Concept art is that stage of the work, when the idea described in words, the artist has to embody visually. To put it simply, to draw or model it. Quick sketches allow you to consider different options and cut out unpromising solutions at the earliest stages of production (pre-production) and determine which direction is worth developing. The selected sketches will then be elaborated, detailed and put into production.
Concept art is used in many branches of visual art: the film industry, animation, gamdev, comic book advertising, and so on. It helps developers shape and visualize an idea in the shortest possible time. Often, in order to create the desired image, the development of the same character, object or location is assigned to different artists.
This work is done at the very beginning of the project. But it is at this stage that the images are created, which, thanks to the work of the rest of the team, find life on the screen. The better the conceptualizer understands his tasks and has the necessary tools, the more in-demand he becomes. In this way he gets an opportunity to take part in big international projects.
Main directions of concept art:
- Character Concept. An artist working in this direction produces a search for a visual image of the hero. He needs to reflect the character’s character and emotions, to think about his costume and distinctive poses. This is true both for children’s cartoons and for Hollywood blockbusters and AAA games.
- Environment Concept. Here the artist is faced with the task of creating individual interiors or buildings, as well as of thinking through whole locations (city blocks, islands, dungeons, castles, etc. ). In addition, an important part of the development of the environment is to work with lighting and color. With the help of which creates the atmosphere and mood of the picture.
- Design techniques. This is a direction, characteristic primarily for the SCI-FI setting. From the artist requires a very good understanding of the device transport and weapons, knowledge of perspective, and, as a rule, the possession of 3D.
- Props design. Often this work is entrusted to less experienced concept artists on large projects.
Separately want to emphasize such a stage animation paypline as Storyboard. Before you start shooting the film, you need to make a storyboard – a small sketch of each scene, giving a general idea of the movement of the camera, the layout, the location of the characters on the screen. It’s kind of like a comic strip. Sometimes directors do this themselves, but more often this work is done by a separate artist.
Theoretically, all this could be done by one specialist, but it requires an enormous amount of knowledge and skills. Therefore, much more often a single artist works with one or two directions.
It is worth noting that the requirements for detail and the degree of conceptualization in different industries are different. Game concepts are often worked on more, because in the game there is an opportunity to consider a character, a location or a weapon, not limited by screen time. In movies, the result of an artist’s hard work may take only a dozen frames.