Portrait Martin Elsaesser, Art Director, Lead Artist, Video Games

Welcome

I am an Art Director, Lead Artist and games industry expert from Germany. 


With more than 20 years of experience, I worked on games such as: 

  • Crash Team Rumble
  • Batman: Arkham Knight
  • Crysis 2 & Crysis 3
  • Anno 1404

 


Besides being an artist myself, I highly enjoy to share my experience and provide leadership, feedback and direction.

  

I believe it is vital for high performance teams that each individual feels trusted, informed and motivated. My mission is to help teams establish a healthy culture of trust and communication. A culture that is vital to excel and grow together - as individuals and as a team of team players. 

 

 

 

Art Direction

my job as an Art Director is to establish, maintain and supervise the artistic vision of a game.

 

I also provide guidance on all aspects of the art production process.

 

To communicate art I use: 

 

reference collections, sketches, overpaints, concept art, key visuals, blockouts, visual prototyping, style guides, art reviews, presentations and more...

 

Every team member needs a different piece of information and it is my job to provide what everyone needs to know.

Art Leadership

my goal as a Lead Artist is to enable art teams to self-organise in a direct, lean and efficient way.

 

For this it is necessary to bring agile development methods, artistic freedom and creativity in balance with pipeline and scheduling needs.

 

To achieve this I rely on a set of simple yet powerful principles:

  • Listen and pay attention
  • Support peoples goals & careers
  • Be open, transparent and reliable
  • Be open to change your mind
  • Give feedback instead of orders
  • Foster a give and take approach where people help each other
  • Bring people together
  • Treat everyone with respect
  • Be smart and get things done

Art Outsourcing

To work with art vendors from around the globe is a joyful yet challenging endeavor.

Over the years I turned into an art outsourcing expert and always enjoyed this aspect of art production.   

 

From vendor selection, to onsite training, from contract negotiation to work order setup, from initial brief and guideline creation to final asset implementation, delivery steps and art approvals...

 

I have worked with large scale service providers in China and India, but also with smaller vendors of all sizes and some of the most talented freelancers out there. 

 


Feel free to join my network of industry professionals...

 

Connect on LinkedIn / ArtStation

 


 

I speak English (fluent), German (native) and Spanish (beginner/A2)