Study Game Art And Design For a Lucrative Career as a Game Designer

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Art of Game Design

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The game art design business is very lucrative with game artists highly sought after by those in the gaming industry.

But because qualified graduates of game art and design are the first to be considered for jobs, it’s good to consider taking game art courses to obtain a diploma or a degree if you want to be a part of this wonderful industry.

Many young boys who are very passionate about video games, spending any available spare time playing games, including a quick game at school or work, can be said to be partially eligible to pursue a career in game design.

Though this passion may seem inconsequential at first, it will subtly make them wonder about the intricacies of video games and how they are made. If encouraged positively to make a career out of this same passion, it will provide kids or young boys an edge over others if they finally decide to pursue a course in game art and design.

What You Learn at Game Design Schools

A game art course focuses on the use of video game interactive software that is required for game art design (this knowledge can also be used by the military, health care, television, education sectors, etc..) and there are a number of online and on campus colleges that offer this exciting course where you will be able to acquire a 'real world' applied knowledge through a 'hands on' teaching approach.

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At game art schools, you will be taught the conceptual knowledge you need to be productive and successful in your new career.

Game design and development is also about decision making. You will learn how to think critically and logically because game design is also about making decisions, and decisions must be made with confidence.

You will learn amongst other game design courses:

Architectural skills, because you may be designing buildings in relationship to cities worlds and understanding the relationship between space and people.
Animation skills, using special applications such as Photoshop, Painter, Illustrator, etc...
Anthropology, where you "study" your audience (consumers), try to imagine what they desire, and design your game to satisfy that desire.
Creative and technical writing
Engineering
Visual Arts
Music and Sound Design

To be a success in the art and design industry there are a great number of skills required and any one or a couple of these will be useful and beneficial for the video game design professional.

Job Opportunities Abound In the Game Art Design Industry

Qualifying as a game art designer opens you up to a great number of job opportunities with a vast range of specific job categories which has developed over a period of time. The available choices are presently almost endless.

Because of this wide range of diverse niches, the game industry has each of the categories associated with different styles, techniques and areas within the game development process. These categories include:

Concept Art
2D and 3D Animation
2D Texture Art

Concept Art

Concept art is the illustrative creations and designs of game characters we are all familiar with. These characters must be designed or created to fit within the storyline, theme and the general mood of the games.

A concept artists creations starts with pencil sketches on paper. This is followed by scanning the sketches onto a computer where software such as Photoshop are used to perfect fine line works, add details, hues & colours, textures, etc.. Once the game concept, design and artwork have been completed, it is passed on to the 3D model builder for animation works.

2D and 3D Animation

2D and 3D Animator's job is to provide the character contents and game levels. This is mainly a job of a 3D artist and involves the animation of the characters and scenic creations in game designs.

As a game art student, you may wish to specialise in this interesting, very lucrative, and highly sought out category, and even find exciting job opportunities in other related art and design industries too.

2D Texture Artist

The job of a 2D texture artist is to provide all the required elements of texture required for a game design. Again, the use of Photoshop, Painter, Deep Paint and Vector Based applications, like Illustrator, are required for 2D texturing properties. 2D texture art also includes lighting effects and special effects.