even from the start aged 15 I remember wanting to be a commercial artist.
if you wanna make labels then you could call yourself an illustrator/commercial artist/general illustrator/technical artist/wildlife illustrator/artist/graphic designer/fine artist etc.
Although I do games art I started out doing illustration and still define myself as a commercial artist.
I think anyone who does games art in any shape or form is an artist of sorts. Its up to the individual which category they fit in to
I fall into the same story almost, loved Disney growing up. I wanted to be an animator growing up too.
By high school my interested had shifted a bit, Disney and the industry where crumbling, I had turned my focus to graphic design and games. I figured layout and paste up was a good move for me at my skill level (read I sucked, still do). The first classes I took where working with film and plate making, running presses and finally some digital layout.
Photoshop was on version 3 and had just added layers, it was hot sh!t.
My dad was heavy into anything electronic and loved photography, we had a TRS80 and it had a color pen tablet (and a stack of games) before we ever had a computer with a mouse.
My mom is a teacher and a painter. Everything that hung on our walls was either a painting she did or a photo my dad took. So it kind of seems natural that I would end up where the two meet.
I don't call myself an artist, its not even on my business card, I'm not entirely comfortable being called an animator. I do still like to create art even if most of it is pretty bad. I have a DEEP appreciation for it, but for me to get really good at it I would need to practice a lot more and that means shelving a lot of things I love. I don't think I'd ever call myself an artist it just seems too pretentious
People ask me for enough free stuff when they hear I work with a "computer" suddenly I'm the answer guy because I can work a mouse. I don't need them also asking for freebie art also...
"what do you do?"
"I write parking tickets, want one?"
When someone asks what I do for a living I always say I 'work' as an artist rather than I 'am' an artist. I think this is because I feel there's too much pretension and pomposity attached to declaring 'I am an artist.'
I was good at doodling cartoony pictures as a kid and I spent a huge amount of time designing my own Lego models and planning out my dream videogames in my head. But I drifted away from art at about 14 (never took any art classes) and it wasn't until I was 22, and I was faced with the scary reality of getting a crappy office job that I started to teach myself Max and Photoshop. Even then I was only really learning technical skills, it wasn't until a couple of years later that I started to really think about the fundamentals of art and creativity.
I often feel uncomfortable about describing what I do as 'art' because so much of what I do - in my spare time at least - is very self-indulgent and nerdy. Sometimes I think that if I were a real artist/creative I would be writing a novel or making a film etc. At the same time, I really love the process of having an intial idea for something and then following it through to a finished piece. Plus, I think that the current world of digital art is a very exciting place to be at the moment. There are so many talented artists out there doing loads of exciting and interesting things and I do think that it will prove to have been an important and celebrated art movement at some point in the future.
It doesn't really matter what other people call you. What really matters is what you do and what's the purpose of doing it.
As long as I'm happy with what I do and I make other people happy, you can call me anything and I can live with that. It's just a term, or a label, that we human beings address to something/someone, cause that's we are in nature.
I remember what my grandmother used to tell us when we were younger:
When you finally die and meet God, the very first question that God will ask you is "What did you do when you were living?" instead of "What were you when you were living?" and I always keep this on my mind.
Btw, I prefer to be called content creator for videogames. A lot more cooler I guess.
To answer the posed questions first, Yes I consider myself an artist first and foremost because I do not limit myself to design documents and briefs. I do "work" for pay but I also work on my own for the personal satisfaction of creation/expression of my mood/emotion/perspective... so many things can go into and effect the outcome of a single piece of art.
Secondly I have considered myself an artist since a very early age when I was drawing elaborate pictures with personal enthusiasm while other kids would draw a stick figure and then go back to eating their glue.. or throwing crayons at the fat kid.
now onto other topics others have brought up in this threaad in relation.
Art what is it?
Artist who are they?
those two questions to me are really only known by artist, no matter how many times outsiders try to understand art... put a price on it... evaluate it... give it credentials... make the assumptions they can understand it!! they will get it wrong every single time.
If you're an artist... you know dam well you are and artist... and without art in your life, life would be drastically less fulfilling.
Having meet my share of aspiring artist, wanna-be artist, confused emotionalites, lazy dreamers, and what ever other catagory you want to coin... Even if they fool the non-artist into believing their "artist" they know and we know... that their ball on a pin, or their 3 colored triangles on a white canvas is fake, It is a hack trying to convey an emotion they have not come to grips with, the lack of thought or dedication to capture the essence of this inspiration, and most commonly the negalegence in applicable skill and talent to create that in which they truely want others to experince as they think they do in their own minds.
Some would say we create art, artwork, production assets... it can be all of the above or none of them at all. Every piece is what the creator puts into it. The thread for guild wars 2 is a perfect example of this to me. A different staff could have taken the same design document and brief and it could have came out... as a game.. a collage of production assets... BUT! what the end creation was ART! to me at least. The images invoke an emotional response.
In argument to a previous comment about how this or that is "more" art than something else. I would have to say there is not a more art.. or less art.. it is either art.. or not. general architecture is not art to me but when you use that median to create a building that transcends its median to the point of being more than just its material components... then it becomes art. Painting colors on planes to me is not art as much as some of my proffesors would like me to believe... but when it transcends its median of components of oil, pigment, canvass, etc and envokes emotional response from its viewers... it then becomes art. This is true to me with our profession as well. Game assets are only game assets, a compilation of vertici and hue values, Hypothetical mathmatic values, inter connected through 1's and 0's. BUT! when you do all of this with such a degree of execution and uniquness it can then become art... So as writing this reply I have come to a new hypothesis on art.
Maybe my deffenition of art is the acknowledgment of excellence. To think that something was created perfect, or as near to perfect. That the essence of the piece is true to itself, and to its creator. Exceptions and excuses were not allowed to affect the outcome of the piece. thee "Artist" took the time, shed their blood if need be, to create what they knew to be right to the piece, it was supposed to be like so... and it would not be finished until it was just so.
When an artist settles for less, or says its good enough, it becomes a game asset.
I would have to agree with Carver on some points mentioned. I do not consider the work I do overall as "Art". But more like a Craftsman/Worker who operates in a process of steps (like a machine) to finish "something".
Art to me is definitely about conveying something to an audience. Emotion, a message, or eyes of the beholder. Who's illustration of something is to bring fourth meaning.
Being good as a 3d modeller, and taking a snapshot or rotating a model. Doesn't serve my attention as artistry of any sort. It's just there ....."Blah"
I think in the digital form of 3D merged with 2D under an illustrative approach is art (andrew jones from Concept Art.org for example). But taking a quick render view of something we've pushed and pulled isn't something I find myself being considered as an Artist.
But in the end, I think the term "Artist" has really lost it's true definition for the current time. As someday it will return, once things come to a slow down in exploration of ideas and ways of creating.
I don't see myself as an artist. Artist (at least for me and especially in french) is too general and "conceited" (first time I'm using this word ). I consider myself more like a digital sculptor? or maybe character modeler/texturer? I think I'm more like someone who start to know how to observe, model, texture and hopefully in a near future draw rather than an ARTIST. "Artist" sounds like you are at the end of the road for me.
Also, by writing this, I realize that, like Japhir said on page 1, this is a word I will use in english to "summarize" my job title (because it's based on the industry job title "protocol"), but definitly not in my mother tongue. In french we're using "Infographiste 3D and/or 2D" which means literally "Computer graphic designer 3D and/or 2D" and I think it's closer to what I'm as profesionnal.
Infographiste 3d! that sounds awesome, i'm using that in future.
I wanted to be a ships engineer or car mechanic when i was a kid because i had a red screwdriver, though even from an early age I used to make boardgames and sprites and stuff. As a teenager I sort of flirted with the idea of being a illustrator, but never really wanted to be an Artist.
Anyway - to people in the creative industries i wouldn't have any qualms about calling myself a character artist because I know they wouldn't interpret it as me claiming to be Tracey Emin or whatever. But to the normally be-jobbed I usually describe my profession as 3d modeller. Though once tried to explain what i did to the woman who runs my local corner shop, message got garbled across language barrier and she thinks i'm claiming to be sort of big gangly funny looking model.
I don't really consider what i do to be Art, it's too commercial, there are too many mutants, and it's surely too much fun to be Art. Isn't Art mostly paintings made by dead guys? Art needs to root in for a couple of hundred years.
been drawing since i was 2. used to draw dinosaurs and turtles all the time.
wanted to be a paleontologist, but also dreamed about making games.
i went through 6-7 game ideas as i grew up, drawing tons of idea sheets, and also used to put games on pause, and draw all the monsters in the games.
many pieces of work that were created 'as a job' by someone in history are now considered art. so the product of a profession, or having a professional attitude towards what you do doesn't rule out the possibility of it being art, or becoming art. And if you make art then you must be an artist, right?
i dunno theres a lot of ways to spin it, at the end of the day if you say you're an artist and someone else says you're not, who's right? there isn't a right
for my personal answer, I'm going to say I am an artist. Because the work I do at home and the plans I make aspire towards being art, so by that definition it is. But what I do at work- no that is not art, because no-one calls it art.
UNCG printed my name on some document that says i could be an artist... i think their full of shit for giving me a false sense of hope
seriously though, um...... sometimes i do... i just wish i could find the time to make art, and get paid for it too.... that would be +1... and seeing as how neither takes place, then no, i don't consider myself an artist at the present time.... fail... i try.... but..... *sigh*.... what time is it? 8:05am? ah well... time to pop open another new castle
I was always into computers and such, but when i was in highschool i discovered 3d.
However i did 3 years of engineering, before realizing i wanted to do art related stuff.
I switched schools and finished photography-video-multimedia art UNI, and as i'm typing this i'm preparing my masters.
Recently however i discovered the beauty of game design, even though i've been a gamer all my life, i was never really interested in making games.
So while i consider myself an artist (as i have had a few exhibitions with photography and installations) , i am truly fascinated by you guys, as i'm a beginner in making game stuff.
You are masters of your craft , and i have played games that are as close to interactive digital art as you can get, so the ones making them must be artists.
I've been thinking more and more that "craftsman" is the right term for what I do. But that's because what I do mostly, try to recreate something real as skillfully as possible, as I do with cars and vehicles. With "art" I think about something original, something that has deeper meaning and/or is something fresh thought up by it's creator. I personally don't do that (well), but many people here do and can be considered an actual artist as well in my opinion.
And on when i was a kid: i wanted to be an architect. Tried that for 1 year, realized I have too much imagination and felt limited by all the real-life constraints on design that an architect has, so I switched over to games and 3D.
Only overpaid and over privileged Westerners can afford to think that art has to be done unpaid to count as art.
I agree, do you maybe think Rembrandt painted the Nightwatch just to convey his deep criticism on society? I think not, yet how many of you consider that painting art?
The great masters, worked on commission. Most if not all sculptures worth anything where paid for by someone.
It was another way to make a living, some guys made candles, others made boats, artists made their living the same way, using their talent at a particular craft to make a living.
It would probably be easy to argue that its probably not art unless its commissioned or someone offers to pay for it.
There are enough people who think that art should be given away for free we don't need artists believing and perpetrating the myth further.
Yes, agreed on that all. At the end of the day, the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel is still just that; ceiling decoration. Michelangelo's Pieta too, is a world-renowned work of art, but you pretty much look over it when you're in St. Peter's Basilica... much like that crate that is the culmination of years of study and practice doesn't immediately grab your attention as such in a full game. The big difference being that Renaissance painters and sculptors had to depict mythical and biblical scenes for the purpose of beauty and education and game artists have to make mutants and robot zombies for 15-year olds.
If you take artist as an indication of profession, and leave the quality at the side, you all are definitely artists in my book and definitely closer to the masters of old than the people who have their galleries and expositions (even when they don't paint modernistic crap).
Art as a value of quality has always struck me as a bit of an odd way of saying you like something. I don't define stuff as art or non-art, I just like stuff and I don't like other stuff. And some stuff is in between. When it comes to pictures, liking it is basically all I care for.
Me, I'm a (soon-to-be) student of history, but hope to become an artist some day.
I'll modify what I said, then. As a child, I liked pretty pictures and liked to draw, but was not aware of artists until I became a pre-teen / teen.
I grew up with painters and artists in my family. I certainly had an appreciation for it at an early age. It wasn't the same reach that Disney had, but it was there.
I grew up with painters and artists in my family. I certainly had an appreciation for it at an early age. It wasn't the same reach that Disney had, but it was there.
In all sincerity, good for you. I didn't. I had mechanics and wage laborers in mine.
I often think, though, that when my wife and I have kids, they'll get to have the kind of encouragement towards the arts that we never did.
you've got it all wrong, its very simple. its not art unless the creator is dead, and the work has been stolen at least once. all of a sudden, the art becomes mysterious. its like da vincis mona lisa. it was barely worth anything back when it was made, but now they've framed the damn thing in maximum security glass because its been stolen so many times.
I missed the whole thing about art having to be free to be art. Never heard that. In fact I came to the opposite conclusion that as far as society, art is what sells. In fact I scrawled it across a chalkboard in big letters one time when the professor was out.
I hated that idea that I had to sell things to be an artist. So with my fine art for at least in the past, when they sold, I ask the buyer to give a donation to a worthy cause for what they thought the piece was worth (given this is the fine art side, not the commercial side of my life). Would I do it today? Unknown. I do know I would still like to have at least a portion to be donated for causes that the art reflects in some way.
Of course, I'm one of those goody two shoes socialist types.
Only overpaid and over privileged Westerners can afford to think that art has to be done unpaid to count as art.
lol
well the answer starts from what do u consider art / artist is, then if u would say so about urself...
its like asking "do u believe in god?", but not explaining what god is.
i grew up as a mathematician, i had zero interest in anything humanitarian (art, history, poerty ((wtf) etc.) until maybe i was 22... i only got into it by accident, making a logo for my quake clan website. from there the road to web-graphics and eventually quake3 editing paved the way...
I would like to, but I don't think I've been doing it anywhere near long enough to be able to quantify that statement.
Please. Skill has nothing to do with being an artist. You can vomit syringes and blood onto a canvas and say it's a commentary on the life of a starving fine-arts artist in today's consumerist society and be called an artist. All you need is A) a Sincere Message to Communicate, or Bullshitability 101.
I often think, though, that when my wife and I have kids, they'll get to have the kind of encouragement towards the arts that we never did.
Agreed. Just don't be one of those football or gymnast nazi dads of the art world. Support whatever is they choose to do. Sometimes the harder you push the harder they resist, it would be real easy to turn them off to art.
When I was very young, I considered myself an artist. If there was ink, paint, or lead nearby, and a surface to mark on, I used it. Any time of day. As long as I wanted. I had no concerns. I created for myself, and enjoyed the sense of accomplishment when I was finished. I loved the feedback I received from my family and peers, but never let anyone tell me what I should be doing. It was my talent, and it was fun.
Since striving for a job in the game industry, I have not considered myself an artist. I feel as if every project I begin must be a small step towards finding a job. I feel restricted by a strong set of guidelines that can only be used on a limited range of subjects. I feel as if creativity is discouraged.
I see many involved in the game production process as being digital craftsman. Artisans. Like jewelry makers. To go further, I'd say 3D game artists are more like replicators on an assembly line paid to do a simple specified task, creating and recycling objects. Workers refining a product. It doesn't feel like art to me. But perhaps that's only the larger studios.
Art is getting back to the basics for your own enjoyment, and communicating new ideas.
In all sincerity, good for you. I didn't. I had mechanics and wage laborers in mine.
I often think, though, that when my wife and I have kids, they'll get to have the kind of encouragement towards the arts that we never did.
yeah, this. I don't know ANYONE in any branch of my family that does any art whatsoever. my mom played clarinet for a few years in high school and that's pretty much it. she had an interest in art before her guidance counselor told her to do business but that was about it. I had little exposure to any art except for games and tv pretty much. hah.
yeah, this art-has-to-be-free thing is crazy from my perspective. that being said, most art "jobs" don't seem like art to me either.
can i just slip my devil's advocate pee-pee in here and say that when i did production art for someone else's expression.. someone else's creative impulse.. I didn't feel like an artist.
now that I'm making my own games, I'm spending more time programming, but i feel more like an artist.
for me art = creativity and self expression.. i don't care if you're smearing shit on yourself.
I got nuthin. I think what i create usually is "art," but i dont think i manipulate (or can, because of most of it is commercial) it to having the emotion required to evoke the viewer to feel something.
I grew up a musician (musicist lol), playing my violin for anyone and everyone. I wanted to be an artist of music, so to speak. I viewed it more as a "performer," but for the sake of this discussion - artist Sat in numerous orchestras and symphonies, did solos, duets, sonatas, etc, etc, all generally for a crowd. I tried to take what i thought the music meant, or what it meant to me, and express that aurally. My end goal, mission, whatever, was to make the audience happy. By using my abilities, I tried to evoke emotion from the music/art to make those listening be affected and influenced by how i felt.
I think the same can be true for art, but i dont think i have been able to achieve that in any paintings, or drawings lately, and especially not game art (maybe to a certain degree in some game assets). My mission with art, is the "performance" of it, when you have the outside world view your stuff - and how it is recieved.
As game artists, our performance is how the public sees the game, and the art containted within it. Unless its a completely art-centric game like Okami, Viewtiful Joe, Final Fantasy, etc, the public usually glosses over it and focuses on the "experience" instead of the visuals. Interactive art like websites, and games are less likely to seen by JoePublic Schmoe as "art" because that isn't the goal of most games... and the artistry is generally only acknowledged by those who do the same stuff.
Its a departure from a painting, when just about anyone has the capacity to appreciate a painting for what it is, regardless if they paint or not. I don't think the interactive game medium is mature enough for that to be possible currently.
In short: evoking emotion and telling stories to get the recipient of your art to feel, do, say, experience, or be something is what art is to me. When i can pull that off, i guess i can be called an artist, but would rather call it a performer of emotions :P
Making brick walls and big tittied bitches is just awesome, but probably not "art."
I think anything that is a visual medium is art, therefore in my book, big titted bitches also count as art.
I would categorize most of the stuff I see here on the whole as comic book style art.
I am really surprised how a lot of you seem to almost undervalue what you do as there is a
tremendous amount of skill and even passion involved in sculpting/texture art/ modelling etc.
Perhaps with some of a case of being too modest about what you do?
Every concept or little piece I see on Polycount has a little back story going on. Even if its subtle, it does convey something.
if you are a modeller/texture artist only, you still have to make choices which convey an artistic style of sorts.
Whether you call it illustration, craft or fine art is just semantics in my book.
It may seem like what you do at work is just generic and is someone elses vision, but you are still involved in that process so deserve credit.
I think the word itself artist has bad connotations for some people, like you would be considered some kind of snob or vain person if you described yourself as an artist(e)
I'm an artist, i strive to communicate clearly through images
I'm pursing art skills and draughtmanship/craftsmanship
I would like a job making pictures for games
Replies
if you wanna make labels then you could call yourself an illustrator/commercial artist/general illustrator/technical artist/wildlife illustrator/artist/graphic designer/fine artist etc.
Although I do games art I started out doing illustration and still define myself as a commercial artist.
I think anyone who does games art in any shape or form is an artist of sorts. Its up to the individual which category they fit in to
By high school my interested had shifted a bit, Disney and the industry where crumbling, I had turned my focus to graphic design and games. I figured layout and paste up was a good move for me at my skill level (read I sucked, still do). The first classes I took where working with film and plate making, running presses and finally some digital layout.
Photoshop was on version 3 and had just added layers, it was hot sh!t.
My dad was heavy into anything electronic and loved photography, we had a TRS80 and it had a color pen tablet (and a stack of games) before we ever had a computer with a mouse.
My mom is a teacher and a painter. Everything that hung on our walls was either a painting she did or a photo my dad took. So it kind of seems natural that I would end up where the two meet.
I don't call myself an artist, its not even on my business card, I'm not entirely comfortable being called an animator. I do still like to create art even if most of it is pretty bad. I have a DEEP appreciation for it, but for me to get really good at it I would need to practice a lot more and that means shelving a lot of things I love. I don't think I'd ever call myself an artist it just seems too pretentious
People ask me for enough free stuff when they hear I work with a "computer" suddenly I'm the answer guy because I can work a mouse. I don't need them also asking for freebie art also...
"what do you do?"
"I write parking tickets, want one?"
Certainly.
I reply
"you would probably call me that... but i don't feel like one"
I was good at doodling cartoony pictures as a kid and I spent a huge amount of time designing my own Lego models and planning out my dream videogames in my head. But I drifted away from art at about 14 (never took any art classes) and it wasn't until I was 22, and I was faced with the scary reality of getting a crappy office job that I started to teach myself Max and Photoshop. Even then I was only really learning technical skills, it wasn't until a couple of years later that I started to really think about the fundamentals of art and creativity.
I often feel uncomfortable about describing what I do as 'art' because so much of what I do - in my spare time at least - is very self-indulgent and nerdy. Sometimes I think that if I were a real artist/creative I would be writing a novel or making a film etc. At the same time, I really love the process of having an intial idea for something and then following it through to a finished piece. Plus, I think that the current world of digital art is a very exciting place to be at the moment. There are so many talented artists out there doing loads of exciting and interesting things and I do think that it will prove to have been an important and celebrated art movement at some point in the future.
As long as I'm happy with what I do and I make other people happy, you can call me anything and I can live with that. It's just a term, or a label, that we human beings address to something/someone, cause that's we are in nature.
I remember what my grandmother used to tell us when we were younger:
When you finally die and meet God, the very first question that God will ask you is "What did you do when you were living?" instead of "What were you when you were living?" and I always keep this on my mind.
Btw, I prefer to be called content creator for videogames. A lot more cooler I guess.
To answer the posed questions first, Yes I consider myself an artist first and foremost because I do not limit myself to design documents and briefs. I do "work" for pay but I also work on my own for the personal satisfaction of creation/expression of my mood/emotion/perspective... so many things can go into and effect the outcome of a single piece of art.
Secondly I have considered myself an artist since a very early age when I was drawing elaborate pictures with personal enthusiasm while other kids would draw a stick figure and then go back to eating their glue.. or throwing crayons at the fat kid.
now onto other topics others have brought up in this threaad in relation.
Art what is it?
Artist who are they?
those two questions to me are really only known by artist, no matter how many times outsiders try to understand art... put a price on it... evaluate it... give it credentials... make the assumptions they can understand it!! they will get it wrong every single time.
If you're an artist... you know dam well you are and artist... and without art in your life, life would be drastically less fulfilling.
Having meet my share of aspiring artist, wanna-be artist, confused emotionalites, lazy dreamers, and what ever other catagory you want to coin... Even if they fool the non-artist into believing their "artist" they know and we know... that their ball on a pin, or their 3 colored triangles on a white canvas is fake, It is a hack trying to convey an emotion they have not come to grips with, the lack of thought or dedication to capture the essence of this inspiration, and most commonly the negalegence in applicable skill and talent to create that in which they truely want others to experince as they think they do in their own minds.
Some would say we create art, artwork, production assets... it can be all of the above or none of them at all. Every piece is what the creator puts into it. The thread for guild wars 2 is a perfect example of this to me. A different staff could have taken the same design document and brief and it could have came out... as a game.. a collage of production assets... BUT! what the end creation was ART! to me at least. The images invoke an emotional response.
In argument to a previous comment about how this or that is "more" art than something else. I would have to say there is not a more art.. or less art.. it is either art.. or not. general architecture is not art to me but when you use that median to create a building that transcends its median to the point of being more than just its material components... then it becomes art. Painting colors on planes to me is not art as much as some of my proffesors would like me to believe... but when it transcends its median of components of oil, pigment, canvass, etc and envokes emotional response from its viewers... it then becomes art. This is true to me with our profession as well. Game assets are only game assets, a compilation of vertici and hue values, Hypothetical mathmatic values, inter connected through 1's and 0's. BUT! when you do all of this with such a degree of execution and uniquness it can then become art... So as writing this reply I have come to a new hypothesis on art.
Maybe my deffenition of art is the acknowledgment of excellence. To think that something was created perfect, or as near to perfect. That the essence of the piece is true to itself, and to its creator. Exceptions and excuses were not allowed to affect the outcome of the piece. thee "Artist" took the time, shed their blood if need be, to create what they knew to be right to the piece, it was supposed to be like so... and it would not be finished until it was just so.
When an artist settles for less, or says its good enough, it becomes a game asset.
Art to me is definitely about conveying something to an audience. Emotion, a message, or eyes of the beholder. Who's illustration of something is to bring fourth meaning.
Being good as a 3d modeller, and taking a snapshot or rotating a model. Doesn't serve my attention as artistry of any sort. It's just there ....."Blah"
I think in the digital form of 3D merged with 2D under an illustrative approach is art (andrew jones from Concept Art.org for example). But taking a quick render view of something we've pushed and pulled isn't something I find myself being considered as an Artist.
But in the end, I think the term "Artist" has really lost it's true definition for the current time. As someday it will return, once things come to a slow down in exploration of ideas and ways of creating.
Your opinion of your own work is a specific case where the viewer and artist are the same person.
I would say the majority of people I have met, both inside and outside the game industry, do not consider what we do art.
Artist (at least for me and especially in french) is too general and "conceited" (first time I'm using this word
Also, by writing this, I realize that, like Japhir said on page 1, this is a word I will use in english to "summarize" my job title (because it's based on the industry job title "protocol"), but definitly not in my mother tongue. In french we're using "Infographiste 3D and/or 2D" which means literally "Computer graphic designer 3D and/or 2D" and I think it's closer to what I'm as profesionnal.
I wanted to be a ships engineer or car mechanic when i was a kid because i had a red screwdriver, though even from an early age I used to make boardgames and sprites and stuff. As a teenager I sort of flirted with the idea of being a illustrator, but never really wanted to be an Artist.
Anyway - to people in the creative industries i wouldn't have any qualms about calling myself a character artist because I know they wouldn't interpret it as me claiming to be Tracey Emin or whatever. But to the normally be-jobbed I usually describe my profession as 3d modeller. Though once tried to explain what i did to the woman who runs my local corner shop, message got garbled across language barrier and she thinks i'm claiming to be sort of big gangly funny looking model.
I don't really consider what i do to be Art, it's too commercial, there are too many mutants, and it's surely too much fun to be Art. Isn't Art mostly paintings made by dead guys? Art needs to root in for a couple of hundred years.
wanted to be a paleontologist, but also dreamed about making games.
i went through 6-7 game ideas as i grew up, drawing tons of idea sheets, and also used to put games on pause, and draw all the monsters in the games.
In the bedroom, hell yeah!!:D
Truthfully I'd probably class myself as a craftsman, I make arty type stuff for a living.
Thing is, I'm not commenting on anything in my work, it's commercial...the message is "Buy this product, I'm in need of a beer."
Why not try to say something?
Well, mainly because who'd want to hear what a middle class white boy considers 'deep'.
Hang on a second.....self deprecating....unkempt....bouts of mild depression mixed with moments of pure bliss....
Fuck guys...maybe I am an artist!!! :P
i dunno theres a lot of ways to spin it, at the end of the day if you say you're an artist and someone else says you're not, who's right? there isn't a right
for my personal answer, I'm going to say I am an artist. Because the work I do at home and the plans I make aspire towards being art, so by that definition it is. But what I do at work- no that is not art, because no-one calls it art.
seriously though, um...... sometimes i do... i just wish i could find the time to make art, and get paid for it too.... that would be +1... and seeing as how neither takes place, then no, i don't consider myself an artist at the present time.... fail... i try.... but..... *sigh*.... what time is it? 8:05am? ah well... time to pop open another new castle
Here in spain is very common the word infographiste, but it's more for a 3d monkey who works doing 3d visualizations for architecture.
However i did 3 years of engineering, before realizing i wanted to do art related stuff.
I switched schools and finished photography-video-multimedia art UNI, and as i'm typing this i'm preparing my masters.
Recently however i discovered the beauty of game design, even though i've been a gamer all my life, i was never really interested in making games.
So while i consider myself an artist (as i have had a few exhibitions with photography and installations) , i am truly fascinated by you guys, as i'm a beginner in making game stuff.
You are masters of your craft , and i have played games that are as close to interactive digital art as you can get, so the ones making them must be artists.
And on when i was a kid: i wanted to be an architect. Tried that for 1 year, realized I have too much imagination and felt limited by all the real-life constraints on design that an architect has, so I switched over to games and 3D.
I'll modify what I said, then. As a child, I liked pretty pictures and liked to draw, but was not aware of artists until I became a pre-teen / teen.
I agree, do you maybe think Rembrandt painted the Nightwatch just to convey his deep criticism on society? I think not, yet how many of you consider that painting art?
It was another way to make a living, some guys made candles, others made boats, artists made their living the same way, using their talent at a particular craft to make a living.
It would probably be easy to argue that its probably not art unless its commissioned or someone offers to pay for it.
There are enough people who think that art should be given away for free we don't need artists believing and perpetrating the myth further.
If you take artist as an indication of profession, and leave the quality at the side, you all are definitely artists in my book and definitely closer to the masters of old than the people who have their galleries and expositions (even when they don't paint modernistic crap).
Art as a value of quality has always struck me as a bit of an odd way of saying you like something. I don't define stuff as art or non-art, I just like stuff and I don't like other stuff. And some stuff is in between. When it comes to pictures, liking it is basically all I care for.
Me, I'm a (soon-to-be) student of history, but hope to become an artist some day.
I grew up with painters and artists in my family. I certainly had an appreciation for it at an early age. It wasn't the same reach that Disney had, but it was there.
In all sincerity, good for you. I didn't. I had mechanics and wage laborers in mine.
I often think, though, that when my wife and I have kids, they'll get to have the kind of encouragement towards the arts that we never did.
QFT
I hated that idea that I had to sell things to be an artist. So with my fine art for at least in the past, when they sold, I ask the buyer to give a donation to a worthy cause for what they thought the piece was worth (given this is the fine art side, not the commercial side of my life). Would I do it today? Unknown. I do know I would still like to have at least a portion to be donated for causes that the art reflects in some way.
Of course, I'm one of those goody two shoes socialist types.
lol
well the answer starts from what do u consider art / artist is, then if u would say so about urself...
its like asking "do u believe in god?", but not explaining what god is.
i grew up as a mathematician, i had zero interest in anything humanitarian (art, history, poerty ((wtf) etc.) until maybe i was 22... i only got into it by accident, making a logo for my quake clan website. from there the road to web-graphics and eventually quake3 editing paved the way...
my official terminology is: "i draw stuff"
Actually, that would be a cool project.
Since striving for a job in the game industry, I have not considered myself an artist. I feel as if every project I begin must be a small step towards finding a job. I feel restricted by a strong set of guidelines that can only be used on a limited range of subjects. I feel as if creativity is discouraged.
I see many involved in the game production process as being digital craftsman. Artisans. Like jewelry makers. To go further, I'd say 3D game artists are more like replicators on an assembly line paid to do a simple specified task, creating and recycling objects. Workers refining a product. It doesn't feel like art to me. But perhaps that's only the larger studios.
Art is getting back to the basics for your own enjoyment, and communicating new ideas.
yeah, this. I don't know ANYONE in any branch of my family that does any art whatsoever. my mom played clarinet for a few years in high school and that's pretty much it. she had an interest in art before her guidance counselor told her to do business but that was about it. I had little exposure to any art except for games and tv pretty much. hah.
can i just slip my devil's advocate pee-pee in here and say that when i did production art for someone else's expression.. someone else's creative impulse.. I didn't feel like an artist.
now that I'm making my own games, I'm spending more time programming, but i feel more like an artist.
for me art = creativity and self expression.. i don't care if you're smearing shit on yourself.
CHARLATAN! HACK!
I grew up a musician (musicist lol), playing my violin for anyone and everyone. I wanted to be an artist of music, so to speak. I viewed it more as a "performer," but for the sake of this discussion - artist
I think the same can be true for art, but i dont think i have been able to achieve that in any paintings, or drawings lately, and especially not game art (maybe to a certain degree in some game assets). My mission with art, is the "performance" of it, when you have the outside world view your stuff - and how it is recieved.
As game artists, our performance is how the public sees the game, and the art containted within it. Unless its a completely art-centric game like Okami, Viewtiful Joe, Final Fantasy, etc, the public usually glosses over it and focuses on the "experience" instead of the visuals. Interactive art like websites, and games are less likely to seen by JoePublic Schmoe as "art" because that isn't the goal of most games... and the artistry is generally only acknowledged by those who do the same stuff.
Its a departure from a painting, when just about anyone has the capacity to appreciate a painting for what it is, regardless if they paint or not. I don't think the interactive game medium is mature enough for that to be possible currently.
In short: evoking emotion and telling stories to get the recipient of your art to feel, do, say, experience, or be something is what art is to me. When i can pull that off, i guess i can be called an artist, but would rather call it a performer of emotions :P
Making brick walls and big tittied bitches is just awesome, but probably not "art."
I would categorize most of the stuff I see here on the whole as comic book style art.
I am really surprised how a lot of you seem to almost undervalue what you do as there is a
tremendous amount of skill and even passion involved in sculpting/texture art/ modelling etc.
Perhaps with some of a case of being too modest about what you do?
Every concept or little piece I see on Polycount has a little back story going on. Even if its subtle, it does convey something.
if you are a modeller/texture artist only, you still have to make choices which convey an artistic style of sorts.
Whether you call it illustration, craft or fine art is just semantics in my book.
It may seem like what you do at work is just generic and is someone elses vision, but you are still involved in that process so deserve credit.
I think the word itself artist has bad connotations for some people, like you would be considered some kind of snob or vain person if you described yourself as an artist(e)
I'm pursing art skills and draughtmanship/craftsmanship
I would like a job making pictures for games