There is a wonderful word in the title of this article - "create". Yes, the artist is endowed with a rare gift - he can create a character, a person with not only a unique and most unexpected appearance, but also a pronounced character, an original biography.

Introduction

Dedicated to A.G. - the person who changed my
attitude towards sketching.

The process of creating an interesting character is exciting and difficult at the same time. Why is it fascinating - I think it's understandable. Well, the difficulty lies in the fact that in addition to all the nuances that should not be forgotten during the drawing process (such as proportions, anatomy, composition, shading, chiaroscuro), it should be borne in mind that there are usually quite a lot of characters in the game. And this means that you need to come up with new interesting things over and over again, characteristic hero and do it quickly. It doesn't seem like a big problem! But still it exists. In a fit of desire to create a hero - interesting and incredible, it is not enough experienced artist runs the risk of wasting all the “raisins” he has saved up on the very first of the characters. But by the twentieth sketch, the gloomy shadow of a creative crisis and the risk of self-copying begins to loom obtrusively behind the unlucky creator. This, of course, is not fatal, but it is not desirable either, so it is best to implement your ideas rationally. The character development process is multifaceted and each of the artists here has their own approaches to solving this problem. How many people - so many ways of their own, individual inventing a hero. Which, however, does not exclude the possibility of using someone else's experience in order to more effectively organize own work. In this article, I will share some of my thoughts on this.

Where do you need to start? The most logical thing is directly from inventing the image of the character. But I will make a small tactical digression, and remind you of necessary knowledge drawing, composition and anatomy. In general, the article is intended for people who can draw, but repetition, as you know, is the mother of learning. So, if there is an opportunity and desire - open your Bammus and look through at your leisure one more time. In the absence of Bammus, you can get by with Barchai or Kuznetsov. As a last resort, any anatomy for artists you can find will do. Still, a lot, especially in the field of styling, can be done by deforming the natural shape and location of the muscles.

Returning directly to the development of the character, I note that it is very useful to create a drawing beforehand, which I call a mood study. This usually happens in the following way. You already have an image of the character in your head. You seem to imagine it, but somehow very businesslike, almost in the form of a sketch drawing for modeling. But if you depict some situation with this character, endow the picture with certain emotions, then various details generated by just these emotional images will appear in the work like soldiers in a parade - a beautiful confident formation! ;)

Click on the picture to see an enlarged image.

Based on the above creative sketch of the elf, a drawing was created for modeling. When you know exactly what you need to draw, you spend half as much time on a sketch! :)

Do not forget about the styling of real analogues. Sometimes it is enough to slightly distort the natural forms - and you get a wonderful character! After all, to come up with something more interesting than what nature itself has already come up with is always quite difficult.

A very good and clear example of stylization according to a natural analogue can be, for example, a praying mantis. This insect has more than once rescued science fiction artists by suggesting the most interesting solutions to them.

Based on a realistic sketch of a praying mantis, I made a sketch of a monster praying mantis. Based on this sketch, it will already be possible to make a full-fledged sketch. By the way, a concept artist must have knowledge and understand such things as the psychology of form and color. In fact, this is a topic for a separate great article, but to be very brief, any form of organics consists of some simple geometric shapes (which is the essence of such artistic direction like constructivism). Each geometric figure evokes a psychological association in us. For example, a cube - stability, stability, monumentality, heaviness, brutality. Applicable to characters - something rather unagile, but very strong and heavy, inevitable. Triangle - aggression, desire, fear, dynamics. The ball is instability, mobility, although, in general, this is a rather harmless form. Colors have similar characteristics. By manipulating such a set of psychological influences, one can create vivid images that will give the player the impression you intended.

Here is another example of stylization of a natural counterpart - a platypus.

Here I used a slightly different method than in the case of the praying mantis - this is a cartoon stylization, since it is most suitable for such an animal. The arcade look of the character is given by the distortion of proportions, the lack of sharp corners, sharp lines(After all, the platypus, in addition to everything else, is a waterfowl).

And yet, probably, the most favorite field for activity is people. Convenient and affordable material that is always at hand! :) There can be a great variety of stylizations of a person. For example, you can create a cyborg girl, such as the Iron Lady shown in the picture below.

Use your imagination to the fullest if you need to create a disgusting monster character. Remember everything that causes you fear, disgust, and the like. negative emotions. Draw it all! Remember the paintings of Hieronymus Bosch or Pieter Brueghel - brilliant artists drew creatures of the depths human soul, her secret thoughts and desires. Collected in these pictures a large number of interesting characters. It will never be superfluous to study them, while, of course, you should pay attention to interesting solutions. It is quite possible that the paintings of these artists will become a source of your inspiration. True, here, perhaps, it is worth saying that, by creating different creepy monsters, you need to know the measure. And not only in terms of aesthetics, but also the psycho-physical impact on the viewer. Let me give you an example from my own practice. At one time, I drew a quite laconic character, but already in the course of work, I felt that I didn’t like something in him - in terms of the perception of the image. These were sensations similar to those experienced by a person who is rocked. When the character was completed, it turned out that everyone who looked at him became ill, his head began to hurt. The reason was, albeit not intentionally, the abuse of various graphic illusions, composition techniques, as well as unpleasant, albeit beautiful, color solution. Good luck, I deleted the picture. I sometimes regret it :)

Last year, a friend infected me with the theme of concept art - designing characters and environments for computer games. I got carried away, started watching streams and reading interviews with concept artists, as well as articles about the game development process. And I really wanted to try it myself.

I have already told my story of my relationship with drawing on LiveJournal: I had a rather long period of passion for anime, when I drew anime characters in giant batches, I really liked the process. But then I was small and stupid, and thoughtlessly approached the process - I just painted something. Therefore, this time I decided to approach the development of the character in an adult way :)

This is one of the most big projects this year: I plan to complete the concept from start to finish - i.e. as a result, I will have a character in color. I have no idea how I'm going to do it! I have zero color knowledge with a stick :)

Today I want to talk about the first big stage character development - looking for a silhouette. This topic interested me separately, because. this is working with the form in pure form. You don't even need to be able to draw here :) And the artists promise that it's a lot of fun.

I had no idea where to start. In my head of a typical analyst, there was some kind of idea of ​​the process: I thought that first it was necessary to disassemble the character in as much detail as possible - to determine who he was, what he did, what world he lived in; write his biography to better understand the character.

To begin with, I answered myself the questions “who?”, “Where?” and “What is he doing?”. Baba pilot. The argument here is simple: I love to draw women, I can’t draw men (and somehow I’m not trying to learn yet), I love aviation and everything connected with it (although I don’t understand anything about it). I chose the steampunk world because I like steampunk.

I deliberately avoided fantasy and sci-fi characters, because they are very big choice options for both the character itself and the design. I decided that for the first time it’s worth taking something simpler :)

After that, I made an attempt to write a biography and deal with the world in which my character will live. In search of information on how to do this, I even climbed into the development area board games! And also learned a lot of interesting things about steampunk.
At this point, I still haven't drawn anything. And in general I was at a loss, because I felt that I was starting to bother too much with the world and the character - it was not clear to me how deep to dig. After all, you can dig indefinitely.

In the end, I decided to watch a few streams with concept artists to understand how normal people fit the process. And I found something interesting! None of the artists bother in advance with the history of the character. Usually, at the start, it is enough for them to know which world the character belongs to (fantasy, sci-fi, etc.), and what the character does (mage, hunter, warrior, etc.). If the character is drawn from scratch, and not according to the specification, then this information is enough to start. In general, looking ahead, I will say that the process of creating a character from scratch is an endless search, generation and embodiment of ideas in a drawing. At every stage.

From the streams, I also learned why the silhouette is so important. Artists say the silhouette is 70% of a character's recognizability. It follows that the silhouette should contain key information about the character - character (kind, evil, shy, flirtatious, etc.) and occupation (mage, shooter, hunter, bun seller, etc.).
In general, after watching the streams, I stopped bothering with detailed biography, with a thorough study of the world, and began to sketch. And I think that this is my personal breakthrough, because I could sit in the preparatory stage for a long time, trying to work out everything and everyone in advance :)

First of all, I sketched the pilot from my head, without looking at the references. I did this on the advice of Ivan Smirnov - he suggests using his head first.

I made this sketch in a couple of minutes at work :) For some reason, I wanted to dress up my character without fail in a coat, which is not very functional for a pilot. However, digging into the references, I found out that the first pilots really adapted a leather coat as outerwear. And later this coat turned into a legendary flight jacket :)

Then I looked for references to find out what real pilots look like. I deliberately googled out-of-date pilots - I looked at the clothes of pioneer pilots and at the pilots of the first world war.
My task was to find out character traits pilots in terms of form. After studying the references, I identified the characteristic features, in addition to the jacket and glasses: baggy pants, jackets can be in two versions - warmer with fur lining and just leather (warm twist is more voluminous, will affect the silhouette), thick gloves, big boots. All this was explained quite simply: the first aircraft did not have a covered cockpit or it was leaky, so the pilots were forced to dress very warmly.

I translated it all into silhouettes. They looked sad. At this stage, I have not yet thought about the pose. My task was to make such a spot in which the pilot would be recognized.

In the picture, I signed my thoughts that guided me when choosing a silhouette :)

So, I settled on the second option - it seemed to me the most characteristic. And then I stepped on the first rake - I began to deal with the chosen silhouette. I completely forgot that I took only a preliminary step - I determined the “archetype” of the pilot, some elements without which a pilot is not a pilot :) And the most interesting thing is ahead - the search for a characteristic cool silhouette just for my character. At such moments, it is good to have some kind of step by step plan- to see the picture of their actions as a whole, and not to roll by inertia, as happened to me.

However, I managed to get useful from this rake :)
I asked myself, “How can I improve the chosen silhouette?”. I learned a lot of information from streams. It all comes down to working on the form. Photoshop tools "lasso" and "transform" - our everything :)

Formwork is magic! Increased some element, reduced another - and the silhouette looks completely different! I really liked it.
But that's when I realized that I was doing something wrong. Firstly, I expected that finding the silhouette and working with it would be a longer process. And more fun, I guess. Secondly, I looked at this silhouette, and it seemed terribly boring to me. It was then that it dawned on me that I was in a hurry, and that the search for a silhouette had not even begun. Instead, I immediately went to work on it. But, in fact, at this stage I had what? Some base - set required elements for the pilot. What I previously called an archetype.
But I got an idea of ​​what can and should be done with the final silhouette further :)

Realizing my mistake, I began to give birth to ideas - this process cannot be called differently. I had a stupor for several days: I could not come up with any new silhouette options. Either I was upset because I think too narrowly, then because I chose a character that, in principle, does not allow many variations - too simple (unlike, for example, a magician).

I got out of the impasse thanks to my whining: at work, I complained to a fellow designer about my creative crisis, he suggested that I try to build on character. Take, he says, as a starting point, for example, the fact that your pilot is a nyasha. And so on - for different characters.

I already had some idea about the character of my character. But since earlier, I tried to think through his biography in detail, I got a little fixated on the fact that my character is kind, open, and so on. Following the advice of a colleague, I cleared my mind - gave up on my detailed ideas about the character of my character, and sat down to draw, keeping only the "woman" and "pilot" in my head.
And it helped! I began to try on her different tempers and sketched a couple of options at work during a break.

And then at home I translated everything into silhouettes and added new ideas. It turned out as many as 5 options!

After a few days of stupor, it was a real breakthrough :)

These options didn't seem to be enough for me. Artists in their streams painted 35 pieces at a time. I also wanted to. I even remembered the advice from some stream about how you can diversify the form - add foreign objects, new atypical forms. But what can be added to the pilot? There was an option to put a cigar or a pipe in her hands. But somehow I didn't like it. In short, I again fell into a stupor. I watched another stream - about styling and color. This is information for future stages of work. But at least she did something useful.
A few days later, an idea suddenly struck me. I went to bed, intending to go to sleep early, but my brain decided that it was the most best moment to think. And he gave me an idea, amazing in its simplicity - to add a scarf to the pilot! I was so mad at the genius of this idea that I jumped out of bed, ran to a notebook and quickly sketched the idea so as not to forget.

I decided not to bother anymore with the search for a silhouette (I reconciled myself, yes), I chose the silhouette of "nyasha" unexpectedly for myself. Added her scarf and self-confidence. And I started working with the chosen silhouette. I've compiled my thoughts into pictures:

Option 10 seemed the most successful to me. It was chosen for further work on the character.


What can I say in conclusion? I received a lot useful information and experience in a relatively short period of time. I was convinced that it is best to gain knowledge on some specific tasks.

If anyone is interested, I spent only about two weeks on the silhouette - I did it almost every day for 1-3 hours after work. It is too long. Sometimes I feel like I'm not moving at all. But now, while writing a post, I estimated the amount of work done - quite a lot for a person who is developing a character for the first time.

I also concluded that I bother too much where it is not necessary. My consistency and perfectionism often get in the way. In the case of the silhouette, I somehow won it by forcing myself to stop preparing thoroughly for work and just taking it. Looking ahead, I’ll say that life teaches nothing: I continue to successfully attack this rake in the further development of the character :)

I really like the process itself. New experience everything is so interesting. Although, it can’t do without suffering: I constantly encounter difficulties, tk. I can do little.

But I learned a lot of useful keyboard shortcuts in Photoshop! And I remembered how great it is to draw on a tablet. Previously, somehow I was not friends with him, but then I just picked it up, and it went. After all, it's just another tool :)

That's all for me. I hope you enjoyed it and didn't die reading this mountain of text :3

Project development can start with the development of a variety of elements: someone first writes the script, someone writes the program code. The authors of the game at the intersection of genres "Cosmofront" started with concept art.

In the first part of the article, programmer Dmitry Kukharev and designer Stepan Kukharev talk about the difficulties they faced while creating the game world.

To bookmarks

about the project

Cosmofront is a game in the SpaceSim and RTS genres. It also has elements of RPG and FPS. We are creating a project with a little reference to the 1998 cult game Battlezone, so we decided to use the same mixture of genres, which for some reason has been neglected by other game developers.

The defining genre is SpaceSim. Most The player will spend time driving a hovership, be it a tank, an attack aircraft, or some kind of landing craft. Control of such ships will be arcade (WASD + mouse). We decided to follow the traditions laid down by the Battlezone developers in this regard, and will not take into account many of the laws of physics in the game.

The second main component in the game will be a real-time strategy. The player will be able to build buildings on the go and manage an army of units without leaving his ship. We figured out how to significantly improve the strategic component - it will differ in many ways from the one that was in Battlezone. The main difference is glasses instead of scrap. The player will receive points for everything: the destruction of enemy equipment, the completion of items from the task, sabotage, and so on. It is the points that the player will exchange for materials for building the base and units.

It will be possible to get out of the ship and control directly by the pilot. In single player, there will be missions dedicated to such a mode (for example, capturing enemy bases).

We also added an RPG component. Much of the game will now be tied to the pilots. Each will have a name and experience. You are unlikely to assign a pilot who specializes in driving tanks as an attack aircraft (destruction of buildings) or a guard (perimeter protection). They will gain experience, so you as a player will have to cherish them.

There will be no more barracks. The death of all pilots will mean a lost mission. It is possible that the recent missions you will be left with a few veterans who have gone through the whole game with you.

The action of the game will unfold in the future - in the 22nd-23rd centuries. By this time, humanity will have visited all the planets and satellites solar system and begin to master most of them. On the closest and most important (Moon, Mars, Europe, Titan) colonies will be built, on others - outposts.

There are two sides: West (European countries, USA and others) and East (Russia, China). Their equipment and buildings are different, but as such there will be no war between these parties. Hostilities will take place between the corporations (for example, the transplanetary LunaProm from the East and the Solar Industries Corporation from the West) of these parties and their private armies. Also small sabotage brigades will participate in the game.

Conventionally, we divided the production of the game into three stages (in order of how they will be implemented):

BUT) Multiplayer game without RTS. At this stage, a deathmatch online battle mode will be implemented, they will also contain elements of tactics. For example, in one of the modes we will add the ability to assign a flight commander who will issue orders to other players.

B) Multiplayer game with RTS elements. At this stage, the entire gameplay of the Cosmofront game will be implemented.

AT) Finally, Single player game. Here we will add single-player missions and, in fact, the plot.

In addition, we plan to create an online database of players, where their rating and various indicators, such as the experience of pilots in submission, will be stored. Thanks to such a base, a veteran of the game will be able to fully feel his superiority over a beginner.

Project concept art

Concept art in the gaming industry takes special meaning. game developers in early stage faced with the need to create as soon as possible sketches and layouts of scenes or game characters in a certain style, which will then be put into production. On the basis of concepts, models, textures, mechanics, effects and other game entities are created.

Concept art saves time and at the same time it is a powerful tool for creating the world. Without it, developers will not get a coherent view of the created world: the concept in the head, and the concept on paper are completely different things.

The history of the search for a concept art artist for our game project begins, oddly enough, from the very moment we decided to start developing the game. Right now we have gained some experience, but at that moment, instead of experimenting with prototypes, trying ideas, seeing how they work, we immediately started looking for an artist. After reading a lot of articles on the topic of game development, taking a course on game design, I realized that the development of the game was not supposed to start like this. However, we started looking for an artist and succeeded on the third try.

Our first find was the Vietnamese Hoang. Not really understanding how to draw up a technical task, we ordered to draw a hover tank. The results were encouraging, but our edits were never taken into account, so we were left with broken trough. However, half the tank turned out to be good.

For example, the tower, it seems to me, was a success. There is something in it that we would like to see in the game: we ourselves could not explain what, but Hoang caught it. But the platform did not withstand our criticism. Perhaps we made a mistake at the stage of selecting the forms of the future unit and tried to fix everything when it was already too late. Any object in the game should have an interesting shape. There must be some feature that will make it memorable.

Any object in the game should have an interesting shape. There must be some feature that will make it memorable.

One way or another, after two not very successful cosmetic edits, the artist, tired of our comments, refused further cooperation with us and disappeared.

We continued our search and found Fedor: a young student of the architectural academy attracted us with his portfolio. An additional plus it turned out that he could and model. Initially, the order was to make concept art of two units: a tank and a turret (security unit).

Fedor started famously: literally the next day he sent about 10 sketches of how a tank could look on the battlefield. We didn’t really like any of them, but it was not scary, because the next day he sent the same number. Not understanding how to work with an artist (I still don’t really know how to work with an artist), I chose a more suitable one in the hope that Fedor would correct the shortcomings along the way.

But I was wrong. First, he started modeling immediately after the sketches, bypassing the concept phase. He explained this by the fact that, in fact, he does not know how to draw concepts, and usually his sketches immediately turn into models. Secondly, Fedor practically did not understand what we needed. He was okay with criticism, but after the corrections, it still didn’t come out what we wanted. Realizing that we were moving in a completely wrong direction, I suggested that he stop at the current result and move on to the turret.

Things went more fun with the turret. Fedor drew interesting sketches, we made some comments, after which he began to model it in detail. Here, in fact, I understood why this approach (modeling instead of drawing) is completely unsuitable for the concept art phase.

If you've ever modeled, you know how high the cost of error is in the early stages of model building. If you have half-made a model, and then the customer asks you to change some small detail in his understanding, which is actually the basis of your model, you are doomed. FROM highly likely you will have to start over. If you, of course, agree to correct this defect. That was the problem.

The model of the turret that the artist created did not turn out the way we would like to see in the game, and for all our requests to change some things (for example, the size of the guns), Fedor offered subtle changes that did not solve the problems. But, nevertheless, the model, although not quite the one that would suit us, came out impressive.

In principle, we could continue to work with Fedor, but as it turned out, he significantly changed the prices and we could not afford to order something else from him. I had to throw in the trash what will never be put into production and start from scratch. On the early stages have to start often.

The point of a concept artist's job is to deliver the right result at the right time. Luckily we found Alexei - talented artist, who writes in a technique that personally appeals to me greatly. to his work (subscribe!). Alexei worked the way we imagined it from the very beginning. Starting with sketches with a minimum of detail, he figured out exactly what we like and what we don't. As refinement different issues, added details to the sketches, eventually getting closer to the final result.

These drawings clearly show the progress in creating the concept of the tank. It is clear that much was limited by the contract. We couldn't make endless edits to his sketches. But it was for the best - so we quickly found an option that we liked.

Sometimes the extra freedom of choice only complicates things. Maybe this is just our case. As a result, both we and our subscribers liked the tank. in social networks. We decided to work with Alexei further. For the very first version of the game, we will need about a dozen units, which Alexey is currently actively working on, and he has already finished with the attack aircraft ( heavy tank to destroy buildings and bases).

And with a guard. The guard is the reincarnation of the turret. We decided not to use Fedor's variant, considering that it is better when the same style can be traced in all units, and this can only be achieved by giving the drawing of all concept art to one person.

When we discussed the pilots, we wanted to find an artist who would draw them in costumes and with weapons in the style of our game. This task turned out to be even more difficult than the previous one. We were lucky again - we found the artist William, who decided to work on the concept of characters for a game about confrontation in space between the USSR and the USA.

I immediately drew attention to his work as soon as he posted it, and they became popular. Surprisingly, he drew and created real characters with his own characteristics, almost what we needed. It remained to invite him to join our project.

At that moment, Alexey left our project - he got a job at Mail.ru. And more recently, Dmitry had a daughter.

Tools we use when working on a project

From the very beginning, we decided to communicate on Slack, created tags to discuss graphics, other projects, references, social media marketing.

The game itself was decided to be made on the Unreal Engine 4 engine, immediately abandoning Unity. The most difficult thing was to synchronize projects between programmers and designers. The 3D people worked in their own 3D modeling package as they saw fit.

Eleonora Abdrakhmanova

Eleonora Abdrakhmanova, a graduate of the Concept Art course, shared with us her impressions about the school, studying at Game Graphics with a subsequent transfer to Concept Art, and also about how her career developed after graduation from school.

The beginning of the way

My journey into concept art started at university. I studied to be a programmer at Bauman Moscow State Technical University and have already started working in my specialty. In principle, I did not plan to change anything: the job was well paid, an excellent team, they let me go to study without any problems. Everything was fine, but due to the specifics of the work, it was rather monotonous.

During my studies, I lived in a hostel. Although the Bauman dorms are a sanitary disaster, from the point of view of socialization, this is simply an amazing place. We were friends on the floors, hung out, walked and, of course, played games together - Dota, Left 4 Dead, and many others, it was cool. Friends went as far as to make a game for mobile phones themselves, but there were plenty of programmers, but there was a problem with artists. And then they told me: “You’re a girl, all girls can draw!”

The die was cast: I decided to learn how to draw. In my hometown with extracurricular activities such as music or art schools It was tight, so I had no idea how and where to start.

I bought my first Graphics tablet and climbed to look for online lessons on the Internet. Of course, at the beginning it turned out so-so, but, for lack of a better one, my first works went into the game. After some time, I was surprised to realize that I like to draw, but as an adequate person, I realized that I did not draw as well as I would like.

I decided to take some “let them teach me” courses, knowing absolutely nothing about concept art. First, I went to a short-term intensive, where I learned from other students about Scream School and long-term training programs. By that time, I had already stopped programming, because this job requires constant self-learning and takes a lot of working time, and started working as a media analyst. Although this is quite interesting job, it had a lot of the stereotype of “office plankton”. I don't say it was bad job: My first team was just wonderful. But still, at some point, I realized that it was not mine, I began to “suffocate”.

So I got to Scream School. The games that we made with friends at the university helped a lot with my admission, and as a result, I got into the “Game Graphics” program (“Concept Art” did not exist then), and then switched to “Concept Art”.

Studying at Scream School

Scream School has become my entry point into the industry. At school, I didn’t know anything at all about the profession of a concept artist, and after self-study and taking an intensive course, my knowledge was rather scarce and fragmented. Classes at Scream School helped me systematize what was in my head, cram a bunch of new things into it and remove what was completely wrong.
This is the first time I've been to school since elementary school I tried to draw with my hands, learned a lot of rendering techniques, design approaches and many other useful things - I can’t list everything! Many teachers worked in the industry, and their stories were just a discovery. I was especially influenced by the lectures of Konstantin Vavilov and Gavriil Afanasiev-Klimov about work, about the approach to design and the way of thinking. A lot of practical exercises, because theory in isolation from practice disappears from my head instantly. And, of course, it was very helpful. graduation practice in Mail.Ru, on the Skyforge project.

Why study at Scream School? Because there are no alternatives in Russia! A voluminous course, a lot of theory and practice, everything is packed in just 2 years, a chance to make a portfolio taking into account the comments of industry masters... I don’t even know if any other reasons are needed!

Career after Scream School

In my case, the job change was not catastrophically difficult - probably because I was ready for anything. “We make casual games, farm games, mobile games” - oh, I love these games! And do not look at the fact that I do not look like a "successful 30-year-old woman with 4 cats." Are you ready to move to Voronezh/Novosibirsk/St. Petersburg? - of course, I always dreamed of seeing these cities!

I may not have been completely honest with my failed employers, but I was willing to do a lot to get into the industry.

I quit my job old work almost immediately after passing my diploma, at first I was looking for some kind of freelance and worked on my portfolio. Of course, I was refused many times, but the main thing is not to lose heart, to ask for feedback even if I refuse. But in the end, everything turned out well - now I have a favorite job, which I really enjoy going to and, to be honest, I don’t fully believe that all this actually happened.

What does a concept artist do on a project

Concept art is a visualization of the ideas of game designers and scriptwriters. Of course, they can collect references and give them directly to modelers, but references will never fully reflect the idea, especially if you need to do something that is not there yet or new idea is at the intersection of existing ideas, or there is a strong stylization. In the process of work, we make many options for discussion, sometimes something new that deviates from the description is liked by game designers even more than an option that clearly follows the original idea, and it goes into further development.

The work of a concept artist on a project is quite standard for the industry. After the game designers, together with the scriptwriters, come up with a new game prototype or a new update and prepare general descriptions what should be in the game. Then they transfer the descriptions to different departments, and work begins: the artists make the concept, the modelers model them, then the work goes back to the artists for texturing. Then comes the animation and everything else, usually this content is not returned to us. At the same time, work is underway on images of icons, achievements (achievements) in the game and other visual things. At the main stages of development, all concepts are coordinated with game designers and the immediate supervisor in order to minimize rework.

Is it worth studying to be a concept artist?

During your studies, you will have to face a large amount of work, tight deadlines and, at times, harsh criticism. If you consider yourself a heavenly talent with perfect taste and unique vision, then you are not here and probably not in the gaming industry at all. Here you need to plow, perceive any feedback and benefit from it, absorb information from everywhere, work in class and at home, honing your skills. But you know, the result is worth it - there is little that can compare with the joy when you see how a concept turns into a model, and then it comes to life and appears in a game played by many different people!

All of the above is just my opinion. It may be different for other students, and if I suddenly offended someone - do not be offended, listen to someone else. And best of all - do not listen to anyone and think with your own head.

- passion, then there is nothing better for you than to get into the gaming industry. It is possible for artists to get into the IT field, but it is difficult. If an artist gets a job in the gaming industry, it is considered to be a great success. Game artists earn on par with technical specialists. It is clear why this issue is so relevant today. So how do you become an artist in the games industry, where do you start and where do you go?

1. Make not just a good, but an excellent portfolio

In the CIS, you've hardly heard of interns-artists in the gaming industry. If companies aren't hiring, how can you get noticed? The most important thing is your portfolio. Work on it instead of looking for an internship where you are more likely to be assigned small clerical work and not rewarded for your work. Try to make your portfolio work look like it was created by an in-house artist. They should be similar to each other. Directors want to hire professionals on par with their current employees. A quality portfolio is captivating. Therefore, you must do everything to make your portfolio seem 100% convincing argument in order to hire you.

Structure your portfolio and make your specialization clear. So that your portfolio is not postponed, we advise best work place first. If your goal is to draw characters, then include only characters in your portfolio. If you like to draw weapons and equipment, then, accordingly, your portfolio should include only weapons and equipment. Don't include everything in your portfolio, if you have four or five great completed works, include them. Sort your entries from best to worst (of the best). Leave your contact information in a prominent place. So that you can be contacted without difficulty, insert as many contacts as possible: phone, website, links to social networks, mail, skype, and so on.

2. Choose where you will work

Decide where you will work now. Choose a specific company, find out in which areas they work, study what their values ​​and goals are. Start from the information you receive. Look for a company that is as close in spirit as possible, because choosing a style that does not inspire you, in the future you will only dislike it even more, as well as your work.

3. Decide on a style

Study the company's projects and in what style they are created. Play their games, explore concept art. This way you can find out the specific style in which you will need to create a portfolio. Work in the target style. For example, if you want to draw like Minecraft, don't work on AAA horror. If you want to draw concepts, don't texturize. Moving in the other direction, you are just wasting your time. Get as much experience as possible in the direction in which you are going to develop.

In addition, your value in the market, as an expert on a particular issue, will increase significantly. Companies are looking for ready-made specialists and it will be more profitable for them to hire you than to teach a beginner. Therefore, your chances of getting a job in your portfolio will increase. Be versatile, but in your area.

4. Focus on the best

Constantly study the work of other artists, visit CG resources. Set a bar for yourself to aspire to. But, most importantly, do not copy the style of other artists. Be patient, over time you will develop your own own style. Compare your level with the level of well-known professionals and you will notice progress.

5. Choose the right tools

Having studied Photoshop, ZBrush, 3DsMax, do not forget that there are many programs that can make it easier for you specific tasks. Useful programs include Mudbox, Quixel DDo, and Substance Painter, as well as the helper programs Crazy Bump and xNormal. For example, Softimage XSI is great for modeling weapons and vehicles. Look for programs that are right for you. This will greatly help you in your work and increase your professionalism.

If you're good at drawing but don't get hired anywhere, don't hesitate to ask an expert for advice. Don't be afraid to ask employers the reason for the rejection. Consult with those who are already working in the gaming industry. They will point out to you your mistakes and shortcomings. This will help you in the future. Be active, participate in competitions and complete tasks. It will be impossible not to notice you, and this is also a big plus for experience and useful acquaintances.

7. If there is a desire, everything is possible

If you really want to get into the gaming industry and draw CG, then start working on it right now! Getting to work as an artist in a game company is not easy, but it is possible. Don't know where to start? Start with the above tips and the result will make itself felt!