'not an artist' article

[Erik <br0ke@math.smsu.edu>]

saw this linked off of flipcode, and decided to post it here since it is
pertinant to recent conversation and concern :) Maybe we should throw this on
the page? Mebbe dissect it, discuss it, and post the results of that? There is
also an article on beopen.com that interviews scott draeker (loki prez) and
jorrit (crystal space maintainer/coder/creater), but we all already knew about
that

http://www.gamedev.net/reference/art/features/notanartist

the following is my thoughts and misconceptions while I'm reading this puppy...

A quick scan shows that this is focused at windows game developers (not open
source, not linux, not us), but they have the same problems there. A lack of
game artists willing to work without immediate monetary payment.


plugins: the article suggest using photoshops plugins. We should be in pretty
good shape there, since gimp has strong support for not only plugins, but
script-fu as well. Hopefully those of us scared to try something as cool as
scheme will get over that :)

side-note for those who aren't photographers...: the article mentions 'dodge and
burn', which I know are derived from still photography. After the film is
developed, the cell is placed in an enlarger and photosensative paper is layed
under it. By sticking a peice of cut construction paper or other destroyable
but stiff material on a stick, you can shade certain parts. When you want to
make a small area brighter (like a face), you cut a circle out of the paper and
hold the paper over, moving it some so the edges come out blurred. If you want
to make a chunk darker, you cut a circle and move it over the area to make
darker... fun stuff :) take a photography class where you get to develop and
enlarge, it's nifty

consistancy of style: that can be a serious problem when we scrounge around for
art... :/ 


A repository of clipart known to be safe for use in games (opensource,
freeware, something) would be nice.

(quote)
  Drawing art for a game that runs in 320x200 mode is easier than drawing art
  for a game that runs in 1280x1024 mode. The big pixels reduce the complexity
  of sprite artwork. If you're really in a pinch, consider dropping your game's
  resolution. 

no one wants buy a system that runs games fast at high resolutions and play
games that are designed for 10 year old graphics hardware. I have to strongly
disagree with this 'solution'.

'have the computer draw it' Finding people who can manipulate renderers is just
as tricky, sometimes more. And we are also lacking 3d artists. Personally I
like povray (it seems more like programming a scene than doing art). But the
complexity of my images is extremely limited. 


'sketch first' This is something that we can directly transpose from our
programming method. I'd hope most of us design and document our programs before
we start hacking code, so this is basically the same thing, except for images.


('quaternion'? Ummm, that's a pretty dumb name for a game imho, people are
gonna be looking at an engine that says it uses quaternions for camera
interpolation and start thinking of this game? Hamilton's gonna write a proof
to resurrect himself and kick the snot outta 'spin-studios' :)


The article seems pretty lean, and I disagree with some parts of it. However,
it does provide us with evidence that the lack of of artists is not specific to
opensource/linux games. I would venture to say that this supports my wildassed
hypothesis about financial motivation and artists. Maybe we should investigate
windows projects that have attracted artists and learn their secrets?

        -Erik <erik@smluc.org> [http://math.smsu.edu/~br0ke]

The opinions expressed by me are not necessarily opinions. In all
probability, they are random rambling, and to be ignored. Failure to ignore
may result in severe boredom or confusion. Shake well before opening. Keep
Refrigerated.
        

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