Friday 20 July 2012

Game Concept Art: All About Concept Art in Game Design

Game concept art is all about the basic and starting points for a really wonderful and creative game design. It basically sets the tune of work. Here's all you want to know about game concept art.

Concept art is a term specifying the basic sketches and frameworks created for a particular concept involving models, designs or certain settings which need to be represented visually. It's a visual art medium through which an artist creates the basic framework and then develops into the full-fledged final product.

Concept art is specifically important in Game Design. Games are designed based out of story boards and characters involved. This means game concept art begins with character sketching. This is the first step.

In most games, character sketches define the way the project begins after the basic premise of the game has been outlined. Game concept art brings multiple levels of character sketches and thus formally begins the “artistic” element of a game.

Idea of concept art, and the very term, has appeared since the 1930's when Disney used it in their manuals and documents. To this day, concept art has been the term that signifies the basic and initial sketching of the game characters and designs.

Game concept art begins with simple and rough sketches of the characters and other aspects of the game. Refinements to these are then made, which result in a more specific sketch, that includes special features that stand as unique and being to define the character well.

Upon further refinements and edits, the details of the characters are drawn crisply giving a finishing look to the characters and the settings within a game concept. This is finally transferred to the software to enhance and totally revitalize the concept art which began as mere sketches on paper.

Game concept art takes the lead in the gradual development into a full-fledged design or concept which is used in the final renders. This is perhaps why it is given as much importance as the final stages. And therefore, it involves a lot of trial and error before a concept art is taken up for review and refinements.

Technology has helped a lot in the growth and ease of game concept art. What would take days for early designers and artists now takes just a few hours. Richness and realism are being made a part of animation and game designs to such enormous extents that were previously impossible. Large-scale collaborations, unification and simultaneous developments are also being made possible through technology.

From Adobe's Photoshop to Maya and more, software has helped artists reduce time spent on refinements on paper – and instead, taking the software's help, improve the quality of refinements and adjustments. This has naturally led to more time, more productivity and more unique creations.

Keeping oneself updated about the latest gadgets and technological stuff is as much important in game concept art as is the basic knowledge and groundwork about sketching, shading and adjustments.

Even with all new technology, there's nothing that beats the creativity of the human spirit and the strokes of a talented hand. That is why, Game Concept Art, as an industry, requires a lot of creative heads and hands – something that has helped the career boom in the animation industry. From simple story boarding to detailed sketches of individual characters, game concept art has become a very lucrative work and a creative passion.