P R E S E N T S
HOW TO DRAW AND PAINT
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Crysis 2
StarCraft 2
240 MINUTES
Enslaved
OF VIDEO WORKSHOPS!
PAIN AINT T DYNA DYNAMIC MIC CHARA CHAR ACTER ART Discover how professional artists create unique characters for video games
1 8 WO W ORK RKS SHOPS
LEARN FROM… Robh Ruppel Marek Oko Okon n Stephan Steph an Mart Martinier inieree Daryl Mandryk Luke Mancini Maciej Kuciara Jung Park
GAME ART AR T
Easy to follow step-by-step tutorials in Painter, Photoshop and SketchUp
S e e e Pa t e P r k r y k O j le n n c i i z ak k ’’s s Ma ss ss E E f f e c t 33 t ar t i t i n n s i id d e !
CREATE AMAZING
DIGITAL ART
Concept art skills from the makers of Uncharted 3, Batman: Arkham City City,, Guild Wars Wars 2 and more!
Video Video games games take years to make, make, with hundr hundreds eds of peopl peoplee having having an input into how the final game looks and plays. But often just a handful of creative artists can determine the style of a game. Concept artists will work on the visual visual foun founda datio tions ns of of a video video game, designing characters, vehicles vehicles and worl worlds, ds, and setting setting the rules by which which everyt everything hing will work. work. It’ It’ss a vital and skillful skillful rol role. e. To To gain gain a grea greater ter insigh insightt int into o how how conce concept pt artists work, work, and how how you you can can crea create te your your own own art for for video video games games to a pro profes fessi sion onal al standard, we’ve teamed up with some of the industry’s best artists, who between between them have have wor worked ked on Uncharted Uncharted 3, Star Wars: The The Old Old Republic, Republic, Rage, R age, Fallout: New Vegas, and many more best-selling titles. In our Character Art chapter, starting on page 32, Naughty Dog’s Maciej Kuciara shows how to design a heroine with multiple genre references. On page 50, Rocksteady’s Kan Muftic reveals how he redesigned DC’s anti-heroine Harley Quinn for Batman: Arkham City. In our Creature Design section, Blizzard’s Luke Mancini demonstrates how to paint the Zerg from StarCraft 2 (page 60), plus chapters on environment painting and vehicle design, including a worksh workshop op from from the amazing amazing Feng Feng Zhu (page (page 22), 22), will prov provee indispensable. Everything culminates in our ‘live project’ from the artists at Leading Light studio, who demonstrate how all these skills inform a game’s pitch and product design. If you enjoy this special issue of ImagineFX, why not try the others in this new series? See page 115 to find out more!
From the makers of
Claire Howlett, Editor
[email protected] We’re We’re the only magazine dedicated to fantasy and sci-fi art. Our aim is to help artists to improve both their traditional and digital art skills. Visit ww Visit www.ima w.imaginefx.com ginefx.com to find out more!
Subscribe to ImagineFX today and save money off every issue! See page 49
The finest artists in the world offer you the best guidance, share their techniques and offer inspiration in our video game art workshops.
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Workshops Practical advice from professional artists in 18 step-by-step guides
16 Vehicle design
Explore ways to make video game vehicles 18 22 28
Sci-fi vehicles for video games Create your art in parallel Add colour to a space battle
32 Character art
Breathe life into your game characters 34 38 44 50 54
Design your own game hero Develop poster art for Crysis 2 Design a space opera princess Recast a classic comic character Unify a range of fantasy genres
44 50
58 Creature concepts
Create monsters that will surprise and shock 60 64
Paint an epic alien battle Paint dynamic concept art
70 Environment painting
Create working environments for video games 72 76 82 84
Make a setting feel believable Establish the scene of a game Introduce unique visuals Visualise a game world
88 Production design
Design every element of a video game pitch 90 94 98 102
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Lead character The environment The enemy Story developer
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Game Art
6 Art spectacular!
Art from the pros behind Guild Wars 2, Syndicate, Mass Effect 3 and more.
106 Artist Q&A
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Real-world portrait issues solved… Remko Troost
Ubisoft artist Remko shares his advice on creating mood paintings and where to start when thumbnailing vehicles. Philip Straub
Discover some new tips on creating spacecraft for video games with this 17-year veteran of the industry. Jonathan Standing
Learn to design modular characters and add decals to space armour designs with experienced concept artist Jon.
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Gary Tonge
Having worked for Sega, Capcom, Eidos and more, who better to reveal what exactly a concept artist does?
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Daryl Mandryk
Improve the speed and impact of your painting workflow with EA’s leading concept artist. Daniel Dociu
Learn the value of setting achievable goals for your concept art with the Guild Wars 2 art director. Aly Fell
Master the rules of better character design, and discover why all concept art needn’t be digital. Andy Park
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Free resources Sketches and videos to help you learn… Video workshops Watch our contributors in action and pick-up some vital tips, with video workshops from leading concept artists including Maciej Kuciara, Luke Mancini, Kevin Chen and many others.
Let the God of War 2 concept artist show you how to overcome your fear of painting in colour.
I nc lude s f our hour s of v ide o!
Resource files Use our artists’ layered hi-res PSD files for inspiration. Custom brushes Recreate workshop techniques using the artists’ own custom brushes.
See page 114, or visit http://ifxm.ag/game06art
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Gallery
Gallery Get inspired by the creativity of the professional artists behind some of the biggest video games
Kekai Kotaki awaii-born Kekai has been working in video games for 10 years with ArenaNet. He started as a texture artist and, eight years after landing his first job, is now concept art lead on Guild Wars 2. Kekai’s impressionistic art style is instantly recognisable, and he has been given a lot of freedom on Guild Wars 2 to create a world that “we thought was cool”. He says the team didn’t set out to change how fantasy art is perceived: “We were trying to find new ways to express the core ideas that make up the fantasy genre. I’ve always tried to
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add that hard edge to my work – to make things cooler, full of motion and emotion.” The game takes place 250 years after the first Guild Wars, so there was plenty of scope to develop the look of the world, but freedom brings new trials. “The challenge was operating with this freedom and getting that high level of work done without falling on our faces,” says Kekai. Kekai’s art demonstrates there’s room for new ideas on the biggest stage if you’re prepared to meet the challenge. www.kekaiart.com
Restrictions on art have been loosened quite a bit, enabling us to explore and get some epic moments into the game Wise words
“I think of it as designing monsters that fight heroes and heroes that fight monsters; everyone needs to be the hero in the game. More important, everyone needs to feel like they’re the hero in the game.”
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Kekai Kotaki
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Sean A Murray
principle concept artist at Todd McFarlane’s Big Huge Games/38 Studios, Sean A Murray has had the enviable job of designing a new fantasy world for the video game Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning. “Our goal has been to present a mysterious world teeming with magic and mysticism, as opposed to a world of pure reality,” he says. His work on these pages demonstrates a colourful, original world that blends classic fantasy with a bit of the ‘old west’, as seen in the concept for the game’s Detyre Mining location. With a background in illustration Sean combines traditional and digital techniques,
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producing detailed pencil sketches that are then scanned into Photoshop, such as his depiction of the Adessa Tower from Reckoning, which was “a more functional piece of concept ar t”, Sean says, “showing how to combine various modular pieces into a unique Gnome tower.” The early painting of Bolgan Forest, however, is one that Sean looks to when summing up his work on Reckoning. “This is one of the very first images I did for the game,” says Sean. “I think it really set the stage for what we wanted to go for visually in terms of colour palette and creature design philosophy.” sketchsam.blogspot.com
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It was not a typical setting for a fantasy universe. We wanted to infuse a bit of Old West into it
Wise words
“The most successful concept artists are those that put an emphasis on communication and storytelling before picture making.”
Sean A Murray / Alessandro Taini Alessandro Taini
aving worked for UK developer Ninja Theory for eight years, Alessandro Taini is now visual art director for the BAFTA Award-winning studio. Alex’s concept art has a unique painterly feel. His female characters, particularly Trip from 2010’s Enslaved: Journey to the West, are beautiful but capable heroines. Like his other heroine, Nariko, from Heavenly Sword, Trip is a flame-haired female lead character imbued with beauty and brains. When Ninja Theory was chosen to reboot the Capcom series Devil May Cry, Alessandro began creating mood paintings for the studio’s concepts for the popular Japanese video game series. Tapping into his Italian heritage, Alessandro created a stunning Renaissance-inspired depiction of the game’s hero at play: “With this image I wanted to illustrate the personality of Dante,” comments Alessandro, “a young rebel without a care in the world.” www.talexiart.com
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This image illustrates one of the characters of Enslaved to explain her background outside of the game’s context
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Bradley Wright s part of the concept art team at Starbreeze, working on the remake of the video game Syndicate was a thrilling challenge. “This game, and the genre it sits in, is a dream for any concept artist to work on,” says Bradley. Bradley’s approach to the project was to go back to the 1993 version of Syndicate and start pulling out key elements, visual markers, and “legacy elements… vital design features and principles that we could stick to throughout the production time”. For a game set in a sci-fi noir future filled with flying cars and gleaming towers, surprisingly Bradley says he enjoys designing the nuts and bolts of the game’s world. “The challenge of making a chair fresh and interesting is something I strive for,” says Bradley. “It takes time to get something as simple as a chair from concept to model to in-game, so you want it to look good.” These elements of a game’s world seep into the subconscious and begin to form a larger, coherent picture that allows the team to tell a story. “Starbreeze has always had a strong history of developing storydriven games with characters and atmosphere that have depth and layers to them,” says Bradley. “The concept art – and equally the game design – feed into this philosophy. We seek to push and explore these depths with innovative ideas and artwork.” bradleywright.wordpress.com
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Wise words
“It is important to understand how 3D is produced. This aids me in creating more detailed, faster concepts and lets me integrate more with other disciplines, such as modellers and level designers.”
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Bradley Wright
The freedom to stand up and say this does or doesn’t work is great for a team environment
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Gallery Joe Madureira
oe Mad entered the comic book industr y at the age of 16 when he joined Marvel. After 15 years on Marvel titles including Uncanny X-Men, as well as launching his own series Battle Chasers, Joe called it a day and delved into video games. After a stint at NCSoft, he left to form Vigil Games and designed his own colourful world for the Darksiders series of games. The sequel, Darksiders 2, features the new iconic anti-hero Death. Although Joe has taken on the role of director for Darksiders 2, he has still found time to create the central character. “We knew that we wanted Death to be a lot more nimble than War. He moves faster and fights more acrobatically,” says Joe. “Therefore, his weapons had to be smaller and lighter, and he had to wear much less armour. All of these things start to paint a picture. With all that in mind, I try to think of the ‘attitude’ that I want the character to convey.” The Joe Mad-style – part western comic, part manga – feeds into video game design perfectly. Although Joe works with a team of artists to convey his ideas into the game world, this comic book legend’s stamp is clearly delivered. So what would his 16-year-old self make of this new game? “This is exactly the kind of game I would dream of playing, never mind working on,” says Joe. vigilgames.com
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Death is more aggressive and intimidating than War, and has zero respect for the laws that govern Heaven and Hell
Wise words
“There’s always room to get better, and there are always people doing things better than you. Never stop learning, I guess, that’s the biggest lesson I’ve learned.”
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Joe Madureira / Kan Muftic
Kan Muftic
ecreating an iconic character and its world is one of the biggest challenges facing a video game concept artist. Working on the award-winning Batman: Arkham City meant redefining the look of one of the world’s most popular comic characters. Artist Kan Muftic picks the game’s environments as an area the concept art team focused on to give their game a new look. Each area of Arkham City had to feel unique while fitting into a consistent world, which involved everything from Gothic and Victorian architecture to glass and iron Art Nouveau décor, creating layers of styles that highlighted the city’s evolution.
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I basically just start drawing with all of that stuff popping around in my head, and hopefully something cool comes out that people are excited by Wise words
“It’s important to consider the character in-game instead of thinking about the pretty drawings. It’s useful to know what the character is doing in the game while I’m drawing, because it’ll help me give him personality.”
The museum in Arkham City is one such design that Kan is rightly proud of. “I pushed that idea from the very beginning of the project,” he says. But this wasn’t simply an exercise in aesthetic design. “Gameplay is king,” remarks Kan, referring to the need to ensure that his designs for the game met with the direction the game’s scriptwriters and game designers were going in. “I spend a lot of time talking, consulting and suggesting things to the team. It’s not all about the drawing.” The end result was one of the best games of its generation, a visual spectacle that is as fun to play as it is good to look at. kanmuftic.blogspot.com
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Patryk Olejniczak
s the new concept artist in BioWare’s marketing department, Patryk Olejniczak has the enviable job of bringing Mass Effect 3’s cast of characters to life. Patryk focuses on pose, expression and background detail to tell a character’s story. “During the whole process I try not to forget about the importa nce of a proper eye-catching character pose and expression, which encourage a viewer to study the ‘story’ of the painting,” says our cover artist. “I often start with loose, basic brush lines for the characters. I like to play around with random photos and textures until I am satisfied,” he says, explaining how he uses ingame screenshots to reference the realistic lighting and colour tones. “I put a great effort into trying to present them as detailed as possible, but somewhere along the line I took the liberty of applying some of my own tweaks,” Patryk reveals, explaining why Zaeed’s gauntlet is a different shape from that of the game’s character. Patryk uses different blending modes and the Dodge tool to create his realistic, brooding character portraits. Detailed research helps too, especially when rendering Mordin’s armour: “It needed proper research of shiny materials and careful application of them,” says Patryk. “Challenging as it was, it made me more confident in the style, which is always rife with realism.” garrettartlair.blogspot.com
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Each character brought me the same amount of excitement for a variety of thoughts and reasons
Wise words
“Try not to forget about the importance of a proper eyecatching character pose and expression, which encourage a viewer to study the ‘story’ of the painting.”
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Patryk Olejniczak
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Vehicle design Create exciting vehicles for video games
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Feng Zhu One of the world’s leading concept artists, Feng Zhu has worked for the major developers and publishers in the video games industry, including Sony, Ubisoft, NCSoft, Epic Games and EA studios. Learn to draw inspiration from painting two images at once. Turn to page 22
W orkshops
How to paint vehicles for games 18 Sci-fi vehicles for video games with Kemp Remillard
Design vehicles from sketch to final render in Photoshop and SketchUp. 22 Create your art in parallel with Feng Zhu
The legendary film and game artist works on multiple images at once. 28 Add colour to a space battle with Ryan Dening
Use layers to create a spaceship scene from Star Wars: The Old Republic.
I’ve often found that problems in one image can lead to solutions in another Feng Zhu, page 22
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ehicle design
SCI-FI VEHICLES FOR VIDEO GAMES Massive Black’s Kemp Remillard explains how to take a concept from sketchpad to video game…
esigning vehicles for video games can seem like a daunting task. Depending on the project, the concept artist can encounter design challenges that range from “we don’t know what we want – show us something cool” to “we have about 20 requirements that need to be in the concept – and make it look cool”. Here, I’ll go over some of the decisions and methods I use when designing sci-fi vehicles for video games. The whole process is an odd mixture of research, planning, experimentation, layout and illustration – all while working closely with your client to
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ensure that the concept fits the needs of the game engine, story and aesthetic. While there are many methods and approaches that concept artists use, designing vehicles can be fun and rewarding with a little research, planning and creativity. Science fiction vehicles can take on many forms, depending on the project. For this tutorial, I will focus on that special brand of sci-fi that I love the most: the near future. I’m fascinated by military and space technology, cur rent events, history and sociopolitical interactions as a whole. These interests are elements that I try to infuse into my creative concepts daily. As a general
philosophy, I feel that the more real I can make something fictional, the better t he concept and final illustration will be. For the two vehicles in this project, I will play the roles of art director and concept artist by creating a brief describing the criteria for the concept to meet, then designing the vehicle around that criteria. Along the way, I’ll show how to go through an iterative process using both Photoshop and SketchUp to design functional science fiction vehicles of the near future that can be incorporated into a sci-fi video game’s production pipeline with ease. Hope you enjoy it!
Kemp Remillard COUNTRY: US Kemp is a concept artist with Massive Black in San Francisco. Kemp has designed vehicles and created concepts for highprofile clients including THQ, Hasbro, Sega, Nintendo and NCsoft. www.kempart.com
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Brief and background
The first order of business when concepting vehicles for games is to review the client brief and understand the background of the world that the vehicle will exist in. The goal here is to create fictional military vehicles that might exist in the next 20 years or so. With that in mind, I begin by doing research on possible future military projects. In addition, I read up on stealth technology in aircraft, and what design concepts go into actual armoured land vehicles. This research and information will be vital to the outcome of the final design.
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