The art pipeline is the process of creating and implementing art for a particular project, most commonly associated with the creative process for developing
video games
Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device to gener ...
. In an era of high-profile video games, wherein the creative energy of the teams and the budgets for projects surpass even some
Hollywood
Hollywood usually refers to:
* Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California
* Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States
Hollywood may also refer to:
Places United States
* Hollywood District (disambiguation)
* Hollywood, ...
blockbusters, graphics are ever-improving and an increasingly important selling point.
Video Game developers
A video game developer is a broad term for a software developer specializing in video game development – the process and related disciplines of creating video games. A game developer can range from one person who undertakes all tasks to a large ...
employ extensive teams of
artists
An artist is a person engaged in an activity related to creating art, practicing the arts, or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse refers to a practitioner in the visual arts only. However, the ...
to carry a project's artistic goals through from the conceptual stage to the final release. A fully realized game asset, whether it is a
character
Character or Characters may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Literature
* ''Character'' (novel), a 1936 Dutch novel by Ferdinand Bordewijk
* ''Characters'' (Theophrastus), a classical Greek set of character sketches attributed to The ...
, background, building, object, or
animation
Animation is a method by which image, still figures are manipulated to appear as Motion picture, moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent cel, celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited ...
, is created in a deliberate process with different artists working on and contributing separate aspects in a step by step process to the final product. To facilitate this process, a number of
software
Software is a set of computer programs and associated documentation and data. This is in contrast to hardware, from which the system is built and which actually performs the work.
At the lowest programming level, executable code consists ...
programs are marketed to developers as flexible tools for productively streamlining the transformation of elements created within a program to a fully realized game asset. These highly customizable programs allow users to apply
plug-ins or add-ons to tailor the interactions each
program
Program, programme, programmer, or programming may refer to:
Business and management
* Program management, the process of managing several related projects
* Time management
* Program, a part of planning
Arts and entertainment Audio
* Progra ...
will have with one another as an element moves along the
pipeline
Pipeline may refer to:
Electronics, computers and computing
* Pipeline (computing), a chain of data-processing stages or a CPU optimization found on
** Instruction pipelining, a technique for implementing instruction-level parallelism within a s ...
from
concept
Concepts are defined as abstract ideas. They are understood to be the fundamental building blocks of the concept behind principles, thoughts and beliefs.
They play an important role in all aspects of cognition. As such, concepts are studied by s ...
to completion.
15 MAR 2006 THE GAME PRODUCTION PIPELINE: CONCEPT TO COMPLETION
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Art pipeline is basically the “production line” of video game development. It is used to describe the streamlined process of development and production. It is broken down into four major categories, each with their own very specific set of steps.
The phases are concept, design, pre-production, and post production.
Concept is the basic idea of the game to be made, be it an original game or an addition to a pre-existing franchise. This is where developers do the brainstorming. This is also the point where an idea of varying levels of completeness can be pitched to the game developers in question.
Design is the stage where the look, flow, story, etc. is created. storyline, story boards, dialogue, character design, plot, and the like. This is where a coherent game is created. Characters are designed, developed, and completed, storyline is dictated with a distinct plot flow and (where the game warrants such treatment) CG Cut away scenes are conceptualized for the forward momentum of the game’s story. Here is where the game’s overall appearance is dictated, such as how will the levels look, what kind of environment are we building, etc. Costumes, equipment, game play, major level goals, etc. are all decided here. In essence, this is where the “meat” of the game is put together.
Pre-production is the actual building of the game. Artists, programmers, technicians, producers, and directors are all involved in this stage. This is the stage that has brought rise to the new designation of “technical artists.” Artists and programmers work closely together to make sure the vision comes fully to life. Deviations from the original conceptualization are common here as the technical and artistic goals are found ineffective, or impossible. This is where the actual games take shape This is where the “alpha” copy is made. During this stage the developers work closely with marketing specialists so they can start building an advertising campaign.
Post-production is the initial testing of the game wherein game testers are paid to play through the alpha and spot obvious problem areas and game glitches. The details are ironed out here and 3rd party critiques are taken into account. They find what needs fixing, report the bugs, and then the designers and producers fix them. When the initial testing and correcting is done, we get the beta copy. This is the copy that often is produced in small quantities for specially selected, non-industry individuals can play through and further investigate glitches and bugs, as well as giving the producers an idea of the overall effectiveness of the game. After all this is done we finally get the final, shippable copy that makes its way to stores for the enjoyment of the masses.
References
External links
Simple Animation Pipeline
{{Animation
Animation techniques