Unit 69- Drawing Concept Art for Computer Games: HA2- Concept Art Process

Exploration Phase
The exploration stage is the first stage of the concept art process. These drawings are usually quick and simple and focus on separate pieces, such as body parts and weapons. Very rarely these drawings have colour or any extreme detail due to the fact that they need to have multiple drawings within rapid succession. However, shading is needed to have some detail on the character. But the main focus of the exploration stage is quantity over quality, developers would rather have 50 drawings of a character rather than 2 detailed drawings.

Approval Phase

The approval phase is the second phase of concept. This is where the first phase of concept art is improved upon by adding colour and extreme detail. The second phase is extremely important because these drawings are shown to publishers to help pitch the game as well as the characters and levels. In the worst scenarios, if the game itself doesn't appeal to publishers then all of the work will be discarded and no longer used within that project but could possibly be used within other projects. This phase is never released to the public initially but can be done in the future, and is only specifically shown to the publishers confidentially.

Promotion Phase.

This phase is the final phase of the concept art. This phase only occurs after the game is given the greenlight by the developers and the game can be produced. This style of concept art includes the most detail than any other phase because these pieces of art are used to promote the game itself. It can include the environment, characters and objects, sometimes all three can be used in a single image. They are usually used in one image for posters and can be given to journalists to help promote the game. The best of this concept art are used also by publishers, to help promote a "hype" for the game, usually these can be scenes of action or important scenes for the game itself.