The Future...

beannadurns
Feb 12, 2016
8 min read

As an artist, specifically a concept artist, I’d like to keep my options open about where I work, who I work with, and what I work on. I have no specific desire to work for one specific company in a specific area, right now at least. I enjoy preproduction work for animation, which is what I have been doing for these few years of university, but I’d like to explore other areas; I would want to look at games, 2D games especially, though I’d also like to learn some 3D programmes along the way. I would keep an open mind to most areas open to me.

Art is something I’m passionate about, and so I can see myself happy in most situations that involve it. For example, I’d be more than happy to go into production makeup, theatrical or special effects, an area of art I studied before university. Of course, where ever I end up and who ever I work with, I will always be learning along the way, which itself could advance my career into new areas.

The following studios are in some different areas of industry, and they are places that would be my preferred choices.

Klei Entertainment is an independent game company based in Vancouver that I would love to work for. The company was founded in 2005 by Jamie Cheng, a programmer, and their debut game was “Eets” released in 2006. Following its success, the studio continued to experiment, develop, and release more games. They now employ 35 people, and the team is described to be tightly knit, due to their small numbers, where care and love of the medium and originality is prioritised.

With their determination and bravery in experimentation, they have a range of different game genres, rather than sticking to one idea. These game genres include platformers, strategy based games, and so on, which in turn varies the game style from 2D to 3D. To go further with this, the genres and styles of the games can relate and appeal to different audiences, so it could be argued that Klei attempt to appeal to all in the gaming world.

The game that brought this game studio to my attention is Don’t Starve, a game I very much enjoy. The company describes the game as follows;

Don’t Starve is an uncompromising wilderness survival game full of science and magic.

You play as Wilson, an intrepid Gentleman Scientist who has been trapped by a demon and transported to a mysterious wilderness world. Wilson must learn to exploit his environment and its inhabitants if he ever hopes to escape and find his way back home.

Enter a strange and unexplored world full of strange creatures, dangers, and surprises. Gather resources to craft items and structures that match your survival style. Play your way as you unravel the mysteries of this strange land.

The studios art style really appeals to me, especially the one used in this particular game. It’s reminiscent of Tim Burton on first instinct, an artist and auteur that has also always inspired me. It’s a little odd, gothic almost, and a little sketchy in areas, which again, appeals to me greatly. The caricaturised nature of the characters and NPC’s helps to give some light-heartedness. I feel in my skills as an artist, I have the potential to be able to learn the studios varied art styles in order to aid in the creation of characters and worlds. The studio’s success suggests they may decide in future to further expand their company; something also suggested by their job offers on their website, albeit not all for artists (at the time of writing). I feel there is potential for someone such as myself to be able to join their team and make some fantastic stylistic art work.

Monomi Park, founded in 2014, is a small game studio currently developing their first project which is (at the time of writing) in Early Access. The studio is based in California and it, so far, looks very promising and has plenty of potential. Their first game is called Slime Rancher, a childishly designed sandbox game. The developers describe the game as follows;

Slime Rancher is the tale of Beatrix LeBeau, a plucky, young rancher who sets out for a life a thousand light years away from Earth on the 'Far, Far Range' where she tries her hand at making a living wrangling slimes. With a can-do attitude, plenty of grit, and her trusty vacpack, Beatrix attempts to stake a claim, amass a fortune, and avoid the continual peril that looms from the rolling, jiggling avalanche of slimes around every corner.

Although it is in development, it is a pretty, cute and enjoyable game. Through the game, it is clear that there is a lot of potential for the studio in this project and hopefully in future projects. From reading about the developers, Nick Popovich and Mike Thomas, on their website and on both Monomi Park and Nicks’ Twitter pages, I’m under the impression that their small team, of just those two people, gels well together, genuinely enjoy their work, and have fun, all while being very professional. The love of the medium and the project is vital, as Klei insist, because it ensures that the end product results in being the best it can possibly be, leading to a happy audience in turn. The studio is so small at the moment that the chance of managing to secure a contract with them is just as small. However, their studio and project hold enough potential for me to be able to consider this a company I could, in future, work for.

Aardman is a well-known British studio, based primarily in Bristol. While they are known for their stop motion animations, including Wallace and Gromit and Chicken Run, they have also produced plenty of other productions, from commercials to music videos, such as the famous “Sledgehammer” by Peter Gabriel. They have also produced games, including Full Steam Ahead. This fun 2D online game allows you to design a ship and then test how effective it might be and whether it’s seaworthy. A commercial they produced charmed me as it was done so beautifully; The Toughest Job. It was produced in CGI however it has an illustrative, hand drawn feel to it. This relates to the message being conveyed in the commercial as it feels organic and therefore relative to nature.

The range of different divisions and projects this company has produced is encouraging in terms of possibilities. The studio describes themselves as still quite small, despite all of their success and a second studio named Nathan Love in New York City. Their expansion into numerous areas of industry is very smart for business, especially as they clearly display such a large range of styles, rather than limiting themselves to one area or even to their iconic look and design featured in their films, e.g. Wallace and Gromit.

My interest in this studio only grows, as their refusal to limit themselves in any sense in the industry fits very much with my own current attitude As an aspiring concept artist, I feel I have the potential to fit into this studio, be it through concept, character design, background design or indeed storyboarding, in whichever of their departments; as previously stated I’d like to stay as flexible as Aardman seem to make themselves in terms of work.

Pixar is a company I have always considered working for. They were officially founded in 1986, but had started out as the Graphics team for Lucasfilms. Pixar is part of Disney, and so a number of jobs are done by the parent company, including a lot (not all) of their marketing, publicity and so on. The main headquarters of Pixar is based in Emeryville, California. It is worth noting that in 2010 Pixar opened a studio in Vancouver, however closed again in 2013 to refocus their efforts in their main headquarters.

Their first feature film, Toy Story, was also the first computer animated feature to be released. Their films are almost always well received and enjoyable because of the quality in both narrative and design. Their short films however are not always quite so publically recognised, which is a shame as they communicate heart felt stories with plenty of emotion in just those few minutes and usually with no dialogue. It can be argued that for this reason, their short films can surpass their feature films in effective storytelling, however I digress.

The design used by this studio is often gentle and sweet, suitable for their audience of children. It is very appealing for this reason, however is different to the styles I considered in previous studios. The reputation of the company suggests that it could be a comfortable and inspiring environment to work in, and being so renowned, it’s be an honour to do so. Although the art style of Pixar is often similar throughout their films and shorts, I’d like to think I could adapt myself to their style and standard of art.

As I said before, keeping my own options open is important to me right now as I would like to try a number of things rather than allow myself to feel limited in an area I may not enjoy or indeed excel at. For this reason, I have often considered creating my own company. This would likely be a game company, although my background is in animation, as I learnt a lot about narrative and from that I decided that interactive narrative is potentially better, in some respects. For instance, the immersion the games can give to an audience, for that audience to actively choose how the narrative may go, assuming the narrative isn’t linear. While film can be relatable and an audience can be immersed into the story world, it is a passive experience. Games demand your involvement as the character. I recognise of course that not all games have narrative, for example the aforementioned Slime Rancher doesn’t currently have a narrative, just a simple backstory that the player could potentially go through the whole game not knowing if they don’t actively seek it in the game or online. However I digress.

Creating a game studio is something I’d like to aim for, even if I never succeed. I would like my artistic abilities to be of use, potentially running the art department of the studio. However, if I did manage this massive feat, I recognise that my time may be spent on the running of the business itself, and perhaps only occasionally using my art skills. But, if I were to create this company, I would need plenty of experience first and of course money to do it with. If I could control what was to happen in the next few years, I would design it so I had plenty of freelance jobs, enough to be able to keep myself secure, and enough to network and make contacts of great designers, artists and the like. Then, when the funds and time came, I would go back to those contacts and offer this proposition. From this, I could then be safe in the knowledge, if I was busy on the business side of things, then I have the right people working with me.

However, life does not work this way. While it’d be ideal, it is far from realistic, and it is important that I recognise that. And this is where we go full circle to the beginning; I wish to be flexible in this industry, if possible, to make the most of being there.