How to Make Professional Concept Art for 3d Modeling

Award-winning Concept Creative person, Illustrator and CG Spectrum Mentor, Tyler James shares advice on how to get a Concept Artist. Tyler'due south got some serious street cred having worked with major developers and triple-A franchises, plus clients such as Blizzard Amusement, Cryptozoic, and Fantasy Flying Games. His fine art has get widely recognized on the net and used for major character designs in game evolution. Yous can find his work in titles like Heroes of the Storm, Warhammer, Rift, Star Wars, Hex, Warmachine, Wasteland, Warcraft, Rift, and RWBY.

Warrior Armor, Rift Concept Art, Tyler James

Tyler, how did you get a Concept Artist and Illustrator?

Becoming a Concept Artist and Illustrator is a lot of difficult piece of work. Luckily the endeavour always feels more palatable when it's something you're very passionate almost. People are said to succeed most at things they take a passion for, and for me it developed early playing video games and watching films filled with amazing fictional creatures. I drew a lot as a kid. I collected comics and played Magic the Gathering which were great sources of inspiration before I started formal fine art training in college at the Fine art Institute. The curriculum was a proficient starting point simply I paired it with lots of additional classes in effigy cartoon and character blueprint. I also attended Concept Design Academy afterward graduating.

The central to becoming a successful Concept Artist is to digest as much art as you tin can, learn from your peers, and put in the pencil mileage!

Heroes of the Storm, Art by Tyler James

For those who may not know, how do you draw Concept Art vs Illustration?

Concept art requires a more consummate understanding of the office your design will play in the end production. Every bit such, it fundamentally acts more than similar a schematic for others to interpret. You'll find yourself creating drawings from multiple angles of the same piece, working closely with other parts of the team like 3D Modelers, and iterating a lot on your designs to see the needs of the whole. Concept art often benefits from tangential noesis in fields like industrial design, style design and the sciences.

Illustration brings in a completely unique set of challenges. If concept art is the creation of the ingredients of a recipe, analogy is the last plate that arrives for someone to taste. The composition plays a giant part in this and how it will affect the narrative you are trying to convey. How elements fit within the frame and their human relationship to each other all impact the path of the viewer's center through your vision.

Elven Village by Tyler James

How do you describe your art style?

That's e'er a tough one. As a Concept Artist I effort to have some flex in terms of way, leaning sometimes more into realistic rendering, other times going very stylized. I'1000 heavily influenced by Brom, Frazetta, Paul Richards, Joe Mad, Paul Bonner, Alphonse Muccha, Katsuya Terada, H.R. Giger, Simon Bisley, Edouard Guitton, Simon Lee, Eric Canete and a handful of others.

See the influence map below for a visual guide, I encourage you to make ane for yourself with this Influence Map template!

How exercise you get Concept Artist work with clients like Blizzard or Cryptozoic?

The best mode is to just put yourself out at that place on the internet. Frequently times clients will see your piece of work and reach out to you. If there is a detail project or team y'all are interested in, send them an email with a link to your portfolio. You'd be surprised sometimes the response yous get! Effort to include works that are similar to their target if you can. Studios will often let for an fine art examination to ensure a skillful fit. I've had the dandy fortune of working with many amazing clients over the years; Blizzard Entertainment, Cryptozoic, Fantasy Flight Games, Trion Worlds, Privateer Press, Applibot, Direwolf, WOTC, Inxile etc.

Tell us about 3 of your favorite pieces:

2 of the three would exist illustrations and one is a concept slice. The get-go is a fan piece I did for Diablo 3 when the game first came out. I was working on Rift at the fourth dimension and my piece was featured in an article on Kotaku titled 'Diablo every bit imagined past a Rift Concept Artist.' It got featured a lot on the internet and on the official Blizzard fan page. I was really pleasantly surprised how well it was received and it gave me a neat boost of confidence to keep making fan art for my favorite games.

Diablo 3 Fan Art past Tyler James (featured on Kotaku)

The 2d is a piece I call The Fortune Teller. It's pretty old at this point but I include it but because it was a scrap of a turning signal for me, when I first became actually comfortable with digital painting and rendering more convincing materials and lighting. I as well really enjoy the theme of the piece.

The Fortune Teller, Tyler James

Lastly, my design of Regulos for Rift was a ton of fun to work on. The squad was just starting to explore ideas for the fight which was the very last raid boss intended to exist the elevation tier of difficulty for players. It wasn't long after our kickoff meeting that I had a dream where I imagined this behemothic creature whose head could open to reveal a smaller 'commuter' within. There's plenty of examples of this kind of idea in entertainment design but it wasn't something the team had considered at all. I felt it would exist pretty compelling since the players already knew Regulos in his regular homo-sized grade but nosotros needed a behemothic boss for the fight. The 'head crevice' would reveal the Regulos players knew from before and connected him quite literally with what we needed for the encounter. The final design went on to be modeled by the amazing 3d artist Hai Phan who now works on Overwatch and modeled some characters people might recognize like Mercy, Reaper and Hanzo. Become check him out!

Rift's Regulos Concept Art, Tyler James

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What is your concept fine art process from brief to delivery?

It'due south important to empathize your client'due south expectations. If yous're doing concept art, y'all need to consider how broad your approach should exist in your commencement circular of designs. This first laissez passer is your 'shotgun boom'. Subsequently you'll exist more like a sniper, hitting your target with laser accuracy. Keep them as loose every bit your director volition allow. For illustrations, I try to provide a few rough compositions with enough information to convey the mental attitude of the characters and their relationship with the environment. If I'm trying something more daring with the lighting I'll also endeavour and indicate that in the rough phase. With each review from the client I work tighter until at the polish phase. I work with minimal layers to try and stay continued to my piece but I do proceed sure things separate and then changes aren't a hassle.

How can i become a better Concept Artist? What skills or traits do you need?

I similar to imagine the traits kind of similar power meters, a bar graph of skills. Y'all want to effort and go on your meters evened out so you don't have whatever major weaknesses. Now of course this is much easier said than done. Nosotros all have our favorite styles and areas of exploration. Some people love to depict realistic humans. Others like very stylized work or maybe drawing only animals. As a Concept Artist, information technology always helps to have a broader understanding of subject matter and styles, but it'south OK to have a favorite. But try to be realistic about what projects you lot can contribute to given your focus. I recollect the three almost important areas of report for Concept Artists are design, anatomy and materials/ lighting.

Rift Concept Art, Regulos Raid Weapons, Tyler James

What communication do yous have for someone considering a job equally a Concept Artist?

Information technology's true, concept art is a very competitive industry. There are some clichés to fall back on hither: doing what y'all love will ultimately atomic number 82 yous to your dream career and your passion will drive your success but those are merely part of the equation. You volition demand to be diligent well-nigh making connections with people. Attend school, go to meet-ups with other artists. Talk with industry professionals at conventions and share your piece of work on the cyberspace. The minimum bar of entry is being skillful at your craft so the fourth dimension you spend learning and training will never be wasted.

You have an incredible concept art and analogy portfolio on your website, Art of Ty. What's your favorite platform for promoting work?

Well, thank you! As an creative person though, I only see all the flaws in my own piece of work. Such is the life of an artist, an unending journey of self-critique. But hey, that's how you get ameliorate! My favorite place to share my piece of work is on Instagram (@artofty). It feels like a casual platform with a great community of creative people and it has better organic reach than other platforms like Facebook. I besides recommend ArtStation (See Tyler'due south Artstation). You'll come across an space amount of inspirational work on in that location!

Hearthstone Treasures of Haul Bay, Tyler James

What three tips practice you have for someone building their first concept fine art portfolio?

Tip i: Include simply your BEST piece of work.

Tip 2: Include at least a couple of pieces that exemplify the style your client is looking for.

Tip 3: Take a minimum of 20 pieces demonstrating capable skills in blueprint, anatomy, and materials/lighting. If you are doing environments, brand sure your perspective is authentic. (Bonus for examples of disarming mechanical and industrial design!)

What should people wanting to report concept art look for in a form?

In that location are a lot of resources out there for Concept Artists to acquire from. Unfortunately, they vary dramatically in quality and information technology is critical that you learn from the all-time sources.

Your time is very precious and running in circles is the concluding thing you lot want to do trying to jump start your concept art career.

Hither is probably the all-time place to explain why I chose CG Spectrum for my class. The program offers small grade sizes and in-depth personal feedback all along the fashion.

The instructors are all veterans who have worked in the manufacture and provide targeted information to keep you learning at a practiced footstep. Information technology's like an adrenaline shot to your progress.

In improver, we have options for beginner and more than advanced students forth with the comfort and convenience of learning correct from your abode. It doesn't go much amend than that.

Whatever other words of wisdom y'all'd like to add, Tyler?

In the words of a great media icon, "Stay thirsty my friends."

The Emerald Nightmare, Tyler James

To learn more about this career path, read What is Concept Art? And enjoy more of Tyler's work at the Art of Ty and on Instagram: @artofty.

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Want to go a Concept Artist? Have Tyler James every bit your mentor!

Don't miss this amazing opportunity to study concept art from the amazing Tyler James. CG Spectrum offers beginner and advanced digital art courses that ready you for a career in the entertainment industry. Fast-track your education by learning from the best!

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Source: https://www.cgspectrum.com/blog/what-it-is-like-to-be-a-professional-concept-artist

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