What is concept art?

Concept art is the drawing before the final release of an illustration or idea; its main goal is to achieve a visual representation of a mood, idea or design. Concept art is used for many things such as films, games, animations and comic books; however that’s not all concept art is used for. Concept art is an important stage in games development; it helps a developer to think about the emotion and to see what something could look like, before the final idea is created and it allows them to see whether the illustration is ideal or fit for the final product.

The role of the concept artist is very important in the early stages of the game as they are the people who create the base ideas which lead up to the finished product. The concept artist would draw a wide range and number of sketches in order to then display them to the producer; this helps them see a number of different possibilities in the elements of the products and can choose the best solutions from it, after this the team can then come to an agreement on which is the best sketch to be put forward to be finalised.

Ultimately, the concept artist communicates through a visual language, in bringing to life concepts and ideas for objects, landscapes, characters or props.

Character concept art

This type of concept art helps to create and build a personality by creating emotion and decide on a look for a character in a video game. In the early stages of production and development these drawings are often preliminary sketches (however they can sometimes be coloured drawings) which normally brings up questions such as what type of clothing would be worn?  Are they a strong, quiet or aggressive character? These questions help the development team in the industry decide whether certain things are ideal or not.

Environmental concept art

Secondly environmental concept art is used in the games industry as it will help to see whether a certain world would be effective and ideal to create a great game that would immerse the audience into that world.

Depending on the location and the conditions it can alter the meaning of the game and how it would be perceived by the audience. This type of concept art helps to show the production team atmosphere, weather conditions, history and culture, showing this to the team helps them think about these points to come to an agreement about whether the art should be finalised.

Environmental concept art is a key element in games development as it creates an atmospheric feeling and mood for the entire game concept setting.

Prop concept art

This type of concept art can be quite complex and could come across as confusing to the production team because some props many parts to them in order for them to work; the concept artist needs to show how they work by annotating their work carefully. This means the artist will have to take into consideration that the artist will need to understand the mechanics of the prop in order to properly animate it correctly.

Props are majorly important to the player as they help them progress though the game; they are not just created to look good they have a specific meaning.

Key concept art (movement)

Finally concept art is concept art that displays emotion of a scene or frame that could potentially be added into the game the artist is working on; key concept art can also exhibit the colours, the angle and lighting that could all help create a successful scene. This concept art is very important in order to get all these points perfect; helping with the cinematography of the game so that the emotions are portrayed correctly.

Assassin's creed 2

Assassin's creed 2 is the second installment for the Assassin's creed franchise and is the sequel to Assassin's creed. It is a huge game and has sold over 9 million copies in May 2010 which received many positive reviews.

Assassin's creed is a quite a unique franchise as they create the world upon actual blueprints of towns and cities in the certain time period the game is set in; this means the concept art for this franchise is a little different to games such as Bioshock where the world is fictional and all the buildings and characters are also fictional.

As Assassin's creed is a AAA game, when it comes to preliminary sketches you will find none whatsoever. Many AAA games do this as the companies and development houses don't want to upload them online for two reasons; one is that the preliminary sketches are only ideas and are just simply thrown away and the second reason is that the companies would rather the public only see their beautifully detailed concept art than the rough sketches that were created in the early stages of development.

Assassin's creed 2 character concept art

This is character concept art for the character Ezio Auditore. This image displays a front and back illustration of Ezio; here you can see that the concept artist has drawn the character with a certain pose because this way the artist can portray more detail of certain parts of the clothing and weapon/s. However in some cases, concept artists will also illustrate side views; giving more different angles with more detail because this helps 3D modellers bring the illustration to life.

Ezio's robes are inspired by clothing that was worn in the 15th century and early 16th century. I know this as the cape is situated on one side of the character rather than covering the whole back. In this time period the cape was a fashionable item but could also symbolise wealth, an organisation, a family etc.

This concept art also shows off the hidden blade; an iconic Assassin's creed item. The hidden blade allows Ezio to kill his enemies stealthily or if he chooses to use it in regular combat also the blade is retractable so when Ezio is walking around no one can see it out in public; this makes the hidden blade a very useful and versatile weapon so it’s able to be used in any situation Ezio desires while no authority can see it in public. 

Assassin's Creed 2 environmental concept art

Creating environments in Assassin's creed can be different from creating environments in games such as World of Warcraft, as the developers have to create the cities and buildings to the same scale as they are in real life. The developers don't use fictional areas like World of Warcraft would were they create everything from their own ideas.

Here you can see some concept art of Giotto's Campanile, it is a part of buildings that make up the Florence Cathedral. It is the highest viewpoint in which Ezio can climb up to in the whole of Assassin's Creed 2. The Giotto's Campanile may not be fictional but rough sketches would still be made in order to create the detailed concept art we have below and for the 3D modellers so they can create the sketch in a 3D form for the video game.

Assassin's creed 2 prop concept art

When it comes to props in Assassin's creed 2 concept artists will have to have either knowledge of whatever they are going illustrate in that time period before they create their idea. Here we have multiple weapons from the 15th century and early 16th century. On these props you can see great detail upon the handles and all over the weapons which fits the time period well. Even though the artists will have to incorporate inspiration from the Renaissance they can still add their own ideas as well to create a unique look such as Ezio's weapons and hidden blade etc. The artist may add their own ideas to certain characters props in order to add the characters personality upon them. 

Preliminary sketches

As there are no Assassin's Creed sketches, which i have already stated why I have decided to talk about some examples about some preliminary sketches in other games that have uploaded theirs.

Here is a preliminary sketch of the Pip-Boy 3000 from the video game Fallout 3. The Pip-Boy 3000 was used by the player in-game to view their inventory, map, skills and other player attributes. The concept artist here has wrote on the sketch, so when it comes to animating the watch they will know how heavy it is which is wrote here, it says 'weighs like 5 lbs' this can help the animator know how the player would walk with it; without the writing the animator may think the watch should be really heavy or very light. This shows that sketches get the information from the artist to 3D modellers or animators quickly and easily.

Lastly is a preliminary sketch from an indie video game called Battleblock Theater. This preliminary is a key art sketch as it shows ideas on the movement and on the cooperation the artist was thinking about incorporating into the game.

This sketch shows how two players get up across an obstacle; one player jumps on the other and jumps again to get onto the obstacle, this player then leans over the obstacle with their hand out in order to grab the second player so they can get up too. This preliminary sketch also shows how an illustration can get across a point easily for when it comes to programming the game.

The first preliminary sketch is more detailed that the second as it shows different views e.g. the side and a cross section and has added colour; this is an enhanced sketch, this demonstrates more thought about how the idea will look like, whereas the second looks as if the artist has illustrated a quick idea in a minute and doesn’t give us any other ideas than movement. This artist hasn’t thought about what colours would be ideal for the game or how the game will be displayed; 2D or 3D. This shows that the first preliminary drawing is far more successful looking as it shows us more to think about before a final product is made. If the first illustration was a quick sketch it wouldn’t display anything important. However, even though the second illustration only shows us movement and nothing else, it does exhibit much needed information.

This third preliminary sketch is landscape art of an area in London set in 1666. In my opinion I feel this preliminary sketch is successful because it shows us a lot of different architecture that is very detailed so we can get a got idea of how this area could look. This may help the development team think about whether this area has a good feel and mood that will meld with the story well. 

I believe this sketch is also successful as the character illustration is drawn to a detailed standard; similar to the third sketch. However this sketch also is experimenting with colour as we can see with the splotches of colour to the left of the character. I feel this sketch is better than the third as it isn’t just showing us what the main aspect could look like e.g. landscape, character or object as the artist is also thinking of what will the wings look like or tail; displaying more thought.

From looking at preliminary sketches I feel I have learnt that you don’t have to draw an illustration or idea a certain way; it depends on what the artist is actually sketching. For example a key art drawing doesn’t need to be detailed, whereas a character sketch does in order for the development team to picture what the character will look like in the finalised game.