Concepting - Detailing - HOW?

Snowfly

Seeing all the awesome concept art popping up for Dominance War prompted this thread. I posted the same thing on Conceptart but haven't gotten anything useful yet...just like posting at deviantart .

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How do you guys come up with the intricate stuff? I think regardless of whether a character, vehicle, structure, or weapon has an interesting silhouette or not, it's the internal details that make or break the design.

Also, I feel like too much gesture drawing and thumbnailing have crippled my ability to come up with the secondary details.

Any advice to help me get out of this rut?

SouL

Reference?

indian_boy

play gears of war... and stare at the characters....

or refrences.... i wouldn't know myself!

Daz

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Any advice to help me get out of this rut?

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Jeez Snowfly, looking at some of the awesome stuff you've been pumping out for DW, I'm amazed you feel like you're in any kid of rut.

I'm no concept artist, but I've had to force myself into doing more since starting the new job. Detail was definitely something I had trouble with. I tend to research patterns, find a 'theme' of pattern and then use those throughout. I wanna hear how you come up with the larger forms

MoP

Yeah, reference is the way forward... like Daz says, think of a theme (can be anything really) that your character/creature/whatever fits, and do a little research, dig up some images on that theme and look for consistent and interesting patterns, then embellish them and incorporate them sensibly into your own work.

And yeah, I'm not sure why you're asking this either, all of the stuff you've been doing is really nice... for example that painted close-up pic of the girl in the padded leather-ish bodysuit mounted on the creature for the dominance war, was awesome, didn't need any fiddly little details...

poopinmymouth

Remember also that greebles are often used to cover up poor design. Very rarely will you be able to appreciate seams and pores. Take a look at any of Craig Mullins stuff to see that great volumes, color, and lighting trumps nurny-bits every time. By all means, if the design calls for detail, go for it, but the strong volumes and silhouettes are much more important, and you have that down pat, Snowfly.

noritsune

very weird to hear you of all people asking concepting advice snowfly!

what daz and mop have said about reference images is a great way to start. I fall head over heels for patterning and decoration - there's a lot of different types out there. I've taken reference images from a pretty wide array of sources - baroque french furniture provides all kinds of inspiration for more ornate, gilded details. for my blizzard cathedral I used xrays of human hands and ribcages that I traced over to make the decorative ironwork - with a little breaking-up of the bone shapes and adding some extra scrolls, it looked ornate but still morbid since it was based off bone structure.

MoP

That's a pretty awesome idea and technique, Noritsune

Snowfly

noritsune that is some crazy lateral thinking right there. interesting!

hey guys just thought i'd pose the question. mostly i get the impression it's the concept artists job to come up with all the micro details for this gen but that probably isn't a correct assumption.

then again, you see guys like kipiripi coming up with stuff like this before the surfacing starts, and it's all harmonized and pleasing to look at. www.kipiripi.com

actually it occurred to me (shower epiphany) to treat characters as i would graphic design, only the canvas isn't a rectangle but the silhouette of the character. so the same design principles of balance, contrast, repetition, complexity/simplicity, etc. should apply.

killingpeople

there are different approaches i use in creating a painting, but in this case, i use autodrawing techniques to make random gimcrackery. i search for ideas within brush marks as well as brainstorm a forms function and purpose by referencing my mental morgue or, my personal experiences and understanding of mechanical, organical, titanical, moronical, etc; whatever i happen to be drawing at the moment.

autodrawing is staying light and creating suggestive strokes and scribbles. i'll also use messy custom brushes, ornate photos or other paintings of mine i like that are lightly flipped, skewed, and composited until i am happy with my mess. i think staying suggestive and light keeps the painting feeling clean while working on it.

i always try to stay unique with my ideas and when i notice i'm being insired by something else i will purposely put a large enough hillspin on it that it becomes my own.

-kp