One of my go-to design principles is ‘similarity’. Today we’ll design an interactive machine, which will give us a great opportunity to use this principle to our benefit!
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One key aspect of being a concept artist is flexibility, so today we’re trying out some ‘interface design’. So whether you’ve never designed an HP bar in your life, or if you’re a typeface connoisseur, let’s see what UI Ryan needs us to tackle!
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Today we’re zooming way out, and designing an entire encampment. And though that might seem like a departure from the previous challenges, it goes to show how versatile design principles can be. To help sculpt these floor-plans, I’ll demonstrate the gestalt principle of ‘enclosure’. Using enclosure, you’ll help players quickly make sense of their surroundings.
Additionally, this challenge encourages the idea of ‘experiential design’. Unlike a real city which might sprawl and meander, your city is purpose-built for an audience of 1: the player. And though it might give the impression of a city, it’ll function more like an attraction at Disney World; funneling the player down a carefully considered path.
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Do Not Cross
Today’s challenge is all about barriers. To keep players inside the level boundaries, concept artists have to come up with clever designs. It might be a prop, a visual effect, or some combination of the two. But to create a successful barrier you need to understand figure-ground relationships.
Just like the last challenge, Ryan has challenged you to create a new design. This time you’re working with a summer adventure scenario, and my demonstration features a stealth ship on a desert planet. This video’s new principle is ‘figure ground relationships’, but I still expect you to break down Ryan’s brief like in challenges #02 and #03. No matter what the challenge is, it’s crucial to begin with words, brainstorming, and synthesis before you start sketching.
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Emphasis
Today’s an exciting milestone! From this challenge forward, all of the homework will be hands-on designing. The writing, research, and revision homework you’ve tackled in previous challenges were crucial first steps, but now you’re ready to start applying the skills. Today you’ll be designing a work area prop for a survival horror game.
The demonstration introduces a new principle: using visual emphasis to guide the player’s attention. But don’t forget the rest of your training! From now on, I expect you to process these written briefs like you did in challenges #02 and #03. Break down the text into simple ideas, synthesize the ideas, and form a gameplan before beginning to draw.
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Today’s challenge might remind you of a Swiss Army Knife: a simple silhouette, but packed to the gills with useful tools. That classic red pocket tool is an elegant design. It balances the need to accomplish multiple functions, while also being smooth and comfortable in a snug pocket. Achieving that balance of form & function isn’t easy, but that’s why we’re practicing.
In this exercise you’ll work from Ryan’s design drawing. Since drawing isn’t his professional skill, you’re tasked with interpreting, refining, and unifying the forms. Like the Swiss Army Knife, your goal is to craft a simple exterior without losing any of the interior functionality.
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Challenges #10 & #11 are a bit different than the rest - they’re completely aesthetic. Today we’re talking about alignment, and challenge #11 deals with lines & curves. Without getting into a full-blown ‘shape language’ detour, I think these two skills are extremely useful for the sketching required in upcoming homework. Make sure to download the homework image - you’ll be doing a bit of ‘tracing’, and it will be easier to start from my included example.
The playbook is primarily about problem-solving, and your drawing precision isn’t important. But if you feel intimidated, or distracted, by your current drawing skill, make sure to check out my other free tutorials. If you want a bit more advanced training, my videos in the store are a great way to improve (also, they’re the only source of income for Ctrl+Paint).
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When I explained the goal of this project to a concept art co-worker, he emphatically said “Good! Train some competent employees for me to hire!” And though I wouldn’t phrase it exactly like that, I totally agree with him. In addition to technical skills like drawing & design, I want to introduce a secret weapon: empathy. Empathy can help you imagine the player who will enjoy your game, and how your design might improve their experience. Empathy might help you resolve a creative dispute at the office. Today empathy will help you better understand the role of ‘game designer’.
This homework assignment puts you in Ryan’s shoes: writing a design brief. First off, understanding the work your teammates do is crucial. By understanding their role, you’ll have much more productive collaboration. But my real goal with this assignment is to broaden your approach to art. Even though I call myself a ‘concept artist’, I’ve dabbled a bit in animation, web design, graphic design, and I love architecture & cars. All of these skills get mixed into my approach at work, and I’m always on the lookout to learn a new discipline. Inspiration comes from strange places, so keep an open mind!
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Art schools sometimes feature a department called ‘communication arts’. As a student, I found that descriptor a bit vague. What are they communicating? Why is that art? To my mind, the ‘real’ art disciplines were visual words like animation, sculpture, and painting. But in the years since graduation, I’ve gained an entirely new appreciation for art that communicates clearly.
Concept art is, first and foremost, communication. While the game is in production, concept artists form a link between departments: converting the designers’ words into drawings & blueprints for the art team. After the game is complete, your designs communicate directly to the player. A red light might indicate ‘alert’, and a rickety rope bridge might signal danger. In many ways, learning to design means learning to communicate.
For today’s homework you’re challenged to be concise. To craft a single phrase. Easy, right? In the video I’ll argue that a single, elegant, sentence requires much more work than a few meandering paragraphs. But I believe in you. Good luck!
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Context is a powerful word. There’s no perfect car for everyone: your region’s weather & geography has a huge impact on which considerations you make at the dealership. To understand a political or cultural issue, we need to know the related facts. In short: nothing exists in a vacuum.
A common misconception about concept art is that brilliant artists begin with a blank canvas, and fill the page through some sort of magical creative energy. In my experience, concept art is much more reactionary. A prop or vehicle design is the product of its surroundings. A snowy level would merit a chunky 4x4, but a highway chase would work better with a low slung sports car. The context matters.
Today’s challenge has you examining a game object through the lens of ‘context’. By learning to see an object relative to its surroundings, you’re beginning to think like a designer.
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Study the greats
In this challenge you’ll repeat the previous assignment, but with an object from a video game. The goal here is to start thinking of game objects holistically, not just as a 3d shape, symbol, or graphic. These objects are fundamentally interactive, which makes them more like objects we live with than art we look at.
By examining a simple object in a favorite game, you’re switching from game ‘player’ to game ‘investigator’. An ammo crate you’ve seen 100 times might reveal something totally new. That’s the great thing about design: it’s often meant to fade into the background. If the object didn’t distract your attention, it was all the more successful!
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Today we’re exploring an essential aspect of design: cause & effect relationships. Design is a balancing act. By making something taller, you might run into issues with low-hanging branches. Shrink that object to avoid the branches, and it might be hard to see at a distance. As you improve your design skills, you’ll find yourself constantly asking the question ‘what would happen if…?’
To simplify the homework assignment, we’ll be studying a household object. Even though it’s not as exciting as a bazooka from a video game, you are way more familiar with your toaster, lamp, or kettle. Today we’ll use that familiarity to help hone your ‘cause and effect’ investigating techniques. Over time, this process will be constantly active while you’re designing. Truly, ‘questioning’ is the default state for concept artists and designers. But this doesn’t come natural to everyone, so today’s homework eases you into the mindset.
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“We just heard back from the designers. There’s been some updates.”
-Your boss
No one likes inconvenient surprises. We had a plan: read the brief, make a design, call it ‘complete’. But design is inherently collaborative work, which means plans are always subject to change. Today’s challenge introduces a new variable to the enemy design you’ve been working on. Sometimes an update is minor, while other curve-balls might require you to re-start a project from the beginning. This is ok. It’s not the end of the world.
Drawing & painting are important skills for concept artists, but so is flexibility. Emotional resilience, or ‘thick skin’, makes collaborative teamwork much easier. Though today’s video can’t replace an in-person experience, my hope is to simulate this inescapable element of game studio life.
When faced with some new updates from your teammates, the correct answer is: “Sounds good, I’ll get to work on my revision!”
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Synthesis
By teaching a subject you are forced to critically examine your own workflow. Things that you’ve been doing unconsciously while working. When it came time to make this video, it really was a breakthrough moment for me: this subject… I think it’s the ‘big one’ for concept art. Synthesis. Synthesis is a skill that I’ve been practicing for years, but have never been forced to put it into words.
Today’s challenge has you taking the ‘updated enemy bullet points’ you made in episode #02, and to formulate an updated drawing. You’re starting with unrelated bullet points, and trying to unify them into a single, clear, message. Once you have a clear message, it’s much easier to develop your drawing. But that process in the middle - it’s called synthesis. Combining unrelated ideas into a coherent message. That’s concept art. It’s not easy, but it’s crucial to practice. Have fun!
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Time for a second draft
How did your first homework assignment go? Hopefully you’ve had a chance to complete it - because this lesson picks up where the last homework assignment left off. As a huge Netflix watcher, I’m no stranger to binging video content - but the ‘playbook’ is specially crafted to be interactive. You’ll get much more out of the experience by working through each assignment in order.
After graduating art school, I was in the ‘linear’ head-space. Get homework, complete the homework, and review the homework on the critique wall. Then get a new piece of homework, and start all over. But in the working world, tasks don’t have such clean cycles. Sometimes it’s a personal revision: the art director asks for you to tweak something. But other times you’ll be faced with an unexpected change that’s out of your control.
Today Ryan and I simulate the ‘updated brief’ experience. Since game studios are a collaborative environment, you’re constantly working on half-finished assets. In this case, Ryan’s added more details to the brief from last homework. As a concept artist working on a team, this is just part of the job. So let’s give it a try!
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Follow your gut.
Welcome to the Concept Art Playbook! Today you’ll be designing an enemy, but the brief is intentionally vague. With only a few bullet points to guide your design, Ryan’s left many details up to your imagination. Does this amount of freedom excite you? Or do you prefer to work within tighter restrictions? In the following lessons you’ll have much more specific instructions to tackle.
Video games are made by teams, and collaboration poses unique challenges. These lessons place you in an ‘imaginary game studio’ where you’ll be given specific assignments, limitations, and functional requirements. You’re also practicing flexibility, reading comprehension, and working outside your comfort zone. If you’re self-taught, these skills might be new and intimidating. But that’s why you’re practicing them now, and not during your first week on the job.
If you take these 30 assignments seriously, you’ll leave with an entirely new approach for making stuff look cool. And I think you’ll have a lot of fun, too.
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In this episode of Designed To Work we’ll begin to refine the ‘hauler’ by considering how it might move. As purpose-built utility vehicle, it’s a great opportunity to let the function determine the form - so let’s design from the inside out.
In this episode of Designed To Work we’ll explore the relationship between the three first elements: the Hauler, Collectors, and Depot. Objects like these never exist in isolation, so it’s ideal to design them as a considered ‘whole’ instead of individual parts.
In this episode of Designed To Work we try to get a bit more specific about the look of the game. There’s a lot to consider!
Sometimes you just need to recharge your creative batteries. I’ve spent the last year working on an unannounced game, challenging myself to expand my tools and techniques, and discovering fun new resources. With renewed excitement, I’ve got a long list of topics to share with you - and tons of new free videos on the way!
The “Designed To Work” series of free videos will explore the act of design: Where ideas come, how to create with intention, and how to beat ‘creative block’. Additionally, it’s my first opportunity to offer a peek into the life of a video game concept artist - creating artwork for a fake video game to demonstrate these techniques.
Lastly, I want to thank the longtime community. You’ve been a huge motivator for me to leap back into video-making. Thanks for your patience and support! Let’s have fun painting.
After some creative recharging, I’m so happy to be back.
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