Interview with Scott Campbell, Art Director @ Double Fine Studios

QA with Scott Campbell, Lead Art Designer of Double-Fine Studios – 1/12/07

1.  Scott, please tell us a little bit about your background, how you broke into the industry, and what your primary responsibilities are there at Double-Fine Studios?

Ok, well, I went to the Academy of Art in San Francisco, to be a comic book and children’s book illustrator. But when I got out of school I was kind of at a loss of where to go.  So I worked at a pizza place.  A friend of mine from art school started working at Lucas Arts as an animator, so she told me about an opening at Lucas Learning, the new kid’s game company.  I started working there painting backgrounds and drawing characters for 2D Star Wars games, working my way up to art lead.  I met Tim Schafer there.  He was a funny dude.  He is still a funny dude.  He left Lucas to start Double Fine.  I left soon after to join him as Art Director and we began building the look of Psychonauts.  I designed characters, backgrounds, storyboards, and oversaw the basic look and style of the game.  I am doing the same on our new game currently in production.  Oh, man, it looks so awesome.

2.  What do you recommend as a good path for someone who may be seeking to enter the graphics or artistic portion of the gaming industry?

Draw and paint a lot.  Expose yourself to as much art as you can and get inspired. Get well rounded in your skills.  Do it all!  Then later you can decide what your favorite aspects are and where you would like to go. 

3. Psychonauts was, by all accounts, a critical darling, and rightfully so as it was a wonderful game, yet fans didn’t quite snap it up (unfortunately).  Why do you think this was the case?

They snapped it up enough for me!  I love that it came out and has been getting so much critical acclaim.  Also I love fans.

4. What aspect of your artistic design work on Psychonauts was the most enjoyable for you?

Designing the characters was an exciting process.  Tim cares so much about character development and wrote such amazing back stories for all the characters.  That made the designing of them that much more enjoyable and easier.  Drawing something that makes Tim laugh is the best feeling.  When he doesn’t laugh, the feeling isn’t as awesome.  It was a huge cast, so it was fun to see it grow.  I also enjoyed drawing all the figments because those were fast and stream of consciousness style.  I was able to explore the characters further by drawing anything that might represent them in their minds.

5. What was the biggest challenge you faced as an artistic designer on Psychonauts?

The minds versus real world created a huge variety of design problems for us.  Good problems.  Each mind world had to be completely different than the one before, yet the style had to be consistent.  That was pretty daunting.  I remember reading the design document before I started and wondering how anyone was going to be able to make all this stuff.  But oh, man, I think it worked really well.  I am very relieved.

6. What portion or portions of your work on Psychonauts are you most pleased with overall?

I think the characters turned out great.  The animators were pretty amazing at building them and bringing them to life.  I like seeing them all lined up for class photos.  I don’t see that too much, but when I do I sure like it.

7.  Let’s switch gears a bit and ask you who your artistic influences have been?

That’s always changing.  In the beginning of Psychonauts, I was heavily influenced by J. Otto Seibold, Shag, Joe Sorren, Jim Flora, Paul Klee, Tim Burton, and Basquiat.  Now, I find myself influenced by so many different artists I see on art blogs.  I am so addicted to art blogs.  Comic artists, kid’s book artists..  I’m pretty involved in the comic scene as well.  

8. Along those same lines, can you tell us what other games have impressed you, artistically in the past (or present) and why?

As a kid, Star Wars’ vertex art really impressed me.  But recently, I have enjoyed Katamari Damacy, Shadow of the Colossus, Legend of Zelda Windwaker, and others I can’t think of right now.  Okami was very beautiful.

9. Where do you see the future of artistic design headed in the gaming industry?

I hope people start taking more risks with the visual design.  I don’t see it as much as I would like.  America cares so much about ultra realism in games that push the tech side of things.  They look amazing, but soon they will go as far as they can go and they will have to start pushing in other directions.  At least I hope so.  I get excited when I think about the games that Japan is making.   Japan makes me pretty happy.  It also seems like the do-it-yourself craze that’s happening right now with games and movies will pave the way for all kinds of original styles.  It is very exciting to see what people come up with in their homes. 

10. Tell us a little bit about working at Double-Fine Studios, is it really like working in the ‘Willy Wonka Chocolate Factory’ or is that all just hear-say?

Sometimes people bring in chocolate to eat.  And cookies.  So yeah, I guess we have some of that.  And sometimes we laugh.  But most of the time we wear suits and do push-ups. 

11. Can you tell us what it’s like working with Tim Schafer as far as his approach to game design and methodology?

It’s the best.  I have crazy respect for Tim.  For Tim, everything has to have a reason.  Tim is very into a completely immersive game experience.  The story is very important to him and the creating of the world is a very collaborative and enjoyable experience for everyone.

12. Alright, the kid gloves are off, can you give us some funny dirt on Tim?

Tim’s a pretty clean guy.  He never does anything that would make him “funny dirty”.

 

13. What games are you playing right now, when you’re not working on Double-Fine’s current project?

I’ve been playing Wii sports.  And Guitar Hero II, when I can.  Oh, and the new Zelda a little bit.

14. What forthcoming games are you eagerly anticipating and why?

I am very excited to see how the new Team Fortress turns out.  The style looks super great.

 15. Can you tell us anything at all about your current project there at Double-Fine?

Nope.  I would get whipped.

 

16. Finally, though many may be unaware of this, you produce an online comic strip in the ‘Comics’ section of the Double-Fine website, called ‘DFAC’.  It’s absolutely hilarious, weird, and brilliant all at the same time.  Do you have any plans to release this online comic in a book format down the road?  What was your inspiration to create this web-strip?

Yes, we are hoping to have the comics published soon.  Just need to work out the “logistics”.  The “logistics” are hard.  Also, I procrastinate sometimes.  I got into doing the web comics because I wanted to get loose and creative every day.  I have been doing comics for awhile with friends from Lucas in a book called Hickee.  We do comics together in cafes where one person does a panel and passes it around, those are the funniest I think, because we have to ‘out funny’ each other.  The DFAC doesn’t really have any pressure.  It just happens and then the next day you do another one, so it’s never a big deal.

17. Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to speak with us.  We look forward to seeing Double-Fine’s next game!

You are totally welcome.  I look forward to you seeing the next game as well.  You’ll freak out, I’ll bet.