Art Direction Bootcamp: How Being Different Makes All The Difference

who how being different makes all the difference is my talk my name is Amanda Eenie I'm the a/v lecture or Ninja Theory today I going to talk about the visual process we I like to do to doing ninja did me I I want to put myself in a in a in a slide just to explain where I come from I come from Italy I've been 11 years in ninja I was a concept artist first and become senior and then visual director you can see my inspiration of reference over there like a love comics from the 80s 90s I come from that you can see there are no games there are no games because before join in July never play a game and I never actually I was no interested of course

now I love it because it's my work and because I'll always but I was totally going through to another direction I was a painter went to something totally totally different and they saw the ninja Lee so this could bring something different so maybe I don't have done I've done a good job but up to the other people say I hope so so what being different means to me mini film it every day we looking around walking around we see we are surrounded by ordinary things and normal people but when you see someone special and different you use you really you feel like wow that the disgrace that special it someone to stand up completely others this guy is in Cambridge and every time I walk around is the Omega is actually it does exactly same thing he does the other guy blind agree to asking money by that in a way

that you can't forget so being different to me it means challenging challenging your expectation create your own interpretation of things an unconventional approach not following the math it may not do what other people thinking I'll do what you really believe so be an artist because we are and we need to remember that any time so challenging expectation so if I tell you post a post apocalyptic straight away and 99% of you fell asleep thinking about that the destruction and death and monochromatic serve in ninja we have been doing that in 2008 and life and later on explain your decreases the creative process out of that same thing for the health if I tell you have is

normal because we got our in our culture and reference culture with thinking about fires and demons and stuff like that but in DMC we create our our health how we can come out with that so we are I bit sauce sometimes things is coming really natural to me I've been trying for this sort to break down emitted and the visual bridge storm is really important it's not about thinking about an idea an idea bridge stomach for a game actually once you got the idea how to visualize the idea and try to get a creative process to get more different ideas possible keywords I like a red light to write down an hour that represent my idea only one so it is very easy maybe to even have very few words

that represent what you want explain visual associations I love it and which is connect to metaphor it's like when when you got in mind what one thing but you represent that thing you use other element that apparently doesn't work each other so if you let that go back to the topically I'll show you before just to explain my point if if I you tell to your team I want to make a post-apocalyptic game you ended to your concept artists I am working and doing things like show you before and to me you you completely destroy the creative process if you want something post-apocalyptic you don't need to write down post-apocalyptic but you can find words that represent that without visual connotation so for example video post civilization or after war or whatever

you want you like after that you may think okay there was a war new life growing what growing nature growing so like let's let's do something like that this is something or there's a new life nature drawing so this is endless same thing for the health when we work in a creative process I like to take a word we have and try to extract from the actual contest and think deeply about about that and maybe changing the visual visual so he'll pain can be corruption why corruption because it's you know like in a danten danten far no the Divina Commedia Dante used to put like in the hell a different level and it was the one for politics one was the curb corruption what was like even it needs

to work in the in the health for him so in in a forum for Dave McCrory wanted to represent health to the reality we live in we did in the game the reality was bad was like dominated by people it's through politics and and and and TV tried to you know change your your mind or something so associations are really stimulant to me like I like to to think about two totally different elements to to explain my point so for example in this case there are two element that doesn't work but create a symbol that is you know it's the idea if I show you if I show you these silhouettes now concept active working a lot of you see what if

I show this silhouette I'm pretty sure you think about three and nature and stuff actually the piece of junk we pipes and stuff like that and this was the idea under Angela we really I really wanted to get one point through another visual so I want to make a forest through a junk and the only way to do is work with silhouettes to try to get your ideas through totally different same thing in DMC really extract the visual you got your mind and try to see from deep from differ angles and and maybe make a via and like a chapter where everything is upside down just because you see a reflection over there so you take two things there's a plan to does it work well if the guitarist is a really bad you make a thrashing but but it is not at my point my point is like you take

two things and you've got a symbol of creativity creativity originality interpretation so your personal is really important to express yourself as a artist anytime I like to say put yourself in your game or your project as a digital double of course I'm talking about I think about bring your history what you got inside each of us are different we got different background and different maybe childhoods and supplies so if you take it with you all the time you have to draw something I'm pretty sure you can make something very very original I remember once as in an interview of Miyazaki which is my main reference my master for me was talking about period away and in it was saying

that the city where spirit away is a that's nice city was actually a city where he was it was living when it was going vacation and the least little kids was actually the spirited by the daughter of one with best friend when I saw that so for us we see these things and we thinking about that is amazing but for him is like is his art is normal its ways come from so after so that eyes and I have to do the same I do really put myself and that's why DMC the city is actually my city's general I got Batman as well as a reference was and when I think about interpretation when I was teenager a lot that that comic a lot of the comic is inside there are many chapter a bit of the best artists in the world from abuse to autumn of Mia of Akira was making Batman and Mineola

Frank Miller and many others all those people they making the same thing with a wee personality totally different my total differential and that's very important you need to get that if you want something different and it's exactly what we done with with our games in ninja we take a subject like for example in slave of Monkey King and we making our version our interpretation is like ADA it was a monkey so this was the result like nature was perfectly works with the example I show you before same thing for DMC we have made a bit of trouble obediency but we want to make our interpretation of the day we met Raj at that time Debbie Mitra was really really contemporary both course tennis after he has to change we are we changing the style changes so we made a

guy that is much more a part of our world our is more much more contemporaneous much more where we leaving now we close we you make fine in a shop here now even the architect the same then games he was gothic if you if you know if you have knowledge of art you know the Gothic is not just one thing the different type of gothic that is like neo gothic romantic gothic Mike City general is full of Romani gothic and I chose that to bring even to explore different elements of art could be interesting just just to to to come up with something that have and haven't been done done before and the sword in the previous game was just saw in our game is got a personality so it's not just an object we try to extract again the visual things and try to represent

it with personality and this was very reason I put a lot of attitude is my drawing just to explain to the team with one image the feeling of the character is God okay approach is really important reference there are thousand of reference around and I like to x2 to shoot making a lot of stuff but we don't looking at only games actually we don't looking at dating at all there are different things I remember for them fear to do like a flashback a flashback of double past when he was young so I saw the best way to approach the past is actually using the path so if talking again about the visual Association Association I did before I

did the same thing like Easter like old like the past so old so old masters and I represent Dante exactly like in Caravaggio paintings which I saw was the only way was a good way to to express what I wanted to say in about East bust and is matched perfectly even with the personality actually the with the painting because was in the kind of a Jew painting was done there was a David against the giant so in this case perfectly match perfectly the meaning surrealism as well I love it but there is a lot it's not just a pitch fun timing you need we don't need to see only pictures how things moving your team need to know is not just a picture do you need to explain that there are ways to to find things even through is through videos videos helps a lot for the team to understand and is not just a feature but also a personality the city

in that case was a monster in itself and I really wanted to feel that that the city was moving and the reference like logos or great animation we find a lot online is really important knowledgeable picture now if you like it alive even it's just a shape and think security law does and then we do a style test where we put everything together when we create we trace in game it's funny how artists usually create paintings like that ideas and and the designers through the uh planting seeds things totally different like how the gameplay works when remember when they I did that those where we made these paintings like this to really see the designers around food we can use those with those things those crack just add a platform you know for the gameplay and it was not in my actually intention now

we we work in a new game for led blaze and the reference for her blades because is in like Celtic baking environment we went through two different a depiction we thought was really cool to mix maybe dance and and with the pickings elements and stuff like that we ending making a really nice concept but perhaps a bit generic when when the when actually our in game it was very difficult with nothing nothing really super super iconic and one day delayed our senior leader is bringing that like a video that completely opened our mind and when I saw it I was like wow so that guy is mental and now I wanted to show you because if sometime you can see element in not only on paintings on concepts or you need to do above that

and when I saw this guy I will subside oh my god what it does in using materials it's actually very simple so it just dressed like that but she's got using material that in a blade actually works very well in its got like margarine and water and elementadd in game works very well any changes each form is crazy looks like a bit fun Stella very intelligible and which I saw when I saw daddy cool I really want which I think really and the team ISM is very interesting about it or tell calyx try some [ __ ] to use that other element as as a reference this is weird without being a monster you have to try to you know to be different even in this

sense you know like how is moving how it does this crazy stuff it's much more interesting than mega zombie where was we were going to and so I became it with some concepts this is some new concept for a blade just using the same elements we saw before the reference we saw before so not Fellini mass yeah I know for the mass in sense of course with making games for the mass but we in India we like to to be ourselves to communicate what we like and we want we we want to see outside the box not be part of the box because so you say that's the enemy of creativity good sense good sense if you make a product you have to do this you have to do that we like to go out from the box

and be wild be an animal we be yourself and that's why we we made helpless we are working at Lena L blade is the new new new game account much talk about it but is it to danger is pure is pure because we don't have publisher because we go freedom to do what we like we are only 12 people but we want to reach the quality of triple a with with a small team this our our target will be it's going to be difficult but we doing that we're going to we're going to approach it in a different way are usually games usually we have done even in the past we try to each person in our team as to be a super specialized on the world is doing and to be able to lead himself really well and came out with the

solution for technical problems because we are just fine so each one have to be really good and it's a sanction for us making a game where when we create an character not just to make a cool costume but we try to to make to to talk about feelings to to show like feelings of these characters through a game and try to make the play understand what she feels although all of the years in ninja we've been doing that a lot of our cinematics are really focused on that but in this time we wanna push even more it's all about this character and all the environment we create it's going to be the reflection of her mo so we are you say you can see still very crazy but it's going to be all about

what she see more than what actually is and here we got an example here I got a I just took an example here about illusions in that in games we want to create we try to approach approach a gaming in a different way in that sense not making an environment just of the fix to the sick to make a cool environment I try to try to morph to the environment try to think about what she see maybe was the feeling she's got in that moment may change the environment the conclusion I think I mean time is that artist is not just a job title and is I see sometimes it's just something you you go to here and add me as well I

mean everyone and sometime we need to remember ourselves that we can use our games to communicate feelings as well not only techniques or or how to make things super realistic or IRAs or whatever but is about communication and and fit same feelings and I got a video process [Music] Oh [Music]

thank you very much you got any questions shy okay here oh hello yes yeah yeah yeah well okay okay see I

asked me it just ask me about Democrats we the facts be the previous game were really different really bitter strong fan base and how we how we change in our research like how we change their style of the game and and the fact we made you know people really kind of played notably the Deming point if your client which is the publisher asking you please change I change and so we started actually modifying the the first impact was okay let's try it in the previous game you see Dundas got just a different jacket really so we started by that as well which also came a be my one cup of folders were not

happy they want they want us to do things that in Japan they know able to do say where you are European we want you to put to do something you yours if not we can make the game ourself and that's why we were very happy in covered and we have reworked support a lot of support from the publisher we were very not fighting against them to to you know push our own ideas and suffer they've actually was actually we're pushing out so perfect hey everyone if we could have people come here to ask questions so that everyone can hear it and the video recording can get it that would be great thank you maybe one place name is leaving I know hey hey how do you go that are collecting your reference because you've got like videos and stuff like that and

often find when I'm searching stuff that like the words have connotations and you get a lot of that kind of average stuff so just wondering how you go that like looking for stuff so how are we looking thing yeah well you need to you know you got your secret things I mean you're going online at you I mean if you go online you can find a lot of things of course you need to keep the word you we're talking about you need to have in mind exactly with what you want use use and thinking what you may could find so when you're looking at animation things you know what you need you may try in that direction the RISD meal which is amazing those really cool logos and stuff so I go there usually to find but initial usually we got we got a hunch at where everyone everyday daily is posting crazy stuff and sometimes things appear and so I take it and collect so you know

all team is part of the process you know like as the speech before is no like one-man thing but the team is really involved when I understand what we're doing they really fun they actually way we having all the fun to fight to looking for things and it's very very cool cool thank you I love you so much really cool a hot handkerchief hi I had a question about kind of defining style yeah so when you set up the fun style for project and you start to collect all this reference it seems to me at least in my small experience that like things start to kind of even out like you get a lot of different reference and things kind of like you it's very easy to go towards an average how do you maintain like that unique vector that's like different than the median reference you've collected okay mine thing there the throw a lot of information yeah so like when you gather reference you know you got your reference yet similar how do you like yeah as I say before

if if you much you were artists you got your preferences and the disease I mean it's very simple to make very seemed like when when when when you collect reference and when you you know even the scope of the game because of course depend of what you have to do the product in the end you have to do like if you need the gameplay to be that the you have elements and the story tell you you need to find the enough side that combine everything together if you know you have no much the team they don't have a big team and you know that the publisher wants something super quick or sub you can't looking for something to complicate it or to you see if you see your team maybe is not the artist that they like specific style you say okay I

know them they love that I love that as well so I tried to find what what you like but the through the channel of of your team and the needs your needs but yeah so I mean I have to go through you because you are the director and then they need your they need you to be super clear about it if not if you're not clear about what you want they they start working random things and problem in the end is approach I don't know if I'm honest with ya okay I have sure that very important question when do you plan to release the help way when I know it I tell you know I don't really them I know this place before I asked my boss if someone asked me organizers and this is this is from tamiya it's not my question my answer is they mean answer

now when I know that we you know we look the new things as well we're doing innovate which I offer you a pebble we try to share more information possible and through you know diaries and we try to we are different in that sense as well usually people are doing a you need to wait maybe three years before show the concept or before show the techniques and software we would start this new way to to develop a game and and it's actually very fun thank you [Applause]