8.12.2011

mood in concept art

So after being enamored by all the work that you guys are doing and feeling a little sick and frustrated with the illustration stuff I've been doing I decided to do this 2 hour job. It's inspired by a discussion my brother and I were having about video games we'd like to see. I was talking about how much fun it was to have warthog skirmishes in Halo 2 back in the day and how I'd love to play a game that is basically Mad Max/Smuggler's Run/FPS. I'd love to be the player who either gets to drive across desert highways hunting down a bounty or be a sniper on the back of the vehicle picking off anybody who might try to get there first.
I don't think it expresses a whole lot in terms of design, unfortunately but I guess I was hoping I could create something that conveys distinct mood, perhaps? The sort of art you might do at the very very beginning of pre-production. Do you guys have any good examples of these kinds of concept pieces? Or what do you think makes an effective mood-evoking concept?

I tried to give you guys harsh critiques this week! Please do the same for me!
eth.

2 comments:

  1. if you want me to give you a harsh critique try putting up a piece of crap painting instead of this fine little number :) hmmmm..... the colors are awesome it really gives it a gritty feeling and I think the metal looks ridiculously good. The one thing that stood out to me with this piece is the fact that I thought it was racing towards me... actually I drug the thing into photoshop and started trying to draw any changes on it when I realized that it was indeed racing away from me. my brother thought the same thing when I first showed him. So is there a way that you can show the trailing sand more with out throwing the entire composition out of whack? and possibly define the driver a little more? hmmm.... I think thats all I got, I'll do a paint over to see if anything else pops out. but seriously this is a great piece especially for only 2 hours. keep up the good work eth!

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  2. sorry about getting to this so late, ive been super busy with the new job, but anywhoose.

    I think Alison has it pretty right, i didnt even notice that it wasnt supposed to be coming towards the viewer, until she pointed that out. It definitely reads that way, especially from the thumbnail alone, the gunner in the back needs to be clearly holding a gun, maybe aiming or firing, (because he reads like he is steering) and the driver needs to be defined more. I do like the colors and the overall composition though, it might suggest more of the "race" theme if there were other racers in the comp, maybe in the far distance. It would be cool to see a series of these guys, with a little bit of story-boarding going on, like a mini pitch bible, showing off the concept of the game.

    well, thats about as harsh as I can get, besides telling you that you smell bad, and cant read good.

    Keep up the pace!

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