An origin story of the UI artist in video games. Simon and Hayley will discuss their different career paths into the games industry and how the impact, responsibilities and perceptions of the role have evolved over time. Both will explore practical examples of UI problems they from previous projects, including Batman: Arkham Knight. The historical context will be established and then illustrated with personal experiences, professional tips and amusing anecdotes. From creating simple interfaces to over-the-top animated compositions, assisting in the creation of in-house UI tools, comprehending coder art and serviette designs, and seeing UX become a discipline in its own right. 

Takeaway:

• Discover how the role of the UI artist has changed over the yearsDiscover the different career paths available to UI Artists
• Professional Tips for producing problem solving art work

Taking a look at our character and VFX pipelines, and how limited resources and a powerful subject matter informed some of the technical and artistic choices on Hellblade. We’ll discuss key lessons learned throughout the process, the successes and the failures, and share our thoughts on what it means for future art pipelines at Ninja Theory.

Takeaway:

• You have to start somewhere...
• Understanding what to solve in-house and when to bring specialist partners on board.
• Cutting your coat according to your cloth; understanding resource constraints and making smart choices.
• Constraints can make you more creative
• Make space for an explorative creative process, but keep in mind the need to finish.

Art Director, Kieran Crimmins and Lead Artist, Christian Bense from Criterion games discuss creating an interactable AAA X-wing Cockpit for PSVR and working with Lucas Film.

This masterclass is produced in partnership with BAFTA Games  

More and more we are seeing really great foliage in games. Not only does it look good, but it runs efficiently in the engine as well. In this presentation we’ll be identifying and analysing foliage in current generation games and then diving into practical advice and implementation, working within technology and time constraints, and finally what we can do to push the quality to be as good as it can be.

Takeaway

• Analysing foliage in the game world
• Identifying workflow techniques
• Working within technology constraints

The session outlines both the elements & principals of art, their use in traditional visual composition and the subsequent practical application of this to the medium of video games art. Delegates to will gain an understanding of the fundamentals of composition & the various techniques + methodologies employed in traditional art.
 

Drawing from his own experiences as a colour-blind gamer and developer, Douglas goes into detail about how the colour blind see the world, and how this can make some video games very difficult to play. He also addresses the issue of why developing for colour blindness is so difficult, with anecdotal examples from the development of Alien: Isolation and Halo Wars 2, and why some colour-blind solutions can still fail to make the game more playable. The aim of this talk is to deepen delegates understanding of exactly what colour blindness does to a gamer’s experience and expose them to some practices and solutions that can help make their games more accessible to the colour blind.

The Physically Based revolution has been around for a while now. Even though you have adopted PBR successfully, you might still have many unanswered questions about how it works. Why doesn't the Substance Designer preview viewport match the results in engine? While we're on that topic, why no viewport in any program matches another software's viewport exactly, ever? What are Linear and Gamma precisely, and why do we bother with them? What practices which were absolutely common before Physically Based workflows arised, are going to break the realism of your materials in subtle ways? This talk has (most of) the answers to these, and many other questions you might have about Physically Based Rendering. Claudia Doppioslash guides you through the maze of Physically Based workflows, showing you how the physics of light impacts your workflows in practice. And including only sporadic references to mind-bending physics.

Takeaway

• What common (old) practices break Physically Based workflows
• Why no preview viewport actually perfectly matches another
• Hone your eyes so you'll become able to recognise different lighting models

Although art is an incredibly rewarding creative role, sometimes it can be repetitive, tedious and painful. Using Unreal Engine's blueprint, learn how to create a range of tools that can rapidly improve production time for environments and characters.

Takeaway

• Learn how Unreal Engine's Blueprint can be used to easily create simple but powerful tools for artists.