"Realistic" games: Demand for concept art?

[Zirngibism]

(Since this topic doesn't directly fall under "art" but the "art industry" maybe this would be better in the Lounge?)

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I was curious as to how developers of historical or "modern" realistic game handled designes for characters, props, or environments.

For example, couldn't a 3D wiremapper working on an WWII game just do an image search for a particular type of gun, outfit, tank, etc...? And since it's a realistic game they could probably buy figures of "normal" proportions. So why have concept artists? It would seem like a lot of extra work to re-draw out the image of a gun that a 3D artist could get otherwise.
I was under the impression that people other than concept artists actually mapped out levels (could be wrong about that though). If they didn't, it wouldn't seem like they'd play much of a part in these things.

So anyone know if I guess correctly?

[Meloncov]

While many things could be taken off the shelf, some things would still require concept artists. Character faces come to mind.

[MCImaginary]

The first thing that comes to my mind is the characters themselves. Maybe they want a guy with a realistic gun and clothes and everything, but who is he. This I assume would be a task for the concept artist. They must illustrate the expressions and display how each character is independent of one another in their own way. Not all people look the same either. Then again, maybe I am wrong.

[Unbreakable]

Well, a friend of mine happens to work for a game company that does a WWII game. He does lots of mood paintings and key shot illustrations to help give the team an idea of what to work towards. hope that helps

[m@.]

yeah, even on "realistic" games there's a lot of design work to do.You just have more constraints, to keep it all grounded in reality.
But there's a lot of work in researching the references and blending them into recognizable and interesting characters, for instance. Cause you usually want to spice up the reality a bit, or mix the realistic elements in a way that makes it all look cool and interesting, and that's concept work.

[Silvertone]

Well, I'm not there now but I did exactly that at a company called the Institute for Creative Technologies (http://ict.usc.edu/). They make video games that the army uses for training soldiers.

My project was the E.L.E.C.T. (http://ict.usc.edu/projects/elect/C45) project. That was a cultural awareness training game. So, basically the storyline, as an example, was

Scenario - There seems to be a problem with the new market.

Several months ago, an American unit supervised the construction of a new marketplace as a goodwill gesture to the people of the town. Returning to the town a few months later, we have detected an air of increased hostility. For reasons we have been unable to determine, the new marketplace is all but deserted. Maintaining good relations is crucial to our peacekeeping efforts. More importantly, something must have happened to change the town's opinion of U.S. forces. Because of this new attitude of hostility and our inability to bridge a perceived culture gap, our efforts to discover the reasons have been fruitless. We need a skilled negotiator to go into the town, meet the locals and begin to unravel this mystery without inadvertantly making the situation worse.

So what's to design? Well, the town, the marketplace (the new one and old one) and the locals that take a lead role in the story to start.

Before the 3d game is made, a 2d mock up is also made that includes character illos too. Then there's also storyboarding.

Some things I was surprised at was seeing the modelers modeling off of pictures from reference not concept drawings. Character models were reused with slight tweaks. Some simply putting new textures on to change the chacter, oddly enough when you look at the ICT homepage, if you notice in the changing pictures, there is a pic of a doctor on the left and an Iraqi on the right. The character on the right is one I designed, sort of. I was told to change the doctor into one of the ELECT characters. So after researching muslim/arab clothing on the internet I looked for similar clothes that could be close to what the doc had and basically drew those onto the doctors 3d ortho's. I think the model had a couple minor tweaks though.

So yeah there are lots of things used and re used and new things with new projects to come up with once in a while too.

Oh yeah, I made lots of flyers too...

[dbclemons]

There are many more uses for concept design art than just production reference. In the early stages of the development of the game, there are proposals and re-designs to be made when other team members haven't been assigned yet. Changes are made constantly at that point and artwork needs to be available that can easily adapt to those changes.

In terms of production, it's time consuming for artists to do their own research, not to mention the lack of control on all the stuff they may find that should not be used. Having specific people assigned to that is more efficient.

[Seedling]

(I was under the impression that people other than concept artists actually mapped out levels (could be wrong about that though). If they didn't, it wouldn't seem like they'd play much of a part in these things.

An artist (concept or otherwise) should never be allowed free reign on a level's layout, i.e. how the level plays; and neither should a game designer have free reign on how a level looks. While it is possible for a single artist/level-designer to fill both roles, better is to pair up someone who specializes in visuals with someone who specializes in making games fun. This is because each of these two people has a fundamentally different goal: pretty versus fun. It is a rare artist who values fun over pretty, and vice versa.

The artist would be in charge of setting the mood, planning specific view-points within the level, and keeping the level looking visually correct and consistant; the game-designer would be in charge of constructing the overall level for maximum fun, and positioning and hooking up all of the moving parts so that everything works on cue. Depending on which of the two has what sort of background, either could potentially do the bulk of the modeling and texturing, but chances are that job is going to fall to someone with the job-title of artist. (And if not that, it'll fall to someone like me who has a background in art but who is in a game-designer position.)

[Favila]

Something has just clicked to me when I read this thread, maybe it could be a good concept art exercise to design an squad of soldiers with the same uniform, but giving each one their own personality. You can modify the way they wear it, add some accessories, give them a face, bodytype, etc. Actually I think I'm going to do this myself lol

[Maxine Schacker]

I'm surprised that no one ever seems to speak about games that are 2D, not 3D. There is also concept art done for animation,for film, and even for gambling machines.

The public taste can vary. When something is new and different, it dominates, but people eventually get bored and fashions change.

That's a very good reason to have a broad based general education, and a skill base that provides flexibility.

[Riess]

Seedling is of course spot on there, the concept artist defines the look of the game beyond "realistically proportioned models" and sets the mood and feel of your surroundings.

Take the recent Company of Heroes, it went for a very realistic look based on WWII history, and in the early stages of design, it was up to the artists to create the atmosphere which would later dominate the games.
1 (http://forums.relicnews.com/showpost.php?p=1623958&postcount=1)
2 (http://companyofheroes.filefront.com/news/CoH_Concept_Art;32104)