to hate you just help them be better, create something amazing. You can't just overpaint everything because you have your own tasks and you care more than when you critic on forum "You made some progress just draw a lot and you will be great!" no, they have to fit in style and provide it on time. Should you interfere or just give up?
I read somewhere "you should manage not micro-manage" but what's that mean?
Or maybe you know any resources on this topic like articles or interviews with Art directors?
I will appreciate any response!
thanks
Replies
"Senior" role?
Consistency in Design Between Multiple Artists
Suddenly Lead Artist
HELP!! BAD ART LEAD!!??
thanks a lot!
It would be great if everyone in team would be on the same page. But people who aren't self confident get upset pretty fast. not everyone is so much self motivated that they can maintain high level of happiness long. I understand that a lot depend on personalities. But how many types of artist is there? If they can't accept critique they are other type and needed to be treated differently or are they just immature?
However, sometimes this is the fault of the Lead, for not giving useful crits, or being insensitive. An effective Lead needs to be a great communicator, an excellent listener, and have a good understanding of what makes a useful critique.
Do you have a particular problem in mind?
http://brau3d.blogspot.com/2011/11/igda-leadership-forum-session-notes.html I love concepts of professional managing. But they are from prestige companies with devoted employees. Leaders there have big responsibilities but at the same time artists who works there aren't unstable persons with low self-value (I hope). Is there any point to try being professional in smaller companies? You can't demand from everyone to bust their butts...
Passable Art Director:
- Great Understanding of Visual Theory + creating a style and a great communicator, with an understanding of time constraints.
Good Art Director:
- All Above + Great understanding of technical limitation, and Video game Language (Silhouette progression, UI, visibility, path etc).
GREAT Art Director:
- All of the above + interpersonal goal development, and ability to get the art+tech+design teams on the same page pushing in the same direction towards the exact same goal.
As a lead your job is going to end up revolving around dealing with all those artists working beneath you, making sure their work is fitting the overall aesthetic and reaching the right milestones. The best grease for that machine is a steady stream of constructive input, well-delivered and well-thought out critique and support. The next most important task (once again I am no expert, and I only have had a minor involvement with studios, but this is my take on it :poly003:) is communicating with other leads and discussing where each team is at, and where they need to be. These rely on communication more-so than technical prowess, but a lead also has to be familiar and knowledgeable about his field, but with good communication skills, this is more easily worked around.
Also as artists can quite often be very individualistic types, a lead needs to be the guy who can bring the team together, get everyone to gel and be a supportive group. Artists competing in a negative way leads to problems.
http://gdcvault.com/play/1012449/Uncharted-2-Art
* Delegate - don't hog the coolest stuff for yourself if someone in the team can do it better
* Delegate - give people the chance to grow, even if the task might seem a bit too big
* Delegate - if people fail, try to let them fail gracefully and give them the chance to learn
* Set an example by doing some boring tasks yourself - remember that you're part of the team too and that you have to do the same cool and the same crappy tasks they have to do.
* If someone messed up then fixing the problem is more important than dealing out blame. Fixing things helps production! blaming someone doesn't.
* Realize that there may be better people on your team for certain tasks. i.e. the Lt. may lead a group of soldiers, but he may not be the best fighter. But he's the leader!
* Delegate - get people to work together. Assign seniors to help juniors. Team people up if possible. People learn, they get to know each other.
* Never ever shame people. If there's a need for a stern talk, keep it behind closed doors or hand it over to a higher authority (e.g. HR).
* Share your knowledge. Share workflows, tips and tricks for art, time management, quality control, optimization, etc.
* Your job is to help the team gets its work done - by preparing training, preparing documents, giving critique, working with IT, TA, producers to get things done!
* Your own art tasks are less important than helping the team. If you don't get stuff done then 1 person's art is delayed. If you don't help the team then your entire team's work may be delayed!
* Be an example. As a lead people look up to you. If you're not a good role model then don't expect people in the team to be any better.
* Read up on some time management/management techniques - not all studios have producers who do all of that.
* A good manager doesn't need to be around constantly. Their team is good enough to get their work done without them breathing down their neck all the time.
* Accept that a lead position is not just doing cool art all the time. There's a lot of management and people skills involved.
* Balance work within the team to an equal level. avoid that single people are under or over works. Work with your producer.
I had this once. One guy dissing another guy's work to make himself look better. After a stern talk I had to team them up for a project. The one guy realized that he's not getting far with his attitude, so he changed it. First it was more an opportunistic move but then he realized that working as a team really is better. Eventually the two guys got to respect each other rather than seeing each other as competition and they kept working together very well
Visual Theory can mean many things. Can you be more explicit to what your thinking of in these regards?
Depending if there's a UX Director, we could almost lump: composition/line of sight, UI/menu navigate-ability, and intuitiveness of interface in there.
Just a solid all-round grasp of 'visual theory', and capable of cohesively bringing that all together.