Own Design vs Concept Art

Iqualizierer

Hi everyone!,

I was wondering what your opinion is on this topic -
The question is if you prefer to work with your own design or use a Concept Art. On one side working of a Concept Art just feels like copying and on the other side if you work with your own design you never know how it is gonna turn out maybe its just gonna be a big fail and a waste of time?

So what's your opinion on this? I was kind of confused lately because suddenly i had that feeling of "copying" a concept art and the lack of uniqueness... 

Joao Sapiro

if im a capable designer ( im not ) i will work from my concept. If im not a capable designer\concept artist, id rather work from someone who actually is good at that, cause you can make something super cleanly modeled etc, but if it has ass-y design then it will look like ass nontheless

oglu

Agree with Joao. If you arnt good in designing dont do it. 

defragger

What?? I would argue exactly the opposite.

If you arnt good in designing, DO it. That's the only way to get better at it.

Unless you don't enjoy it at all of course. But being bad at it at the beginning is normal. That shouldn't stop you.

oglu

If you like to become a designer you have to practice it yes. But if you like to become a modeler use existing designes. 

Alemja

defragger said:

What?? I would argue exactly the opposite.

If you arnt good in designing, DO it. That's the only way to get better at it.

Unless you don't enjoy it at all of course. But being bad at it at the beginning is normal. That shouldn't stop you.

You can also learn what makes a good design by modeling other people's designs. Good concept artists will think of and add details I just might miss.

I personally do a bit of both, doing your own design tends to take a lot longer and takes more brain power. I generally notice my weaknesses tend to be a little more apparent with designs that are my own, or I fall into certain patterns. This is the biggest problem when you do your own designs, if your concept is bad or not fully realized, your model will have the same issues. Doing someone else's concept can be a good way to push you out of your comfort zone, and is generally a little more relaxed in my experience.

Jean_Pierre_Seiler

Well, as I have spent just the last couple of weeks doing my own design, here some thoughts from me:

- often I was more thinking about how it should work, how it should look, how to make it interesting, than actually modelling
- I started to draw again
- I learned a lot of new things mainly rigging and animating to see if it works
- a lot of time went into reiteration processes

While I did learn a lot from that, I put the project on freeze, as I actually remember that I wanted to build a portfolio (quickly, in a timely manner) and with my own "designs" it will take a lot longer.

Ultimately you have to ask yourself: Do I want to become a designer, or do I want to model the things someone else has designed?

Meloncov

I personally prefer to work from my own concepts, or at least very heavily modify a concept. But if you're trying to land a job, work from a concept; you'll make more impressive work more quickly that way.

Domslice

If you want to model for the industry 100% do not design it yourself. You're highlighting the wrong skillset. By using another persons design you're doing two-fold: showing that you can nail a brief/concept and translate it with fidelity to 3D, and second that you can collaborate and address notes, which is major if working in a studio. Being in touch with the concept artist can also build relationships and practice those soft-skills.

If you want tears, sure 100% design it and model it yourself! I've cried a lot of tears....

gnoop

    The design itself have two totally  different  roles.   One  is making an actual design  solutions  and another is producing impressive concept art sketches to satisfy publisher .   In my brief  experience as a sketcher around 20 years ago the actual design  had been  prerogative of   some executive  people   having experience in sales rather than art or design.   

     And as a sketcher you just did what you told to do.   Nothing of your "cool" ideas , cultural influences and reminiscences  you are trying to intertwine and borrow  is worth considering if it's out of typical cliche.    So it was quite boring  and also low paid job.   

I see it's probably different in some  modern games with truly interesting design but  there are not so many of them anyway .  I suggest to develop a little both of the skills  plus  the soft  to execute your ideas. Who knows where you may succeed.

DavidCruz

Short: (TLRD;) cares about your time.
Do Not Do what i did, which is "winged it" for years with no real direction.  Just a bunch of projects with no real goal other than just getting better.  If i got to redo it i would focus on 1 thing till it was "mastered", and then maybe move on.  I got stuck into doing polar opposites here and there.  (which from what i hear(here) is bad, i.e. what am i applying for ? [outsider looking in] )
----------------------------------------------- extended.
If you aren't going in for Concept Design at the future, i wouldn't do it.  If you want to be a specialist in 1 thing, do that.  At the moment, to be honest.  Seems A.i. and automation programs is making "anyone", a specialist.. (i really want to test this one day, just slap on a bunch of applications and make something and be like look at what "i" did.) 

LONG: (His-story) If you like to read.
Environment:
Adding "my horrible self direction"(only myself to go off of/ask not fun, I guess), 
I did what i wanted when i felt like it, Started this adventure in environment artwork, made some ruins design with a broken/deconstructed statue figure (long time ago 20 years) should have kept up with that now that i think of it, they are only now coming out with destructible items..(just a small rant i guess)
Characters:
Moved onto characters after that, since as a child i always wanted to make my own, since i collected comics, cards, games, ect.

Concept mention:
(funny thing i came up with the concept tag "idea" (suppose others also since it exists without my involvement now) in the 90's trying to get closer to another cousin that "drew / tagged", to keep him around cause he would disappear every so often for months or even years at a time.)  I was drawing outside talking to him on the stoop in Brooklyn, n.y. and i said let's do something different, i'll start a drawing and you add to it and pass it back and forth and see what we "create together".  He probably didn't understand what the meaning was at the time. (trying to get closer to him as a family member and all.)

Word on the net (at the time):
If you are going for a small studio or indie where you have to know a lot of different principles, being a generalist works.
I got stuck in this i guess. ^

I now "do", everything... except code.  Is there a goal, ' f ' if i know, i like doing these things when the feeling grabs me by the family jewels. *Shrug* ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
It works as a "fall back", if i one day decide to team with a coder, 2 "man", team export game. profit?
(Something no one knows about me i guess is that in the 90's i had a plan with another cousin that got into Coding and i told him alright you do the coding i'll do everything else.. guess who kept the agreement, he also no longer codes.)
#Life

Ashervisalis

If you're just starting out, I'd say 100% go off someone else's design. If you're still learning how to make 3D, also creating your own design is just going to slow you down. Also, you will learn a lot from making other people's designs 3D. I've had hiring personnel tell me it was a good thing I was transferring other people's concepts to 3D, because it shows I can follow other people's designs.

Howeverrrrrrrrrrrr, I don't want to spend my artistic life just copying other people's cool ideas. I say, once you have a portfolio which is awesome and gets you jobs, try making your own designs if you want to. Have fun and see if you can come up with cool things which nobody has ever thought of before. I've heard a bunch of people say that 3D modelers should never be their own designers, and I say take that mentality and throw it out the window. If you're in the industry, and know the tools, and have cool ideas, make those cool ideas.

sprunghunt

This topic has come up a couple of times. 

When you're learning you definitely should make your work from a concept (or photo). 

However as a professional artist you will be expected to eventually be able to make your own work without concepts. A Senior level artist is one that can be given a brief description of a task and fill-in all the blank or undefined areas with minimal supervision. This depends on exactly what kind of artist - a tech artist obviously doesn't need many art skills. But I'd expect a senior character artist to be able to design their own characters and a senior environment artist to be able to follow architectural rules and make their own props and ornamentation etc. 

Alex_J

Since 3d has more technical hurdles it just isn't the most efficient way to do concepting. Whether there is time/money involved or not if you want to create something new from scratch it just makes sense to do it in 2d first. 

However, thats not always true. With the plethora of freely available 3d art out there I find nowadays the fastest way for me to test out an idea is to grab a model - free, ripped, or bought on the cheap - that is close to what I have in mind and then just modify it. Sometimes I am splicing together several models.

I guess the assumption here is most people are etierh working in AAA or trying to get in, but for the basement dwelling indie developer I pretty much never make any models from scratch anymore - though all of my games use my own "designs." It all starts from other peoples work, then I just morph it into my own thing. I still get lots of creative satisfaction this way, I dont have to git gud with actual 2s artist skills, and I can maintain pretty eficient iteration speed.

If I was working as a character artist, I doubt I'd ever sculpt a model again. I'd use metahuman or something similar to do 90% of the work, then just adjust from there. Yes of course you have to still have an eye for correctness, but I just dont see the time value of sculpting 3d clay or building anything from a box anymore.