Art_Bible

“I am Kevin Muñoz, student of the Bachelor’s Degree in Video Games by UPC at CITM. This content is generated for the second year’s subject Project 2, under supervision of lecturer Ricard Pillosu.”

What is an “Art Bible”

Also called “Style Guide” is a document that contains the color schemes, the style, the interface, the process of creating the assets … In short, a document that explains the visuals and how they will be produced.

The document usually begins with an introduction page where in a paragraph you summarize what is going to be explained in the rest of the pages. You will talk about the style of art, the proportion of characters, the scenarios …

Image Source

Basically it contains a list of the important points necessary to keep in mind when you are creating the art of the game in order to be consistent throughout the production. It has to contain the differentiating aspects of the game if it has them. For example: heads twice as big as normal or a low poly stage with lots of lighting, trees made with basic shapes … You want artists to understand the complete direction of the visual.

What is it for

Talk about how the game will look

Maintains consistency during development

Help the art team understand the direction of art

Explain how and why stylistic decisions are made

Help new members join

Help in marketing

What must be considered

What does a new member need to know in the team to contribute to the project?

Who is the target?

What does an investor need to know to get an idea of the direction art takes?

How can I make all artists understand art so that they work in the same style?

Will it be used?

A good question to generate the Art Bible is “What should each member of my team know to contribute to the project?” You can start writing the Art Bible and generate a 25 - 30 page document with a lot of information in which you will have dedicated a lot of time but your team will not be really using the content. It is better to spend some time thinking about what is really what you need to know.

You have to think about who is going to read the document. It may only be focused on junior artists and you have to think about your level of understanding, perhaps it is convenient to explain through very explicit images, while for another target with putting a text naming a reference could be enough. It is also important to take into account the language, you can work with people from many countries and not all have the same understanding of the language, so you should use an easily understandable language or explain with references.

When is the moment to make it?

Normally this document is generated shortly after the GDD and before starting the production of assets.

It is important to do it before starting the production of assets because we will save unnecessary assets, wasted effort and we will gain synchronization of the team in the development of assets. What supposes a more comfortable and fluid work and above all reduction of costs.

Who makes it

The Art Bible is usually created by the studio’s art director, who has more experience thinking about geometry, art that works, new styles that can work … and therefore clearly understands how the game is supposed to be visually.

Many times you may not have someone specialized in art that takes care of the Art Bible. In small Indie studies that are starting, for example you that you can meet a few programmers, how can you solve this? You are ambitious, you want to do a good job and you plan to hire an artist during the production, but you want to show him how you want your game to be visually and you need an artible. In this case you can make an artible with concept art, photographs, diagrams …

But you have to do it. Time is valuable and you can not risk making thousands of assets and when you’re done and you’re doing it, realize that something does not fit and they do not work together.

A good procedure is to make a few assets, mount them in the engine and see if they work or if something should be changed. Especially if you do not have an experienced art director.

Why is Art Bible so important?

Cohesion

New members

Let’s put the following situation: We have 6 months of production and a new art team comes in and we have to tell them how the rest of the art team works, how they should create the art of the game… If you do not want to explain them every day, it’s better to have a good Art Bible

Financing

The artible is also important when looking for financing. A publisher or investor can get an idea of what the game will look like. If he sees in which way the art that is proposed goes, he can finish deciding whether to invest or not.

Commonly defined in Art Bibles with professional examples:

Art Style

Is it going to be a world of pirates with cartoon aesthetics or a world outside our fantasy world with realistic aesthetics? What proportions will the characters have? Architecture and objects proportions? At what time? What style of graphics? outline? flat style? sleeve?

Character Art

What we are looking for is to create a “template” A basic structure from which the rest of the characters can start working on it. There may be different for adults, children … But they must maintain a relationship so that everything looks like the same world The template does not have to be as literal as this one, rather we look for the rules that will be followed so that the characters have cohesion.

Level of Detail

It is clear what is the level of detail But here, in addition to deciding the level of detail, we must decide WHAT will have detail and what will not (architecture, characters) We also decide if they will have detail always or only in cinematic if we use technology to add or remove detail In Pokemon the detail of the landscape is what you need. Simple and colorful In games like Tomb raider The level of detail decreases as you move away to avoid memory overload

Camera

In a narrative or strategy environment a static camera can help to accompany the story while in an action game the camera animations improve the immersion. We will decide: Position of the camera, Where is the horizon, Transitions, Effects, Camera changes in narrative …

Color Palette

In addition to the color combinations are colorful, animated, realistic … it is important that all colors maintain a relationship between them.

For this it is convenient to work on a color palette.

There are several websites to generate very good color palettes.

Atmosphere / Environment

To define an atmosphere you have to be very clear on sunny days, such as the rains, how the nights are or if it is always daytime. It’s summer? it is winter?

User Interface

You have to find a UI that is understandable to the user without saturating it. Hardcore WOW players will be used to saturated interfaces, but new players will not know where to start looking. It is convenient to use the UI with knowledge and with an aspect that enhances immersion. At this point we will look for references or sketch possible aspects of the UI, such as menus, buttons, texts …

Technical Guidelines

Here the work methodology is decided. How the images will be exported, in what format, in what composition What programs will be used What nomenclature will be used It is important to follow the nomenclature