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

Rockstar前设计总监给游戏美术设计师的一些建议

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

Ian Bowden是一位杰出的电玩游戏美术设计，他的作品具有广泛知名度。

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《侠盗猎车手》开发公司Roackstar Games工作。他在Rockstar Leeds (利兹工作室)当了10年的美术总监。最近，他离开了那个许多人向往的职位，投身到Gameduell，位于柏林的一家移动与社交游戏公司，其知名的产品有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.”

有很多人想去参观Bowden的办公室，“人们可能认为，我的办公室就像Willy Wonka的糖果工厂一样，也造了一条全是游戏的河。” Bowden笑谈到自己在Rockstar工作的时候， “其实就是一份工作。虽然我们有很多时间玩游戏，很享受，但这就是我们的工作，人们可能不会理解。”

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在游戏行业中工作20年了（他身上Space Invaders的刺青就是为了纪念），最初他并没有计划在约克夏工作一辈子，充其量就是两三年，然后搬去加利福尼亚，他会在那儿得到一份工作。但是在1997年，他与别人一同创立了游戏工作室Mobius Entertainment，最终成为大家熟知的Rockstar利兹工作室。从此扎根于此，延续职业生涯。

"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.”

“在我职业生涯的第20个年头，我们完成了GTA V，这是一项非常大的工作”，他说，“来自纽约，爱丁堡，以及伦敦Rockstar工作室的同事们，给予我们很大支持。我对这个结果非常满意并感到骄傲，也能毫无遗憾的前往下个工作目标。”

Advice for budding and experienced artists

给美术新人和老人的一点建议

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虽然从一个3A游戏公司转投一家小公司，未来参与的项目也不会非常庞大，但美术终归还是美术。他总结了自己的经验，那就是，关注潮流，但不要偏离初衷。

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

美术应该如何在商业环境中保持创作水准？

"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.”

“你可以跟着别人做。当一个大作出来后，其他人都会跟着它的感觉做。” Bowden说到，“就像电影里一样，一个小trope每部电影都用。都是为了确保经济利益。”

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.

他不仅关注游戏视觉美术，并且关注电影，艺术，广告等多方面。他关注新的logo处理技术，流行的新色彩，新的图像处理手法。Bowden曾多次提到，要用美术的眼光，时刻关注身边的细节。将吸收来的元素运用于自己的创作中，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.”

“谁也不想有意的去抄袭”，他说到。“抄袭做不出好的美术作品，也不能让你的作品比别人的出色。即便你自己不想去和别人比，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.”

“这是一个时刻在改变和发展的世界，” 他说到。“我们不能只是在关注别人都在做什么，并且盲目跟从。“

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.

电玩游戏的美术设计师从游戏外得到很多灵感，同时也对其他多媒体有所启发。他说，video games的独特性确立了它所具有的文化意义。即使移植到mobile games，也要不牺牲视觉质量。

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. "

视觉质量始终要保持一个水准，无论是在大屏幕还是小屏幕上。“你需要在细节处理上投入同样的精力，追求同样的效果，” 他说到。

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

寻找什么是最适合游戏和项目的

"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.

“在小屏幕上开发并不意味着你可以牺牲质量。很多游戏成功在高视觉质量上，也有很多失败在这上面。” 他说到。

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.

“视觉质量”并不意味终极实现或者很多多边形。比如，Flappy Bird的视觉很简单，却很吸引人。“这样的图像很能勾起想像力。” Bowden说到。

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的视觉感观有时会超出游戏本身的真实性。每个游戏都希望在商城首页上争得一席之地，吸引人们的目光，一个小小的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.”

“如果你是做一个用来赚钱的游戏，你肯定投入了最多的人力，” Bowden说到。“所以说，要做一个非常有吸引力的icon，第一印象非常重要。你需要非常仔细，因为你决不能搞砸。”

Carry a sketchbook

拿一个草稿本

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

做一个观察者，关注身边的事物，勤奋的练习你的绘画水平，Bowden说到。

"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

“我走到哪儿都会拿着草稿本，” 他说到。“我记录各种小细节和信息，画一些小的草图，这些元素都是视觉记录。当看着这些细节时，你的脑子里会浮现出很多可能用到的地方——管子上的人脸，裂开的人行道地砖，树叶，纤维折叠物。它能帮助你专注于光和阴影，构成，容量，从2D到3D。在Rockstar工作，以及参与GTA项目，教会了我：细节决定成败。产品卖的是细节。

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.”

拓展视野的最好办法是尝试新东西，Bowden说到。“如果你只限于用一种方法做事，那么你永远只能做这些。

Always be humble

保持谦逊

"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.”

“记住，永远会有人比你更出色，” 他强调。“你总会从听论坛讲演，其他游戏中或者其他媒介中，学会新的东西。保持一颗开放的心态。”