In an article at Gamasutra, Chris Sutton, art director at Sony Santa Monica discusses the interplay between art and technology at the studio. Rather than keeping the two teams discrete entities, the studio encourages constant communication between the two.

Visual aesthetics and technology are “so interlinked with the way we work” that they can’t be separated, he says. 

“We just get the features that we want, to create the art style that we want,” says Sutton. The art team is “constantly asking for new tools.” The two teams meet frequently to hash out ideas between what’s technically feasible and what’s desired. 

This is a really interesting way to approach two fields that tend to be viewed as completely separate entities. Art people tend not to be able to understand what goes in to creation of technology and the same could be said of the technological folks.

The fact that both of the teams are encouraged to rely on and talk to each other means they both begin to appreciate what they want and what is possible. The technological team can create better suited tools for the arts team which can inspire them to come up with yet another feature. 

[via Gamasutra]