I’m Brittani Marie Crawford.
I’m an animation graduate of the Kansas City Art Institute 2011. Trained in hand-drawn 2D animation and illustration, I specialize in character design, staging, and composition.
I presently work for Warpforged Games on their launch title, Realms of Conquest doing armor, army, NPC, and character design. I also dabble in UI, but keep to more costume based work.
This ties into my cosplay, of course. I try to create designs and artworks on a level of practicality; things that could exist in the real world. My artistic style is a stylized realism influenced by Japan, of course! I speak conversationally fluent Japanese, having lived there for four years. My dream is to be on the art team for Ivalice Alliance at Square-Enix in Shinjuku.
WHY ART IS IMPORTANT
Art is such an important aspect to game design. People tend to take it for granted, as gameplay is immediately immersive and tends not to draw attention to itself (as this would take the player out of the experience.) Though to make the experience truly immersive, the visuals must be immediately engaging, often the initial draw for the audience.
Art–art in general–is too important to put into words.
WHY GAAM IS IMPORTANT FOR ARTISTS
Games have a huge audience. People love them, they respond to the characters. It has an entire fandom, following. A dedicated audience. Though there is a large rift between the creators and the active audience created in which players don’t have much interaction with creators, and vice versa. Events like GAAM give game developers a chance to discuss games with the uninformed viewer on a more intimate level. The players can ask questions, and the developers can answer. These conversations typically lead to a better understanding and appreciation for video games from the participating audience.
Also, video games are in dire need of being respected as an art. GAAM does just that; it presents games and gaming culture for what it is. A modern art.
It offers an opportunity for artists to show their love of the genre as much as possible.
Dara Gold is an artist and illustrator working in video games and animation. By day she currently creates characters and props for cartoons and by night she makes art with tea. She is a gigantic nerd and can’t get enough of sharing her love of video games with fellow fans. Events like GAAM are super important for artists, because it gives them a venue to interact with fans and make connections with people. The art world can be a hard one to break into, and its community events like these that help artists generate a lively hood creating the art that they love. GAAM give artists much needed support and love, and though that makes the maker community a stronger and more vibrant place. Artists need to be able to reach an audience and GAAM helps make that happen.
