Learning Outcomes

1. Demonstrate a critical understanding of business aspects of working as a concept artist, including copyright issues, pricing and the rights of an artist.

In creating concept art for ideas not belonging to an artist, an artist must state clearly the origin and owner of the idea, as I have demonstrated during the module by correctly crediting the originators of the briefs.The work produced during this module is derivative work. As the images and ideas expressed in the work I produced are original, as an artist I retain copyright over the images. The exception to this is my work on the brief set by Shelley Page, where I am the originator of the character.

Pricing the work has not been an issue as the concepts created were part of an academic study and not intended for sale; this is also stated on my blog, so that visitor to the site are aware that none of the brief providers have claimed the work officially. The art itself thus remains property of the artist and can be used freely in a 'personal' capacity, as long as no money is made from it and correct credit is given where applicable.

2. Demonstrate a comprehensive knowledge and understanding of concepts, information and techniques at the forefront of Concept Art.

An awareness of current standards of procedure was necessary during every stage of the creation of the work for the three briefs. Depending on the brief provider, the function of the concept art changes and the creation process is therefore different.

To give some examples, creation of a character turnaround for the Elizabethan Assassin character would be standard practice at Ubisoft as the 3D modellers would require this reference to model the character. Similarly, an expression sheet is a necessary reference for animators at Dreamworks in order for the animation to stay consistent and reflective of the character's personality.

The brief for Gabrielle Kent's book allowed a little more scope. As I chose to create concept art for a live action film based on the book, the focus of the art was on possible filming environments and an example of how the film could be storyboarded.

3. Review and critically appraise the complex concepts and professional practices which underpin the production of original imagery

In order to illustrate the process of creation of industry-standard concept art, I will describe the process of the creation of an original character for Shelley Page's brief.

4. Critically reflect on the challenging and novel visual solutions to a brief.

The Assassins Creed brief was challenging because the game is characterised by the historical accuracy of the environments and costumes of the non player characters and historical figures: the exception being the Assassins themselves, whose appearances reflect the aesthetic of the franchise. Among the features that make them recognisable as members of the assassin universe are the many-layered costumes, arm braces, boots,arrow-shaped emblem and hood. The hood especially was important to incorporate into my Assassin design, despite the fact that I could not find a hood being worn by a person of that period in any of the first hand material I found during research.

In the above image, I experimented with different alternatives that could replace a hood, such as hats stylised to resemble the peaked shape of the hood, which could have been a solution.

After a series of iterations with the hood I finally decided that as long as the distinctive neck ruffle could be worked into the design, the hood would not detract from identifying the assassin as an Elizabethan.

Similar compromises had to be met when deciding on possible leg and footwear for the assassin. The source material pictured people of the Elizabethan period wearing shoes, not boots, but this would not have suited the Assassin's Creed aesthetic. However, my research also showed me that past adaptations of Elizabethan costume had their actors dressed in boots without this fact distracting from a feeling of authenticity, so some leniency could obviously be allowed on this matter.

5. Act autonomously in planning and implementing a Pitch Presentation at a professional level.

Presentations were given to Shelley Page of Dreamworks and Jack Couvela of Ubisoft to show the results of my work on the briefs they provided. In each case, the material was gathered into slides beforehand so that it could be delivered in an organised manner as I spoke. The stages of the design process were described, and feedback was taken on board, while also giving me the opportunity to defend the decisions made that brought me to the final images and concepts.

6. Analyse and interpret challenging client briefs and produce relevant and original work in response.

In Shelley Page's brief it was required to come up with a character based on one vehicle out of a selection of hundreds placed in different categories, such as 'retro sci-fi' and 'elephant warrior'. The challenge here was selecting just 1 of these and exploring its potential to inspire character production. I identified that this selection process needed to be swiftly resolved so that the design process could be concentrated upon. I selected the Honda Puyo in the 'retro sci-fi' category because of its quirky design, which already suggested a character type to me, so I had a strong starting point from which to progress to a believable character.

It was my opinion that the strength of the design would be reliant on the originality of the character, which affected my decision to choose a vehicle that was odd and a little ugly, and heavily rely on the shapes of the vehicle to inform the basis of the character design, such as the top-heavy bubble helmet reflective of the car's body, and the character's large, half black-rimmed glasses which are reminiscent of the car's frame. Shelley's brief stipulated that the character should be easily identified as the driver or passenger of the vehicle, so care was taken not to stray from the feel of the vehicle, and also to make sure that he would be able to comfortably drive it, even with his helmet on, which is why it is flatter at the back .

7. Explore and evaluate a range of visual responses to a brief.

Working on the Assassin's Creed brief, ideas were generated through sketching, with a focus on trialing several different silhouettes for the character.

The same technique was applied to the weapon for the Assassin.

The mood of the environment of Hexbridge Castle was established through a series of quick iterations, followed by a colour trial.

7. Reflect on practice and recognise and critically appraise strengths and weaknesses.

I found each of the briefs challenging and rewarding as I learned a lot about my capabilities and shortcomings during the process. Of all the briefs, I found it was possible to fulfill Shelley Page's character design based on a vehicle could be successfully with relative ease as the idea of transposing the personality of a vehicle onto its driver posed many possibilities within well-defined boundaries. I believe I responded well to the brief thanks to its specificity and experience in creating character concepts.

Creating environment art for The Secrets of Hexbridge Castle was a more demanding task due to my lack of experience in this type of concept art, and the rendering for Hexbridge Castle exterior took much trial and error to come to a satisfactory point. Perpespective has been pointed out as a weakness in the construction of the buildings, so the shift from character rendering, where perspective is not such an issue thanks to the usual scale of the object, has to be towards a more pre-planned approach. In my second environment for the same brief, more extensive thumbnailing and trials ensured that the rendering process was more successful, more 'atmospheric' because of the comparatively loose painting style, and quicker. These are skills of industry-respected concept artists that I wish to develop more.