I'm not sure what the industry and community thinks of this process. It's probably fine, especially for speed, but I wanted to know what professionals, or recruiters think about it to make sure I don't sabotage my education.
I've been learning perspective and some architectural drawing to learn to freehand environments quickly (a useful skill since I want to be a concept artist someday). But I'm also trying to do my own 3D environments, and freehanding isn't cutting it for the details, especially for urban/blocky environments since I'm still learning.
Is it okay to do some concepts as paint overs first?
Replies
Its not like its cheating anyone, its just getting the job done quicker.
http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=57060
Also, in the first Mass Effect art book they have what looks like sketchup layouts of levels. They didn't even bother to paintover it.
I usually use 3d screenshots of a simple scene with boxes as a base to start with in order to get the perspective right and then I do the rest by hand(small details, characters etc).
And as autocon says, do not hesitate to scrap the block out if it doesnt work.
But. I'd make sure you have a good understanding of perspective before you use this technique too much. Its a great way to block out a scene but you cant rely on it all the time.
Also, if your environment artists are working with modular pieces of map (which is a very common way to construct environments in games), and maybe there's a super tight deadline and don't have time to make a lot of new pieces, you can use their pieces in 3D (in perhaps novel ways), and add smaller things so your concepts are geared towards something that's very achievable for them.
Generally, the more straight lines a thing has, the better it is to use 3D and the more time it saves. Something very organic and curvy (whether it's an environment or not) is less likely to benefit from this sort of blockout.
However, in production art, *everything* is allowed so long as it gets the product out better and/or faster. If you produce striking, fast, usable concepts, people aren't going to care whether you're making them with Maya or a twig dipped in ink. They'll just tell you to keep it up.
Does anyone ever concept environments in the game engine?
After messing around with udk Ive found it really easy to block out a simple geometry quickly and swiftly and that I find gives me a better sense of space in my scene. I follow the same procedure you would in max, after blocking with BSPs I then make simple shaders to place on the em followed by some lighting with lightmass and some post process effects. After this i just grab a screen and PS it up to my heart's desire. Granted its harder to do more complex geometry but I like this method.
Does anyone else do this?
The Reikland Factory scenario in Warhammer Online was gray-boxed with simple shapes to get an almost final gameplay layout and then a concept was drawn over it.