At Electronic Arts U.K., Frank Kitson doesn’t see the trend to hire from film and TV talent for game development changing. Above is its Battlefield 2 game. © 2005 Electronic Arts Inc. All rights reserved.

Artists Wanted
Film is not the only area where artists’ skills translate well to next-gen gaming. “Games have increasingly looked further afield over the last few years to experts in the various related visual industries, like film and TV, for talent,” says Frank Kitson, CG supervisor at Electronic Arts U.K. “I don’t see that trend changing, as it’s virtually impossible to expand, both technically and visually, in a vacuum.”

“I think we’re at an interesting crossroads where all artists can participate if they have the talent,” says O’Flaherty. With the next-gen consoles, artists are no longer muzzled by technology, he adds. “For art directors, you have so few limitations that your vision really comes through.”

Vfx artists from the commercial world and episodic television have similar skill sets to those needed for game development. In particular, game studios value their experience in creating spectacular and realistic effects under tight time and budgetary constraints. And architecture, always an important discipline, becomes critical as resolution improves. “We want the worlds to feel real and lived in,” says Matt Omernick, art director at LucasArts and the author of Creating the Art of the Game. His company typically has three or four people with architectural backgrounds assigned to a given project.

Game makers are trying to broaden their audiences, in part by making sure they create intuitive and accessible user interfaces. “Web designers have a unique skill set that’s become increasingly desirable,” says Omernick. He points out that interface designer is now considered a full-time position that begins prior to preproduction; in the past, the designer was sometimes brought in just a few months before a project was finished.

Epic Games looks to film to recruit in textures and shaders, and particle effects. Above is its Unreal Tournament 2007. Unreal is a registered trademark of Epic Games Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective companies.

Improved Resolution
One of the notable attributes of next-gen games is their visual clarity. “We see the graphical fidelity and sophistication of animation almost as a given on the PlayStation 3,” explains MacDonald. “It has to be absolutely up there with the best CGI movies.”

Not only are screen shots stunning, but also movement and gameplay are a step ahead of previous versions. “The increase in resolution and clarity of the images isn’t tiny,” insists O’Flaherty. Whereas current-gen projects could get away with looking “gamey,” the hyper-real visuals in the new generation means “every other part of the visual experience has to crank it up.”

“It’s a much more expressive medium now,” adds Chris Satchell, general manager of Microsoft’s Game Developer Group. “You’ll really be able to see the defects in the HD era. You can’t almost hold a door handle or almost lean on a wall. There can be no floppy hands. It puts a lot of pressure on the animators. On the one hand, you can get away with less cheats than in the past. But on the other hand, there’s an opportunity because of that.”

Matt Omernick of LucasArts, author of Creating the Art of the Game, values architecture in game design as an important skill set to make the worlds feel real and lived in.

“The experience is changing for our audience on this next generation,” Entis says. But he cautions that the new technology requires new ways of thinking about a game. “Doing exactly what we were doing, but 10 times more, that’s not the direction we want to go.”

Next-gen platforms require artists to model characters in low-poly versions, then use ZBrush or Maya to create an unlimited-poly model from which normal maps are generated and translated back down to low-poly models. Texturing in next-gen games is more akin to prerendered film work than in the past, O’Flaherty explains. “It was a more 2D painterly thing,” he says, but now the normal-map texture gives lighting and shading clues. This process relies on artists who really understand textures, such how specular colors differ or how shine emanates from bricks vs. cotton, he adds. “There’s a refined sensibility required that we didn’t have before.”

Vfx artists from film, who are used to working with a high level of detail, can flourish in this environment. “The way they build models is really valuable,” says Mohammed Davoudian, president & ceo of Brain Zoo Studios.