2D Game Art by Declan Walsh

Book Preface

As artists we are always drawing, inventing new worlds for our characters to live in, or seeing the world around us as food for our pencils. So to that end I was drawing for as long as I can remember. My first break into the professional world of animation was with Sullivan Bluth Studios Dublin, Ireland. Here I was introduced  into a world where artists worked hand in hand to create very complex and involved classical animated features.

Each drawing was created frame by frame and reworked to perfection for structure and timing, till a handful of drawings became a scene. Passed from department to department till each scene made its way in color to film. So all our works were transformed to acetate and eventually pixels, for millions of people over the world to see.

A studio has a life and attitude that is fueled by the Director, Producer and Department heads. Their way of working and ideals are carried into the life blood of each artist, integrating seamlessly as a process, driven by the skills and talents of people with abilities in production, efx, character, color, scene planning and storyboarding etc

I worked with many people from each of the disciplines within the animation world, who inspired and educated me. I was shown how the creative process works, from story to final. I saw how the vast machine that is the production process was managed and tracked, creating the balance of artist and economics.

Over the course of my work in animation I worked on eight features, TV adverts, Games, and some straight to video movies. I had the great pleasure to work with some of the big names in entertainment, Sullivan Bluth Studios, 20th Century Fox, Viacom and Disney but to name a few.

I learned many ways to produce art and the process that it takes to create something unique and with quality. I brought this to my web work as an Art Director, which was a stepping stone to the world I work within now, gaming. It is my goal in this document to write and illustrate how art can be created for 2D games.

Currently I create art both 2D and 3D for sale in the Unity Asset Store, under Atomic Vertex, I also freelance out my skills to games companies around the world. So please feel free to check out unity 3d and browse my work. I will be using samples in this book on currently selling assets, to demonstrate the techniques I use for game ready assets. I hope this book will benefit professionals and novices alike, and that you find what you are looking for within these pages.

Regards
Declan