Art Consistency on Mods.. Streamlining?
polycounter lvl 18
How do you pull a team of artist together for consistency on a mod feel without making them feel totally constrained?
They are volunteering their time. So you dont want to make them feel "unwelcome". But what if the idea of the mod calls for an art direction that is slightly abnormal from what you see being cranked out?
How do you keep the artists, and make them stoked to try out these constraints? Also, how do you tell them their concept art is too generic versus showing the unique ideas the mod is striving for.
Its kinda hard also when you realize they are cranking out the models already.
They are volunteering their time. So you dont want to make them feel "unwelcome". But what if the idea of the mod calls for an art direction that is slightly abnormal from what you see being cranked out?
How do you keep the artists, and make them stoked to try out these constraints? Also, how do you tell them their concept art is too generic versus showing the unique ideas the mod is striving for.
Its kinda hard also when you realize they are cranking out the models already.
Replies
Collecting a lot of reference images which reflect the look of the different things in the game can help communicating the (art) style.
Because I know for sure that modellers and texturers always enjoy working from well-drawn or well-painted, inspiring and original concept art. Especially if you tell them that in the end, keeping to this style and design mindset will produce something of much higher quality than the average mod, and really make it stand out as something new, good-looking and consistent.
So yeah, unless the modeller(s) are already good concept artists, definitely look for an amazing all-round concept designer. Of course if assets are already being produced for the mod without any unified design, then it's already going off the rails. Art direction is what most mods lack... I remember Fallen Sky as a great example of good art consistency (moose, swampbug and others worked on it a while back - dunno if it got released). Also this Nuclear Dawn I think it's called, seems to have great concepts and as a result a good consistency of art direction.
Just my opinion.
For sure though, art direction is crucial. As MoP pointed out, Nuclear Dawn looks quite consistent, due to their detailed concept work. It's also a matter of the team's skill, as well. Even if your concept is amazing, there may be some people on the team that can't fully bring it to life.
Even if your concept is amazing, there may be some people on the team that can't fully bring it to life.
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What do you do in situations like that? To not give away whats going on. The concept throws out the idea of worn/chipped/dirt looks on game items. Basically since everything is made "realtime". The main criticism thus far is the mod won't "look real" without the dirt.
I have been gathering references. I recently realized the Convenant art style from Halo is a similiar vein to what Im trying to "push". It worked in that game.
It really comes down to people managment, and when you are looking for artists that they understand up front that there might not be alot of room for "creative freedom". Oh the mods that have failed becuase 15 different people think they know best and want to make something totally different than what the rest of the team is trying to do.
Need to have a clear vision, and a clear leader. Everything should be filtered thru them. Pick this person VERY carfully, make sure they don't watch Dragon Ball Z, or think concept art is perfectly acceptable if it contains stick figures.
Most of the mods I have worked on have a leader, who guides the main vision of the mod. They put together a design doc and assign concept art and assests to be made. Below them you have the working leads. people who get the vision and are going to carry it out. These people need to be both technical and good poeple managers. They also need to udnerstand that creating desention or trying to guide people in a different direction other than the main leaders vision is bad... very bad. The last think you want is some dudzor spending 6 months building a sk8 park for a Sci-Fi mod.
Give the artist boundries and give them a clear vision of what you want. You will only piss people off if you tell them "I don't know what I want but I will know it when I see it" See poops thread from a few weeks ago...
Clear vision, clear direction, clear goals. That is what a mod needs, and a small deticated army to cary it out =D
Edit: one last thing, make sure to have your own artistic direction for the mod and don't "barrow" say... the covenant from Halo... It's cool and all to barrow some pieces but no one wants to play Halo with the HL2, UT2004, or Doom3 engine, mostly because you will never get it as polished as halo and poeple will expect a certain level of detail and preformance from the team, which will be higher than the game you are barrowing direction from. SO make sure it is different enough that you can't be called a cheap halo rip off.
And don't "feel sorry" for people when including textures or whatever - make it clear that work which isn't good enough or matching a certain style will not be included in the mod - this will hopefully stop people pushing their luck and saying "but i spent x hours on this, we have to use it anyway?!".
Texture art is the thing that will show most consistency - don't let the modeller texture his own stuff if he can't match (at least fairly closely) the style and quality that any "pure" texture artists are creating. Likewise with environments - a guy might be the best gameplay designer in history, but if his maps are textured poorly or just look out of place, then the consistency will have failed.
Regularly playtest the mod if possible, preferably with people who weren't involved in creating artwork for it - and ask them what they think looks "out of place" - make a note of it and put it on a list of things to be polished up at a later date.
Then again this is an "ideal situation" thing, probably pretty rare since most mod "workers" will still be pretty young, so they will have their own ideas they always want to use, and think they have the best plans. My theory here will only work if all the developers are mature and sensible people.
(Vig-We won't be copying Halo's style, but it has helped in proving that the "plastic/new" look can work)
That experience taught me that it may be worth learning more traditional art techniques such as sketching and concept art incase I find myself in that situation again in the mod community.
Write special notes for every artist they need to know.
Get a link list for (re)sources which belongs to the mod up and running.
Get a timeframe or at least a roundtable meeting once in a while.
Make sure they know and understand that the work needs time - no solid mod with maps/models etc. in less 6 months.
Scott
One of the other artists has mentioned they are used to the grime/gothic/heavy metal look. And the work they have been cranking out at a SUPER speed has been showing this. The thing is, this is in the opposite direction.
Anyhow, sounds like there is a big pow wow tommorrow night for us all. I hope I can convince them without loosing this artist especially.
e.g. going on well w/out much trouble.
Another usefull thing is a timeline. I guess its best to write a designdoc - talk about it and make a timeline with the crew of artists.
I think it doesnt need too be die hard exact
A timeline can minimise the wait pretty much.
So, a mapmaker didnt have to wait to get the mapmodels or the coder didnt have to wait too long to get the damn sprites he asked for