Any tips for modeling from concept ?

Peksio

Hello. I found for myself some very nice concept artwork. I want to model it in 3d but right now after two days I am still moving around cubes and looking for right shapes,  angles etc.

Maybe someone have some tips or tricks for working with concepts ?

Before I was always modeling things from real life where I had a lot of photos or even sometimes blueprints and now I feel pretty overhelmed with just one concept.

Thanks and Cheers !

JordanN

Even though a concept art may be a static picture, there's nothing preventing you picking certain props in a scene, and drawing your own angles/perspective to work from.

This is actually something I see character artists do and I wanted to copy the same idea. I've seen them "improvise" from a sketch of a character,  by drawing the back or side profiles themselves. 

sacboi

Peksio wrote:

Before I was always modeling things from real life where I had a lot of photos or even sometimes blueprints and now I feel pretty overhelmed with just one concept.

Dependant on subject, usually when referencing a specific shape/form/object, orthographically aligned views either front, rear, top or side etc are typically setup within your app of choice workspace, which in turn forms the 'framework' generating 3D output however working off an idea concept'd in 2D and/or 3D is entirely another matter because compositionally it is basically a still image that requires some experience interpreting via primarily observation...eyeballing specific area/s of interest whereby creating said content on the fly.

So I'd suggest similarly along the lines of the comment above other than drawing improvised elevations, rather search for references with orthographic views that closely match what you're trying to model and adjust/tweak as appropriate.    

Brian "Panda" Choi

You don't need to use cubes to block it in.  You can just use planes.

Also, what is the concept and what do you have atm?

Neox

ExcessiveZero

personally concept or reference I tend to draw lines over it to workout the major shapes and forms just helps my brain break it into parts when I take a birght red or green and start breaking down the base shapes in the object, gives me a better idea for the volume and topology too.

SnowInChina

remember that concept art does not always work out 100% in 3d
a lot of stuff can be pretty and work from this perspective, but won't translate into 3d well

sacboi

SnowInChina wrote:

remember that concept art does not always work out 100% in 3d
a lot of stuff can be pretty and work from this perspective, but won't translate into 3d well

Interesting opinion...may I ask why you would think so? and to be honest, well subjectively I'd disagree:

Intro to 3D Concept Design - by Jama Jurabaev

Design Techniques for 3D Concept Art - by Gavriil Klimovv

Concept Art: From 2D to 3D - by Luca Nemolato

3D Concept Art.com

CrackRockSteady

sacboi said:

SnowInChina wrote:

remember that concept art does not always work out 100% in 3d
a lot of stuff can be pretty and work from this perspective, but won't translate into 3d well

Interesting opinion...may I ask why you would think so? and to be honest, well subjectively I'd disagree:

Intro to 3D Concept Design - by Jama Jurabaev

Design Techniques for 3D Concept Art - by Gavriil Klimovv

Concept Art: From 2D to 3D - by Luca Nemolato

3D Concept Art.com

It's possible to paint something in 2d, optical illusions for example, (intentional or otherwise) that simply cannot be realized the same way in 3d.  I have definitely encountered concept art while working professionally that at first glance looks totally fine but if you study it closely and try to recreate it 1:1 it's just not going to happen.

Not to mention simple things like irregularities between front/side/rear views in a concept.  Sometimes you need to do some guesswork and fill in the gaps.

Edit:  I couldn't figure out why you posted those links, but I'm now thinking you misunderstood SnowinChina's post.  He wasn't saying you can't concept something in 3d, he was saying 2d concept art doesn't always translate perfectly into 3d.

PixelMasher

I usually try and dissect a concept, and identify 3 main elements that make it work. maybe its the composition, the overall sense of texture or the lighting. Break down what makes a concept work, it could be the level of detail, the shapes, the colors etc and focus on nailing 3 of those key elements first. The goal should be to capture what makes the 2d image work so well and translate that to your 3d work. 

sacboi

CrackRockSteady wrote:

It's possible to paint something in 2d, optical illusions for example, (intentional or otherwise) that simply cannot be realized the same way in 3d.  I have definitely encountered concept art while working professionally that at first glance looks totally fine but if you study it closely and try to recreate it 1:1 it's just not going to happen.

I'm traditionally trained, so perhaps accounts for my position where there is little to no difference between the two mediums when visualising idea's either by freehand or pre-programmed CG tools.

Not to mention simple things like irregularities between front/side/rear views in a concept.  Sometimes you need to do some guesswork and fill in the gaps.

I did previously express to the OP, a level of experience is required to translate facets of a particular 2D image, at least I assume it is 'on the fly' in other words basically determining by eye (Observation - a Foundational artistic principle) what is observed and then try to recreate in polys using 'place holder' refs plus where applicable modify accordingly.

EDIT:

Edit:  I couldn't figure out why you posted those links, but I'm now thinking you misunderstood SnowinChina's post.  He wasn't saying you can't concept something in 3d, he was saying 2d concept art doesn't always translate perfectly into 3d.

Ah yes..my bad, anyway they might be useful info for the OP too explore nonetheless.