It’s important to know the different roles in production to better understand how to help them.

There are many roles within art as people choose to specialize within this field. Here are some types of artists that one may come across during their time as a producer.

• Weapons Artist
• Level Artist
• Environment Artist
• Concept Artist
• UI Artist (User Interface)
• Art Director
• Character Artist
• Technical Artist (The link between artists and programmers)
• F/X artist (Effects)

Note: An artist may fill multiple roles or any of these roles may contain multiple people

At first I was surprised by the number of artists that exist within the game production process, and how in depth each of these subdisciplines can get.

Understanding artists can be very important in not only assisting them, but also in enabling them. i was very excited to look into this role first as a dancer who has worked with many artists over the years.

Artists are lovers of their craft, they are pouring their own heart and soul into the work they provide and thus a producer should be extremely respectful of their work when addressing them.

Artists can get very involved in their work as well and it is important to respect their space and allow them full creativity to work (Within guidelines and deadlines).

Artists also need people to go to bat for them when it comes to technological issues, especially if those issues turn into blockers.

For example: If a delay in software is taking 10 minutes away from each member of a team of 10 artists every day. That would total up to around 8 hours every week which is more about a day of lost productivity.

The producer must help find the resources and people to solve those issue.

Learning to recognize and understand an artist’s worth resonates very close with me. Giving artists the respect of not treating their art as another “product” can go a long way in helping your relationship with them.

Artists can be overlooked in the grand scheme of things but they are the ones who help the game design come to life. They create the visual wonders that other teams get to build on and work with for the rest of the production process. This makes an artist’s the first domino in a line of the many roles in production. If they fall, the entire production line will fall down with it.