Hello All, I`ve been wondering, how do you direct artists online? How does one show an artist the style of the game without actually being there to show them? Like what kind of documents do write, what kind of art does one find to give artists the general style of the game? - Steve

I think the only real way to communicate art style is with pictures. So to communicate an art style I would use google image search or other image sources (I've used library books, but it's a pain to scan every photo). You can either provide your artist a list of links, or you can combine the source images into a single image in Gimp or something and provide that to the artist. The latter has the advantage that since you are hosting it the artist won't run into broken links, and there are fewer links to keep track of, or the image can be attached to an email. Links to images can be communicated to the artist as forum posts or emails.

Still, the first image any artist does for a project is almost inevitably not going to be in exactly the style you want, so you either have to point out how you want it to be different, or accept what the artist can produce. Some artists just won't be able or willing to emulate some styles, and some artist will have a lack of experience with some subjects (particularly, many artists draw only male characters, only female characters, or no backgrounds/architecture.)

Showing example images from existing games is a good way to start. Naturally, you don't want artists to copy someone else's style. At the same time, it would give them a point of reference to draw from.

I find that for style, describing things in terms of moods works best. I try to think of the end-user's experience, and the feelings I want to evoke in them when they are playing.

I see no problem with asking an artist to copy someone else's style, if that's the style you want for your game. Here's my reasoning:

1. styles are not copyrightable, and pretty much every imaginable style has been used multiple times already. Nothing new under the sun, originality's only in the details and the multitude of different ways common choices can be mixed and combined.

2. The content being rendered in that style will not be identical to the example game's content; it's like starting with an apple and an orange and painting both with acrylic paint, the end result is going to be similar but not truly the same. Due to the difference in content the artist will be unable to copy 100% because not all the elements in the assignment will exist in the source material.

3. Artists are also not going to be able to copy any style 100% due to differences in media, skills, and personal aesthetic instincts and habits. And artist can't _not_ add their personal touch to their work - half of art is subconsciously developed technique, which is different for everyone.

I always create huge study images -- my actual method is to make a giant photoshop image and drop photos and pieces I find from around the web into the body, and arrange them like a collage. I take notes right on the image, and even begin to doodle there.

This is something a non artist can probably do.

But going deeper, I think that if you need an artist -- not a production assistant, but someone responsible for style-- you should let them do their job. Provide guidelines and ideas, but let them do what they do.

you can generally tell your artist the style of your world, but the one with more artistic experience will be the one to set the artistic style.

It will be difficult to tell a person with more artistic experience what works better artisticly, this is an art directors job.

unless if you're paying him, where he will try to satisfy your wishes no matter how artisticly bad they might be.


give the artist a hint with reference materials, pictures from movies, drawings and text etc, to give him an idea for what you wish for, but remember that he will have more experience, so listen to what he will make out of the wishes you have.