Chapter 4

Now that I have finished going through Pixologic's 'Introduction To ZBrush' video tutorials it is time to return to Jason Patnode's 'Character Modeling with Maya and ZBrush: Professional Polygonal Modeling Techniques' book so that I can continue my learning and complete the Game Character that I had started creating.

The fourth chapter in the book is called 'Concept Art', this chapter explains what concept art is and the importance it has in the production pipeline. I think that I already have a very good understanding of what concept art is and the important role that it plays in the production pipeline. One of the reasons that I understand the importance of concept art is because I am currently working on a short film. I am modeling some of the environment for the short film and concept art allows me to know what needs to be modeled, what the models need to look like, what mood they will create and what colour they will be. However despite thinking that I currently have a good understanding about concept art I think it is wise that I still read this chapter as it may offer me some new information that I do not know.

My current understanding of Concept Art is that it is the process that happens before production. It is where an artist will establish the look and design of everything in the film, game, advert etc. It is vital that you have plenty of concept art for your characters and environments so that you have a guideline as to what the finished product will look like. Concept art doesn't just dictate how your characters and environments will look but it also allows you to see what types of colour they will be.

The book explains the process in more detail. First the story of the piece will be approved. Then an artist will develop lots of different designs for the film or game etc. They will then present those designs to the Art Director who will either approve them or tell the artist that there are some changes that need to be made. It is much easier, quicker and cheaper for changes to be made to concept art than it is redo an entire model. When all of the concept art has been approved the film or game etc will move into the production stage. It is also pointed out that concept art is not only vital for big scale productions such as a film but it is also a vital process for smaller productions aswell. Concept art speeds up production time.

The book then gives a tutorial on how you can clean up concept art. This is a quick tutorial that explains how to get your concept art onto your computer and what resolution it should be. It then explains how you can get rid of your first ruff outline. After it has run through this process it then talks about some of the more popular software that is very good for creating and editing concept art. Unfortunately I do not see myself as a concept artist and the project deadline is on the horizon so I did not follow this tutorial, I only read it. This tutorial does provide useful information that would be helpful to know but due to the fact my deadline is soon and I still have a fair amount to do I need to ensure that I solely concentrate on my topic for this unit, which is the actual modeling process of modeling a character and learning ZBrush to help model a character.

Overall this chapter gives a good explanation of the importance of concept art and where it fits in the pipeline, so despite already knowing this knowledge it was still worth reading.