Week 7- Art Directors

Art Directors are the people responsible for all the decisions to do with the visual style of a game or other medium. In an article on Gamasutra, the Art Director Phillip Bossant describes a day in his life. Starting as early as 6:00 AM, not getting home until 8:30 PM and continuing work at home seems common and he even comments that some nights he may stay at work. His day consists of many tasks but mainly he seems to arrange how the people are working together: meetings to guide and check up on different sections of the teams happen throughout the day.

Art Directors work towards creating the feel and look of a game. They make sure that a consistant style is present within the game and that each Artist understands and practices this. It seems that being an Art Director means that you have to rely on a lot of people and that there is a considerable amount of trust involved. Phillip Bossant comments "We try to play to each individual's strength" when refering to his team. Other skills required seem to be patience, determination and a passion for what is trying to be achieved.
When creating a game, a "pipeline" is planned to utilise all the time available and the Art director manages this and makes sure that everyone is on schedule. In an interview with the BBC News, the team that worked on Ghost Rider explained their roles. The Art Director explained that he headed up preproduction and developing a lot of concept sketches. He was responsible for working on the visual style. He worked alongside the Lead Designer who took responsibility for the visual style further down the line when production had started. The Lead Designer and Art Director are both answerable to the Game Director.