ART OF ZELDA CHARACTER DESIGNS! PRO CONCEPT ARTIST REACTS!

[@benanikin4388]

Thank you for being one of the only youtubers who speaks honestly about the industry and what it really is being a concept artist! not trying to make things attractive for the sake of popularity! it really helped me to build my portfolio and land my first indie job as a character concept artist!

[@TrentKaniuga]

Congrats! I love hearing that!

[@marek_tarnawski]

This whole video is exactly what people are not aware about when they say AI will replace concept artists.

[@PortgasDAce-wt2qu]

Yup, that's why i just ignore those comments. You know they don't know anything.

[@gr1mmy304]

cause they don't know what really concept artists are

[@Bro-dot-]

AI will certainly replace the tools concept artists use but never the artist. AI doesn’t solve an artists eye or a designers mind but I expect a production art job to be way higher skill level now there is less limitations on traditional fine art skills.

[@marek_tarnawski]

@@Bro-dot- I don't think AI will replace concept artist tools. Feels too random. It can be complimentary to basic image editing tools though.

[@Bro-dot-]

@@marek_tarnawski 110% confident it will replace concept artists tools. I think we generally forget how vast the utility of AI is. I’ve been implementing it myself into my own workflow and I’ve seen great improvements without losing any creativity or individually. There are many use cases of it. One of the future examples that has had some great recent advancements is 2D image to 3D. Any prop or environment or even simplistic character artists can generate a 3D model from their 2D turnarounds and then use it as a future reference so the design is more 3D friendly and gives the 3D modellers a rough base to aid in the process. Many 3D concept artists already have been using software with AI and this won’t change with 2D concept artists tools. I myself utilities it to generate reference. Mostly light maps and texture references off my own drawings . I can edit colour, direction/type of lighting and surface textures mid-design. Resulting in all the final designs being more steam lined and overall just better. Gives way more creative freedom to the artist mostly from the immense amount of time it saves but also lets me rapidly produce multiple design iterations. This method still requires time, energy and skill but I achieve a design closer to the original concept. So there are many ways to use AI without just generating whole finished images or ripping artwork which is the first thought people have on what ai is. Never should we cheat our own creativity

[@lordbarron3352]

Trent you absolutely did not fanboy enough over the design of the music conductor character. He is by far the best design of the entire game in my opinion. Notice the small details here: his eyebrows are the symbol for "breath mark" in sheet music, his mustache is 2 quarter notes, his sideburns are quarter rests, and I'm sure there's other small things I didn't notice. His design SCREAMS music. Also, 1) Why would a character designer ever NOT submit a front/side/back turnaround? I see many videos of people 3d modeling characters from oddly posed references, but that seems like too much work (which is the reason I always make turnarounds before modeling my characters). 2) Do any of your industry peers regularly not send turnarounds when submitting character designs to the modeling team?

[@Roossi03]

I could watch videos like these for 7 hours, so much amazing info!! My dream is to create concept art for video games and everything you said was extremely valuable so I just want to deeply thank you for everything you're doing 🙏🙏 it really does help you're an awesome person

[@TrentKaniuga]

Thanks for watching!

[@pampamtamtam4001]

Thank you for making this. I'm in the middle of building up my art fundamentals more and more, and this inspires me like nothing else. Knowing what the industry actually values is precious info. I'm trying to reconfigure how I practice art to focus more on concepting, and this helps me grasp the process more. I just have trouble finding focus and which area to cover. I love that your channel is straight to the point and honest about this stuff!

[@smc9098]

I re-watched this again and it's funny, the first thing that popped into my mind was a movie when you mentioned what the audience expects and take away what makes the character iconic lol

[@lybrate6031]

I think as my knowledge, this is the one of the most useful videos on the KZbin for understanding the think process and workflow of concept art for the game making. Thanks a lot for insights :D

[@pulsetone]

Perfect timing, I was about to rewatch the Yoji Shinkawa one and just saw you had one on Metroid! Thanks for the insight!

[@TrentKaniuga]

I have a whole playlist for many games

[@domenicopentangelo4549]

Trent I am one of your followers who gets inspiration to draw while listening to your videos, thank you!

[@backster4744]

I'm really loving these deep-dives into concept art from the games I love, especially Nintendo games! There aren't many videos on youtube that go in-depth on these kinds of things so thanks!

[@matthewbarker511]

Been away from KZbin for a few months now, great that this was the first video at the top when I opened it up. Had a lot of rejections this year and this topic is helpful for my portfolio rebuild. Thank you Trent, awesome insight as always!

[@Overcraft17]

You're amazing. Everytime. You put so much effort and energy into all of your video's. Thank's a lot for the support and knowledge you gave us Trent.

[@Vipanen03]

I'm really interested into concept art and I love the Legend of Zelda so this video is literally perfect for me. Also this is the first video I've seen that really goes into depth on what the industry is looking for. I don't know if you have yet but I also recommend looking into Creating a Champion which is the botw masterworks book. It has a bunch of concept art and even a bunch of rejected ideas that didn't end up in the game, it also has a bunch of cool story and lore related stuff too.

[@comedyplace7847]

I like when you make these kind of videos its makes me understand more about concept artists work Thank you

[@shooooooooopi]

18:50 while in botw/totk the triforce is mostly absent in the plot, it has a strong presence in iconography, being everywhere in architecture, ruins, clothing patterns, etc. it’s always there, just silently

[@varflock9777]

True. I bought botw recently and I saw the triforce symbol in a few places including princess Zelda's clothes in the flashbacks. That'd suggest it was known in this timeline and either something happened to it or it's staying dormant somewhere and waiting for its turn to save the day.

[@_sparrowhawk]

Right, I even thought of the gold leaves in the Sky Islands as being a 'triforce' area... ^^

[@Kpez16]

I'm a UX/Product designer for SaaS energy sofwatre company and I use concept art processes to help explain how we go from very basic shapes, review early and fast, make decisions, then iterate and add more fidelity to chosen paths. The final product comes from many revisions, reviews, and all starts from.... Thumbnails Mind you there are necessary levels of research for both!

[@zayndesign]

Great time seeing these videos again on the art side of youtube, hope the production of Twilight Monk is coming along well too. Can't wait to play it:) Definetly been playing and enjoying Zelda totk as well, so this was fun to explore, definetly want to look more into the art of it. Thank you for sharing, would love to see more in depth videos about making video games someday! Also nice to hear that production companies aren't always looking for super rendered portfolios all the time too, gives hope in the job search.

[@Sayuui]

There's something very interesting about Link's champion tunic (the blue one) that Trent mentioned! This is a version of the tunic modified by Zelda herself, that's why it has that leather element at the top. Another cute thing about it is that she had to hide it in the castle so Link wouldn't find out about it, since they're basically married in this game. It's just too adorable

[@Daniel_Vital]

I love this video format. Even though I don't aspire to become a concept artist, we learn a lot from your experience and knowledge.

[@gabrielruizaraujo2714]

Awesome video, Trent! May God bless you and your family!

[@wstpkhlwer1311]

Im sure you get this a lot Trent but I always listen to your videos while im working and I can't thank you enough because they really help me get through the fear I sometimes have to start. P.s: You have a very conforting/calming voice lol, also this video is great!

[@nekokna]

The master sword pattern line, on the light blue tunic of Link ( at the center near the neck)

[@oscarchavezart]

Echo, that word has made me understand shape language much deeper. You are right, you are never too advance to go back to the fundamentals. The fundamentals are king. Yes, lots of jobs designing props, trees, I want that. I choose the prop job over the character job because designing characters is boring for me.

[@Akagumi86]

this one, is GOLD.

[@aranyak1881]

I love these long format videos talking about other IPs, or even your own work like Creed!

[@DigitalinDaniel]

I prefer the production art to fully rendered stuff, I like exploring all the little iterations and ideas more than just seeing something rendered to death. Da Vinci's drawings > Mona Lisa. It's also fun to try and find where something was used somewhere else instead, typically earlier beta designs rehashed in later games. At 35:00 they might be trying to show a sort of padded gambeson you'd wear under plate armor... where the tanktop is more of his casual dress.

[@tomasletal1406]

Great video! I definitely recommend checking out the Crash Bandicoot 4 artbook. I'd appreciate it if Trent would do a breakdown on it. :)

[@GinoGabriel-t5c]

This is the kind of video I need. Thank you.

[@ocean_0602]

Would love to see you cover Castlevania's art/concept art book from the Netflix series.

[@smc9098]

I love when you review artbooks! I currently live on Japan and I lean mostly on japanese style concept art. I hope you can compare side by side a western artbook and a japanese artbook, and I recommend bravely default, still mainly relies on 2d rather than 3d. :) Thank you very much! I always watch and re watch your contents.

[@TrentKaniuga]

The Bravely Default art books are fantastic. Akihiko Yoshita's work has had a strong impact on my own art. Most of those games are very 2d heavy, so there's a strong 2d illustration represented in their art books. I will consider digging into that book for a future video!

[@smc9098]

@@TrentKaniuga Wow!!! I will wait for it! thank you so much.

[@mitchellsink2584]

Taking a look at the ferrymen or the old lady turn around. How may of those would you be expected to turn out in a day? 42:00 timestamp.

[@TrentKaniuga]

You would get a day to do thumbnails, and 2 days to do the final character design sheet. However, there's a lot of back and forth between art director or designer that you don't see in these images. Great question!

[@pawekowalski1848]

That's so cool! :D I'll watch it in few months to avoid spoilers for now :P

[@Oukheart2000]

Trent, dude. Love your art. Have you ever thought about releasing / publishing an art book with your best works, as well as the story behind them? Dunno if there would be rights from the game manufacturers or something... Asking as a guy that loves collecting and paging through "The Art Of..." books. Massively inspired by you.

[@TrentKaniuga]

I have made an art book and several illustrated novels. www.aquatic-moon.com

[@dezzdinn]

The thumbnail looks like a grownup Eddy Munster is ripping on Zelda ........... Also great vid again, thank for the info!

[@kevinanderson6367]

I love the wooden fort, but i can't help but think a bokoblin can just shoot a single flaming arrow at it and burn the whole place down.

[@greggietzen882]

Have you ever thought about creating a video where you design an original character from your favorite game or anime to explain your design process? I think something like that would be entertaining to watch

[@TrentKaniuga]

I did several of those a couple of years ago.

[@jayceejangeronga6975]

Thank you

[@guilhermesousa227]

youre the man, Trent

[@THR3K]

Great vid

[@travishancock9120]

Anyone else notice that Link has the silhouette of the master sword handle on his chest. 48:11

[@AndrewMaksym]

I'm ordering a copy of the making of the Hyrule champions. For BotW, Trent did you ever review that one? The first game's book?

[@TrentKaniuga]

I actually just recently sold my copy one at (just selling a lot of stuff lately). But that was one of the better art books. I just had to be selective, so I kept the jury Le hysteria book instead.

[@Icanonlycountto4]

I’d love your opinion on the art of the Xenoblade Chronicles games. Specifically the second one with Pyra and Mythra

[@Mittzys]

39:13 oh my god his moustache is musical notes

[@Mittzys]

HIS SIDEBURNS ARE RESTS

[@subterranean327]

What I get from this video is there is a lot of friction between the development team who knows what they're doing and the executives who want it to look "pretty" every step of the way.

[@_sparrowhawk]

Be clear about what you mean by 'dev' team. There are many kinds of designers and and many kinds of programmers - those who make things 'look pretty' don't get hired.

[@snowfoxxie]

Freaking killer game isn’t it?? So interesting to watch you dissect all the details~

[@jelilabdyllayew8794]

Tyler edlin Worked on Concept art I guess

[@ilsh9929]

"its not just about making pretty painting" dude just remove my 2 month so called "artblock" thanks man! really

[@getsemani_rar]

i miss the MA DUDES

[@Original_Blagsta]

I got the art book for Breath of the Wild a year or so back, the special one which came with a spirit orb, a map of Hyrule and a photo of Link, Zelda and all the Champions posing for a group selfie ( really cool but anyway) that artbook is massive like as thick as a phonebook massive I haven't even finished looking through it yet. It'd be cool if you did a video of that one and the Darksiders art books, they've got good stuff in them and as a plus I'm just a fan of Joe Mad's art style

[@riyapatel2995]

you are good teacher..... :) but I have few que as well. I completed my bachelor in visual arts in 2017 than I stopped doing art. now I want restart everything from scratch. I am interested in Visual Development and concept arts for movies and game. If anyone can guide me how to start and where to start?

[@TrentKaniuga]

I’ve made several workshops on working in video games. Www.gumroad.com/Trentk

[@NeoShameMan]

There is a triforce, zelda is holding it

[@torrentthom4734]

That game has a lot of grass; therefore, blue-vest Link.

[@_sparrowhawk]

Excellent point!

[@hawktondog]

Is there a proper place to leave questions or do the comments works just fine? I don't wish to be rude.

[@TrentKaniuga]

Comments are fine

[@travishancock9120]

I play League of Legends purely for the character design. It is amazing.

[@matthewprisco6849]

What happened to the aquatic moon discord?

[@TrentKaniuga]

Its still there. Just renamed it.

[@matthewprisco6849]

@TrentKaniuga would o be able to get the name, or link.? I lost the info to my other discord account

[@danielanairnalayza6983]

I don't really like that they ditch the green for the design of link... I mean it works, but I don't like it

[@potatoknot6464]

I'm so glad you made this. I don't think this is spoiler for the game but if you don't wan't to know about an armor set you get at the end of the game stop reading now. The design for the ancient hero's aspect, which you get at the temple of time, doesn't look good, it's hard to sugar coat it. Half of it looks okay, cool actually, but the other half (the head and legs) doesn't look...I mean what is going on with the legs? Like they couldn't decide whether to give the canine high heels or not. The heel is fitting on half of the foot. Then there's the head... O god the head. I get it's a spirit that takes over link's body but why's the head so shmall and the eyes are the same hue as his toenails. They've been pushing the colors a lot, but I have to say, some of the colors are not harmonizing. This definitely impacted me on how i feel about the game as a whole. I literally had nothing to complain about. It's more terrifying than ganondorf as a character I haven't seen others talking about it so i don't know, maybe i'm crazy. Hoping i could get your opinion on it, if no it's fine.

[@evest-onge5836]

Is that possible that a randome buy who likes to draw, can be hired because he's good. I did'nt go to school for my drawing because I don't like school, long story, but I like create character and I want to make a game but I'm too afraid....

[@TrentKaniuga]

Youll have to work on more than just being a "good artist". Game development is about knowing how art is USED in games, and designing for the 3d modelers and the designers. Iif you're a good artist, you might get hired to do some illustrations... but not concept art. Not without learning how its used to make games.

[@evest-onge5836]

@@TrentKaniuga thanks, but I love doing concept art, I want to do a game one day. I like to think how the player will think in game, how my art would interact in the game I like the psychology behind games in general. Thanks!!!! I know this is hard, so don't worry!!! Sorry for my mistakes lol!!

[@joshespart]

Cant draw Megaman as a 40 year old man HAH

[@mikenelson1624]

👍✨🫶😎

[@OCurumin]

what a juicy video