Kerri Targett, Artist
Our game artists are part of the lifeblood of the studio and our games. So we’ve turned to our own specialists to give you a sense of what it means to be a game artist at Tag, starting with Kerri Targett, who has impressed from the moment she joined us, and seen her career and craft develop brilliantly within the studio.
If you like Kerri’s story and are looking to take the next step in your career, head over to our careers page and check out our available roles - we’re always keen to hear from talented people who want to join the team.
Interviewer: Will Freeman
When did you first start to realise you might want to do more than play games, and actually be involved with the industry, and games’ creation?
I studied animation and visualisation and had the intention of going into the film and TV industry, but when I researched the job market I realised that working in games could be an option for me. It was something I had never really considered before university, as it was never really presented as an option for a career for me when I was growing up. I’ve always played games but never really got into them until I was a young adult and as I developed an interest in 3D modelling, I started paying more attention to the artistry in games.
Could you give a bit of a summary of your career in games before Tag? What was your journey from first starting out to applying for Tag?
Before going to university to study animation and start my journey towards becoming a game artist I had initially started at university to do textiles as I wanted to be a costume designer for theatre. But textile art was not really for me. I left in my second year of textiles and ended up working in the pubs for the next five years unsure of what I wanted to do. I was living and working in Dundee and worked in a bar near a hub of game studios and the art school, which made me start to think about going back to university to animation and visualisation. Tag is my first industry job and I was lucky enough to get a job at Tag as a junior artist a month after graduating from university.
And what initially attracted you to a role at Tag?
To be honest, I was initially attracted to the role at Tag because it was local to me and they were looking for someone at any level, including entry level. Even though I didn't have much experience with how games were made, I knew I had the other skills they were looking for, so I took a chance.
‘Artist’ can mean a lot of different things in the context of designing and creating games - what does being a ‘game artist’ mean to you? And what does your role at Tag actually involve?
Being a game artist, for me, is bringing the game to life. Making it appealing, look good, as well as helping to reinforce the gameplay and messaging so players can have the best experience of the game. I find games that have considered beautiful art are more engaging and have a lot more flavour.
My role at Tag is quite a fluid one as I am a generalist. I have worked on 3D environments, 2D environments, characters and UI, but my main aim regardless of what I am creating is to have something that is aesthetically pleasing and supports the gameplay or function visually. Readability of any art in a game is super important as the visuals can help guide a player and make their experience more enjoyable. There is also a large problem solving element to being a game artist, as we have to make sure whatever we make can work in-engine and be optimal for device and memory.
Another part of my role as an artist is helping production and the team to plan work on the project. We spend a lot of time, especially at the start of projects, breaking down work into manageable tasks and outcomes that we can track and use to try and keep the project on schedule.
The team love to get creative with their workspace!
What about your work do you find particularly rewarding?
Working with other people and being able to collaborate with them to make the best product we can. I also love seeing my work in our games - there is always something nice seeing something you have worked on in a game that someone enjoys.
And what about the challenging parts of your work?
Avoiding and mitigating scope-bloat can be a challenge when there are multiple parties invested in a product. It impacts us meeting deadlines and milestones to how we create the assets and implement them. Good planning and understanding of the workload is really important, and we work hard with our team and producers to make sure we get that right or at least in the best place, as things always change as the project develops.
One challenging aspect that I'm sure a lot of people - especially artists in all fields - find challenging is imposter syndrome. It’s very easy to be unsure of your work, skills and expertise when there are so many things to learn and so many other talented people out there, but being able to recognise when I feel like that and being able to reach out to my team for feedback can really help alleviate that negative inner voice. We tend to be a lot harsher on ourselves than we would be to our team mates, so be kind to yourself.
It seems like work at Tag means getting to work on quite the variety of projects and games? Is that fair to say, and what do you take from that breadth of working contexts?
Since I've been at Tag we’ve had a variety of projects, IP’s, styles as well as various 2D and 3D projects to work on. One of the things I like about Tag is the variety of projects and being able to work on different things. I feel this has led to me having a generalist skill base, as I've been on projects where I've been the only artist and have had to do things that were not initially in my skill sets.
What is Tag like in terms of collaboration? Do you find yourself working closely with those across other disciplines or teams, for example?
As an artist I need to work with design to get the visuals to not only look amazing but support the gameplay, feature or readability and then I also need to work closely with code to ensure whatever I am making works in the engine and in the game.
Recently I have been working really closely with the art team as we have been focusing on establishing the style and pipeline for a new larger project but we are about to split into cross discipline pods. I think it works best when there is a lot of cross discipline collaboration, as it can get easy to feel siloed and if each discipline is working independently it can cause issues further down the line. One of my favourite things about working at Tag is being able to work with the other disciplines. I have learnt just as much from designers and programmers about making games and game art than I have from other artists and I love getting feedback from them as they always seem to have a different take on things.
How do you feel you’ve developed or evolved as an artist since joining Tag?
I have most certainly developed as an artist since joining Tag. I’ve always said I learnt more in my first week in Tag than I did in my 3 years at university. I’ve had the opportunity to work with some incredible artists, team members and clients, which has only served to develop my skills. I've also had the opportunity to work as a sole artist on some projects which has helped develop my understanding of project production, client relations and taking responsibility for the art direction and outcomes.
What about work life balance? Do you find time to do the other things in life you love, away from work?
Work life balance is super important to me. I have two dogs, who I love to spend time with and I also enjoy an active lifestyle where - normally, when not in lockdown - I would be at the gym a couple times a week, as well as, playing and coaching netball a couple times a week. I also like to play games, especially games that have a good story and nice visuals like the Witcher 3, and I enjoy a good movie or book.
Recently, since the start of lockdown and working from home, I have found a passion for lino printing, so I create prints in my own time to help keep my creativity going without being at a computer/screen all day.
If you could give one piece of advice to an aspiring game artist, what would it be?
Keep making art, you’ll only get better and better the more you do it and ask for constructive feedback all the time, from other artists, or friends. Constructive feedback is one of the things that will help you improve quickly and help prepare you for the industry as you can’t be precious with your work. Another thing to make sure you have is a good knowledge of the fundamentals in art - knowing about shape, repetition, size, the 70/20/10% split, composition, colour and so on, and being able to display that in your work. I would also recommend researching the industry - at least to have basic knowledge of the pipelines or processes used by games companies.