CONFERENCE
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VISUAL ARTS
The Visual Arts Track strives to educate artists and technical artists about methods for producing game art and animations; from stellar concept art techniques to post production best practices. Our focus for GDC 2013 is how to produce exceptional art while reducing costs.
View all Visual Arts Track sessions
2013 HIGHLIGHTED SESSIONS
The Walking Dead: Crafting a Stylized World for the Mature Franchise
Jonathon Banks (Telltale Games)
Since Telltale Games is known for its stylized and colorful adventure games, creating appealing art for a mature franchise like The Walking Dead was a difficult task. Most post-apocalyptic zombie titles on the market are realistic, gritty, and desaturated. Telltale's approach was to create an artistically stylized world that provided a fresh perspective on a successful franchise. By merging the look of the comic with Telltale's familiar illustrative style, the studio created a visually striking game that appeals to devoted adventure gamers, comic enthusiasts, and hardcore zombie fans.
Art Director and Lead Artist Roundtable
Keith Self-Ballard (Blizzard Entertainment)
The Art Director / Lead Artist Roundtable is an open forum intended to provide its attendees with both insight and information pertaining to the management, leadership and direction of game development teams and studios. This session is devoted to the exchange of experience and approaches to the most pressing issues facing art directors, artists and art culture.
Crafting Destruction: The Evolution of the Dead Space User Interface
Dino Ignacio (Visceral Games - Electronic Arts)
This is an in-depth exploration of the philosophy, evolution, and development of one of the industry's most innovative user interfaces. Dino Ignacio, the lead user interface designer of the Dead Space franchise, will break down the early attempts and concepts that led to Dead Space's interface becoming diegetic and immersive. It will discuss how and why we got to the shipped versions.
2012 HIGHLIGHTED SESSIONS
The Art of Diablo 3
Christian Lichtner (Blizzard Entertainment)
Making a sequel to the award winning classic Diablo 2 poses many artistic challenges. While many games in today's market try to top each other with the latest and greatest technology that inherently tends to drive the art direction - we decided to take a different approach. Our aim for Diablo 3 was to create a painterly stylized world that takes full advantage of its fixed camera, while finding ways to enhance and support our core gameplay goals. Ultimately, making sure that players in Diablo 3 suspend their sense of disbelief and become fully engulfed in the experience of saving the world of sanctuary.
Attendees will gain a behind the scenes look of what prime motivators influenced the art direction in Diablo3. What choices were made, and how it's stylized painterly look, environments, and characters all support and enhance the game play goals set forth for the game on a fundamental level. This talk is aimed at game developers that are interested understanding how art direction and game play drive artistic choices. No prerequisite knowledge is required. Bring your mojo!
Attendees will gain a behind the scenes look of what prime motivators influenced the art direction in Diablo3. What choices were made, and how it's stylized painterly look, environments, and characters all support and enhance the game play goals set forth for the game on a fundamental level. This talk is aimed at game developers that are interested understanding how art direction and game play drive artistic choices. No prerequisite knowledge is required. Bring your mojo!
The Art Direction of Saints Row: The Third
Frank Marquart (Volition, Inc.)
It all started with an internal joke and a word that inexplicably caught on…Exaggereal. Exaggereal became the internal name and catchword of the new art style for Saints Row: The Third. In this presentation, Frank Marquart, the art director of both Saints Row 2 and Saints Row: the Third will chronicle the development and discuss the details of this new style and the visual leap made from SR2 to SR:TT. This talk will reveal large project goals and how exactly they filtered down to Exaggereal art goals and the seven art pillars. See concrete examples of how each pillar translated into style rules and how final art assets were affected across art disciplines. In the chaotic, over the top world of Saints Row, only one word could hope to contain it…Exaggereal.
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