Illustrator CS5 for concept art

felipefrango

I was watching this video featuring a few of the new features in Illustrator CS5 and now it's so easy to do perspective drawings, so easy I thought it could be a quick and easy way to sketch out environment concepts, what do you guys think? What do you guys use nowadays?

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFXJY0a8NiU&feature=related[/ame]

Firebert

Gearing Illustrator towards a more concept based vector output app that gives the illusion of pixel based is a smart move imo. Two fold; you can use vectors in a 3d environment, and you can print it the size of your house and it will still be clean as a baby's ass. So gearing concept style effects will really give Illustrator the boost it has needed for quite some time.

With InDesign being the front runner for most graphic print needs and PS being a big player in drawing features, this is something that will help Illustrator revitalize itself out of the "I just exist because I'm an older app that some people still use" slum that it has been in for a good few versions.

If they really push the bristle tech, you could see a lot more people considering using Illustrator as another powerful tool in a few versions. As for now, it is great to see them experimenting and being very smart, but the implementation of their 3D tools has taken a good 2 - 3 releases to get to the perspective stages it is now, so it may take a while to see people really picking this up as a secondary tool for concept style work.

Thanks for posting this up!

EmAr

The perspective tool looks like a nice addition but I am more comfortable with placing primitives in Silo then painting over a screenshot. I wouldn't say I'm a decent concept artist though

Ben Apuna

I wonder how that bristle brush works with the perspective tool. I wonder if a "live" brush stroke can be painted onto a perspective grid? If so will a stroke get smaller/larger the further back/forward on the grid it goes?

Neat tools nothing really revolutionary, but a good step in the right direction. I'm surprised Illustrator didn't already have those line width, shape combining, and auto masking tools already.