Contextual study (Unit 12)
What is my specialism?
My specialism for the second year will be 2D art, environment and background art as well as character art. Over the course of the first year I discovered a love of background and environment painting and design over the course of the first year, during my FMP for the first year I had the most fun with my environment piece, both designing it and creating the final piece! Originally I thought I would only want to go down a character driven route but I would like to do environments too.
Investigate your chosen profession and identify the work flows used:
2D art has a lot of layers to it, there are loads of paths to go down and loads of different ways you can do art. It has a specific workflow involved that designers use to create the best product possible in the end.
The very first step of workflow that I do is understanding the brief I have been given and do research on the theme before going straight into the project. This is known as initial research. My research may include mindmaps, word association, mood boards based on words on my mind map and word association.
(Mind map for FMP 2019: Forgotten)
(Word association for FMP 2019: Forgotten)
I then move onto initial research, this is broad research of my theme, I often use words from my mind map to research. Broad subjects can include environments, culture, games, lifestyles etc. They need to be broad so when I have to create ideas I have a lot to work with.
After the initial research I move onto initial ideas, for this I take a select amount of my mood boards (The ones I like the most) and present my plan for what I would like to create for each one if I was to choose that board. I present colour palettes and examples of work to demonstrate to peers or assessors what the visual style will look like in an easy, effective, and of course visual way. I have to write about what I am planning on creating and how many I plan on creating. If needed I can write a simple plot summary about the characters. I then choose the project idea I like the most and present the idea to an assessor for it to be approved. Once the chosen idea is approved, I move onto developed research.
Developed research is like initial research only it focuses around the chosen idea only. If I am doing characters I research clothing, hair, accessories, weapons and items that fit in with the theme. For environments it depends on what the environment is: If it is a street I would research architecture of the era, country and the theme it focuses around. If it is a forest I would need to research trees, leaves, mushrooms, rocks, flowers, anything you could think of when it comes to what you would find in a forest. I would research style for both environments and characters. For my forgotten project, I researched the overall Disney aesthetic and specific artists at times (For example, Brittney Lee) to figure out what I needed to do and for help overall. As well as this I read books that have information on subjects relating to my project that could help. The type of research I have listed here is called secondary research, where I am collecting material from sources that aren’t my own.
Mushroom mood board thumbnail for FMP 2019: Forgotten)
I like to do primary research too, this is where I do my own research, this could include taking photos of me in clothing, photos of trees, leaves and close ups of bark and crystals. It helps since I can get a better feel for what I am looking at or am wearing, it can help when I am actually drawing out the clothing or environment.
Primary clothing research for FMP 2019: Forgotten
After I have done my developed research I move onto ideas generation, this is the design process of the product I am working towards. I work closely with my developed research, as well as this my peers and tutors give feedback when needed.
There are many ways to design a character or environment, the methods include:
- Photobashing
- Silhouetting
- Sketching
- Colour ideas
Throughout all of my projects I have used all of these methods, one way or another, I like to use different methods rather than just one. Normally I start off either sketching or photobashing (Silhouetting for creature design). The first thing I like to figure out is the structure and basic look of the character, this includes body shape and face structure, I do this before clothing, accessories and items. (We will look at the environment process later on)
Tourmaline face structure design with original design annotations for FMP 2019: Forgotten
After the structure of the body and face is decided, I move onto outfit design and colour ideas for this. I came up with a quick and effective way of doing this: What I would do is sketch out a bare body base of the character with their face, take it into photoshop and draw their outfits onto there bodies. After drawing out the outfit I begin to do colour ideas, I do this the layer directly below the outfit sketch. I do a few colour ideas per outfit, keeping in mind what kind of character they are and how colour can express them.
Tourmaline final clothing design with chosen colour idea for FMP 2019: Forgotten
That is my process for character design. Environment design is a little different as I have smaller assets to work on.
The first thing to figure out is what I want the environment to look like, art style wise andlayout wise. Even if I already have a style idea I need to know how I can achieve it.
Style and look experimentation for FMP 2019:Forgotten
I draw out various assets to figure out what ones I would like to use in my scene. Often times this work is done traditionally using markers, pens and pencils.
Mushroom designs for FMP 2019: Forgotten
I design these assets to experiment with the structural look of what I could do with the smaller elements of the scene (Rocks, flowers etc.)
After this is done I plan out the layout of the scene, this is done traditionally with thumbnail sketches, I refer back to the visual elements and tests that I have done as well as research to help me create the designs. I do annotations along the way to help me and people viewing my word to understand what I want to achieve.
(FMP environment thumbnailing 2019)
After this I choose which environment I like the most and move onto colour ideas. For this environment my colour ideas were based off seasons. I did my colour ideas traditionally (Looking back I would have done it digitally if I had a working laptop at the time). Once the colour ideas are done it’s just choosing what one I like the most and why.
(FMP environment colour ideas 2019).
Investigate the historical influences of your chosen profession:
The term “Concept artist” was first used by Disney in the 1930s, as they began longer animations where the characters would need to remain on model throughout the whole film when working with a larger team of animators.
When video games first started to be developed in the 1970s the programmers were also the artists that designed the visual elements of the game. This could explain the simple and minimalist approach in visual design in early games. Pong is a good example of this, with it’s simple visual design.
During the 8-Bit era of 1983 to 1995 (Also known as the third generation of consoles) visual progression was being made, there was a lot more creators could do visually in their games with their pixel art assets. When doing concept art the artists would have to consider how the character or environment would work in sprite form. Take this piece of concept art from Shigeru Miyamoto for example. He already had Mario’s design sorted for promotion material (From his original Donkey Kong game) so he had to make a sprite from his design that would be recognizable and work.
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/239324167677186168/
Like early animation concept art was often done traditionally with pens and pencils. Sprite concept art often used grid paper.
The transition to 3D in games changed the way a lot of characters, environments and games in general were designed. 3D space had to be taken into account when designing. The reason Charels Zembillas designed Crash without a neck was to make his geometry les complicated for designers. As more games moved over to 3D, concept artists had to design and draw characters that would work and function in a 3D space.
3D games became more advanced with what kind of designs could be used in game, art styles could be experimented with a lot more. You could have high and low poly games, you could have realism and stylized games, there was a lot more diversity in games. Concept art could be done traditionally, but digital art was beginning to come into main view for concept art. Mario galaxy used both traditional and digital methods for their concept art.
Twitter.com. (2007). Twitter. [online] Available at: https://twitter.com/forestillusion/status/1041809826127282177 [Accessed 18 Jun. 2019].
Digital art only grew from there, in a way it killed off traditional art for concept art with is very understandable. Digital art is easier and quicker to use due to the short cut methods that can be used in art, making it very good if you need to keep up with a deadline in a studio. Tomb Raider (2013) had fully rendered digital concept art that many modern games today use. More studios moved over to digital art for their concept art, initial sketches however are often done traditionally still.
It is interesting to see how concept art has evolved over time, from minimalist shapes made by the programmers to fully rendered digital art created by assigned artists that are working in large teams.
Investigate the contemporary influences of your chosen profession:
There are many things that have happened recently that have impacting the concept art field, with how characters and environments are designed, to how work is done and what can be done.
By far the biggest thing to happen is the rise of political awareness in games. People have picked up a lack of diversity in games when it comes to women, race, sexuality, etc. Gaming has always been a male dominated entertainment, even in the 1970s, it was mostly boys that would hang out in arcades. People like Anita Sarkeesian (A controversial figure in the Games vs politics debate) has brought up social issues in games countless times. Many still debate how big of an issue this is, some are trying to sort this problem out. Concept artists are now aware to add more people of colour, women and different body types. Characters are becoming more practical and less sexual design wise, designs are beginning to reflect the real world. This is one of the things that has changed in recent years.
What artists have been able to design has expanded greatly due to the advances of 3D technology, designs can be more complex and realistic without worrying about technical limitations. Crash Bandicoot was intentionally designed without a neck due to technical restrictions of 3D modelling at the time. It made things easier for the designers and modellers of the game.
Imagine if he was created today? Today’s designers would have used very different principles for a Crash design to please modern audiences without nostalgia. They would have followed trends with clothing, less exaggerated facial features and more focus on textures.
Textures can be added to the models to show various materials on a character or in an environment.
Art styles for specific age restricted games have changed a lot, children’s games are stylized (Mario, Fortnite, Animal crossing ect.), they are designed to be bright and colourful in order to attract an audience. Games for an older audiences are designed to be more realistic visually. Some adult games have stylized looks (Like “Borderlands”) but the main rule is that stylized games are for young audiences and realistic games are for adults.
Environment wise they can be larger due to hardware advances, because of the advancement of hardware we no longer need to worry that much about crashing a game due to how large we design the environment. Environments are often huge in games, a big leap from 2D scenes and corridor style games.
A good example of a corridor game is the original Crash Bandicoot game, corridors didn’t overwhelm the hardware but didn’t make the scene feel empty. Corridor levels were a smart way of working around this issue.
Like I said earlier, digital art has also taken over traditional art for concept artists. This has made the process of art easier, quicker and a better way to produce good quality work (finished rendered pieces) rather than only using pens and pencils. The work is easier to imagine in a 3D space because of this. Some people still do initial work by hand but it is mostly digital now.
Roxanne's Development Blog (Second year) 