Tips for game artists, from Rockstar's former art director

Rockstar前設計總監給游戲美術設計師的一些建議

Ian Bowden is one of the most experienced artists in video game development, and his work is among the most influential.

Ian Bowden是一位杰出的電玩游戲美術設計，他的作品具有廣泛知名度。

Bowden (self-portrait above) is formerly of Grand Theft Auto developer Rockstar Games, where he was art director for almost 10 years, based out of Rockstar Leeds. Recently, he left that position -- considered a dream job by many -- to head to Gameduell, a mobile and social game company based in Berlin, Germany known for games such as Little Diggers and Maya Pyramid.

Bowden之前在《俠盜獵車手》開發公司Roackstar Games工作。他在Rockstar Leeds (利茲工作室)當了10年的美術總監。最近，他離開了那個許多人向往的職位，投身到Gameduell，位于柏林的一家移動與社交游戲公司，其知名的產品有Little Diggers和Maya Pyramid。

"People would say to me, 'can we come and see your office?,'" says Bowden about his time at Rockstar. "I think they really expected it to be like Willy Wonka's factory, with games flowing in a big river," he laughs. "But it's not like that -- it's a job. … Sure, we'd enjoy ourselves, we'd play, but most of the time, it was a job, and people don't get that.”

有很多人想去參觀Bowden的辦公室，“人們可能認為，我的辦公室就像Willy Wonka的糖果工廠一樣，也造了一條全是游戲的河。” Bowden笑談到自己在Rockstar工作的時候， “其實就是一份工作。雖然我們有很多時間玩游戲，很享受，但這就是我們的工作，人們可能不會理解。”

Bowden, who has been in games for 20 years (he has a Space Invaders tattoo to commemorate that milestone), wasn't planning on staying in Yorkshire for nearly his entire career -- maybe two or three years, then move to California, where he had a job offer. But in 1997, he had co-founded a game studio, Mobius Entertainment, which was destined to be acquired and become Rockstar Leeds. It was there he stayed all this time, working on one of the biggest franchises in games.

Bowden在游戲行業中工作20年了（他身上Space Invaders的刺青就是為了紀念），最初他并沒有計劃在約克夏工作一輩子，充其量就是兩三年，然后搬去加利福尼亞，他會在那兒得到一份工作。但是在1997年，他與別人一同創立了游戲工作室Mobius Entertainment，最終成為大家熟知的Rockstar利茲工作室。從此扎根于此，延續職業生涯。

"At this point in my career, I had just come to that 20-year point, we'd just completed GTA V, and that was a big, big job," he says. "The guys at Rockstar, New York, Edinburgh, and London were incredibly supportive. They made my transition to Berlin a real joy. … I have incredible pride in what we did.”

“在我職業生涯的第20個年頭，我們完成了GTA V，這是一項非常大的工作”，他說，“來自紐約，愛丁堡，以及倫敦Rockstar工作室的同事們，給予我們很大支持。我對這個結果非常滿意并感到驕傲，也能毫無遺憾的前往下個工作目標。”

Advice for budding and experienced artists

給美術新人和老人的一點建議

Bowden might be moving from the biggest triple-A franchises over to games of a smaller variety at Gameduell, but even though there's a difference in project scale aside, an artist is an artist. He offers a few pointers that have worked for him. Watch the trends, but be original.

Bowden雖然從一個3A游戲公司轉投一家小公司，未來參與的項目也不會非常龐大，但美術終歸還是美術。他總結了自己的經驗，那就是，關注潮流，但不要偏離初衷。

So how does an artist operate in a commercial environment such as the video game market?

美術應該如何在商業環境中保持創作水準？

"You could follow what everyone else is doing, and you see this in video games -- a big video game comes out, and everyone wants that 'look,'" says Bowden. "It's very much the same in movies -- a little trope becomes flavor of the month. That's the way to make art that is just simply commercial.”

“你可以跟著別人做。當一個大作出來后，其他人都會跟著它的感覺做。” Bowden說到，“就像電影里一樣，一個小trope每部電影都用。都是為了確保經濟利益。”

He doesn’t just follow visual art of video games, but also movies, art, advertising, and beyond. He keeps an eye on new logo treatments, new colors that are becoming fashionable, new ways to treat images. Bowden emphasizes repeatedly to keep a trained, artist's eye on details, all around you. Absorb the details, use them as reference for your own style.

他不僅關注游戲視覺美術，并且關注電影，藝術，廣告等多方面。他關注新的logo處理技術，流行的新色彩，新的圖像處理手法。Bowden曾多次提到，要用美術的眼光，時刻關注身邊的細節。將吸收來的元素運用于自己的創作中，形成自己的style。

"You don't want to copy," he says. "[That's] not the way to make good art, it's not the way to make anything different or unusual and better than anyone else's. You hold these [influences] in the back of your mind, but you steep yourself in them.”

“誰也不想有意的去抄襲”，他說到。“抄襲做不出好的美術作品，也不能讓你的作品比別人的出色。即便你自己不想去和別人比，但身不由己。”

"The whole world is changing, the whole world is developing," he says. "We have to look at that rather than what other people are doing, and slavishly copying that.”

“這是一個時刻在改變和發展的世界，” 他說到。“我們不能只是在關注別人都在做什么，并且盲目跟從。“

As video game artists have drawn inspiration from outside of video games, video games have been informing and inspiring other media. Through uniqueness, video games can become more culturally relevant, he says. Don't skimp on visual quality on mobile games.

電玩游戲的美術設計師從游戲外得到很多靈感，同時也對其他多媒體有所啟發。他說，video games的獨特性確立了它所具有的文化意義。即使移植到mobile games，也要不犧牲視覺質量。

The quality needs to stay at the same high level even though they're for a smaller screen. "You need to approach it with the same amount of attention to detail, the same quest for perfection," he says. "

視覺質量始終要保持一個水準，無論是在大屏幕還是小屏幕上。“你需要在細節處理上投入同樣的精力，追求同樣的效果，” 他說到。

Search for what's perfect for the game itself, perfect for the project

尋找什么是最適合游戲和項目的

"Small screens don't mean you can skimp on the quality. A lot of these games live and die on the visual quality," he says.

“在小屏幕上開發并不意味著你可以犧牲質量。很多游戲成功在高視覺質量上，也有很多失敗在這上面。” 他說到。

And "visual quality" doesn't mean ultra-realism or lots of polygons. For example, Flappy Bird's visuals are simplistic, but there is a charm to it. "Graphics like that can really hook the imagination," says Bowden.

“視覺質量”并不意味終極實現或者很多多邊形。比如，Flappy Bird的視覺很簡單，卻很吸引人。“這樣的圖像很能勾起想像力。” Bowden說到。

A mobile game's visual appeal goes even outside of actual in-game assets. With so many apps and games vying for attention on mobile storefronts, even that tiny app store icon has to be as perfectly appealing as possible to the average app store screen-swiper.

mobile game的視覺感觀有時會超出游戲本身的真實性。每個游戲都希望在商城首頁上爭得一席之地，吸引人們的目光，一個小小的icon要做得非常有吸引力。

"If you're going to make money at this game, you've got to maximize the amount of people who come in," says Bowden. "And that's why making the most attractive little icon, and most attractive first experience is so important. You need detail -- you can't just bang this stuff out.”

“如果你是做一個用來賺錢的游戲，你肯定投入了最多的人力，” Bowden說到。“所以說，要做一個非常有吸引力的icon，第一印象非常重要。你需要非常仔細，因為你決不能搞砸。”

Carry a sketchbook

拿一個草稿本

Always be ready to examine your surroundings -- be observant, and be diligent in practicing your art, says Bowden.

做一個觀察者，關注身邊的事物，勤奮的練習你的繪畫水平，Bowden說到。

"I carry a sketchbook wherever I go," he explains. "I jot down little details, notes, small drawings, I keep this as a visual record. Looking at details, it fills your mind with a reference library of images and details -- peoples' faces on the tube, cracked pavement slabs, leaves, fabric folds. It helps you concentrate on light and shadow, form, volumes. These things cross over from 2D to 3D art. Rockstar and working on GTA taught me this: It's all about selling the thing on the detail."

Experiment with new ideas

“我走到哪兒都會拿著草稿本，” 他說到。“我記錄各種小細節和信息，畫一些小的草圖，這些元素都是視覺記錄。當看著這些細節時，你的腦子里會浮現出很多可能用到的地方——管子上的人臉，裂開的人行道地磚，樹葉，纖維折疊物。它能幫助你專注于光和陰影，構成，容量，從2D到3D。在Rockstar工作，以及參與GTA項目，教會了我：細節決定成敗。產品賣的是細節。

The best way to expand your horizons is to try new things, says Bowden. "If you get caught up in one way of doing things, that's all you'll be doing. You'll never get out of that rut. You need to experiment, you need to look for solutions -- usually the simplest solution is the way forward. But look around, experiment, because there may be something better.”

拓展視野的最好辦法是嘗試新東西，Bowden說到。“如果你只限于用一種方法做事，那么你永遠只能做這些。

Always be humble

保持謙遜

"Be open to the idea that there's always someone better than you," he adds. "You can always learn from something -- whether it's some guy on a forum, or from another game or other medium, or if you just look out the window at the world.”

“記住，永遠會有人比你更出色，” 他強調。“你總會從聽論壇講演，其他游戲中或者其他媒介中，學會新的東西。保持一顆開放的心態。”