Art Direction | Exercises

22.9.2025 - 28.10.2025 || Week 1 - Week 6
Yong Zhen Xing || 0359473
Art Direction || Bachelor of Design (Honours) in Creative Media / Taylor's University
Exercises

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Contents

1. Instructions

2. Exercises

        Final Outcome

3. Reflection

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Instructions

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Exercises

For our group exercise, we needed to select a creative company that aligns with our specialization such as Graphic Design or Entertainment Design and research about them. We then present a cohesive company profile addressing four sections which are : 

• Business & Industry Overview
• Production Structure & Pipeline
• How Art Direction Fits Within the Production
• Art Director Profile: Roles & Scope

As this is a group project, each member would take 1 part.

With how our group has a mix of specializations (Graphic Design, UI/UX, Digital Animation and Entertainment Design) we just decided to go for a game studio as it is something we would like to explore. After that decision, we start looking for companies. Immediately, we struggled. We went through many companies, contacted them and just waited. Some didn't get back to us, while others rejected us. This struggle went on for 4 weeks. Below is a screenshot of the rejections from Bandai Namco, WHY kNOT studio and Larian Studios.

fig 1.1, Rejections From Companies (8/10/2025)

Luckily for us, we have a backup plan thanks to our lecturer! Mr Kamal had a friend that happens to work for a animation/game studio called Momodica. So we shot a few emails at them and soon enough we got a reply.

fig 1.2, Momodica's Creative Director Reply (22/10/2025)

With how the situation was, Jun Ning (Creative Director at Momodica), simply just answered our questions through our docs as he feared 30 minutes wouldn't be enough time to address the questions. Below shows the questions and his answers (answers written in blue).

fig 1.3, Questions Answered (24/10/2025)

After receiving the answers, we got to work immediately. First we distributed the task to decide who would do what part, then we just worked on our own part.

fig 2.1, Work Distribution (26/10/2025)

Below shows my part that I worked on, which was Production Structure & Pipeline. From the answers he provided, it seems that Momodica uses a standardized structure like other 3D animation studios. Their approach however differs as they use it more flexibly. This is because task that are given to them are broken down and outsourced to them. I found this interesting and it certainly made sense since they are a smaller company. As for the departments, is it what I definitely would expect in a 3D animation studio.

fig 2.2, My Work Part (27/10/2025)

Then I made a flowchart for the pipeline with deliverables for each stage in the development. I used the link he provided in the answer sheet as a reference.

fig 2.3, My Work Part 2 (27/10/2025)

Final Outcome

fig 3.1, Final Exercise Report (27/10/2025)

fig 3.2, Final Presentation Slide Deck (27/10/2025)

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Reflection

This first exercise for our group was just a one big waiting game. While the exercise wasn't particular challenging do. Most of the questions and requirement needed the interview to be completed which made it quite annoying and difficult. This is mainly because we got rejected by a couple of companies. The forward and backwards of emailing dragged the time by quite a lot. So much until we only had basically 3 days to finish all of the work. And that company we contacted was given by our lecturer as he had a friend there. 

The saddest part of the project was honestly not being able to visit or interview Bandai Namco as they did not want anything to do with our project. Which is very understandable and kind of expected, but as they are a big company especially in the gaming industry, learning from them could have been quite opening.

As for my part, Production Structure and Pipeline, I have learned quite a bit on the structure of the creative studio like Momodica. While the pipeline is standardized, it was interesting to learn that their studio applies the structure more loosely as projects they receive tend to be  broken down and outsourced to them. Through researching the timeline that was provided, it was fascinating to learn about how long a full-fledged project takes and how much department is separated into each process. It has made me more open on the pipeline structure for the creative industry. 

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My Other Art Direction Work :

Exercises (Current)

Project 1 : Proposal

Project 2 : Project Management

Final Project : Art Guide