The Purpose of Concept

Art
In this article I will be covering the
purpose of Concept Art. Furthermore,
I will
be using examples of certain pieces
of
Concept Art, as well as, listing
certain artists and some of their
body of work. I will also go into some detail on
the style of certain pieces of Concept Art. This may
1. used
Link Concept
include references to styles of ConceptFig
Art
for a
Art from Wind
cell-shaded game, seen in Fig 1.
Waker
What is Concept Art used for in games?
Concept Art is used for in order to design and
conceptualise every single aspect of a game that the
player will see within it. Concept Art will define the
mood, feel and tone of the game as well as the art style
and direction.
Conceptual art itself is typically more minimalist,
particularly at first. Very basic rough pencil or pen
sketches tend to be the roots of most designs. From
these roots, shading and refining is done until
eventually one design is chosen to be the basis for all
the mock ups. Typically following this would be coloured
artwork followed by the creation for the game.

Fig 2. Tifa Sketch

work by Tetsuya

Concept Art for

Characters
Over the
course of
making
the
Concept
Art, what the
artists wants
the
character to
look or
behave like
will commonly change. An example of this is
Concept Art for a character called Mitsuri,
seen in the game Persona 3. In the piece of
Concept Art shown as Fig 3, she appears
with a different hair colour to the red hair she appears
with in the game. It is highly likely this was changed in
order to give the character a different personality or
style.
In the piece of Concept Art Mitsuri is depicted as shy,
hiding under black hair. Shy is not how she is portrayed
in the game however. Red hair may therefore have
Fig 3. Mitsuri
been chosen as the final hair colour forConcept
Mitsuri
due to
Art
the connotations of associated with the colour red. Red
is typically used to portray fierce and fiery emotions
such as love and anger, a much more accurate
representation of Mitsuris fiery, confident personality
seen in the game.

Other times characters designs are changed are not

necessarily to change of the style or personality of the
characters themselves but instead to change the feel or
mood of the game.

Tetsuya Nomura
One name I mentioned previously was Tetsuya Nomura
for his Concept Art of the character Tifa from Final
Fantasy VII. Tesuya has previously won an award for his
work on the first Kingdom Hearts game and praise for
his work on Final Fantasy VII and several other Square
Enix titles. He has further collaborated with DC comics
on Batman and Catwoman designs as well as Japanese
Icon, Hatsune Miku.
As previously mentioned, character designs can be
changed in order to change the feel of the game itself.
This is seen in his initial and final design of the Kingdom
Hearts protagonist, Sora (Figs 4 and 5).

Fig 4. Sora initial

Concept Art

Fig 5. Sora finalised

Artwork

There are several key differences between the final and

initial Concept Art that can easily be attributed to a
change in the game they wanted to make over a
change in the character itself. The characters both
share the same pose and expression, the only real
difference being the slouching of the weapon in the
later artwork, showing they both share the same
personality.
One key difference however is the fact that the initial
concept art pitches the character as half-lion. This was
likely removed from the game as the plot would have
had to been different in order to accommodate the
difference in species.
Another feature removed is the crown featured
prominently on Soras head, this again was likely
removed so the character did not appear to come from

a royal background, again affecting how the plot would

develop.
The final key difference is of the weapon itself. In the
initial Concept Art the weapon is a chainsaw sword,
more than likely changed to a key sword (Keyblade in
the game) as a chainsaw sword would not be within the
Disney vision.

Concept Art for Environments and Objects

As stated earlier, Concept Art is all about defining the
mood and feel of the game. This is ever present in
Concept art of environments and objects as often it is
the environments of the worlds, not the characters that
inhabit it, that define the feel and mood of the

experience for the player. In Fig 6 we can see how ever

present this ideology is.

Fig 6. Concept Artwork for the Hoenn

region

The use of watercolours really helps bring the vibrant,

fun mood the piece is going for to life. The contrast of
the highly vibrant foreground on the dark mountains
and clouds helps the viewer understand which
elements of the environment have which themes.
Overall the piece well conveys the atmosphere of the
game.
When Fig 6 is compared to another piece such as Fig 7,
it becomes even more evident how good a job each
piece does of conveying the intended feelings and
moods of the games.

Fig 7. Concept Artwork for the Dark

Hour

In Fig 7 it is immediately apparent that the game is rife

with dark themes. The pencil style artwork helps to give
the piece a deadbeat, life deprived feel. The red
reflection on the road of the streets has connotations of
hatred and violence, making the game seems dark. The
full position of the full moon being so full in the sky
surrounded by dark clouds also helps make the piece
seem ominous.
Fig 7 is also an example of using a piece of
environmental Concept Art in order to demonstrate

gameplay features. This is more commonly seen in

action games with things such as ladders but Fig 7
places the full moon presently in the middle. In the
game, the full moon signifies when a big event will take
place, i.e. a boss battle.
Between these two pieces then it is evident how
different the themes of the games are before the
games are even made. Although both games are RPGs
(Fig 6 being Pokemon Concept Art, Fig 7 being Persona
3 Concept Art), it is evident from the pieces that they
are vastly different thematically.

The Purpose of Concept Art: Conclusion

As stated earlier, the purpose of Concept Art is to help
the viewer understand the themes and mood, the
personality of the characters and the style of a game. A
great character Concept Artist will be able to convey
elements of the characters backstory, their whole
personality and what they will go through over the
course of the game solely through an expression,
stance and outfit. A great environmental Concept Artist
will be able to define the mood and themes of the
game through their use of colour and material and even
elements of the gameplay.
Without Concept Art a game will lack direction and will
more than likely result in poorly made models and
graphics. Most importantly however, without Concept
Art a game will lack soul.
Oliver Lerigo-Smith

Image References
Fig 1. https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?
q=tbn:ANd9GcRzPsgUprYwCur230fsgVJIsK1Z5BbTf4Aq2
MMQ3ZzwoZ5rG5WW (25th January 2015)
Fig 2.
http://images.wikia.com/finalfantasy/images/archive/0/0
6/20130203034150!Tifa_Early_Sketch.jpg
Fig 3. http://img4.cache.netease.com/photo/0031/201112-15/7LBCSI5J49GF0031.jpg
Fig 4. http://kh2.co.uk/assets/kh/artwork/216.jpg
Fig 5.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/a4/SoraKH1
design.jpg
Fig 6. http://i.imgur.com/p3zjj2Y.jpg
Fig 7. https://rpgmap.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/p3darkhour.jpg
Bibliography

http://www.arttalk.com/archives/vol-13/artv1311-2.htm