The Concept Artist is motivated by the Designers, who provide the context and the structure within which all of our artwork is created. This is much different from other forms of art which are more freeform and limited only by the desires and imagination of an individual artist. Concept art is a thoroughly collaborative activity which is derived from Design and constrained by the physical requirements of the game play. The task is to visualize the worlds described by the designers and communicated through their design documents. Another way to say this would be that the Concept Artists creations are fundamentally story driven. “Story” in this broad sense just means that the game play (and concept art) exists within a broader dramatic structure- that there are characters, environments, events, conflicts and a set of physical rules which govern it all.

For exciting game play this provides an important ingredient: motivation. If the player is immersed within a world of believable characters and dramatic conflicts then the game play becomes personal and emotional. There is a Who, What, Where, and most importantly, a Why attached to the gaming experience. By incorporating these story elements games are borrowing from the strengths of older mediums like literature and film, and putting them to their own use. Games become immersive, interactive storylines within which the player engages in dramatic conflicts resolvable depending on his skill level.

Virtual worlds begin with Design and are visualized by Concept

The task of the concept artist is to give visual life to the worlds and story threads imagined by the Designers. For the concept artist the design documents are much more than inspirational. They are the bed rock from which the entire visual edifice has to be built. The concept art can only be evaluated and in a sense can only really exist within the context of the Design. It is Design that tells us whether a particular environment or character ought to invoke fear, isolation or a sense of comfort and safety. An alien building isn’t just a random element created to fill a gap- its part of a story structure and as such it needs to communicate the emotional role of that element. If a player’s quest leads him through a frightening place, then on the visual side we will use every trick in the book to inspire the frighteningness of the place, including manipulating color, perspective, eye level, atmosphere, lighting, textures…etc.

Working with Design

Our relationship with the Designers at Spacetime is thoroughly collaborative and, we hope, synergistic. The design documents are created as a continually evolving work in progress. In the same way that our work is initiated by the written design docs, the designers may be motivated by visual elements produced in the Concept Pit. Visuals can suggest new directions in storyline and character development. Since the end product is a visual medium Design is able to use the paintings and drawings to spur creativity on their end.

A typical workflow within the concept pit looks something like this: Our Visual Director, David Levy, works with the producers and designers to create a list deliverable concept art elements which are required by the milestone. These can be characters, clothing, environments, creatures, effects or anything else which might need a visual treatment. This gives us a clear idea of the number of elements we are responsible for within a specified amount of time. Work is divided up among the concept artists based on our respective strengths as well as our desire to improve our skills in a particular area. An artist without much character experience is given the opportunity to also contribute characters, since that’s the road of growth for him. The goal is to reach the milestone with the highest quality work, all the while emphasizing the artistic growth of the team as a whole.

Once the workload is divided we immerse ourselves in the Design docs. The point is to understand how the element we are working on at the moment relates to the whole in terms of emotional impact and logical structure. We ask the questions: What is the role of this element in the game? What sort of gaming experience are we aiming for by including it? What is its emotional angle? How can we take the dramatic role of this element and push it with visuals while remaining faithful to the physical structures required by the game play?

It’s during this initial brainstorming that the give and take with design is most apparent. A design doc gives rise to visual concept, which inspires (or fleshes out) the original document. With much running up and down the hallway the collaboration between our departments produces an exciting first look into the future gaming experience. We are looking forward to showing off much more of the results in the future!

Best,

• Billie George, Concept Artist

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 4th, 2007 at 3:34 am and is filed under Concept Team Blogs, Developer Blogs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.