Tyranny of Style: The video game industry continues to grow every year, with 2012 worldwide revenues calculated at $67 billion (with a “b”). As the industry has grown, so has the quality of storylines, user interface, and graphics. Companies are beginning to realize the untapped potential of hiring costume designers to enhance production values. Until this point, character or concept designers have designed the majority of the “costumes” you see on your favorite character. These wonderfully creative artists are skilled at creating whole worlds, creatures, and even believable human characters. But none of that skill can compete with the complex understanding of costume history, garment construction, and clothing psychology that a trained costume designer brings to any project.
6 comments:
It makes sense that video game companies would start using Costume Designers as technology progresses into such a realistic direction. There was no point in hiring a costume designer for games 20 years ago, because there wasn't enough detail for a costume designer to truly be necessary. Mario has always worn the same denim overalls and red shirt. 20 years ago technology wasn't advanced enough to be able to see the buttons on the overalls and the way the fabric creased, folded, and flowed as the character moved. Now that technology has advanced to the point that such things are easy to accomplish, you need someone who has more expertise in that area. The video game industry is a fascinating industry, and one that a lot of theater artists could become involved in. It takes a lot of the same skills to be able to clothe a person on stage or film as it does to clothe them on a digital computer screen.
As three-dimensional photo-realistic rendering become more common in video games and animated film features, I think scenic and costume designers in the theatre industry are going to find more work in this “digital” entertainment industry. A costume designer who has an eye for fashion and the skills to match real garments in a digitally rendered format will be a huge asset to modern day entertainment providers, whether that product be theatre, film, or gaming.
Perhaps the School of Drama should begin to offer a “Costume Design for Digital Animation” course.
It is surprising how similar the process for video games seemed to be to TV and film, as the designer actual dressed real people who where then 3D scanned in order to be inserted into the digital world. This makes sense, as the detail that is required for some pieces of clothing would probably take much longer to model solely in the digital realm than the process of scanning and tweaking the designer talked about. It is interesting that the fields like sound design have always been present in video games and are just now being fully accepted into the theater while fields that have been theater specific are now being integrated into video games.
This is really cool. I think it's really cool that they do bring costume design, which has always been associated with theater, to the digital animation world. We always think about incorporating technology into clothing but not vice versa. I also thought it was fascinating to find out that they 3D scanned the people in the clothes. I always wondered what program and how they made the people in modern video games look so real. It's really neat! Like what Frank said, it would be really cool if they had this as a class at CMU, especially now that clothing/costumes/fashion and technology have been merging in many ways!
Its a very strange idea for me that video game companies are using costumer designers to "dress" their character. Having never really been a gamer as a kids, I feel like I haven't really fully appreciated the entire world that programmers create when they code a video game. Costumes and clothing is an essential factor when creating a world, so it is only fitting that costume designers must enter the equation. I think this is presenting video games in a whole new light. Video games are a stage or a screen that is then painted with characters, settings, and a story. I wonder now as games become more and more detailed, if they will incorporate dramaturgy and other theatrical technical jobs.
Growing up, I have always loved video games. I owned a number of consoles and as well as PC games, and I know the characters I came to adore would not be nearly as lovable without their noted ensemble. At that time, I imagine that costumes were still being designed by character development artists. I always wanted to design for video games, but I never thought it possible until recent years where it has become observed as a job within itself. I feel that this is a brilliant opportunity for costume designers like myself. I find it interesting that the costume designer, of whose work I admire very much, was found from a fan of the TV show they were working on. It really does go to show you never know when someone is watching you, when you are on display, so you must always have your best foot forward!
Post a Comment