Research into Concept Art - Part 3
Looking at portfolios
Portfolio 1
Artist: Loiza Chen
Position: Art Lead at Riot Games
Link: https://www.artstation.com/loizachen
Accessed on: 27/01/24
I think the work Riot’s artists do is incredible, so getting an insight into some of the concept art behind their characters was really interesting to see. I took a look at the concept art Chen did along with other artists for a cinematic.
The Tryndamere concept art was interesting to look at, I have included an image here;
Here multiple views of the character are shown, even a crouching pose, which helps to display how this outfit would react to movement. The weapon is shown from multiple angles which again is useful information for a 3D artist to work from. There is also a breakdown of the helmet from various angles.
Chen also shows work by TUANZ, another concept artist on this project;
These small sketches seem to experiment with hairstyles, face details and masks that this character could wear. The focus here is clearly on exploring ideas, not rendering, communicating different ideas and exploring them.
Portfolio 2
Artist: TB Choi
Position: Character Concept Artist - Appears to be freelance, but has worked with Riot and Blizzard
Link: https://www.artstation.com/tbchoi
Accessed on: 27/01/24
Looking at Choi’s portfolio it seems they have done a lot of work on Valorant, so I took a look at one of the projects they worked on for the character Gekko.
This picture shows how the characters outfit looks from each angle, they also remove the arm in one view of the character to show what the side of the outfit looks like.
Here, Choi shows Gekko front and back in more casual poses, while this works great as a portfolio piece I think it also helps to communicate a bit more of the personality of the character that can’t be communicated as well with the more static poses shown previously (while of course, those are incredibly important to show how the character looks at all angles).
Portfolio 3
Artist: Ilya Golitsyn
Position: Lead Franchise Artist at Guerrilla
Link: https://www.artstation.com/telpenar
Accessed on: 27/01/24
Golitsyn has done work on the Horizon series, so I will be having a look at his work on this, specifically for Horizon: Zero Dawn.
This design I found interesting, the character Golitsyn designed here is called Sylens, he is voiced by Lance Reddick, and as the game used facial capture, the characters face resembles the actor. So in this concept art for Sylens, it looks like Golitsyn has photobashed the face (or a 3D model) of the actor onto the concept art. This makes sense as the artist wouldn’t necessarily need to spend time designing the characters face here, so to save time they did this.
This character concept is for Young Aloy, for this concept, Golitsyn had to use the design for Aloy as an adult and envision how she would have looked as a child. There isn’t a focus on making everything perfectly rendered here, but a focus on communicating ideas well, he communicates textures really well here on the bottom of the trousers with the fur and the fabric of the skirt and scarf.
Portfolio 4
Artist: Vlad Tkach
Position: Principal Concept Artist - Appears to be freelance, but has worked with 4A Games
Link: https://www.artstation.com/feanture
Accessed on: 27/01/24
Tkach has done work on Metro Exodus, I will be looking at some of his work for that here.
Tkach describes his intentions for this set of character designs: “The Church of the Water Tsar is a religious cult that worships monstrously fish mutant inhabiting the Volga river. They are extremely technophobic, and view the use of electric appliances as a mortal sin.”
I imagine that remembering this description would have been essential in the design process, informing each design choice made. Without electric appliances and technology, outfits would have to be created by hand by the characters. So this explains the rough, patchwork sort of look to the outfits.
Portfolio 5
Artist: Miguel Iglesias
Position: Senior Concept & Character Artist - Appears to be freelance, but has worked with Fatshark
Link: https://www.artstation.com/miguel_iglesias
Accessed on: 27/01/24
Next I took a look at the portfolio of Miguel Iglesias, he did some work for Warhammer Darktide which looked great, I will include a few images here.
He has images like this one where it shows a collection of his ideas side by side, I imagine for an art lead this is helpful to get an overall look at everything and be able to narrow down which ideas work best from the selection shown.
Within his portfolio Iglesias then has closer looks at each of the designs shown in the overviews, I really love how he uses colour here, it is really expressive and eye catching. It is interesting to see how just by making a few changes to the outfit, he is able to offer completely different ideas. It looks like he keeps certain parts the same to speed up the process, the pose, face, legs and the head being held remain the same, but the robes are what changes.
Summary
It was really interesting seeing the similarities between concept artists in how they present ideas, as well as seeing what each does differently.
Some key things that seem to be consistent across portfolios;
- Communicating the ideas is the priority, not rendering
- Most will have characters in poses that communicate personality in one shot, then more static poses for a 3D artist to use
- Utilising photobashing, keeping poses the same and changing some elements of a character rather than the whole thing - all ways the artists save time and spend more time exploring different ideas
- Each element of the designs the artist tries to tell the story or tell the viewer more about the character, everything is designed for a purpose not just to look good
This was a really useful exercise to understand what other artists include within a portfolio, and to see how they work. I definitely want to do more research like this in future, especially when it comes to reworking my own portfolio.
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