Ryan's Thread of Justice

rts · September 2012

New thread. And so begins my journey to build a portfolio for video game art.

The first thing I am working on are Kochi and Wasser's suggestions from the last chat thread. After a character and a monster I will probably move onto environments and then weapons/vehicles.

I need to pick one of these to take further.

Mustang · September 2012

Number 1, he looks like he has a story. Or 10, he looks pretty interesting too.

NightDragon · September 2012

Honestly I'd work on developing the characters separately from the gun...you've done almost the same gun-shape over and over, and I don't really feel like it's helping these designs by keeping them in. The guns aren't different enough to give me any additional information about each character.

Some of these look more "designed" than others...did you have any specific idea in mind beyond "futuristic soldier"? Like living environment, rank, division? Is he solo or part of an army? What is he fighting - other people? IMO, I think that giving yourself even more specific directions would force you to really think about the *why's* of your designs, and make them look more believable and intentional.

I personally like #5, 9, and 10...though I feel like 10 would be more "comfortable" for you to develop (it looks like something you'd draw anyway), so if you went for any of these I'd hope it was something like 5 or 9, just to break you out of the box a bit.

Prospicience · September 2012

I really like 3 & 5. I agree with ND that 10 kinda seems more "comfortable", although I like the kind of old school sci fi look of him. 11 could be really fun though, feel like it's the most original.

rts · September 2012

Hey guys. Thanks for the feedback! My favorites are 1 and 15 (first and last...hardly a surprise).

@Mustang - The first guy is my favorite as well, though I would feel kind of stupid picking him after sitting there doing all the others.

@NightDragon - I don't know, 5 and 9 are a little "video game generica" for my taste but at the same time that sounds exactly like what I should be aiming for in a concept art portfolio.

@Prospicience - Interesting, I didn't expect anyone to like #3. I agree #11 is probably the most outlandish design.

I have a more specific question about this page for those working artists out there. Is this the type of thing you would put in your portfolio (maybe not quality wise...but content)?

NightDragon · September 2012

Well, I mean...I liked #1 a lot too, but he didn't read "futuristic solider" to me. Without the addition of the gun, I also wouldn't have gotten that he was any type of soldier. I can get a sense of his personality/demeanor though, which isn't something I can do for many of the others. I don't really like #15 because he seems...blob-ish to me? I know he's supposed to be a heavily armored dude, but I feel his shape could be a lot more interesting (and again, a lot of him was covered by a large gun, and I would've liked to see what he looked like underneath).

I don't think you should be aiming for "video game generica" in your portfolio per say...obviously you want it to be original, right? The reason I chose those was because they're different than what you usually do, and they read "futuristic solder" to me. Some of the others seemed too "Robocop" (2, 8, 12), or predictable/typical (4, 7, 13). On the other hand, when people do typical "futuristic" designs, the designs *do* tend to have very similar shape language.

Also, if you really don't like certain designs, you don't have to include them all on a thumbnail sheet. You can do 10 more designs, and then only pick your top 15 favorites.

And in terms of portfolio-stuff, in my experience, employers seeking concept artists tend to enjoy seeing some process work. I've seen a lot of process work in professional concept artists' portfolios, in addition to more polished, rendered finals...so for me, I'd definitely consider including something like this.

Kochikens · October 2012

These are all pretty generic. The whole point of the exercise is to make something that doesn't look like anyone else has before, unique, new, fresh. Most of these I go, hey that looks like ______ from that other thing. Develop the weapons separately unless the whole point of the character is that they're fused with their gun or something. Now is the stage where you come up with a bunch of batshit crazy ideas and insane silhouettes. None of these strike me as, hey, that's cool.

I'd like seeing these in a portfolio, but I'd like them a lot more if they said, hey, this guy has some really great ideas. Not, hey his guy can do some generic stuff and I can pick the generic one I like the best.

I mean, you're going for your hero character. Most of these I can't tell if they're grunt-soldiers or player-characters.

edit: The exercise isn't, draw a bunch of space-soldiers. That is easy. The exercise is, do concepts for space-soldiers that really stand out. That is very difficult.

mnihil · October 2012

Kochikens wrote: »

i]spoiler'd for size[/i
These are all pretty generic. The whole point of the exercise is to make something that doesn't look like anyone else has before, unique, new, fresh. Most of these I go, hey that looks like ______ from that other thing. Develop the weapons separately unless the whole point of the character is that they're fused with their gun or something. Now is the stage where you come up with a bunch of batshit crazy ideas and insane silhouettes. None of these strike me as, hey, that's cool.

I'd like seeing these in a portfolio, but I'd like them a lot more if they said, hey, this guy has some really great ideas. Not, hey his guy can do some generic stuff and I can pick the generic one I like the best.

I mean, you're going for your hero character. Most of these I can't tell if they're grunt-soldiers or player-characters.

edit: The exercise isn't, draw a bunch of space-soldiers. That is easy. The exercise is, do concepts for space-soldiers that really stand out. That is very difficult.[/size]

Just goes to show how important instruction in design fundamentals is. Don't know if rts is academically instructed, self-taught or anything in-between, but I remember back when I was a kid and the first Gnomon Workshop DVDs came out, Feng Zhu already taught techniques in designing characters from the silhouette up.

So, a) Gnomon Workshop, and b) Feng Zhu Design (certainly not his best instructional work, but it's free).

I'm not saying against the designs on display here, I liked them, particularly the cleanliness of the brushwork on most(!) of them. Just, you know, kochi has a point.

There's so many art programs out there, some of which almost guarantee you a certain kind of proficiency upon graduation, that it becomes increasingly important to distinguish yourself by bringing something different onto the table.

Iruka · October 2012

RTS does have some instruction, but I dont know how much he stayed on the heavy figure drawing end and away from the concept art/pre-production end.

Here are some resources id reccommend
http://media.steampowered.com/apps/dota2/workshop/Dota2CharacterArtGuide.pdf

http://masseffectconceptart.tumblr.com/

http://www.ctrlpaint.com/thumbnail-iteration/

http://www.ctrlpaint.com/modular-thumbnail-sketching/

I really love the mass effect concept art, and even if you arent a fan its hard to deny that the design is easily recognizable. Bold asymetrical choices, alot of consistent fashion trends for the various races. Is it a universe of mercs where they may spend alot of money to make their armor flashy, or a purely functional, utilitarian kind of atmosphere? You can make both interesting.

rts · October 2012

Thanks guys.

Penny Arcade

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