Concept Art 101

Posts

Keep drawing if you want to keep your job

I love to draw. Drawing is the most fundamental aspects of visual communication. Human have use drawing for thousands of year to communicate complex ideas. The digital revolution: In the last two decades, computer graphics and 3d software programs are getting more sophisticated at a rapid pace. This allow more artists to get their ideas out onto the computer screens with little drawing skills requirement. More and more artists can't draw before computer has made it unnecessary. This may come back to bite. Future of Ai integration: The next digital leap will be Ai integration into the softwares. Procedural modeling, intelligent modeling, texturing, animations, and what not. The golden age of the 3d pipeline is coming to an end. Some tasks will be obsolete and Ai will take over those mundane functions. In order to further cut cost, studios will consolidate and bundle more complex visual fx tasks into one artist ‘s responsibility. Which mean talented and experience art

Anxiety problems? Just relax and draw.

Feeling like you're not doing enough? Is anxiety creeping up on you? Feeling overwhelmed by the amount of progress needed to become competitive in the market? Whenever you get anxiety attack, it important to remind yourself the race is a marathon, not a sprint. Take a breather or a break to gather your thoughts. Do something else and then come back to it. Grass is greener on the other side Believe or not, everyone has a bit of anxiety no matter who. The professionals at the top are worry that they might lose their jobs or not be relevant in the long run. Instead of enjoying the moment, they keep looking over their shoulders. The mid career artists are worry they aren’t good enough like the top players and they aren’t happy either. The younger artists are feeling the pressure from the huge gap from where they are and where they need to be. They may feel like they are missing out on the coolest projects. It's all in your head That feeling is only mental and it’

How to even out the playing field if you’re the underdog.

The Underdog Honest truth is, life isn’t fair kids. It isn’t a level playing field. You may be born in a different country like in Russia or Brazil that doesn’t have a large entertainment industry. Or your parents may not be rich to provide you with private art lessons. Or maybe you just found out about the industry and already started late in the game. There are countless reasons why you are at disadvantage situation than the other players. The Privilege I understand what that is like. I’ve been there and I had to compete with kids with rich parents who pay for art lessons as early as age 13 and will pay for their private college tuition. The other kids may have brothers or sisters that went to art schools that show them the ropes. The other kids may have parents who are art professionals that trained them since they are a child. So how do you compete with these kids that seems to have all the advantages and luck? Should you even bother with the seemingly unfair race

Is formal art/design school necessary to work in the design industry?

To go or not to go So you recently discovered design industry and wondering if going to a formal school is necessary. Or you've know about the industry a while now and you're about to enter college and nothing else interest you except art and design, but wondering if self-education is sufficient to break into the industry. Where do you want to land The answer depends on where you want to work. If you want to work as product designer or transportation designer, then yes. You should go to college because product design or transportation design involved a lot more understanding of the trades beyond just drawing. Drawing skills alone is not enough to break into those fields. On the other hand, if you want to work in the entertainment industry like film and video games, probably not, as long as your work is competitive. Those jobs are broken down into a efficient pipeline which breaks up into very specific specializations. So either you know someone that can you in and ge

Most Marketable Art Styles:

Let ‘s talk about art styles. This is not about personal style but mainstream marketable styles that already have a demand. As a new artist coming up and trying to land work, you need to understand what is already in demand. In this post, I will cover two main styles that have a large market demand. One is a photoreal style and the second is an illustrative style. Photo-real Style: There are many nuances within each categories. But in general, a photoreal style is concept design represented in a photorealist way where the objective to convey the concept in a realistic style like a photograph. Typically, the style will echo the final product. For example, in film, photoreal concept art is today standard because the final product is a film that is shot in camera and in real locations. Photoreal concept art is use to establish the lighting, colors, mood and narrative of the scene in which will be passed down the vfx pipeline for further refinement. In video game, this is als

Top 10 Pros and Cons of working a full time job

A full time job is not for everyone. But it is worth taking on one or two if you want to experience how a large company works. The days of working 20-30 years for one company, let alone 5 years are in the past. The financial crisis impact has rippled through the world and it’s results has left many people wary of the future. But one thing for sure what the 2008 crisis taught us is that job security doesn’t exist, even for those who have devoted their entire life to single company. We saw those people lost their jobs, their retirements, and worst, their dignity. The only job security you can bank on is your skills and network. So if you’re thinking to give full-time job a spin, below is a list of plus and minus that come with a steady 9-5. Advantages: 1. A sense of stability comes with s full time job. You get a piece of mind from a consistently monthly paycheck. 2. Benefits and perks, health insurance, 401k plans and bonuses are inclusive with the job package. 3