How to Concept Art?

>>3003339
Dude. You're probably not getting the job. You don't get what the position requires. Conceptual artists are hired for how they can think - ie. "concept", thus the job description, showing them you can draw and paint is a given. You need to show them that you can THINK, that you have the creativity, that you can work in whatever genre they need you too, and maintain a look and concept across that.

The stuff you're talking about is more appropriate for a character artist job.

You need to show them you can design the entire look of a game - the characters, the setting, the mood, the emotions, the action, the character of the entire game. You set the mood - everyone else follows.

Go ahead and apply, but you can't learn that and make a portfolio that will blow their socks off in a couple days. Use it as a learning experience and a free 10-20 minute interview to ask what they look for. If they have time.

>>3003447

Thanks a lot for answering! You're right. It's gonna be fucking hard and it is almost certain that I won't get the job. I'll be happy if I even get an interview. I'm still going to do my best and take it as a learning experience.

My current plan is doing two post apocalyptic scenes with sci-fi shit. Plot them out in blender and photobash the shit out of them (like Maciej Kuciara).

I'll do two characters. Alchemy->photoshop.

I'll do one vehicle. Zbrush->Photoshop.

That's all I've got time for atm.

>>3003447
Seconding this.

You sound like you have no idea what the job is. You also have no idea what you are. Are you a sci-fi prop designer or an all-round 2D sidescroller artist?

Maybe listen to some Feng podcasts.

I recommend hiring Tze Wei Foo to critique your portfolio. You can find him on LinkedIn. He'll take $150-$200 for a portfolio review over Skype. Keep in mind that you'll have some bank transfer fees too.

>>3003473
I've watched absolutely everything that Feng's put out. Just wanted a second oppinion. I'm unemployed now so I can't contact this Tze-guy. Thanks for the tip anyway. Shit. This is gonna be fucking hard! You guys are definitely going to be seeing me in the Draw Thread in the next couple of days... I'm more of a generalist. I have "some" experience in 3D and I've designed some shit for actual commercials in my country. Stuff that's on TV. Nothing too elaborate though...

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If you are this clueless in what you need to do in order to get a job at a AAA developer, then I promise you that you are so far behind that you might as well not apply. These are unfathomably competitive positions geared towards professionals that are already far in their career.

You are either really naive or stupidly arrogant to believe that you have any shot at landing a job at a AAA studio.

>>3003495
Become an illustrator then and pay the bills. Concept art is probably several years down the line and AAA studio don't hire unless you already have industry experience. Even with a personal recommendation from Feng they're wary to hire newbies.

/ic/ knows very little about concept art.

im a concept artist

you need to show the iterations and the versions. There is no scenario ever where you do one version of something, so your portfolio cant be "futuristic scientist" it has to be "futuristic scientist version A B C D" and they all have to be different but good. If you can do good sculpts to start your shit, show that of course.

It depends on what you wanna do, its harder to find a character job but creature design is a little easier. Environments are the 'easiest' to get into

ill stick around lemme know if you have questions

>>3003537
>>3003545

Thanks for this. You're probably right. I don't mean to sound arrogant or anything but I'm not completely clueless about this stuff but you're still right abput me. I lack a lot of the skills required and I hadn't really taken this stuff into account.

I was just looking for some new angles for this stuff. You definitely gave me that! This is why I love /ic/. No bullshit.

I'll see what I can do now in the time given. /ic/ doesn't have enough threads about getting work in the industries (concept art, illustration, fine art etc.) so if anybody has anything else to add to the discussoion I'm all ears.

>>3003576

Thanks for the tips! I have some breakdowns of some of the shitty shit I've done with Zbrush/Photoshop. I need more original design work and stuff. Portraits aren't worth anything

Pic related.

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>>3003586
(Forgot the pic again). It's really nothimg and I need to do actual elaborate character designs and I know that...

I'm no expert but i think the best approach is to have many examples in your portfolio.

Concept art is usually quick to try an idea or obviously "concept"

Having a big portfolio with many unique works increases the chance of when they review your work that they find something they like.
So naturally you're already shit out of luck if you only draw the same thing.

>>3003589
employers will probably not care to see the low res or lower subdiv etc, everything else seems fine. But yeah, dont do fan art unless its IMPOSSIBLY good. Think like, if you do this fan art, the people making the movie will want to hire you. If its anything less than that just do an original idea because you can get away with a worse piece.

his hand seems really gigantic btw but i think it looks nice. would like to see more of your work

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>>3003579
Can't tell whether this will work, but here's my personal gameplan:

I want to be an environment, prop and creature concept artist at Perblue.

I need about a month to finish running projects, then I'll gear my portfolio and CV towards them.

I'm still trying to figure out whether they prefer an all-round concept artist or one with a specialisation (environments, props, creatures, ...). I'm also doing freelance work with a startup studio at half my usual rate to gather references from industry-folks (fingers crossed). In interview process for a graphic-design project to plunge in the deep and force myself to learn it (I am so bad at it, I avoid learning it at all costs...)

Looking at their existing games, I'll make 2-3 projects that could be a follow-up or spin-off of their games and hire a mentor to critique my designs. If I can track him down, I'll hire one of their in-studio artists or directors as a mentor.

Once done, I'll apply again.
If they reject me, I'll still have +1 skillz & more industry experience.

>>3003589
This is quite better than I thought it was going to be, but it's still quite far from what concept art is. Like you said in the first post - this is illustration, not concept art.

>>3003576
>im a concept artist
In-house? How did you land your first job?

>>3003606
in house originally and now from home

i was an fx artist at a studio and wanted to be a concept artist, studied drawing and eventually showed them that i can do it and they gave me chances to do like half concept half fx on a project and then finally started giving full concept jobs

>>3003607
That's cool. It's damn tough to study besides a full-time job.

>>3003614
im probably not good enough to land jobs outside of my studio theres just a trust factor built up there. But i am getting better every week. It is very difficult, the key was to convince yourself that 30 min is enough. When it was 12 am and i got home and had a bit of a life and was like well i could go and get sleep, i forced 30 minutes and that turned into an hour or two. taking my sleep from 8 hours to 7 hours has made a big difference.

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>>3003595

Aye, thanks. The hand is the size is pretty much what it would be from that angle. It's actually smaller than reality in my final comp. I made a box that was representative of a human fist (pic related) and it was actually even bigger than the hand I have in the final pic. That's no excuse tho if it reads as too big...

>>3003600

Wait a sec.

>>3003604

I know and that's why I'm asking. I'm not completely shit and I know it (even though somebody's probably going to say that I am). I just need more concept stuff and I'm starting to realize that I'm probably not going to be able to fake it...

>>3003606

I'm also interested...

>>3003600

I'm just going to ad OP as my name from now on... Why do you want to work for Perblue?

I haven't heard of them but to me it looks a lot like Supercell and I did some concept work for their poster stuff when I was working for a production company (pic related). Is your style similar to that stuff or umm... Yeah! I dunno. Just asking.

>>3003620
i think the hand is from chin to hairline when its just normal, when its a fist it should be half that it seems like your fist is from chin to hairline. doesnt matter though, just keep doing your thing dont get discouraged and start writing down little ideas you have and then do versions of it. Youll have a good folio in no time.

>>3003626
this is cool i like this

>>3003630

Aye, thanks. The hand is a lot closer to the camera so I could get the Joker card to read better so it's obviously going to be bigger...

>>3003633

Thanks man! I'll admit that I had a lot of their assets to use for the concept which made working with this a lot easier. Too bad this fell through... It would have been a pretty cool thing if we'd done it to finish. I wish I was still working for them...

>>3003626
They seem like a really fun and energetic team. Company culture looks like it would be a match for me too, with random stuff like making their own beer. Not sure what I think of the open floor plan though?

Bonus, they're in Madison which is like a two-hour drive from my husband's family.

My style is not similar to their stuff. I just made good stuff and then I sat down to figure out why they rejected me twice.

>>3003655

Cool-yo. I took my art down just in case. I know I can use it for portfolio stuff but I just had to make sure that I'm not making anybody angry...

In the last company I worked for we used to make some shitty alcoholic beverages as well! Shit like that is so much fun...

I hope you get the job! People, especially on /ic/, often forget about the social side of thing. Like the value of being nice to people and having nice people around you. That shit is so much more important than anything else in your daily life IMO...

>>3003665
I feel oddly fond towards you now, anon. Wish you all the best in life & keep working hard!

>>3003589

All nice up to the last 2 images where you decided to mess it all up. It looks like everything is being sprayed with a layer of semen and spiderwebs. Sorry to put it so bluntly, but it's a serious error of judgement. The image with the plain black background would have been just right, focusing only on the sculpting and design.

- the two Christmas trees are so bright they draw all the attention.
- the splashy water drops look more like spiderwebs.
- the raindrops or whatever are noisy, overpowering and confusing, because it also looks like snow, or..the other thing.
- the warm ultramarine blue doesn't work well with the warm browns of Batman.

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>>3003677

Thanks for the crit bro. Yeah. I go overboard with that shit all the time. I need to stop doing that! My girlfriend pointed out the Christmas trees too. I never realized that they looked like fucking Christmas trees! I can't be fucked to fix it any more though. I feel like it's well below my current skill level but I posted it because it's the only thing I have proper documentation of. I mean the workflow.

I still think it's an okay representation of how I'd work on an image though. I can pull back the effects if necessary. Like if I had an art director and they told me to do that.

Here's a large version of the final pic. I'll do better next time...

>>3003579
Let's be honest - most of /ic/ is geared towards drawing porn, and selling that for a couple of bucks online. This site in general is the worst for any kind of real industry talk - there are far better forums for that, like cgsociety.

Concept artist is like art director positions - everyone thinks they can do it, few can. I've worked as an art director, and learned the job by working under one for years.

Creative work is experience, and who you know. A portfolio is very important, but also anything that shows you can work under pressure, deliver on time, and on budget. The pipeline starts at concept, and the art director can't start building a project until you deliver. Communication is crucial, too - you may have to take verbal descriptions from devs, and make them into images. This is a rare skill.

Like any industry, unless you're a savant or lucky, you start at an entry level position and work your way up, or move to new companies. You make connections, get recommendations, and a resume of success, along with a solid portfolio of published work. Internships are also useful. It's the same for anything, in design, illustration, animation - you don't walk in the door with no experience into a leadership postion. Pixar isn't going to hand their conceptual art for a multi-million dollar movie to an untried new hire with no professional experience, just like Bethseda or Blizzard isn't going to hire someone with no track record for doing the heavy lifting for a multi-million dollar game.

Being honest, if you even get an interview, I'll be surprised. I've been in a hiring position creatively before, and it sounds like your submission will just get a thank you letter, there's no point in speaking to you. That's why I'm saying, if you get in the door, enjoy the office tour, and ask as many questions as you can. Look for forums where people in the industry hang out, start meeting people.

>>3003589
Yeah, this won't get you an interview. It's good work, but you should look up conceptual artists and see if they have their portfolios online, to get a look at what a company is looking for. They may be looking for someone for a world building project, like Fallout, and your character design isn't applicable. What if they're hiring to do a sandbox Witcher type game set in the 1800's. what does your portfolio show, that you can do that? What kind of games does this company make?

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>>3003694

Thanks! You brought up some really good points. The guys with money don't have to "settle" with anyone. They'll take the very best they can afford and I agree with that. It's like a beautiful lady... They'll get into bed with you if you're handsome/charismatic, smart, rich or seem like you'd be a nice guy to hang with for extended periods of time... UNDER PRESSURE.

I still think that showing a lot of potential and being a super cool/nice guy can go a long way in this business. That's how I got my last job.

I'll post back if I even get an interview. I'm mostly pretty good at making a "good impression" on people, as narcissistic as that sounds so I hope I'm good enough to land that interview.

It's cool that we have people like yourself who are actually working in the industry (not just tentacle porn) on this god forsaken forum. I still think that /ic/ is the fucking best if you want some honest critique and shit...

>>3003710
>I still think that /ic/ is the fucking best if you want some honest critique and shit...
Not true at all. The WIP threads in the CGsociety forums are very honest and in depth, along with many others.

The only reason I come here is to help the few trying, to get them away from the memelords here, who are trying to make art into some wierd masochistic fetish.

>>3003699

Yeah, you're probably right. Even if I don't get the job you guys have given me some great ideas on how to further my portfolio. I know most of the concept artists around today and I'm definitely not up to par, which kind of sucks...

The company I'm applying for (now) makes semi futuristic, realistic games. I won't tell which company it is but you can take a guess...

Even if I don't get the job I'm going to use the knowledge I got from this thread to make an appealing portfolio so I can get more jobs...

>>3003717

I need to check that shit out. Used to browse conceptart.org back in the day but that's dead now and I fucking hate stuff like Level UP.

>>3003682

Sorry for being harsh. the model itself is great, and it's just a pity to mess that up by adding so much distracting stuff.

All the effort you put in adding all that nice fine detail, pores, leather texturing ,stitching, etc. is all just lost, which is a damn shame.

>>3003732

Aye. There ain't no need to be sorry man! This is all about learning to become a better artist! Thank you for being honest and putting in the time so I'll be able to make better images in the future.

>>3003710

If I can give some advice when you go on an interview:

If they're going over your portfolio, and are asking you questions, do not be afraid to ask them what they think of it and what they would do to improve it.

I used to do some job interviews at the studio where I work, and I always liked to give some positive feedback on portfolios. Even if you do not get hired it is always nice to go away with something useful.

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>>3003745

Thanks for the tip. I'll do that. I got turned down for a mobile game job a couple of weeks ago because all my stuff is so realistic and spooky.

I sent them a "thankful" email asking why I didn't get the job and the response was basically: "your stuff is too realistic and spooky"...

I hope I can get some proper feedback if I do get the interview because the last guys didn't even have my portfolio open when I was talking to them... I also have stuff like this (pic related) in my portfolio so I found it weird that they thought it was too realistic and shit...

You can't please everybody... I'm probably just gonna focus on the spooky/realistic shit in the future and try to build more "interesting" designs and stuff... Mehh... This stuff is hard...

>AAA gaming company
If this is your first concept art job or you have no industry experience, you might want to aim lower. Apply everywhere, not just the top of the industry. Small companies are a better shot for you. A nice way to get into concept art is also to not go in as strictly a concept artist. Specialized roles usually go to very experienced artists. Smaller companies for example, like people who are good jack-of-all trade types that can do multiple roles. Concept artists aren't always highly paid super specialized guys, sometimes they're just a 3D artist who so happens to be able to paint and the studio needs some concept art so they get the guy who can paint to just quickly churn out some stuff. Don't constrain yourself to strictly being a concept artist, especially if you like 3D and don't mind doing multiple roles. Find a studio that suits you and your goals, and work your way up into specializing. Personally, I think your specialization is your ultimate goal in your career, you aim for it after you get your foot in the door. Trying to specialize right off the bat is going to make things harder on you. Just my two cents. Bear in mind that everyone has a different experience, so you might hear the reverse advice as well.

>>3003750

Ah, yes. Another tip.

- Do not automatically expect the people who give the job interview to be able to look beyond a specific style or look, and judge solely on skill and experience.

It sounds trite, but you'll have the most success if they see things in your portfolio that matches closely to what they're looking for. That, and do some little research on where you're applying, the type of audience they aim for.

>>3003757

That's some good advice. I sent my portfolio into about 8 of the smallest companies in my city and I got an interview but I didn't get the job. I'd actually prefer a smaller company so I could grow more naturally as an artist. I'd like to learn all aspects of game development in time so yeah. That'd be even better but the pay is better in these huge companies...

>>3003764

Yeah.That's just a huge fucking problem... I don't want to make a separate portfolio for every one of the 20 companies I'm gonna be applying for. I don't even have enough pieces to do that anyway.

This shit is just so fucking hard. You need to have all kinds of shit. I've got cartoony stuff, commercial stuff (for some TV commercials in my country), concept shit, fan art, spooky monsters, studies... I don't know what anybody's looking for. I fucking wish I just wanted to be a lawyer. That shit would just be so much simpler! You just hand in the diploma and your references (I have those too btw) and you're done. Fuck this shit!!!

Being unemployed and broke also makes you depressed and cynical (and dressed like a fucking hobo). I wish I'd picked an easier industry... Or well, no I don't. I love this shit...

>>3003822

I'm just gonna be anasshole and add this image. Next to the finished one... Or not. Thanks any way! Kind of looks more bad ass!

>>3003822
>>3003863

I'm sorry. I was at a bar while writing my last message... What I meant to say was:

Thanks for doing this. I'll be an asshole and I'll be adding this next to my finished piece just because I'm lazy and you did all the work and I couldn't have done it better myself.

Thanks guise! I won't bother you guys anymore unless I get the job interview! I'll be adding all my shit to the draw threads and stuff just like normal people. This thread has been extremely fruitful to me. I hope it helped somebody else too. Wehhh.... I don't normally post a lot of shit here. Maybe I should.

>>3003589
Where have I seen your work before? /3/ or 10K Hours on Facebook? It's good stuff.

>>3003863

If you want to be a concept artist please delete that fucking image from your work. Fan art will instantly get you blocked.

On your 3d work, it is actually pretty bad to be honest. If you post it on /3/ you might get a better breakdown for why it is bad. Your facial anatomy is all wrong. You should look at doing some of Scott Eaton courses.

Good luck getting a job in AAA company, unless your 2d work is really good I don't see that happening.

Also, I would stop applying to companies that you do not have work that is like theirs or you will end up getting blacklisted.

Like how the fuck is that Batman a piece of concept art, that is just a bad illustration. Also, it cheating as fuck, he has a mask on so the hard parts are covered.

>>3003682
How did you do the splashes of water? Are they just premade PS brushes you downloaded?

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>>3005057

Nahh, just PNG images I took from Google (pic related)... Just placing them on coherent places in the image and painting in some of them with your basic round brush... Nothing crazy. Just draw the rest of the fucking owl sorta thing.

The image I added is just some of the photobashed elements I had. Hope this helps...

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>>3005276
>>3005057

I took 10 minutes out of my alcoholic schedule to do this. Hope this helps...