HA4 Task 1

Concept art
Concept art is a vital asset to the gaming industry, it helps to plan out ideas. Without it games would not be as creative and imaginative as they are today. Developers concentrate on three main areas of work with art and they are anatomical art (character), environment art and object art, these three areas create games and are the main focus of what game art is built around. When it comes to creating concept art there are three stages that it must go through:

Exploration

Exploration is an initial idea of a concept, it starts off with small sketches and are very basic. The ideas presented in exploration concept art can be changed massively depending on the feeling of the development team. If they feel like the character doesn't match his/hers personality or traits or the environment doesn't look like it fits into the game then exploration allows them to experiment around until they find an idea that they like. During the exploration stage no detail will be involved when creating the art as this could waste time for the developers if they feel like the character that was created doesn't match their expectations or the game, if time is wasted then the game will come out in a lower quality.

The aim of the exploration side of concept art is all to do with speed, artists need to churn out ideas rapidly so that they can lose any weak ideas and choose strong more desirable ideas that will match their idea of how it should look. However, a lot of successful games will not showcase their early stages of art work and try to keep the exploration side discreet as this does not promote the game in any way, instead they will keep the drawings and ideas locked away to hardly be looked at again.

Exploration is also used not only to create characters and environments to the liking of the artist but also to the ideas and liking of the creative director as they are the people who came up with the written ideas of both characters and environments and thought of the initial ideas in their heads meaning that they already had a vision on how certain things should look. It also allows 2D artists to have a backbone with their work, this means that they can reference the exploration art to make sure that the characters aren't off model and to help keep the visualisation stay within the boundaries of the characteristics. They will also make quick simple sketches for inanimate objects within a game such as a weapon.

Below will be a showcase of many exploration art from a range of games:

Shadow of the colossus

Shadow of the colossus is a big game made for the play station 2 and has a large fan base. As you can see within the four images below that not much work has gone into detail, especially upon the character. They are made up of quick drawings and show case the messy aspects of exploration in concept art.

Above is an overview for one of the battle grounds against a water giant, as you can see it is not very detailed except for the cliff sides that surround the water.

Here is another sketch of the main character discovering an island.

Bioshock

Below is concept art for the original little sister from bioshock. As you can see they quickly sketched up some weird version of squirrels as the initial idea for the game. However, this idea differs from the final model from the little sister which everyone knows, if you look at the second picture you can see the concept they used for the final model of the little sister instead of these squirrel models.

Uncharted

Below is a sketch from the first uncharted game on the environment, as you can see they experimented with trying a jungle temple environment.

Ratchet and Clank

Below is a showcase of an object from the ratchet and clank series, it is a sci-fi ship and showcases the experimentation that insomniac had on their intractable objects.

Below is also a concept sketch for two weapons called the RYNO and alpha disruptor from ratchet and clank: tools of destruction.

Below are also concept ideas for both ratchet and clank themselves from the original game, they started off with a reptile for ratchet but slowly moved into a mammalian type animal.

They also started off with clank being a mechanical lizard but slowly transformed him into a more blocky human type model.

Approval

Once the exploration of concept art is complete then it will go to the next step which is approval. This is where the artists choose the best ideas they have come up with in their sketches and polish them up little to give them more detail, they will concentrate on developing the drawings instead of creating fast paced sketches. However, they will not put too much detail into it like colouring as the partners/publishers they have may or may not green-light the character. If it is green-lit then the artists will continue to work on the drawings giving them bigger detail and moving them over to the promotion stage. If the drawing is denied then they will go back to the exploration stage.

The reason they go from quick sketches and give the drawings a little more detail even though it could be denied is because they need to sell the idea of the character to their partners/publishers and if they received quick sketches with very little detail then it can differ very highly from the final product still, approval is needed so that the partners/publishers can have a rough idea of how their game will turn out.

If we go back to the shadow of colossus then we can start to compare the environments, enemies and drawing details from the exploration stage to the approval stage.

Shadow of the colossus

This is the same environment as the picture from the exploration section except this is a view from the side of the area and not a birds eye view, this drawing also include more detail of the area with more objects placed into the water and the cliff side having more detail included as well.

This is the main character fighting one of the colossi, as you can see he has had more detail improved upon himself compared to the drawing from the exploration section, it also has more detail in the fact that it can show some underwater effects.

This is a drawing for malus, one of the colossi that you will verse in the game, there are small details that differ from this drawing to his final model but they kept the same concept around him.

Jak and Daxter

Here is a detailed drawing of an area in jak and daxter 1.

Here is a detailed drawing of three versions of jak from the second instalment.

This showcases multiple drawings of vehicles that can be driven in the second Jak game, some of the drawings are altercations of others while some match the final model. As you can see faintly they also drew Jak onto the vehicles to see how he would look driving each one.

These are some of the weapons used with the second and third instalment of the game.

This is an environment drawing that depicts how the second game would look as the player would explore it.

A drawing from the first jak and daxter game of inside one of the houses that the player can explore.

Final Fantasy VII

The city of Midgar from FF7 is an explorable city, the drawing shows the entire city.

This is the main character Cloud drawn in three different ages.

This is one of the main characters known as Barret.

This is another main character known as Vincent.

This is the layout of an interior room that can be explored within FF7.

This is a weapon known as the sister ray.

Promotion

Promotion of concept art is where the concepts drawn and fully detailed with colouring and perfection are used to raise the public awareness about the game and to raise hype over it, without promotion art then people wouldn't be able to get a visual representation of what the game will look like and how it will be to play. By this I mean numerous games could use the same concept of genre or basis but without the visual promotion they would not be able to get a feel of how the sci-fi will look in itself, by hyping a game up and saying it is sci-fi could leave it open to be any type such as steampunk sci-fi, horror sci-fi, the 1970's vision of sci-fi etc. If these sub genres are mentioned then it doesn't answer the question of style. This could leave the game to be a realistic style, cel shaded style, anime drawing style and more. Without promotion it leaves the consumer out of a portion of information and as mentioned before, leaves the hyping to that of a minimal level with people only being able to discuss what they heard and not what they saw.

Promotional concept art is the easiest art to find out of the trio, this is due to developers wanting to spread their polished art showcasing their skills and raising the hype for not only their latest instalment but for future instalments that they may create.

Shadow of the colossus

Above is concept art of the environment that you will traverse across, as you can see it is quite natural scenery and open.

Above is concept art of one of the fights against a colossi, it showcases the barren environment and non colourful look of the colossi.

Jak and daxter

Above is environmental art for one of the levels in the first jak and daxter game.

Above shows the characters, a weapon and the environment featured in the third game of Jak and daxter.

Above is a combination of environment, characters, enemies and more for a cancelled 4th Jak and daxter game.

Above is the different models for daxter in the cancelled jak and daxter game.

Above is another environmental art piece from the cancelled jak and daxter game.

Borderlands

Above shows the procedure of the four characters from their approval stage to their promotional stage to their final models used in game.

Above is concept art of guns used by enemies in the game.

Above is concept art of an environment featured in the second borderlands game.

Above is concept art of the main villain from the second borderlands game.

Above is an enemy type from the second borderlands game.

Above is another environment that is explorable within the second borderlands game.

Below is a website filled with ratchet and clank concept art, it takes you through a look of the games from the playstation 2 generation and has explanations about each concept along with showcasing the different stages of concept art.
http://www.insomniacgames.com/ratchet-clank-10-years-of-concept-art/

Sources:
Multiple games:
http://www.creativeuncut.com/game-art-galleries.html

Bioshock:

http://bioshock.wikia.com/wiki/Category:BioShock_Concept_Art

http://bioshock.wikia.com/wiki/Utropolis

http://www.gamesetwatch.com/2009/07/little_sister_concept_art_harv.php

Ratchet and Clank:

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/388857749053323708/

http://ratchet.wikia.com/wiki/Ratchet's_ship

http://en.ratchet-galaxy.com/artworks-ractod.php

http://ap.ign.com/news/58014/original-ratchet-clank-concept-art-revealed

Shadow of the colossus:

http://www.neoseeker.com/nico/concept_art/

http://teamico.wikia.com/wiki/Shadow_of_the_Colossus