Case Study - Alex Laurant
In 2004 Alex Laurant exchanged a successful career at visual effects giants Industrial Light and Magic (ILM) - where his film credits included The Mummy and The Mummy Returns - for a role as Senior Art Director at leading independent developer and publisher of computer games Electronic Arts (EA). His film expertise is currently helping EA to break new ground on the Harry Potter game.
What was the attraction of the move into games?
I was at ILM for 8 years in what was basically my dream job, working on a diversity of film projects. But after 8 years in any job there is a desire for a new challenge so, when the offer came from EA, I took it. This is a very exciting time for the games industry. It’s a very young industry and there is a huge amount of experimentation taking place. They are at the cutting edge. I’ve seen a lot of experimentation in film too, but that had reached a plateau and I was looking for a new challenge that would call on my skills. I felt I had something to bring to the EA studio and the trend for visual standards to be raised in games had already started.
How do the two industries compare?
Film is a very mature industry, even in visual effects. There’s an attitude in film that whatever you need to spend on technology and creativity you should. There’s a very indulgent attitude to spend in some ways, which is justified by the potential returns, though it’s surprising how narrow the profit margins can be sometimes. The standard is very high and there has to be an automatic visual realism because the audience has expectations and you can’t cut corners on this.
In games there is a very flexible standard and there is no promise of realism. It’s all about game play and the graphics are much less important. It’s a very different recipe. It’s a huge step down in terms of graphic visual reality. The players are prepared to compromise on this as long as it’s an enjoyable, immersive game playing experience.
Are the two worlds becoming interchangeable?
Film and games are not the same. Talk of convergence is misleading as a headline. It’s not a straight transfer, although there are aspects of convergence. As an art form games have a lot to learn from film and that is what I am bringing to EA, trying to find the best elements of cinematic visual storytelling which are most relevant to the game – for example, lighting, animation, use of camera angles, illusionistic elements – these are all relatively new in games, where the production process still has a lot left over from the early games studios. But the next generation of games platforms will have a much greater capability and there will be a huge set of new tools to work with.
I saw this in films. Directors were essentially given a lot of toys to play with and studios threw money at this, resulting in a lot of action and FX driven films. It was an important learning curve, even if some of them lacked meaning. Similarly artistic maturity is missing in games. I am hoping that I will be able to push the industry more in this direction – that is what I can bring.
How did your background prepare you for your current role?
As an art director you have to learn how to be part of a team, managing projects and budgets, creating a deliverable. It can be a difficult transition for an artist because it involves letting go of your own creativity. At the same time it is important to be able to create the art yourself. It’s a question of credibility - people often want to know you can do it yourself before they are willing to take your direction.
It is also important to have a diverse training. I had a traditional media art training with a thorough grounding in fine art and art history. I also had a lot of early childhood drive and ambition, teaching myself by doing table top clay animation with a Super 8 camera, for example. And later I prepared a spec portfolio on my own time that got me in to ILM. You have to be passionate. I can see that in a portfolio now that I’m on the other side. You can tell when someone has a passion and when the work is just derivative.
How easy is it to move between film and games?
It is absolutely possible to migrate back and forth between film and games and in the future it will probably be necessary to do this. Films are made on a project by project basis and there is a lot of potential movement for an artist. The tools are more and more similar. It’s about getting involved in artistic entertainment. You need to focus on one area though and specialise, not be too much of a generalist, although you need to be adaptable.
Is it a straightforward transfer of skills?
You have to understand the inherent differences between film and games – that the artistic standard is different – also the budgets and capabilities of the medium. You need to understand what can be achieved within these restraints. Also, become technically informed and learn the different ways things are done. You need talent and traditional skills – how to draw and shade and render, and also what a particular project requires. It’s about finding a balance and you need visual economy.
You also need a diversity of styles as you might have to work on a variety of projects. For example, I’m good at architecture and landscapes and creatures but I’m also good at faking it and can imitate other styles. You have to understand visual styles.
It’s also important to understand about game play, though you don’t have to be a gamer. I wasn’t expected to know everything about the games world. You have to be respectful of the industry and learn from the people around you – so diplomacy is important – but that’s the same when you go into any new working environment. But it is important to understand the market and to see what your competitors are doing. Game players make compromises in their expectations of a game and you have to learn how to choose your battles.
How do you see the future for games?
This is a period of transition and it is a really exciting time to be in the games industry. People are being given a huge new set of tools and I am glad to know the techniques from an early stage. You can never have enough money and similarly you can never have enough hard drive, so you are forced to be clever. This will reveal the inherent limitations of the current state of the art – will it be just about shooting more and more realistic creatures or will it be about more and better stories with an emotional connection to the characters?
At the moment a lot of games are war or action based and they don’t tell compelling stories – the story is usually thin. Game play is the most important factor and they are mostly escapist entertainment. But there is potential for something else. That’s why I’m really happy to be working on the Harry Potter game right now. When the market place demands it games will become an art form.
For more information: www.europe.ea.com
Skillset 2005
The further details please contact:
Chris Chilton – Computer Games & Animation Co-ordinator
Skillset
Email: chrisc@skillset.org
Tel: 020 7713 9847
