Industry Collab - Production - Studies & Report

Report - Job Roles & Pipeline

By Ryan Cudworth

For this report I will be going over the different job roles that are usually within the production stages of any type of creative work that is normally done with companies and small businesses that create I have a video games board games tabletop games and any other game or piece of creative work that requires a team of people to help create a finished project or the ideas for the project. The jobs that I have decided that would be best to look at that of a concept artist, An illustrator, And finally, a production artist. By looking at these, I’ll get a clear understanding of how their work has only been used to help create the work for the project but how their roles coincide with each others Work and how it has also contributed to any outside job roles that are also included within the project this being commonly known as the pipeline of the project which I’ll also be looking at and going into for this report. 

Hopefully by doing this, I will gain a useful amount of information of how I can use my work to create an effective and harmonious work balance that will help me to not only you do good within this project but to help me become better at future projects going forwards And help me get an understanding of how to work within a pipeline for a project with any future work that I do for any companies within the future. 

Concept Artist

Firstly, I’ll be going over and talking about the role and responsibilities of concept artist and I’ll also be talking about a concept artist that I was able to find as an example and talk about their role as a concept artist. 

For a concept artist, their role is pretty self-explanatory. They create the concept for a project and being the ones who visualize and the design the way that things will look within a project. That being like the characters environment, props and any other Things that could be within the different kinds of visual media that concept artists are usually a part of, Like filmed, animations or even video games. This is a very important role when starting off a project since these type of artists are the ones who create the primary ideas and designs that will later be used by other roles to create the finish project, Mean that without concert artist a project won’t really make it that far and the initial idea generation will never really make it past the first stage.

Maciej Kuciara

For the concept artist that I have decided to talk about for this part of this report are we talking about a concert artist that goes by the name of Maciej Kuciara, Who had worked as a concept artist for The last of us, within 2010. With his role within this being that he would be the primary focus on renovating the way the new game Would not only look, but also how it would stand out against it’s already established art directions from previous iterations of the last of us series. Within this project he had worked alongside not only the creative director Neil Druckmann, But also the game director Bruce Straley. With them all working together to get to the right design, Color and cinematography for their game. 

When looking through Maciej’s artwork they had created for this project. You can see how important his contribution and work was to the creation of this game, since it’s not only breathtaking. It also shows a level of expertise That it takes to be a concept artist for something this big. This is an obvious show you that to his role as a concept artist. And how much work and effort has taken for him to create these concept sketches for this project with obviously having a large impact on the final project to win in the end.

Last Of Us Concept Artwork

Overall we can say that a concept artist are very important part of the pipeline system that is usually within any sort of visual media project that is created by any company or franchise, With it being one of the first stepping stones that is taken when starting a project of any size or magnitude with it being one of the main things that other roles will look back onto try and understand to the ways in which the project They’re on is trying to go and the way that their visual style will be heading.

Illustrator

Secondly, Like how I did it before I’ll be going go over the roles and responsibilities of illustrator I’m talking about an illustrator that I had found so that I can probably explain their role as an illustrator and the company that they work for.

Now be going over what the basic role of an illustrator is. For the role of an illustrator, their basic role within any project is that they are the ones who create images/drawings and any other artistic media, that will be used within a project to help to communicate towards the audience and anyone else the story idea and the message that the project is trying to get across towards their audience and to anyone else within their project to help them work better on our throughout the project that they are doing to help with a much more easier transition in communication between roles and project. This will be important since being able to properly communicate the type of message to anyone wither it is the audience of the project or the people that are working within the project, Since that will be the main way that people are able to properly understand what they are trying to get across to them and will make it much more easier to get their message across through a type of visual imagery.

Victoria Joh 
(Profile Pic (no face pic)

For the type of illustrator that I had chosen for this report, I had decided to go with an illustrator who is known as, Victoria Joh. They are artist to create many different illustrations and artwork that from my opinion are very good at being able to communicate properly to what kind of story they are trying to get towards their audience, With many of their pieces of work being very full of life and stylistic. From looking at to their page, they worked on many different projects with one of the main one being out of slime rancher which is a very popular slime farming simulator game, I’ve been able to catch the heart of many of his audience with its fun gameplay and amazing stylistic visuals. From looking at the pieces of work to do with the slime rancher it seems that they created many types of banners for the game and even created some poster art that helped to get across the field of these games. They even been able to create a few small animated banners and pieces of work that help to bring to life their artwork and the help with the communication between their project. From looking at their work there is no doubt that I would say that this is a work of a proper illustrator who has been able to successfully get across their communication towards not only the audience but also to their teammates within the project that they have been assigned into, Which when working within a pipeline system for any type of visual media will help greatly with the production of the project to making sure that everyone understands each other’s work and the work that they are doing for the project.

Slime Rancher Illustrations / Banners

Overall, the work of an illustrator seems to be again another important part of any sort of visual media project than any type of company and franchise. The role of creating an image or drawing to help communicate the only is very important to for the audience of the project to help them understand what they are looking at and the type of story that they are going into but it also helps for the people within the project, so they can properly understand The direction in which the project and the story of their project is going in.

Production Artist

Thirdly, Now I’ll be going over the roles and responsibility is of a production artist like I had done for the others. I’ll also be going over a production artist that I was able to find and talking about their role And the job that they work for.

For this part, I’ll be going over the basic role and responsibilities of a production artist and how they fit into and contribute to the other roles within a project. The role of the production artist, who is also known as a pre-pressed technician or artworker, is to work at the primary focused on the technical aspects of preparing designs for prints or digital productions, With them making sure that the final project meets quality standards, So when it comes time for it, it will be ready for it’s production. This role will involve tasks such as formatting, Resizing, And cropping images, They’ll also be applying color corrections, Creating layouts, And also optimizing files for different platforms. And any other tasks that may Be assigned to them to make sure that the final product is as best and of a higher as a quality that it can be, With their main focus being that of reviewing over everyone else’s work and making sure that it is all up to standards. This is obviously a very important role with any type of project within any company or franchise since this will be the type of person who will be making sure that the final project is as neat and tidy as it could be, With them going over everyone else else’s work and making sure that is all as good as possible and making sure to clean up any sort of small or big issue that may be within the project.

Stephen Scott

For the production artist that I had chosen for to look into for this report, I decided to go for the production artist is known as, Stephen Scott. He works mainly within the entertainment industry that was started within the BBC television designed department in London. Were he had been working as the production artist for many projects and shows with one of his well known one being Hellboy. Within his time working as a production artist for Hellboy here worked in many different parts of the production making sure to create not only some concept art for it but also working on even the designs of the sets for the project making sure that everything was in tiptop shape and that they were on schedule for the production creation. From looking at all his work it is clear they has really strong eye for detail with not only within 2-D settings but free dimensional settings with many of his works being that of concept sketches for environments and real life set pieces for the Project that he is working on. With many of his concept sketchers and piece of the work you can see that he annotates and writes a lot about the work and how he would be able to translate that into a realistic sets for his work, showing not only the dedication that he has for his work, but also His skills and techniques as a production artist within his line of work.

Concept Sketches and Sets for Hellboy

Overall, from looking at not only the production artist Stephen Scotts but also looking into the roles of production artist it is very clear that within the pipeline of any sort of visual media company or franchise that the production artist is one of if not one, but one of the most important roles that can be found within The pipeline of a project isn’t it especially of something that is of a huge scale that needs someone to look over and make sure that it stays within the right Standards that the project would have to stay within and making sure that all the work with it in it is done properly.

Pipeline

And finally, I’ll be going over the pipeline system that is usually put in place in the work places to help create a smooth transition between the different roles that are within accompany to help her create and finish a project. I will mainly be going over how the rocks that I have talked about before interact with each other and how they work will affect or be affected by our roles.

Just not off with I’ll be going over what a pipeline within a visual media company/franchise is and how it affects a project for that company/franchise. The pipeline is the system in which a project is done in and the people it is passed down to throughout. This system starts off with the beginning of the pipeline with the creation of the project with idea generations and concept creation with those two roles kind of working in tandem to help create the starting off point for the project deciding on what the project is going to be, and the way in which it is going to start looking like That mainly being in the hands of the concept artist who we have talked about within this report. 

After the initial idea generation the project will then go down Towards the roles that would expand upon the starting ideas creating and expanding on the ideas and making sure they create more fully fought out designs and ideas for the project. These roles will rely on the work That had been done previously by the idea generation roles looking back at their work to help them understand the ways in which the project is going off into and making sure that they stay within that line while expanding upon it. For all that we have talked about that would do the one of the main contributions within this area of the pipeline is an illustrator with them taking the work of concept artists and bringing life to it making sure that their imagery that will help to properly communicate the story in which the project is going in. Which I have stated before would be a great contribution not only towards the audience but also to the people further on down the pipeline who will need that information for their roles.

And then, finally, for the last piece of the pipeline would be the final stages of the projects production. The roles within this part of the productions would be mainly tasked on the aim of completing and finalizing the work that I’ve been done by the previous roles up the pipeline. The type of role that are within this section will mainly depend on the type of visual media that they are creating things like games having that of 3-D artists and 3-D modelers within this, While, something like a TV show would have more people who create like the props and the sets for their production. But for one role that I believe would be within many different types of different media base projects would be the production artist/designer. With their role being that of making sure that everything going within the project is heading towards the final product and that is it is at the standard that they are aiming for making sure to tidy up and neat and any sort of a small or big mistake that hasn’t been able to make its way through the different roles. 

And finally, from not only looking at these three different roles and the way that they interact with each other within the pipeline of their chosen production it shows that every role that has its own importance within the pipeline and that wow they may be separate, in what they do their work and contribution towards the project to help and connect them all together with them all relying on each other to make sure that the project that they are creating makes its way to be becoming real and becoming a final Product whether it is something like a video game or a TV show all these different roles work together to help ensure that the project Makes it successfully to the end of their deadline. From looking at researching into these different roles and the pipeline system I think I have gotten a better understanding of how work from these different types of roles have not only an effect on each other but also on the project itself. I’ll be making sure that within any further projects that I do either on my own within a group I will make sure that my contribution and work will help to progress the Project towards a completion and not be a roadblock and disturbance to the other parts of the project.

Links;

Maciej Kuciara. https://www.kuciara.com/tlou [Accesed 22/04/2025] - Concept Artist 

Maciej Kuciara. https://conceptartworld.com/artists/maciej-kuciara/  [Accesed 15/05/2025] - Concept Artist 

Victoria Joh, 2019. https://www.vhjoh.com/p/portfolio.html [Accesed 22/04/2025] - Illustrator

Stephen Scot. https://www.scottdesign.net/hellboy [Accesed 22/04/2025] - Production Artist 

Taxdome, 2024. https://help.taxdome.com/article/105-tasks-pipelines-jobs-explained#:~:text=Pipelines%20are%20at%20the%20top,form%20from%20beginning%20to%20end. [Accesed 22/04/2025] - Pipeline 

Maksim Makovsky, 2023. https://www.gamesindustry.biz/an-introduction-to-how-game-development-pipelines-work [Accesed 22/04/2025] - Pipeline

Study Of Warlord Games Key Artwork

By Ryan Cudworth

For the study, I’ll be looking at and going over different pieces of artwork from warlord games and seeing how they They have used their skills and techniques to create an effective piece of art work that has been able to efficiently show off not only their characters but the world that they are trying to create within the K 47 universe. The things that I’ll be looking at within the different artworks are what kind of colours they have used, And the way that they have effectively use colours and their hues and saturations to help get over the type of atmosphere and emotions that they want to evoke within their pieces of work. Looking at how they have used proportions and competition to create an effective and readable piece of artwork that a person is able to look at and understand, Looking how they have used these techniques to create a line of action within the piece of the work to help but move the eyes of the viewers around their piece of work and how they have also use the rule of thirds to create an effective piece of artwork.

The reason why doing this is so important is so that when it comes to me creating my key work good for this project I’ll be able to have a much better understanding of how the artist within the warlord games creates their own piece of work and will help me create a piece of work that not only fits within their style of work but will also be Within the lines of audience of all old games who were buyers and appreciates the products that this company creates for them. And if I’m able to create a piece of artwork that is very close to a piece of artwork that wall games would create for their projects that means that I have effectively understood and created an effective piece of work for them.

Firstly, here I had found two pieces of key artwork that had been created by the warlord Company specifically for the K 47 campaign being promotional materials used to help gain interest in their work and to show off the different characters, creatures and machinery that they have to offer within the campaign. I’ll be looking at both of these two key arts and analysing and understanding the different types of techniques and art skills that I’ve been used to create an effective piece of art so that I can better use it within my own work for this project.                                           When looking at these two pieces of work, I can see a very clear use of action lines which are the lines in which the I will follow to look around a piece of work, this can be seen by looking at the directions and which lines are moving on a figure that would help to direct the attention of the viewer. This is very important for a piece of work like this since it’s main purpose is to catch the attention and help the audience to fully understand and see everything within these pieces of work. Ways to I’ve seen that they have been able to do this as with the surroundings using stuff like The different types of plant live like terrain and even some buildings to help Create these action lines. They even use the characters themselves, By the way, in which they stand and hold their weapon radio with their posing being one of the main aspects of ways that they are able to achieve this within their work. 

Another good thing about these key artworks are the use of colours and lighting and shadows. These aspects are one of, if not the most important part of any artwork since this can make a break the only artwork itself but the believability and style of it. With both of these pieces they have very different colour choices with one being much more darker and more blue By the other one is a lot more brighter with mainly small bits of orange and yellow were making their way into the scene. These colours are very important when creating a piece of artwork like these since they will help to make sure that the character is not only stand out against their backgrounds but they also help to convey the situation in which this piece of work Is trying to communicate towards the audience which when creating key art work for a project like K 47 is very important. For the lighting and shallow, they are also very different between pieces with one being a much more brighter Piece of work with a lot Less of shadows while the other one is much more darker if every limited light sources. And by the difference within the light and shadows between these two pieces you can see that there is a very clear difference and not only how it looks but also the atmosphere that is given off, Which was something like key art is very important and is greatly utilised within these types of artwork.

And finally, for the last piece of important Aspects of these pieces of work that I was able to see is the way in which these pieces are laid out and their composition. With any good piece of work a good composition and layout is very important and key aspect of these types of work with it not only being the way in which the scene is laid out but also were the way in which an audience will be viewing it at. For the two pieces of works, it is very simplistic type of composition with it having a main focus that being of the characters and creatures that are with the pieces and then the background of the piece which helps to keep it all from looking very empty and blank. For these pieces of works it seems that the way in which they have been able to draw focus on a main person within it is by having that person not only close up Within the composition, but also were more towards the centre of the artwork with it giving them a main stage to be focused on by the audience, Any other lesser and less important characters are more off towards the sides and can be seen either at a far distance or just less visible which helps to cement the fact that they are not as important as the other main character. This is important with a piece of work that is trying to promote something like K 47 since it gives the audience someone to See and want to play as wanting to be like them the main focus of the situation, It also helps to show off their characters towards the audience and allow allowing the audience to properly get acquainted with what they’re going to be dealing with if they decide to play this campaign. 

Overall, I think that by looking at these two pieces of the works I have gotten a very clear understanding of not only how warlord likes to lay out and create their own key art but I also think that I have a much better understanding of how I would be making my own piece of key art for this project. I’ll make sure that I’ll try to not completely copy and  instead take inspiration from these pieces of work and tried to incorporate and utilise themes within them within my own work. Making sure that I Make sure that I keep key focus on not only the composition of my art but also the colours in which I used to help but not only create the scene but also the atmosphere of my key art and I’ll also make sure that I take into consideration the action lines which I will have with my peace that would help the audience look around and observe my work fully.