The Written Component
While the genre is Concept Art, there is a fair amount of written communication involved in it as well. Multiple notes and design features are often incorporated on or with the art to help explain features that might appear vague. The artists also often keeps pages of notes on how their designs work and what features of the artwork mean. These might explain on how the pieces of a character's armor are layered, how an environment ended up with mountains in such a strange shape, or how the venom of a imaginary beast would possibly work with its anatomy. Because of all the creative material they have to work with, concept artists are often found to consult with writers on the project, exchanging ideas through various forms of written communication and working off of each other.
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Genre Analysis
The genre of this analysis is that of the conceptual art for the development of videogames. Concept art is art focused more upon the ideas presented and is used to help design products for creation. This art is crucial to the pre production process of creating a videogame and it influences projects well past their release. Hundreds, if not thousands of pieces of concept art are created to fill the creative needs for big games, conceptualizing every minute detail.
From character design, to the tone of the story, a concept artist is there at every step to make sure the overall feel and aesthetic of the game is what was intended. Because of this, concept art is the most important genre of communication in the field I wish to enter. As seen in the examples from the conceptual art book, The Art of Dragon Age Inquisition, concept art is a broad subject that encompasses a variety of themes. Not to mention responsibilities for the artist.
Concept Artists have to establish a decisive theme and aesthetic early on that way those creating the game know what they are doing. They also have to design the individual characters, objects, landscapes, and everything else before a 3D model could be created for the game. As the art book and many other examples show, something such as a character, goes through a myriad of iterations and ideas before the final design is nailed down and ready to be rendered.
When asked about the importance of conceptual art for the development, Ryan Camu, production director at Pipeworks Inc. told me that concept artists have one of the most important and difficult tasks in the creation of a game. They have to create it visually before it is even produced and have to have a hand in pretty much all stages of production to make sure everything is cohesive and aligned to the spirit of the work.
Concepts for art are often divided into different categories that way artists are not spread too thin in fields they are not masters in. The most often seen ones are that of character conceptual art, creature art, item art, and background and scenery art. Artists tend to have extraordinary skills in all of these but are often specialize in only one or two. The different art categories are linked with the overall themes of the game which are regulated by the Art Director who will make sure all the artists are working within the same parameters to get the best results.
Concept art is a credible piece of written work that is used for a variety of reasons to a multitude of audiences. The main audience of the concept art is the production and development team who are making the game. They use it not only to see what the game is going to look like but for inspiration. This is especially needed in the early stages of production where no one really knows how the game is going to look like yet except through the art pieces that they’ve been given.
Another way the team uses the art is for promotion. When they are trying to promote the game but the game isn’t polished enough to display, they will use concept art to publish their ideas and the emotions of the game. Concept art is also used by production directors to help pitch the game to potential publishers for funding to create the rest of the game. Sometimes developers even leak concept art as a promotional technique to increase the hype for fans of the burgeoning or established franchise. The development team knows the idea of the game they are making only in the broadest strokes when they’re first starting out. As Ryan Camu stated, “Maybe they know that they have to create a dark fantasy type game. They’ll know it’s probably going to be dark and gloomy looking, without a lot of rainbows or sunshine, but they won’t know exactly how it's going to appear while the artist knows there is going to be a a lot of angular features to the landscape and a very neutral color scheme encompassing the entire thing.” They use the concept art to create models and textures and base the objects of the game based off the pieces the artists created. The structure of the genre really varies based off what the artist is trying to do. Sometimes it’s just a beautiful piece of work used mostly to convey the theme of the game and inspire the developers, known as an illustration. Other times it’s a multitude of crude sketches trying to hash out the ideas of say, a character of the game, colored over with a variety of notes on how they should proceed with the idea. Sometimes, it’s final character sketches with creative writing specifying who the character is and what to have in mind when developing them.
Concept art for the development of video games is an integral genre of the industry and is the most important genre in my field. It elicits emotional responses from the team, inspiring developers and showing them a unifying idea to work towards. It sells the idea and is used throughout the entire process of production. It is a multifaceted genre that offers a myriad of uses for development and is crucial to a game’s creation.
From character design, to the tone of the story, a concept artist is there at every step to make sure the overall feel and aesthetic of the game is what was intended. Because of this, concept art is the most important genre of communication in the field I wish to enter. As seen in the examples from the conceptual art book, The Art of Dragon Age Inquisition, concept art is a broad subject that encompasses a variety of themes. Not to mention responsibilities for the artist.
Concept Artists have to establish a decisive theme and aesthetic early on that way those creating the game know what they are doing. They also have to design the individual characters, objects, landscapes, and everything else before a 3D model could be created for the game. As the art book and many other examples show, something such as a character, goes through a myriad of iterations and ideas before the final design is nailed down and ready to be rendered.
When asked about the importance of conceptual art for the development, Ryan Camu, production director at Pipeworks Inc. told me that concept artists have one of the most important and difficult tasks in the creation of a game. They have to create it visually before it is even produced and have to have a hand in pretty much all stages of production to make sure everything is cohesive and aligned to the spirit of the work.
Concepts for art are often divided into different categories that way artists are not spread too thin in fields they are not masters in. The most often seen ones are that of character conceptual art, creature art, item art, and background and scenery art. Artists tend to have extraordinary skills in all of these but are often specialize in only one or two. The different art categories are linked with the overall themes of the game which are regulated by the Art Director who will make sure all the artists are working within the same parameters to get the best results.
Concept art is a credible piece of written work that is used for a variety of reasons to a multitude of audiences. The main audience of the concept art is the production and development team who are making the game. They use it not only to see what the game is going to look like but for inspiration. This is especially needed in the early stages of production where no one really knows how the game is going to look like yet except through the art pieces that they’ve been given.
Another way the team uses the art is for promotion. When they are trying to promote the game but the game isn’t polished enough to display, they will use concept art to publish their ideas and the emotions of the game. Concept art is also used by production directors to help pitch the game to potential publishers for funding to create the rest of the game. Sometimes developers even leak concept art as a promotional technique to increase the hype for fans of the burgeoning or established franchise. The development team knows the idea of the game they are making only in the broadest strokes when they’re first starting out. As Ryan Camu stated, “Maybe they know that they have to create a dark fantasy type game. They’ll know it’s probably going to be dark and gloomy looking, without a lot of rainbows or sunshine, but they won’t know exactly how it's going to appear while the artist knows there is going to be a a lot of angular features to the landscape and a very neutral color scheme encompassing the entire thing.” They use the concept art to create models and textures and base the objects of the game based off the pieces the artists created. The structure of the genre really varies based off what the artist is trying to do. Sometimes it’s just a beautiful piece of work used mostly to convey the theme of the game and inspire the developers, known as an illustration. Other times it’s a multitude of crude sketches trying to hash out the ideas of say, a character of the game, colored over with a variety of notes on how they should proceed with the idea. Sometimes, it’s final character sketches with creative writing specifying who the character is and what to have in mind when developing them.
Concept art for the development of video games is an integral genre of the industry and is the most important genre in my field. It elicits emotional responses from the team, inspiring developers and showing them a unifying idea to work towards. It sells the idea and is used throughout the entire process of production. It is a multifaceted genre that offers a myriad of uses for development and is crucial to a game’s creation.