Breathing life into videogames through art

WORKS OF ART: Some of the artwork on display include concept art used in Assassin's Creed IV.

GAME artists are tasked with creating bold, vibrant and exciting new worlds for players to explore.  

Many of the environments in blockbuster games including Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag began life as a piece of concept art drawn by an artist. 

“Art plays a huge role in the making of videogames — with it we build vast universes and interesting characters that inhabit our games,” said Olivier de Rotalier, managing director of Ubisoft Singapore. 

 

He said this after officiating the Art in Video Games exhibition showcasing 40 pieces of concept art from Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag and Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Online drawn by Ubisoft Singapore studio’s artists, which will run until March 19 at The One Academy Gallery.  

“Videogames are a very visually driven medium so it is important that the universes are beautifully imagined and engaging for gamers to immerse themselves in,” said de Rotalier. 

Par for the course 

Blending art and videogames is no easy task, even more so when you are tasked with helming the art direction of one of Ubisoft’s biggest franchises. But to art director Mufizal Mokhtar, it is all in a day’s work. 

“When you develop a game, there are always three important people in any project — the creative director, lead game designer and art director. 

“Together they form the three main pillars of the game,” said the 38-year-old Malaysian who is also an 11-year veteran of the videogame industry. 

A self-taught artist, Mufizal joined Ubisoft Singapore as a senior artist and has worked on many Assassin’s Creed games, beginning from the second game in the series back in 2009. 

ARTISTIC: Some of the concept art shown include this storyboard of Assassin's Creed IV's E3 trailer, which was shown last year.

“My mother used to tell me that playing videogames won’t put food on the table, but I am glad that I have proved her wrong in that regard,” said Mufizal with a smile. 

As an art director, it is his job to keep the game direction on course. 

“It is all about inspiring the programmers, animators and designers to keep them on the same unified vision for the game,” he said. 

Working closely with Assassin’s Creed IV’s primary art director Raphael Lacoste — who is based in Montreal, Canada — the pair developed the vision of the latest game together. 

“To understand the subject and history behind the game, we traveled to the Caribbean to capture the feeling of the location and transform it into the digital form that players see in the game,” said Mufizal. 

The One Academy principal and managing director Tatsun Hoi said, “The exhibit is a great opportunity for the Malaysian public to get an insight into the artistic process that guides the creation of a blockbuster videogame title.” 

“Through this exhibit we hope to inspire young Malaysian students that they too can produce such amazing artworks and contribute to the growing design industry,” said Hoi.