THE PROCESS OF WORKING ON CONCEPT ART IN GAME OUTSOURCING

Some time ago you asked us to tell more about our concept art work process. Well, our concept artist Andrey Naumov prepared for you a detailed article on this topic :) We hope it will be useful for you!

STEP 1. EVALUATION

It should be noted that work on any task, whether it is creating a concept art, 3D-modeling, writing code, marketing - everything - is often the work of several people, and always - a complex system, which includes many variables. Because of this, when there's no specifics, it's very difficult to accurately determine the time cost of a task, and what skills will have to be involved in its implementation. As with any other system consisting of many elements, an error in one of those elements leads to an error in the others - and so on up the chain. Even small inaccuracies can accumulate and cause the initial estimate of time to complete the task to differ from the final result by 10-15%.

Therefore, first of all at the first stage we try to get as much information as possible from the client:

- What type of output material is needed? It can be a purely technical concept-design with several perspectives/angles, or a concept-design which has a potential of being used in promo materials, or maybe the project is only in its early stages and a concept-art/illustration is needed to pitch it to potential investors

- Are there any designs ready to go? And, if so, are they a sample of the desired outcome, or do they require further polishing?

- Will it be an isometric, first or third person view?

- Does the project use some kind of kitbash, for which it is desirable to fit the concepts to?

- What are the specifics of the engine? Perhaps the character for some reason can not have long hair, because then it will fall on a long cloak, which has modular elements. This example is exaggerated, but sometimes ignorance of such things is the reason why you have to adjust your work.

- And so on, so on, so on...

STEP 2. PREPARATION AND CREATION OF THE FIRST DRAFTS

Now, given the answers formulated by the customer to the questions described above, we look at what tools we need to use at this point:

- Would it be faster to make a blockout in 3D first?

- Should we start from a shape or a linework?

- Should we use photobash right away?

All of these points depend, not least of all, on the individual artist. But in general the skill set of the modern concept artist is very broad and you can freely choose from a wide variety of tools.

Then begins the process of collecting references, clarifying questions that arise on the way - although if you've done the first stage of work qualitatively, there shouldn't be many - and creating the first sketches. In general, the word "sketch" in this case, is very conditional, because the output is not necessarily supposed to be a set of lines / shapes that roughly represent a subject of concept. This can be an overpainted 3D-blockout, or photobash - it all depends on the task, the client and the artist.

After the client has received the material from this stage and given his feedback, begins:

- Either Stage 3 - technical development of the selected sketch(s)

- Or Stage 2.1 - sketch correction, recombining elements, the creation of additional materials

It depends, in fact, on the feedback you get. Let's first turn to Stage 2.1, because we should also talk about it. And so as not to talk about some ephemeral task, now and later we will be guided by this order: the concept-art of the character in a fantasy setting for the game in the 3rd person.

STEP 2.1. SKETCH CORRECTION

What can be corrected or recombined in the sketch? For instance, it can be that on concept option A the customer liked the face of the character, on option B - the body, and on option D - the armor. So we need to combine all of this. And the client also wants us to create an additional armor concept based on option D, which would be, say, some kind of bonus for a pre-order or something like that. Therefore, presentation of your concept also plays a big role: if the result can be immediately imagined as it will fit in the game, the customer may get some idea, which will give the opportunity to go deeper into the final concept, make more options and so on. Or it could be that the client, seeing that some detail or image from the concept does not fit into the stylistic framework of the project, may decide to clarify his original plans.

STEP 3. TECHNICAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE SELECTED SKETCHES

After step 2 or 2.1, we begin the technical development of the selected sketches. So, if the sketch was black and white, it gets a few color scheme options (this sends the concept to a kind of mini-feedback, so the client can clarify which scheme is preferable to use). The drawing is then "polished." We are creating:

- Different angles

- Facial customization options - hairstyles, scars, tattoos and so on

- Emotions

- Single elements that are also drawn from different angles: for example, a character's sword in the game can be slightly transformed by some mechanism, or light up, or glow, and so on. Then the sword is drawn separately, and all of its states and angles are illustrated, if it is necessary of course and is not isolated in a separate task of props-design

Also, footnotes may be done separately for materials, references may be gathered for the 3D department and so on.

STEP 4. PREPARATIONS FOR SENDING AND SENDING

On this step we clean up the psd and 3D files (if there are existing and necessary). The primary goal of this cleaning is to make it easier for the customer and people further down the pipeline (for example, the 3D department) to navigate through our content. So, each file is given the correct name, several concept sheets are assembled into one, masks of certain elements/patterns are prepared for ease of subsequent work in 3D and so on.

CONCLUSION

To summarize the entire process described above, we can of course label it as purely approximate. After all, tasks can be very different, the projects to which they relate may have been in existence for a very long time, or just starting out, plus each project may have unique constraints or conventions. It happens that you have to jump between phases, go back and sometimes invent new ones. However, this is a good way to avoid the blank page effect - you start not from scratch, but already have in your mind the path to follow. Don't be afraid to experiment - in creative work you have to be ready to invent new approaches and solutions :)