games

Creating the Art of the Game is a truly welcome book that does a brilliant job of bringing clarity to the issues of artistic process in a complex industry. Matthew Omernick's clear and descriptive writing style, encouraging tone, helpful illustrations and clean layout make the book a pleasure to read and easily digestible.

He covers game art nearly end-to-end - reference collection, modeling theory, texturing, lighting, efficiency techniques, UI and more. The best part about the book though is that it isn't written like a software manual. Although he teaches technique, Omernick concentrates heavily on the artistic thought process, especially its application to game issues. Games are complex interactive systems, and he does an excellent job of highlighting technical considerations and trade-offs that all game artists must deal with sooner or later.

I'm a games software engineer and read the book to get a glimpse of the latest techniques, processes and technologies used by today's
game artists from the artist's point of view. I have to say that Creating the Art of the Game excels at what good instructional books do well - it broadens the mind by giving it new ways to approach problems. It also manages to balance technical specifics with mindset. More than anything, it's an invaluable glimpse into the mind of a successful game artist. I strongly recommended the book for anyone with an interest in the industry.

There have been many books in past years that were about creating 3D art, but none that I know of covered in depth how to make 3D art for video games. This book really fills a void and it is packed with knowledge for anyone who wants to become a video game artist.

For those concerened as to what 3D program this book uses, it does not follow any one program. Rather, it teaches you game principles, techniques, and theories that can be applied to any program, which in my opinion is the strength of this book. Matt teaches you how to think like a game artist and presents you all the things you have to consider to become a successful artist in video games. In addition, the material is presented in a manner that is easy to read and really takes you through the process.

The topics covered in this book are: Preparing to Create, Modeling Theory (very important!), Intoduction to Texturing, Advanced Texturing, Applying Textures, Advanced Modeling, Lighting Principles, In-Game Lighting, Effects, Tips and Tricks, User Interface and Creation, and Wrapping it up.

So, what makes him qualified to teach this material? Not only does he have 7 years in the industry, but 4 - 5 years actually teaching college level 3D and whose credits include the highly praised Medal of Honor series. This is an excellent read and is a bargain for the price. We all know his work, now learn how he does it! 5 stars!

Creating the Art of the Game is an excellent place to begin for any artist interested in entering the video game industry. It hits all of the basics of modeling, texturing, lighting, vertex coloring and so on. Being an artist in the videogame industry for almost fourteen years I wish there was a volume like this when I was starting out. Well actually there weren't any actual 3D games being produced when I started out, but be that as it may, Creating the Art of the Game will give those entry-level and intermediate game artists who read and take to heart the lessons in this book a good head start above their peers. Advanced artists may also find sections of this book to be very valuable. I personally found Matt's tips and tricks interesting. Every artist has their toolbox of tricks and shortcuts and its fun to look into another artist's toolbox and find that there are different ways to achieve the same result.
I'm glad that Matt mentioned right off to the budding talents out there that it is their artistic talent that makes them marketable not the knowledge of a particular tool. It is through the development of their observational skills and their ability to translate that information into whatever medium they are using that is the utmost importance. I can take a talented artist and within weeks I can teach them to be proficient with any tool. I can't take a technician of a tool and teach them to be an artist in that same amount of time.
I found the information in this book to be very well thought out and presented in a clear and understandable format. We, in the industry, can speak in acronyms and shortcuts that are unintelligible to the average person. Matt has explained what a lot of the terms we use mean. He has deftly presented the in and out of the production of game art and I highly recommend this book most of all to entry level and intermediate artists with less than five years under their belt. For those advanced artists out there I think this book would be valuable in affirming your processes and possibly you may be exposed to something that your work experience may not yet have taught you. Matt is an excellent artist and a very skilled teacher and you would do well to learn from a person who will lead you on the right path to your goals of working as an artist in the video game industry.