Concept Art
Primary
Concept Art is where a Concept Artist produces and shows the image that they are imagining in quick sketches that lead to a final design. Concept Art isn't easy, you can be given different tasks by different employers to do a certain task that might be completely different from what your used to working with.
Secondary
Concept art is a form of illustration used to convey an idea for use in (but not limited to) films, video games, animation, or comic books before it is put into the final product. Concept art is also referred to as visual development and/or concept design.
What You Need To Be A Concept Artist
What you need ot be a Concept Artist is to be creative, understanding, to push yourself, to work hard, to create what is being asked of you, to not just be able to do character creation but environment creation and to be able to use different tools/brushes/pencils and software. I have noticed most companies say to be a Concept Artist and to work for them, the requirements would be "all round excellence in design and digital illustration", "an ability to generate quick concepts and realize ideas", "have a very creative and imaginative mindset with a good eye for composition and colour", "have an excellent and up to date online portfolio", "examples of self-initiated projects available to see", "an understanding of multi-platform and the online world", "adhere to and follow existing styles and brand guidelines", "be able to take direction and critique and work in a team", "thrive on working in a fun and fast moving environment" and "a sense of humour and be sociable and approachable".
To be a Concept Artist for most companies they require you to be knowledged of different technical softwares, most companies require these different softwares that a Concept Artist must know how to use "Adobe creative cloud", "Illustrator", "Photoshop", "Flash" and "Digital Illustration".
To make companies hiring Concept Artists to really notice you and make them want you, these are the things that would help you a lot with most companies, "Games UI experience and game logo creation", "Digital painting", "Experience in working with developers to realize designs as they were intended", "After effects", "3D max", "Maya" and "Online gaming experience".
Games UI Experience and Game Logo Creation means they are looking for someone who is familiar and is understanding of what a UI is in a game, UI means "User Interface" so basically companies want someone who can make a user friendly "UI" for their audience to keep the attention of their audience when playing their game and how the game will do certain tasks when the player presses certain buttons or does different commands. Game companies want someone who is familiar and understanding of what "Game Logo Creation" is and the certain software which must be used to create a good and professional standard "Game Logo" to represent the producer’s game.
Digital Painting means that when a company are hiring Concept Artists they are looking for people who are well knowledge on the different software which can be used for "Digital Painting" this means that the Concept Artist needs to be familiar with the different tools which are offered by different software’s, in most companies when hiring Concept Artists they will say what software it is that they will be asking you to use when working for them. Its important to be able to use "Digital Painting" as the paintings that you will be doing could be used for a games background or could even be one of the characters within a game as this is seen as the form of art within a game. You need to be familiar with different inks, oils, acrylics, paint, watercolour and lots more as you can be tasked to create different concept art in different styles which could be requested by the producer to make their game look like a certain genre etc.
Experience In Working With Developers To Realize Designs As They Were Intended is important to be a concept artist as the producer of a game is looking to hire a Concept Artist who is familiar of how it is like to work amongst other people as this is a crucial step within creating a game because you don’t want e.g. two Concept Artists creating the same bit because one of them Concept Artists don’t really talk about who's doing what with the other Concept Artists, its important as a Concept Artist to understand what type of designs are being requested of you because you can’t go and do what you want unless told to because if you do this it can cause you to lose your job or slow the production down of a game, its important to create a piece of work as requested by the producer as it was intended and to try your best not to let the producer down, it’s important to socialise with each other as the game needs to look the same throughout and can’t just randomly have different bits that looks completely different because of one of the Concept Artists.
After Effects is a huge and popular software which most companies use now as this provides the ability to use keyframes and to work with animation or to e.g. create how a character will look when casting a certain attack or how it will look when its walking etc so it’s important as a Concept Artist to have this knowledge as it will really help you out a lot to gain a good job within a games industry, if you are familiar with this software and can produce work as a reasonable pace then there should be a place for you as a Concept Artist as this is a major step within a game that makes a game look beautiful because you don’t want to play a game that just doesn’t feel right because e.g. when you jump you do a major high jump when its supposed to be e.g. a realistic game.
3D Max is another modelling software which could be asked for you to be able to use when trying to get a job as a Concept Artist as its important that all people that work as a Concept Artist within that gaming industry company are familiar with the different tools and how each tool works.
Maya is a huge and popular modelling software which nearly all successful gaming industries use as this is a crucial step to actually creating the look of a character before sending it off to e.g. Maya, its important as a Concept Artist to have this software under your belt and to be understandable as to what this software is and the different tools it provides, this software allows you to create each individual little polygons of your character or weapons or backgrounds etc. so it’s important to be able to use all the tools and lighting that it provides to give a realistic feeling to the character to be able present it to your producer.
Online Gaming Experience is very important as a Concept Artist if you want a job in games industry as the producer of a game doesn't want to hire someone who has no knowledge of gaming as the producer wants a Concept Artist who actually knows the feeling that you get from playing an "Online Game" so that they can produce that feeling for their customers, so before trying to get a job of a Concept Artist, play a few "Online Games" or do some revision on it so that it should be able to help you create a friendly feeling to your work.
Different Stages Required To Make A Game
There are 10 different steps that are required to make a game, the first step is "Concept Development", the second step is "Research", the third step is "Integration", the fourth step is "Prototype", the fifth step is "Prepare A First Draft Of The Rules", the sixth step is "Game Development", the seventh step is "Blind Testing", the eighth step is "Editing", the nineth step is "Production" and the final step which is the tenth step is "Feedback".
Concept Development
Concept Development is were you as the creator of the game think of what you want your game to be, what you want to have in your game, what genre your game will be and who your game will be for etc, normally the creator of the game will pitch his/her idea to the rest of the team, then the team will give feedback to the creator of the game and the creator will go back and then change or not change weather something will be added or removed, once final decisions are made, the creator will then send his/her team to go do "Research".
Research
Research depends on the type of game that is being created, if the creator is e.g. making a wargame, they might want to introduce "Education" secretly into the game of history and what happened in the past in wars etc, its important when the creator and his/her team are doing research to find the same pattern of work as the game would be extremely un-professional if each part in the game had different e.g. graphic styles then it would get bad "Feedback" as the graphic style wouldn't be consistent throughout the game. Its important when doing research to find out what type of game you want to create, once you have found that out, its important to find out what type of graphics would match that genre. It is also important to do research into what gamers actually enjoy to play the most then apply that to your work.
Integration
Integration is where you take all of the research material and your knowledge of game mechanics and integrate it into a prototype game, this could be e.g. getting all the drawings of environments, objects and characters and thinking about where you want to place them, then when thats done the first part of the "Prototype" will then start, this is also when the creator or his/her team will then think about how the e.g. character will react to its environment or certain objects e.g. "doors".
Prototype
Prototype is where you will actually start to create what is known as the first game before its published to the public, the prototype will only be complete when its good enough to be classed as an up to date game, then the creator and his/her team will then try the game out or the first level to give feedback on what needs to be changed or added etc, this is known as basically a "Beta" which the team and creator will focus on and to see if the game gives a good enough feeling to keep the attention of the gamer. This is also known as making the character move, how it moves and how it looks when it does a certain task e.g. jump, attack, use object etc.
Prepare A First Draft Of The Rules
This is were the creator will try to produce the picture what is in their head or apply the sence of feeling they want to add to the game for the team to add to the game to give that feeling for the gamers and how the game will work e.g. if your character can run up building etc.
Game Development
This is were the game developer and his/her team will play-test the game, this means to basically play the game that they have currently created and then to change certain bits within the game or add to it or even re-write the rules within the game, this could be e.g. the how high the character could jump etc. normally the developer will receive a lot of abuse for all the changes that will be done as people are more focused on just playing the game than getting it completed. In this step normally you will receive questions from your team about your game which you will then answer which will give your feedback to your team or may change your mind about different things within the game. basically this step means to re-write over the weak spots within your game and make a perfect balance so the gamer doesn't get bored half way through the game then quits.
Blind Testing
This is were the developer will send out his/her prototype of the game to some random people without their presence, so people who know nothing or very little of this game will get to see it for the first time and give feedback on what you currently have and not about the different steps that you did to get there, were as your team would be more likely to give stronger feedback as they are aware of everything that goes on. The only problem with this step is that it could lead to a lot of it being leaked out on the internet before the release date which will take the excitement of the game away from it, as it could be e.g. streamed for everyone to watch that person play the prototype/beta.
Editing
This is were the results will come back from all the "Blind Testing" so then when the results have come back with what your audience think is wrong with the game, the producer will then change it or make minor changes to fit the requirements of the audience or to fix any problems that the gamers may have come across, when this is being done the creator will normally get some new eyes to make these changes to his/her game as the previous people who made the game could get confused by the old game mechanics or different steps were as new eyes would not know anything about the past with the game.
Production
This is the biggest step out of all steps, this is making sure all the art-work is fully complete, all the previous steps are fully complete, proof reading the coding is very important as you dont want to publish it and then not be able to make a full game mechanic change as it would be too late, the rules need to be applied to the game and made sure they are completed, basically meaning everything must be done, up-dated to the end and then when everything is as perfect as the producer thinks it could possibly get then it can be released to the public.
Feedback
This is the final step where you will get feedback on your final game at where you went right and where you went wrong so that when you release a new game you can make sure to try and avoid them problems or even try and change certain things within the game that is currently out by doing e.g. updates.
What Are Typical Staffing Costs To Create A Game
To be able to create a video game, you will sometimes have just a singular person creating a game if its a game e.g. like an "Indie" game for e.g. a "phone" or "Ipad" but if creating a proper game that, the typical staffing costs increase over the years as each employer in the company has their own unique special job to do for that company. The average price of producing a video game slowly rose from UK £1–4 million in 2000 to over £5 million in 2006, then to over £20 million by 2010. Mainstream PC and console games are generally developed in phases. First, in pre-production, pitches, prototypes, and game design documents are written. If the idea is approved and the developer receives funding, a full-scale development begins. This usually involves around 20 – 100 person team of various responsibilities, such as designers, artists, programmers, testers, etc. An average sallary would be between £70,000 - £125,000 depending on how skilled and what position the employee is in.
What Are The Legal Bodies Involved In Publishing A Game
The legal bodies that are involved in publishing a game consist of when employing a potential employee that they must read out a contract that will tell them what they are signing themselves into and what roles they will be required to fill out, each employee must fill one of these out and put their signature so that if an employee tries to sue the company the company has more protection against it but also its a contract to say you are obligated to perform each role and behave as to how it says in the contract etc. The legal bodies involved in publishing a game are such things as involving copy right and making sure that all your ideas for your game are unique and your own as if you used someone elses you can be sued by the original creator of this, and to make sure you involve the different companies that help you create your game involved in your game weather that be in the credits or at the beginning of the game etc. This basically means to involve everything so that you can not offend anyone, use any sort of copy right unless given permisson by the creator, perform and establish the roles and to make sure its unique and not offending, basically meaning all this has to be done so that when creating your game, you will be safe to publish it. Its important as a producer to make sure your game has a "Pegi" included onto it, this means to set the age of who your audience is for, there is so many different age rating systems but this sets the age that the audience has to be to play the game e.g. if the game is 18+ this means on average, there will be a lot of nudity, violence, swear words etc, but if a game is a PG this means anyone can buy the game as its suitable for all ages and appropriate.
What Obligations Do Developers Need To Be Aware Of To Release A Game Onto The Market
Its important as a game producer to make e.g. the title of their game well known instead of making it well known after release to gain a huge income on the release of their game instead of after it, so its important to involver things such as adverts for your games, or adding things such as pre-order bonuses to gain more money from customers as it gets them already excited for the game. Its important that if you do make a trailer to only show final art screenshots or final clip videos of the final maps or characters as you wouldn't want to mislead your customers as this could lead to them being let down then bad reviews so if you made a game afterwards there would be more of a chance of less customers. Its important if you have a website for it not to leave it the same till release of the game, as it needs to be changed and updated to keep possible customers satisfied as this could encourage excitement in the fan base.
