Mobile Game Art 1: Buildings and Props

An 8 week course where students will learn about the art of the mobile game industry and how to create tileable isometric buildings and props

OVERVIEW

INSTRUCTORS

PRICING

BENEFITS

COURSE OVERVIEW

Students will learn about the art side of the mobile game industry in general and how to design, research, and create tileable isometric buildings and props from thumbnail sketches to final renderings. By the end of the course, students will be able to comfortably know how to design buildings and props with mobile phone limitations in mind. Specifically, they gain knowledge on how to go about the researching style, theme, pinpoint a demographic for the game, creating meaningful thumbnails, refining sketches, create effective color schemes, create stages and levels for modular isometric building and prop tiles and how to present them. Assets created in the course could be used for production art in 2D and concept art for 3D mobile games.

Course Format:

Live

Duration:

8 weeks

Materials:

Adobe Photoshop, digital pen display tablet or regular pen tablet

Lecture Type:

Live Lectures

Assignment:

Due each week. Expect to spend 8-10 hrs/wk viewing lectures, q&a, and assignments

Skills Level:

Intermediate - Advanced

Feedback:

Individual recordings

Q&A:

Once a week

Prerequisites:

Dynamic Sketching 1, Perspective, Digital Painting, or equivalent knowledge

Course Format:

Live

Duration:

8 weeks

Materials:

Adobe Photoshop, digital pen display tablet or regular pen tablet

Lecture Type:

Live Lectures

Assignment:

Due each week. Expect to spend 8-10 hrs/wk viewing lectures, q&a, and assignments

Skills Level:

Intermediate - Advanced

Feedback:

Individual recordings

Q&A:

Once a week

Prerequisites:

Dynamic Sketching 1, Perspective, Digital Painting, or equivalent knowledge

Course Format:

Live

Duration:

8 weeks

Materials:

Adobe Photoshop, digital pen display tablet or regular pen tablet

Lecture Type:

Live Lectures

Assignment:

Due each week. Expect to spend 8-10 hrs/wk viewing lectures, q&a, and assignments

Skills Level:

Intermediate - Advanced

Feedback:

Individual recordings

Q&A:

Once a week

Prerequisites:

Dynamic Sketching 1, Perspective, Digital Painting, or equivalent knowledge

COURSE OVERVIEW

WHAT YOU'LL LEARN

EXPAND ALL COLLAPSE ALL

The more you know, the better.

Week 1 | Introduction to Mobile Game Art 1/ Drawing within confines of grids

Introduce Boom in Mobile game industry | Review some major popular game genres and what type of art is being produced | Introduction to my background | Introduction to mobile game building formats and modularity- Various types of building grids, isometric, top-down, fusion formats | How to draw within the grid

Week 2 | Designing for mobile games not console or pc

Contrast mobile vs pc/console game visuals | mobile game limitations | Go over creating iconic representational tools to convey first read | 1st, 2nd, 3rd read

Week 3 | Audience / Theme / Stylization

Background about demographics and establishing an audience for the game | Theme and story of the game influencing visuals | breaking down building style elements , going over various types of game themes | breaking rules of isometry and top down rigidity for style sake

Week 4 | Building functionality/ stages/ Research/ Thumbnail

Introducing various gameplays and implications of building functions such as training camps, defense towers, or just an Inn to live in | creating stage and levels of buildings | how to visually design and create a succession of various buildings | designing to allow for animation and creating visual markers | scale | lecture on initial thumbnail creation/ silhouette sketches

Week 5 | Prop functionality

Introducing various type of building props and functionality | creating visuals for props | give examples of prop stages and how to draw them and ways to make them visually effective

Week 6 | Sketch Refinement and Color variations

Picking out best designs from thumbnail variations | colors variations, adhering to overall game color style | provide examples of sketches and color storytelling

Week 7 | Final Concept and production rendering

Rendering techniques based on style | Lighting ( direct and ambient) | material/ texture | Creating an attractive mock game screen shot from game tiles

Week 8 | Presentation Layout and preview

Going over various layout techniques and principal | preview of mobile game art 2 class

Mobile Game Art 1: Buildings and Props

WHAT YOU’LL LEARN

Instructor

Prepare to meet your master.

Isaak Lien

/Jam City

LECTURES BY Isaak Lien

Isaak Lien currently works at Jam City as an Art Director and Concept Artist. He has been in the mobile game industry for 9+ years working on 2D concept and production art, visual development, UI design, and art leading at mobile game companies and studios such as Jam City, Kiwi, Ogmento, Kung Fu Factory, Mega Rock, Rising High Studio, etc. Some of the mobile game titles he worked on include Jam City’s top 20 grossing games, "Cookie Jam", Mega Rock’s Top 10 free games, "A Bike Race of Ninja Temple", Nickelodeon's "SpongeBob Moves In", and Konami’s "Slot Revolution".

Aside from having worked in the mobile game industry, he has been an illustrator for a storybook, founder, creative director, and designer of his own plush toy brand (Panda Yeah), creative director and artist for his own unregistered mobile game company(Orange Fun Games), visual arts teacher and tutor at various places. Although he currently works as an art lead, his passion for creating and teaching visual arts will continue to take center stage in his art journey!

INSTRUCTOR'S GALLERY: