Artist: Raphael Lacoste – Assassins Creed/Ubisoft Titles

Undoubtedly one of my Favourite Digital artists along with Martin Mckenna, is Raphael Lacoste, who works with Ubisoft Montreal, who’s been the concept artist on such titles as, Prince of Persia, Assassins Creed and also FarCry 2.

Lacoste is now leaving Ubisoft to work with Montreal based Visual effects company, RodeoFX (The Golden Compass).

He specialises in concept art and Matte painting, Matte Painting is painting with the use of Photoshop, 3D software, and using images from a Stock of photographs, most likely taken by himself, as he is an professional photographer.

An example of Matte Painting:

Lacoste was the Art Director for Assassins Creed, hence why look at his work for Assassins Creed and you instantly see the amazing work thats gone into it, Shadows, lighting, atmosphere, and great depth.

I love the technical side of games, like Unreal engine and how it can achieve such detail, with trickery. Gears of War was undoubtedly the best looking game ever made, until Assassins Creed. Gears of War lacked Atmosphere and the Frame rate wasn’t the best at small parts of the game.

Am Interview with Raphael Lacoste can be found at 3DTotal Artist: http://www.3dtotal.com/team/interviews/raphael_lacoste/raphaellacoste_01.asp

Raphael Lacoste’s Website: http://www.raphael-lacoste.com

Raphael Lacoste’s Deviant Art: http://raphael-lacoste.deviantart.com/

And as always, Examples of the artists, Raphael Lacostes work. Also, please note, im not 100% sure all this work is his, but are taken from projects he worked on, and are his style. Its Possible some of the none Landscape Work is done by David Levy

Prince Of Persia

Assassins Creed

Far Cry 2

Artist: Hiroyuki Ito – Final Fantasy – Battle Designer

Hiroyuki Ito, Has worked on Final Fantasy for the whole series, originally as a Debugger, which basically means he played the game and worked out any errors. In his time at Square, he went up as his experience on the Team grew, he became a more valued worker and started designing, his First game he was lead designer on was Square’s Tom Sawyer, based on Mark Swain’s Novel, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, and he then worked on the game Rad Racer 2, as the lead designer.

He continued to work on the Final Fantasy games, and on Final Fantasy 4, he became the Battle Designer and also came up with the Active time Battle system, which has been used in almost every Final Fantasy game since.

His biggest role in a video game could be argued, but personally would be his work on Final Fantasy 9, in which his contributions were Director, Melodies of Life lyrics (credited as Shiomi), Game designer and Tetra master, the original concept for the card game, which also featured as part of the Final Fantasy 11 universe, where you could play the game on-line with friends.

He also worked on the main song for that game, Melodies of life,

[Edit] Here is the Japanese version on Imeem (May need an account) : http://profile.imeem.com/mhNwkP/music/EImBqijB/emiko_shiratori_melodies_of_life_japanese/

I cant share the MP3’s of the English and Japanese, so have this link instead to something you’ll like

Live performed (yay ): http://www.crunchyroll.com/media-144141/Emiko-Shiratori-Melodies-Of-Life-live.html

The following video is an interview with Hiroyuki,

Hiroyuki Ito on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiroyuki_Ito

Blog: ISChris, Deviant Art and Rare ltd letter found

IsChris, a good friend of mine, has started a Blogg up, he will update it with random ramblings as he sees fit, and trust me, you will wonder when you see some of the random stuff.

Chris is the Creator of a popular web based game called Gravoor, which started out as Gravoor Robbor, or something like that, i cant remember

But anyway, Be sure to check him out over at his blogg, http//ischris.wordpress.com

Also be sure to check out his Deviant Art at: http://ischris.deviantart.com/

Also check out mine if your interested, due to me at college, i havent had time to do anything i would consider good, so thats something I’ve go to work on. Here’s a link to my Deviant Art. http://arkador.deviantart.com/

Ohh, and Back in the post where i mention i had to find a letter from the games company Rare, they told me the following in 2003… exactly 5 years and 18 days ago.

“Dear Stuart,

Thank you for your recent Correspondence regarding general information on to get into the gaming industry.

If you are interested in a career as an Artist, the courses we recommend for graphics are a Foundation course at Art college, or HND in Computer Graphics, specialising in 3D computer Graphics, then for further qualifications a BA degree in Computer Graphics or a MA Degree in Computer Graphics, (BA is quite heavily programming orientated)

The University we Highly recommend is Bournemouth.

Unfortunately, we can only offer you general advice, so I would suggest looking at the requirements listed for concept artists on our website, which may help you when looking for a suitable course to take.”

Well, I personally think i should get back in contact 5 years on D:

The letter was sent by L.C. Tilston, Personal Manager.

Their HQ is located only an hours drive away, so…. It may bode well for me working there one day

Ohh, and Bournemouth? Wtf is at Bournemouth, i must check it out!

Artist: Yoshitaka Amano – Final Fantasy

Yoshitaka Amano, undoubtedly one of the best fantasy artists in Japan and the world, his work is really inspiring (Also inspired the work of Yoji Shinkawa-MGS Artist) , Amano’s work is a blend of traditional Japanese artwork and a cartoon style.

His work offers amazing colours, with fantastic detailed textures of clothing, and magical scenes that often create part of his work on Final Fantasy game series, which he will have worked on for… 20 years now.

His work is noticeable by the colours and traditional look, but he’s also worked on other things, Like anime, examples are; G-Force, Angels Egg and Tekkaman, and most recently he did some Elektra comics for Marvel. As well as working on Vampire Hunter D, a popular Japanease anime, he did the original artwork for.

Amano currently has an exhibition in Berlin at Michael Janssen Gallery, running until the 29th of February 08.

Make sure you bookmark his site http://www.amanosworld.com/
His Website is partially been updated by the looks of it, mainly the new stuff he’s working on, ceramic medium, which would be really interesting to see, and also, the Final Fantasy Section which could be updated with Artwork from his current project Final Fantasy XIII.

Check the following sites, and carry on scrolling for Media links and pictures.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoshitaka_Amano

Yoshitaka Amano’s Work at Michael Janssen Gallery in Berlin; http://www.galeriemichaeljanssen.de/index.php?/artist/yoshitaka-amano/

These videos of him working in front of a crowd, and the speed he does it shows his confidence at painting, granted he may have painted them a few hundred times before, but still, enjoy

Amano Paints Judge

Amano Paints a Moogle

Amano Paints Sephiroth (FFVII)

Amano’s 1001 nights [Stage6] (Stage6 Divx is great but that site can be under maintenence) or Part 1;

Part 2;

Part3;

A Day With Amano, Day 1

A Day With Amano, Day 2

A Day With Amano, Day 3

And Finally, some images of his work from Final Fantasy IX.

And Final Fantasy X-2.

Gamasutra – Academic Expansion – How Rare Recruits Graduates

On an Article over at Gamasutra, (Thanks Crucifine ) Nick Burton takes an in depth look at the Microsoft Developer Rare, who are UK Based. The Article looks over at Academic Students looking to get into the Industry post graduate, rather than employing people with experience.
(It reminds me I must find a letter that someone from Rare sent me about 6 years ago saying what was a recommended University)

Alot of things have changed in the industry, and its now recognised by Universities to be a course criteria. The Article touches on the courses, and what Rare does when they are looking for New Employee’s.

The interesting and well written Article can be found at the following link:

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/3529/academic_expansion__how_rare_.php

Currently my friend is doing a college course that’s similar to a game based course, its Mixed media and Involves game development, which includes Programming I believe, as well as Movie based work and research.

Is this really an advantage to traditional routes? My friend comments on the course not been very organised, a lot of time is used playing games, there’s story development and uses of film making. Now granted this isn’t a specific route for game development, but what about the things its missing.

I’m doing an Art and Design course, where I use different media such as, paint, textile, photography, ceramic and digital mediums (If interested). I benefit from areas that might be more basic to get into the gaming industry, like Life drawing, which can develop characters, Painting (Landscape and Other) can be used for colour development and level design, Ceramics and 3D development, which can be used to create Models of characters, Vehicles, or a Diorama like the one built for Halo 3. 3D flyable version Available HERE

Video of Diorama been made

Overall in My opinion, the gains from working with Traditional Art is probably the best way of getting into the industry, but for specialist roles, a University course for Gaming specifics like Programming and Development is probably the role you should go for.

Artist: Yoji Shinkawa – Metal Gear Series

Yoji Shinkawa, the artist behind the Metal Gear Solid series, is one of my favorite artists, his artwork is very suggestive as he works with black and white, he leaves your eye to fill in the gaps, alot like my other favorite artist, Frank Miller, who I found out was one of Shinkawa’s influences. Although he’s developed his own style, which can be noticed anywhere.

When he adds colour to his artwork, ( I think its watercolour ) it really gives it a whole new feel and makes it come together in an even more interesting way. He’s a fantastic artist. Check him out at the following links.

http://www.creativeuncut.com/profile_shinkawa.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoji_Shinkawa

Also check these pieces of his work.

Job: DICE – EA/Battlefield Developers

Dice which is an EA company, Based in Sweden are now recruiting, they are looking for a programmer to train up, so if your really interested in getting into the industry as a programmer, this is a great opportunity.

They are also working on a game at the moment that’s a Free-2-play shooter based on their Battlefield titles, using the Vietnam engine, which could mean you don’t need a recent gamer rig to play it.

Anyway, http://www.dice.se/

And click on Work at Dice on the flash screen, and you can apply for the job by sending a CV or contacting the number provided.

A Greeting

Hi internet people, my name is Stuart Herrington and I’m hoping to get into the gaming industry.

This Blog is basically about the gaming industry, games, developers and getting into the industry, as I give my 2 cents on the industry and i will try and find out the best information for people wanting to get into the industry, and hopefully find out information like, what to study, the best courses at university, and what job roles the gaming industry contains.

I’m going to learn alot from you, and everyone around here, and hopefully I will try my best to give information on what Im currently doing to get into the industry and also what you can be doing to get into the industry.

Im currently a college student studying Art and Design, im doing a special course which focuses on getting people into University, this is a great start.

With anything you must know what industry you want to get into, as well as what role you want in that industry.

I will also talk about Developers and what they are doing that’ so good, and  why they are valued as a company.

And other things I will touch on is what kind of things we will have to produce to get heard by the industry and to get noticed.