Artist’s Weapon: Skills and Tools To Master

The gaming industry, a continually evolving creative field, provides many opportunities for artists to follow their passion and build successful careers. Since the gaming industry is constantly expanding, artists need to keep up with the rapidly evolving skills and tools used in the industry.

What Skill Does An Artist Needs?

An artist is responsible for a visual aesthetic that includes color, composition, value, shape, textures, anatomy, and perspective. With the variety of elements that Artists need to create, what are the essentials skills required for an Artist?

• Leadership: An artist is responsible for being able to complete a project, which may be multiple one at a time, with numerous people in a team. Leadership skills must bring out the finest qualities in team members and inspire them to collaborate to accomplish a common goal.
• Communication: As communication goes both ways, an artist must be able to speak their mind and listen. Artists must translate their vision into words and communicate it, not just visuals.
• Teamwork: Teamwork skills are needed because, in game development, an artist will work closely with the team to achieve the goals set at the beginning.
• Problem-solving: Artists will encounter various obstacles during their work. If the issue is not handled by the deadline, it will only worsen. That’s why an artist needs to be a problem solver.
• Creativity: Particularly in game development, an artist must be a creative individual capable of producing innovative ideas for their artwork.
• Time management: Artists need to use time wisely and productively. They also need to manage their time to focus and control the time to complete their tasks. Good time management can increase work productivity.
• Attention to detail: Artists must be able to carry out and finish a task while demonstrating thoughtful thought for all aspects concerned, no matter how minor. This entails efficiently managing time and resources while monitoring and verifying work or information.

What Tools do Artists Utilize?

1. Adobe Photoshop (Raster Illustration)
   Rasterization is a technique with a pixel-by-pixel system. It allows the creation of complex shapes and color blendings, such as creating concept art or 3D texturing.
2. Adobe Illustrator (Vector Illustration)
   Vector is an illustration technique with a data calculation system that is not affected by the number of pixels, such as creating UI assets.
3. Figma and Adobe XD (UI/UX)
   These tools are used to design User Interfaces in the game, such as buttons, pages, head-up displays, and the outcome when it is run by the player/user.
4.  Zbrush and Blender (3D Modelling)
   3D Modelling involves creating three-dimensional points or vertices by vertex objects in 3D space. Zbrush and Blender are famous for making 3D objects because they are easy to use and have a broad scope for making games and cinematic assets.
5. Blender (Rigging)
   Rigging is like giving a “bone” to an object/character, so it is ready to transform as animation.
6. Blender, Rokoko Studio (3D Animation)
   Animation is the phase where the rigged object is moved and posed keyframe by keyframe into a sequence that matches the desired movement in the game. Such as idle, walk, run, jump, attack, and so on.
7. Blender, Adobe Photoshop, Substance Painter, Substance Designer Texturing (Texturing)
   Texturing gives color to 3D objects; the basic principle is similar to raster illustrations
8. Unity Engine, Unreal Engine (Game Engine)
   The final phase is to transfer the finished asset into the game engine to develop the game itself. Again, a specialist game artist must master the game engine’s features and tools to set every visual asset properly.

If you think you can utilize these tools to your advantage and more, head to the link Artist roles and show us what you got!