Hello,

I am not an artist, but I wish to improve my process when making "programmer art" for prototypes/first alphas. I figured I should go back to the start and ask what the overall process for coming up with a visual style is, from earliest concepts to final assets? Mind sharing your steps/checklist/methods?

Any good article / book / resource that outlines the process?

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On my end I usually do this:
* Consider the themes, main ideas and what the overall style should be
* Create a visual reference list (Games, movies, books, photos, painintings, web sites, etc.)
* Make a few mock ups for some of game scenes or elements (key locations, characters, key items, ui, etc.)
* Get feedback and iterate mockups
* Produce / find final assets

Do I have the process right? What do You do?


I did a bit research and read about graphic designers / artists also preparing Mood Boards or Design Bibles. Would those be worth adding in? Anyone use that and can pitch in?

Thanks!

(Reason I'm asking: my process has not been very successful, with gamers often criticizing my early art. One issue I discovered is lack of consistency or "sloppy" work. I'm not sure if it's the process itself or if I'm just not spending enough time on it).

That process is very much like what I do, aside from adding a color palette. I tend to come up with some terrible color combinations if I don't plan ahead to make them all harmonize. This is kind of like a mood board I guess?

Also, are you making sure to sketch your cast of characters and some monsters as a group, so you can see them next to each other and check the proportions?

I'll start with the disclaimer that my programmer art is still pretty terrible...

...but for me, I found that my art got a lot less terrible with a bit more attention to basic art concepts, as having no proper or formal training in art I didn't really have these nailed down, and hadn't learned them instinctively through practice either.

A colour palette like sunandshadow suggests can be very helpful as well, and I do normally try to come up with a collection of reference images and then try to keep what I'm producing consistent with that style.

Thanks for the link, that's exactly the kind of stuff I'm looking for. I was also at Barnes and Nobles today and saw "Drawing Basics and Video Game Art" by Solarski, which looked like a good primer.

Yea establishing (and more importantly - sticking to!) a color pallete would probably be added to the list. It's one of those things I know I should do but haven't really done. Need to take a more structured approach I guess.