Using Concept Art as Art Bible to Make Your Project Faster and Better
My guilty pleasure as a 3D concept artist is creating all the character limbs, parts, and accessories in a way that they can stand alone as unique pieces. Nothing is left behind; every part gets artistic love.
Overkill? Maybe, but by the time you finish these, you'll have many polished assets rather than just one. They can be used as a visual guide for the rest of the team to follow, which helps to maintain a cohesive look for the project, minimizing revisions and guesswork.
These robotic arms were part of a custom sci-fi character design commission I directed for a personal project. After studying the subject of robotic design, I learned how to transform any organic creature into a mechanized version of itself, by translating each bone to a ball joint, hinges, hydraulics, caps, and pistons.
As Bruce Mau, a long-time favorite read of mine, said: "A studio is a place of study. Use the necessity of production as an excuse to study. Everyone will benefit."
Arms like these start from a free base mesh, a normal human arm, which I then sculpt on top by re-skinning it as hard-surface concept art, and converting all the human joints, fingers, and bending parts into screws, pistons, and ball joints; a process often requested in my custom 3D character design services.
Essentially, I re-imagine the human body as a machine.
From here, I use KeyShot rendering to present the final asset. KeyShot provides pre-made materials, which you can drag and drop into your model, and it'll preview your final asset. For the purpose of premium concept art commissions, it's a fast way to see what the design can look like with texturing, without having to necessarily go through the stages of UV mapping and texture creation.
I also have made plenty of custom KeyShot materials for my own project needs and for clients, some of which are here in my shop.
Using Concept Art to Explore Originality in Your Game and Film Projects
"Tank Boy" is a character I designed for a personal project to explore personality in sci-fi, while using this 3D concept art pipeline. By adding relatable and common motifs, such as tattoos, piercings, and other symbols, to counter-weight the fantastical in science fiction, I manage to ground it; a skill often sought by studios hiring concept artists for sci-fi worlds without all the generic tropes.
As Syd Mead used to teach on his Gnomon DVD's: "When you establish relatable elements, then you can add weird stuff and it won't look off." By balancing originality with reference, you'll get to a sweet spot of not too weird, and not too commercial, and it hits just right.
Yellow and red accents were used to frame the character focal point, while more intricate details such as earplugs with rings inside, were referenced from a friend of mine who wore them in the same fashion. I never found anyone else wearing them like such, be it Pinterest, Google Images, or Tumblr... no matter how deep you go in the rabbit hole of reference, ultimately, what adds realism is the real people you know.
Why is this Concept Art Process More Efficient for Game and Film Studio Projects?
One may argue that spending time in individual pieces can lead to a lack of focus on the overall character, which is true, and that's why I always build a style-guide for character design projects so the whole team will always know what the character will look like, why it relates to our goals, and how to execute it.
Another point is that by using too many relatable motifs, we can dilute originality and creativity in these sci-fi designs, and that's why in my early process, I always start sketching and brainstorming through mind maps, and by using no references at all, which I've found to be a great way to explore my own mind for ideas before supporting them with what's out there. If you copy other's artwork from the getgo, you'll only be where you've been, and you'll compete with other games, movies and entertainment design projects, and by exploring your own ideas, biases, and likes, you're sure to compete with no one else and build your own niche.
This is how I've built many of the sci-fi character portfolios on my website, and how I reached originality in design. If you need help with custom robotic or sci-fi character designs or to reach originality amongst, let’s talk - email me!