Illustration VS Concept - Why do some companies want Sketches and others want paintings?

[@Lionnlegacy9]

I really appreciate that you make the distinction between “well designed” and “well rendered”. As a young, aspiring character/creature designer and storyteller, I feel like photo realism is so overrated and the heavy detailing is so distracting from the actual character and design, so it’s really refreshing to hear a fully fledged concept artist who acknowledges that style plays a part in how consumers and executives view your work

[@anzaia2164]

It kinda scares me, as an aspiring game art student... That high level of rendering is far from my comfort zone.

[@yeahgirl11]

Western culture is all about hyper-realism in art and storytelling. I get it from a cultural standpoint, but there's a reason why non-Western art (Asian in particular) in game design and game concepts are way more appealing: because they understand it's NOT supposed to be real and feel free to break from reality. They're not constrained to using dull colors and gritty ideas.

[@mattpace1026]

@@yeahgirl11 Non-western culture is just automatically more appealing? Just what in the hell gives you the right to speak for everyone in the world like that?

[@TND12]

oh ur pfp lol

[@joetapson9583]

Good comment this, even more appropriate now that ai generators always produce extremely overly detailed results. Once you understand that, it's easy to see why many of us are less than enthusiastic about incorporating it into our process

[@Xune2000]

You need experience to get the job; you need the job to get the experience... Something's gotta give.

[@TrentKaniuga]

Xune just make indie games for the experience. Offer services for mods, or work in mobile games. There are many ways for you to learn the craft. You will have to sacrifice though.

[@Dylanepw]

I agree with both of these points. I went through art school and ended up in a tough position - the education I got was not the education I was sold/bet my future on - ended up doing mobile. It took me years to climb out of that hole and start working for myself, but it becomes possible once your mindset is right. Meet people, KEEP PRACTICING and be kind to everyone, including yourself. This way of being will carry you where you need to go/help you find the right job.

[@Kittsuera]

not entirely accurate. Art, modeling, creative stuff can get experience with out the job, just takes a lot of work. Most people are not born a perfect artist with years of experience. o-o

[@benkai343434]

demonstrate that you understand the pipeline and go for a low budget job in a small or indie studio. Like Trent says, you're much more likely to get the job if you're going for something that doesn't have a lot of eyes on it.

[@Cernunnnos]

I doubt many big companies would take work on mods as _experience._ Portfolio pieces for sure, not experience.

[@matineyang]

I love hearing the "Nobody owes you anything in this world," message. I always try to remember it when I get too self entitled. Thank you for the reminder.

[@TrentKaniuga]

I don't owe you any kind of "youre welcome" either.

[@mattpace1026]

@@TrentKaniuga Okay, that was just being a dick.

[@zvhaorik100]

Illustrations = What sells the idea of a character Concept Art = The blueprint a character is built from

[@michaelpapageorgious5053]

I don't think that was the message. Concept art is a blueprint that sells the idea, illustrations don't sell ideas, they are extremely detailed and would simply take too long to create for the sole purpose of selling an idea, the job of concept art. concept art is less intricate, but not too simplistic, there is a middle ground where the artwork doesn't take too long to produce but looks good to the people you're selling the idea to.

[@zvhaorik100]

@@michaelpapageorgious5053 Not everyone has the imagination to understand what can come out of a blueprint. A blueprint is fine if your idea is being pitched to fellow artists, but if you're pitching your idea to non-artists you do so at your own peril. With a blueprint- your success is dependent on your employer's ability to visualize where you're going with your ideas. The work is put on the employer to understand what they're seeing. With an illustration- you're putting that work on yourself, and showing everyone exactly what you intend for them to understand.

[@michaelpapageorgious5053]

@@zvhaorik100 I disagree, concept art is used to sell your idea, what your describing is bad concept art which doesn't cater to non-artists. Illustrations take too long to serve the purpose of merely getting across an idea. Illustrations express your idea but thats not their main purpose. In regards to the gaming industry people don't translate their idea with illistrations. You said what sells the idea of a character, which implies to me that you think illistrations are used for the purpose of selling a character design idea. Thats what concept design is. Illistrations get across multiple ideas to an audience, not a team and aren't defined by one character, theres multiple and a background, this isn't seen in concept art as it will distract from the character that you're pitching.

[@j.2512]

you are overthink in it. The original comment is right. Concept art is the blueprint and illustration is the built house . The illustration is the product/ character/ promotion art that is going to be sold. Concept art is just the process getting there.

[@biancamarsh1044]

Concept Art is for conveying and building the character Illustration is for showcasing and marketing the character

[@AhmedAldoori]

Very informative, great vid!

[@anneshamoore47]

Ahmed Aldoori OMG ALDOORI!!!

[@engr.isaacclarke9556]

well hello there

[@user-rc7oz6th2f]

ur everywhere

[@artbydhroov5527]

AH med

[@jessicah3065]

hey! loved the video, but I just wanted to let you know, at 11:00 when you're looking at that lined and colored vamp on the left, that's not actually yoji shinkawa's art, it was done by Chihoko Uchiyama. her job at kojipro is to look at his beautifully messy sketches and translate them into useable turnarounds for the rest of the art team to work off of. whenever you see pieces in an MGS art book of a character that looks like that, with the clean lines and the subtle shading, that's her turnarounds. it's a shame not many people know about her, her work gets constantly mis-attributed to shinkawa but I think she deserves her own shout out! you go, lady!

[@TrentKaniuga]

Whoa. This.... blew my mind.

[@jessicah3065]

maybe stick an annotation on the video for clarification or something? or just a note in the description

[@emche852]

That's really interesting! I always tried to understand how Yoji can draw so clear sometimes. 'Cause his style is about soul and idea of the character, not the refined concept art. Thanks for clarifying this :)

[@johnmurdock2496]

didnt know about her! thanks for sharing

[@yipyomorgan4380]

Yoji Shinkawa is like Shakespeare. His designs are beautiful but you literally need a translator sometimes.

[@Maid_Sate]

Concept art is idea focused Illustration is render focused

[@LeoZackular]

I appreciate the blunt honesty 😂 “you’re gonna get fired brother”

[@tisoneguy]

I think one of the reasons why younger artists outside the industry are so confused and misinformed is because they have a lot of professional artists in the industry they look up to and they use the CURRENT portfolios of those professional artists as a sort of reference for what concept art is and what the industry is looking for. It's very deceiving because those portfolio websites or artstation accounts are just filled with only the prettiest pictures from the projects they've worked on. Concept art has a lot of subcategories too - character, creature, prop, weapon, environment, architecture, vehicle, production painting, etc - and you'll see some professionals keep their current portfolio filled with only a certain subcategory for whatever reason (at least from what I've observed from their online portfolios). The thing is I'm pretty sure those professionals at some point in their life had an ENTRY portfolio, the portfolio that got their foot in the door... or they knew a friend who knew a friend who got them in (it happens). It's pretty hard to find an entry portfolio of these popular well-known artists because they're most likely embarrassed of their work and removed them from the internet, and I'm not sure if any of them would want to share it either. Even if you go to the "personal work" section of a lot of well-known artists on the web, they're filled with pretty, high polished images that bear no semblance to what concept art is. What ends up happening is a lot of aspiring concept artists and students use these professional portfolios as a reference for what their own portfolio should look like. This is only a hypothesis though. And I'm sure there are other reasons like youtube videos and such that you mentioned. I'm just an outside observer making my own observations. :) Even though though there are so many resources online nowadays, things like this still isn't very clear or explained very well. Could be because there are so many people with different opinions online which end up making things even more confusing unfortunately.

[@inklinedecline]

tisoneguy I can shine some light on this subject. What happens is at least in my case, is that I tend to publish the final production-ready deck pieces since they usually are the ones that end up being shown in-game anyway. The tons of loose leftover sketchet are still very valuable and might be used in the future and for this reason alone they rarely see the light of day on the internet. I bet many other pros have the same issue too. I publish "how the sausage is made" every time I can along with finals since it's so informative but TBH most of the time I can't.

[@ahtiandr]

This is so true

[@Tater_Toot]

Concept artists are expected to update their portfolio. They are taught to put out their best work because they might not woo the employers due to the intense competition. Some famous ones make videos and post their older sketchbooks and work, but they don't usually post any artwork that is less than perfect.

[@djokotriono7787]

My opinion: this could very well the ideal. Because this way younger generations will always learn from what the best work of the best artists can provide, thus raising the standard. In a way it's a progression for all of artist of all generations. Until of course, one day, it will climaxed to the point where (probably) computers can pick the pattern and produce 'high quality arts' used to take weeks in mere minutes. Then it's artist doomsday.

[@MillywiggZ]

Yoji Shinkawa’s portfolio was full of manga comic cells of a formula 1 race and two people talking in rooms. Most of his work was like a film director manga artist. His work is completely different now. But I don’t think you need a portfolio with his reputation.

[@jjj7790]

5:55-6:39 This is very good advice that I don't hear that often. I hear a lot of advice about how to make yourself right for the job, but not about how to tell if the job is right for you. Especially for art where a lot of times people are just desperate to break in to the industry, and where you often work with people who may not understand the value of art or how to work with artists.

[@AdamDuffArt]

SO MANY Hugely valuable take-aways from this Trent! Thank you so much for this!

[@meghanmeijer789]

Adam Duff LUCIDPIXUL s

[@EthosArts]

Yoooo, love your videos, Adam, you're very wise^^

[@andotzkurenai2883]

"The Last 5 minutes almost brought me to tears. almost 4 months I think when I first saw this video and It enlightens me. This is a very big help since it points out the things I must work on and I made my knowledge more clear and squared away between Concept art and Illustration. Now that I'm fully prepared I watch back this Video to Re-evaluate my self and finally got an Opportunity. So Thank you Trent.!!" (P.S) because of this video I can proudly say that I'm lucky, I'm fully prepared, I know what I will do and now I have the Opportunity! Greetings from The Philippines!. more power to you!!

[@ElliotBoyette]

There's an edge of tough love on this one but it's valuable to hear! The struggle to get jobs to get experience to get jobs is one of those tough hurdles to get over but watching seasoned artists show breakdowns like this will help us jump across the threshold.

[@Ricmaster007]

I don't even know why I ended up here.... but it appears to me that your pov has some realistic angles on how companies work and thus relatable piece of advice... NAISUUU!

[@DareBizarre]

What i noticed is that japanese studios treat concept art bit different, from final fantasy, over monster hunter, dark souls to devil may cry, resident evil, xenosaga, phantasy star online, armored core, their concepts are line heavy with clean colors and cell shading, they aren't polluted with the photobashing stuff so much yet(don't get me wrong, i do that too), from my standpoint, the goal is to produce as many ideas as you can by the certain deadline, and actually think about the design, polishing takes lot of time, and when someone tells me about concept art i see it that way. So there is a certain trend, as you mentioned in the video(that's also connected with your "concept art is dead" commentary) that ppl more and more are creating "pretty" stuff which is empty, without the essence, and are also amazed more and more by highly polished stuff, like give them highly polished turd and they will be "wow, awesome concept art". Thanks for the vid, also great concepts :).

[@somnaventu_s2475]

Darko Kreculj I guess their teams have clearer visions

[@DareBizarre]

Well i don't know about the vision, since most of the games in the west, or overall on the market are recycled clones, i rarely see some unique games. I would say it's different focus. I listened few 3d modelers and they said it's better for them to have line art, since the structure is more clear. Maybe it's tradition.

[@j.2512]

yeah but art departments in Japan are usually a team of actual artists who speak the same language, and each department is autonomous, and in the west you get all sort of producers/marketing experts/ publicists random cocksuckers that throw buzzwords and can´t vizualise or process the work being made unless they see the final result. That means more money and time but Burguer studios usually throw as much money away it takes to please executives. Even somebody´s wife or dumb kid will weight in on shit. And then all goes to hell when they do screen testing , so many screen testing with random idiots pushing their random opinions. So yeah, art directors cover their ass, so you have to make actual concept art and fake, polished "concept" art later so the dummies will think is cool.

[@ricardoalmeida4719]

Japanese studios (even AAA) are not so keen on making games with the best graphics, but making great gameplay experiences. FROM is the best example I can imagine. Their characters are some of the best I've seen but their not rendered in high detail. Red Dead Redemption 2, God of War or The Last of Us are way more detailed and realistic, but that's because western developors are pushing the realism to the extreme. I'm kinda bored of it to be honest. I prefer originality and surprising creatures and environments than realistic, 4k and all that stuff. To me, mood and atmosphere is superior to detail and resolution. That's why I love FROM's games. They have a great amount of detail but they're not pursuing it at the cost of creativity and gameplay experience.

[@DareBizarre]

@@ricardoalmeida4719 That might be true, def less hyper realistic stuff. But that gives them more space for exploration and experimentation, since they don't have to spend that amount of time doing highly polished 3d assets, they don't have to recycle that much and are able to create more unique content. Bloodborne concepts are also pretty rough.

[@Visual_Arts]

Finally, now I understand what concept art actually is. I see lots of people on KZbin who seem to think that concept art is just art that's done fast. This always confused me until now. Thanks!

[@huhwhuhing]

8:30 : *picture of a half naked attractive woman* Trent: They probably like the - the rendering on it or the um the cool lighting or the uhhhhh your masterful drawing

[@j.downsouth2912]

Really enjoy your insights into this industry Trent. Please keep it up!

[@Makelek0]

I think this might be the most valuable video on youtube, about concept art. And then again there is this misconception that in concept design it's okay for the design ideas to look conceptual along the lines of yoji shinkawa work, where the piece itself looks more like a concept of a drawing. And the other thing you touched on is the drawing over geometry thing. One of the most useful things is to use tricks like that, yet a lot of people I know concider it as "cheating" even for Illustration. Really Trent you grow more and more dear to me/us with every video I'd say :)!

[@GiganticTOFU]

Nailed it. I die a little inside everytime someone look at a piece of awesomely rendered/lighted/colored character and goes oh dude, your design is freakin' awesome, especially on portraits. It always make me second guessing myself, "maybe I should just do some cool looking art work that doesn't require much design, instead of sitting here pulling my hair out trying to nail down character personality, mixing ingredients to sneak into the theme, or creative way to integrate story into the character costume and the way they dress it" Your words reassures the effort I put into designing a character is never a waste. There are people out there appreciates and notices the hard work put into it. Thank you.

[@yipyomorgan4380]

This is probably the most helpful of all the incredibly helpful videos I've seen on this channel so far! Thank you for being that window into concept art that I've struggled so long to find!

[@3QUIN3]

There is some very good advice here about joining projects where your work will not be valued. Very enlightening!

[@jdubz8173]

I'm not a artist by profession, but the principle about making yourself as valuable as possible to the people around you is totally applicable to just about any other profession as well. Focusing on that has helped me get the attention of people who want to hire me instead of hoping to 'find' a job. It's a great position to put yourself. Solid advice.

[@ОляЛаннік]

Your sec of professional rage and its breakdown is pure gold>>

[@sjwoo13]

This is making me fucking cry right now... I consider myself to be more like Yoji Shinkawa's style of concept designing, where it's about making loose sketches and callouts and blue sky concepting. And one of my biggest frustrations was that I absolutely ABHOR painting. I'm a sketch artist/ Lineartist/ Draftsman, So it feels beyond impossible to even find any jobs in the "concept" art field. I don't know if I should be relieved that even Yoji Shinkawa would have a hard time finding a job, or even more heartbroken and just quit.

[@steve00alt70]

Concept artists are in high demand right now since there isnt many concept artists about nowadays which is a good thing. Its not saturated like photo realistic artists.

[@tbaproductions123]

​​@@steve00alt70you have to be really good however. Dont expect to land a job if your portfolio isnt up to par or you lack experience. Very competitive industry and not a lot of roles available compared to say 3d modelling or vfx

[@fontainriddle6631]

Completely loved this, no one can "replace" you!! I need to finally learn what you offer. I have been teasing around about it, taking classes, teaching art classes but never putting together a polished character design portfolio. Thanks for the inspiration!!!

[@mrpuckles8704]

this is such a helpful video as someone who is studying illustration but wants to be a concept artist

[@ВікторГаврилюк-х2ч]

As a beginner artist I struggle with doing final render of my concepts, and often it ends up like I have a lot of good sketches and line designs, but I can't carry them further, details get lost in process of rendering, and final product looks good in its visual part, but it fails in the desing, feels generic and boring. Unfortunately, this makes me very frustrated as I feel like this can't be good enough because as I can see, most employeers want to see final render also. Sometimes it makes me feel like my understanding of concept art is frong, and doing nice, photorealistic render is now more important than presenting ideas and makenig a lot of different sketches, silhouettes and desing variants. And thats why I'm so glad to see videos like this one. This ensures that the time I've put into developing my desings wasn't just wasted. Thank you much!

[@IlaMedlin]

Your perspective is very helpful. In the middle of a career shift right now, and you are helping demystify a lot of pitfalls I'm facing.

[@jerwinwashere3251]

im addicted to your videos it's been months since i started binging! now i'm also addicted in improving my art because of you! thank you trent!

[@gamerundertherainbow]

All your videos has been really helpful, I have my notebook out and taking notes avidly on your videos. Thank you so much for bringing the difference between design and rendering, it appears people undermine and are unaware what the objective is for.

[@kendejong3588]

Your KZbin videos about Photoshop and Sketchbook Pro have been more valuable then the four years of art school I took. Thanks for that . Also, your sketchbook brushes rock.

[@jbfuller9014]

This has got to be the most inspirational and information coverage of this topic I've ever watched/heard! Bravo!

[@borna50]

Thank you for the most probably greatest video about concept art here around!

[@CrimsonDX]

Even as a non-artist, I always enjoyed looking at the actual concept art far more than the polished illustrations. I love seeing iterations in art books of how a character could have been. As someone who really enjoys 3D art and entertains ideas of doing it for myself as a hobbyist, I always really enjoyed seeing orthos and breakdowns.

[@ArtofTZU]

I'm a big fan of Shinkawa's art style as well - and you were right when you said '...It's a damn shame ...' cos those MGS concept art you did was lovely!

[@chamelioness]

This is SUCH a relevant and valuable video. This is exactly what even Shaddy was getting at in his talk, though he said it with a scandalous statement that "concept art is dead". But the reality is that concept art is the missing link between art and design and that's a tough road to tread on and be flexible about. Thanks again for sharing your knowledge and experiences, Trent! 😊

[@CoreyartusImagery]

As an outside consumer, I feel like people are tiring of photo-realistic 3D-generated styles after being inundated with green screen in every movie on the market... The only logical progression seems to be the ultra-realism of virtual reality, and I wonder if people aren't finding that more artistically stylized, expressionistic renderings provide something that the end result of photo-bashing simply can't emulate. Realism is almost becoming "Meh, it looks real. Whoopee." I mean, I see the artistic experimentation of augmented reality, the consistent fandom of manga and anime, the success of cartoon-ized app-based games, the relatively oversaturated Pixarization style of animation, the simply un. dying. immortality of comics in all their various forms, and now films like Sony's highly stylized Into the Spider-Verse (that at first glance seems to literally take what appears to be concept art in some cases and inserts the characters onto it)... And I wonder if seeing every skin pore, every wind-blown fold, or every strand of hair really makes a better game. This was an incredibly useful vid, Mr. Kaniuga. Thank-you! It helped me solidify what I personally look for and what I want. Incredibly useful in my own artistic journey, and supremely enlightening regarding the industry. Well done!!

[@tymondabrowski9922]

Do you know Life is Strange? It is a 3D game from 2015 and because they didn't have much budget and still wanted to make beautiful game they stylized it a lot. And they made it - the constant golden hour with hand-made textures on a rather simple models looks awesome.

[@theprocrastinator6813]

yea i wish there were more stylized games that can leave a lasting impression artistically like breath of the wild, windwaker , shadow of the colossus , spyro, crash.

[@prabeshgurung1067]

Tymon Dąbrowski then there’s Persona, huge budget, huge game, yet doesn’t feel like any other RPG or AAA games. The style of a game can make it never ageing or become quickly outdated

[@christianbrown1210]

Trent, you are so helpful. You have my immense gratitude.

[@MaruskaStarshaya]

Thank you so much! I am as an artist and as a teamleader struggled a years to explain people what's the difference between concept art and illustration, now I can just show them this video, thanks!

[@thezulu]

thank you for being so clear in your video. 'nobody owes you a job' is very salient advice

[@te9591]

10:28 it's interesting he's simultaneously showing us a slightly more rendered drawing while then showing simple expessive shapes to remind us where the concept begins.

[@TheToadSpinner]

I'm going to Digipen and this was hugely helpful for me. My school does a great job at teaching us this stuff but it's awesome to hear it early from someone who really knows their stuff. Thank you!

[@josefsison3233]

At 12min in I totally feel that fact right now. I have applied at game companies and I know now why I keep on getting rejected. I'm coming from a comic heavy background and have been wanting to branch out but I found it hard especially after watching this and why that is. I know that I can execute illustrated angles and breakdowns but I don't have that a lot in my portfolio. Question: To gain experience, since I won't be able to get that experience by getting hired, what is the next best thing? ...and still get paid for it? Thank you for the this video. I just happen to stumble upon this video on "auto play" after watching a different tutorial video and this has answered the questions that I have had reading job post on the internet and reading the "requirements" of those posts. They've use the words "shipped" and I've always wondered what that was. Disregard my question, I decided to read some of the comments before posting this comment...sigh.... Great informational video. Sadly, I know now not to go this route to branch out...not unless a friend hooks me up. lol

[@exhileris4k857]

before watching this video, I always thought that the standard for a concept artist would be that it is expected to deliver highly finished concept art like what you had shown for illustration and your freind's portfolio. But after watching this video, I am more motivated to get better at my art skills. Thank you Trent.

[@RoseKB22]

Good stuff, and super informative. This has answered some questions I didn't know I had about working in the industry. Thank you!

[@aSillywizard]

honestly you are my inspiration and goal i want to achiev what you do one day im about to finish school and im still learing so much about digital art that it feels like starting to learn how to draw on paper all over again Best Laurenz

[@momojackandluke]

Respect to all of those who do illustrations on concept art deadlines...

[@adrianrisoli3872]

this is the best video about the difference between concept art and illustracion with beautiful examples, u have my complements for the video

[@steveyoungwork]

Thanks for the insight into the concept/illustration debate, I have done both, sometimes clients don't really know what they mean when they ask for concepts

[@ChaoticGoodRadio]

What you said in the middle and your general message is so true. I'm an illustrator. I kind of have dreams of doing some video game art, and the more and more I learn about the industry, and about 'concept art' and 'game illustrations' the more and more I'm put off by my "dream job". I can't render to a high standard, and thats what people want. It sucks, and most of the AAA studios want photorealistic stuff. And to me, i think that's really lame, and I guess I'll have to look towards indie games, and other areas so I can fulfil my dreams.

[@4boni729]

Don't say that you can't render to a high standard. Say I can't render to a high standard yet.

[@ChaoticGoodRadio]

4bOni Haha true! But I guess part of my point is that I kinda don’t want to? 😆 I dunno. I’m chasing my Illustration and storytelling dream, so all my inspirations don’t really do rendered digital concept art. They’re all graphic novelists, painters and comic artists n illustrators.

[@4boni729]

Im in the same boat. I'm not a fan of highly rendered stuff at all.

[@aitoluxd]

Same boat too

[@keylupveintisiete7552]

Or you can work towards your goal and learn to render. Get books, get teachers work your ass off.

[@Dbo3fly]

very insightful. I am glad to get some more perspective on how to look into the concept art and illustration gig. the difference, I understood, but why it worked vice versa, I had no idea until now.

[@darioscomicschool1111]

3:40 Thank you so much! Great Vid Trent ma man!

[@lunarfifthstudios]

I once completely lost an opportunity to do concept art for a production studio before even getting to do any work because I simply dared to ask the question what rendering preferences they had for their assets... Great video... Art is a brutal world!

[@LAUZERTV]

Great work man, I already subbed etc and thanks so much for those wise words. But it sounded like your CPU was freaking out towards the end though? It seemed like your fans were about to go lift off !

[@Steamcrow]

Recently found your channel, I love it! Thank you for these amazing videos!

[@erickendoka2953]

This is gold mate, thank you sooo much for your videos and your time!!!!!

[@JeremyLord5000]

Love this video man! So well put!

[@poneyfeathersart1442]

Wow!!! This video was packed full of incredible info on the market. Thanks for the detailed breakdown. Never knew the difference between concept artists and illustrators. So helpful!!

[@SpiriTracE]

For a while I spent more time working on improving my illustrations (splash art style) for my portfolio, with little to show in terms of some good concept work. I realized this about a year ago and started shifting toward showing the development. I don't regret the time I spent working on illustration skills at all, but this topic is very good to know for the people interested in these careers with no real direction. Your portfolio can be so much more if you understand both methods.

[@thaispitchart7582]

Thanks a lot for this video! I am tired of the little industries wanting me as concept artist and then telling me that I am supose to draw them the rendered cool illustrations that take weeks. (Only that they think it takes just a few hours each.) They just don't know what concept art really is. I sadly am not very good at final rendering and would need to learn. Though not sure from where to get the knowledge to do it correctly. I don't like final rendered photographic looking art, but it seems they don't care for the more sketchy concepts, so i'll have to learn it.

[@TrentKaniuga]

I talk a bit about this in my photoshop cheatbox. You can re-use a lot of your textures. Once you paint a bunch of rocks, why repaint them again and again? You can create custom brushes to save time as well.

[@thaispitchart7582]

Thanks a lot! I will take a look at that too. I so far couldn't train myself with photoshop that much due to the program crashing on my slow computer. But with my new laptop it seems a bit more stable now. I have to give it a chance. Though it constantly resets my settings when i restart my computer. Anyways, I will take a look at your photoshop cheatbox! Thanks a lot.

[@endahp6192]

I love how you don't put any music in your video because I could focus completely on what you're saying and it's very useful 👍 Great video and very great advice and explanation 👍 I am very grateful for all of your information you provide👍

[@GryphonGames]

I wish more people knew at heart what you said at the end. "No one owes you a job" and its true in every industry, thanks for the vid

[@VickGaza]

Lovely video ! And the end bit is so true. Even for 3D character teams, it`s surprisingly hard to find people to hire. There`s a plethora of jobs out there, and people just have to hit some requirements , it`s not impossible but it has to be done right. Keep up the cool videos man!

[@tinawei909]

I don't usually comment on any youtube video, but your video helps so much and it clears my mind. Thank you for such good info

[@pkstaytrue]

nice video. good to hear the pov from somebody that's in the business for a while. thanks!

[@jdm6784]

Yoda level guidance. I am glad I found your channel.

[@tpakage]

Dude thanks so much. I’m really struggling trying to find a way in. This helps a lot! 👍👍👍

[@naamasharon4712]

so friggin' helpful. Thank you for this vid and for sharing your experience with us, Trent!! subscribed

[@brandonmiele4430]

I feel like somebody is telling something I've always known, but I am hearing it for the first time..........thank you Trent.

[@part02]

There is a lot I don’t know, and this sheds a lot of light on certain thoughts I had. Thank you for this information. I really want to touch the dream in working in games. This helps a lot!

[@yoogni4108]

I’m very lost in my art journey, I know where I want to be but no clue how to get there, this video gave me a lot of insight on what to do next, thank you :)

[@Mr12toe]

This is exactly what I needed to hear, and I think this is exactly what others also need to hear as well. Thank you for the great video!

[@JezzLundkvist]

Thank you! I finally learned the different between concept art and illustration.

[@lionheart1019]

Excellent talk I have learned so much. I'm gonna check out your gumroad.

[@OnibiTeru]

I actually had such a tough time looking through the differences between concept and illustration. I wanted to ''label'' my work in a way that it would give the people, who are looking for my stuff, an easier time understanding what I offer. This cleared up a lot about what kind of art I should keep in my range or skill set as well! Because the meaning behind illustration and concept was so confusing, that I myself had no idea what I was doing.

[@beristainbear3924]

I love this guy. He really cleared up things for me.

[@Bathyllvs]

Most design in mainstream games and movies are so over the top and boring and I wonder if it's because artists get influenced by each other or because of the tight schedules. Especially in games it feels like all the studios got together and decided that this is what fantasy has to look like.. all fluff and no substance

[@j.2512]

because its the producers and marketing department that decides

[@Curryfishballa]

Nah the artists are as creative as we can be. Nothing to do with our creativity and skill, it's the producers (the one who funds the project) who chooses what he think is best to sell the product to the targeted audience. Its a business move, not a creative limitation.

[@幽霊船-o4h]

Tbh if you get to see the comcept art of a project and I mean really ALL THE ART and not the "final concept polished up and published in an artbook" You get to see 100 variations of the same weapon or character Weird designs Sometimes even cooler exploration and designs But the final product isnt the choice of the artist vut rather the head artist and marketing team Often some designs simply get rejected because it may not look good in relation to other designs or some designs are louder than the main focus of a project Designs in big studios are often decided by what the big dumb mass rather likes Thats why you can see more diverse styles in smaller studious if its not too hard to convert into 3d because they know their game wont be sell that much as fifa for example

[@chewingpeppers]

@@Curryfishballa I think that that's why indie games are far more interesting

[@roryt8402]

Dude this was so super helpful in the explanation of the difference betwixt the 2, cheers and keep up the good work

[@rami3465]

This was absolutely fantastic. I can't believe I didn't find this earlier! I'm honestly at a loss for words, this video confirmed so many thoughts I had on good character design and really opened my eyes to why things are done the way they are (for the right and wrong reasons). Thank you so much! You've got a sub 👍

[@juliaerwin2787]

Thank you for the information!! I've been looking at internships for concept art but had no idea what they want to see in a portfolio. I need to keep reminding myself that they're probably not expecting this level of quality out of a college student, but it's comforting all the same!

[@lenjennings3096]

Nice work. I've never been into games or that type of illustration or concept art. But I do appreciate preaching that artists who want to do this type of thing need to understand the process and pipeline. Know thyne customer! Your (would be) employer IS your customer.

[@kujaneck]

this was a really helpful video! I'm a junior concept artist and my style is very illustrative.

[@GryphonDes]

LOL.. LOVING this episode hehe, having run a production shop for over 20 years now, I completely sympathize.

[@scarlet8078]

This video is 100% true. There's a "rendering skill hurdle" now that applies to almost all production work, which is ironic bc (1) many designs are better captured in sketch format and (2) when you get to the studio you'll be mainly photo bashing anyway. Like trent, I have gotten disillusioned with all the photo realistic rendering. When you're really skilled at it's it becomes even MORE boring and you feel more like a machine than a designer. Now I've been taking more work for simpler game art bc I simply like doing it more and with a small studio you get to work on many different areas, e.g., both environment & character

[@komatoseshinobi2735]

Fantastic stuff!! Thank you for your great content ✌🏾

[@jordanwthatcher]

Thank you, this video really reinforced my knowledge and helped give me a boost to keep up the struggle. Thanks man

[@EitherProductions]

11:00 is pretty much exactly where I was at when I graduated from college (and still to this day). I'm a designer and not really a renderer, so I haven't been able to get an art job in that area to save my life. Every art job that I've taken has pulled me further and further from what I trained for or want to do. As a concept artist, rendering has always felt like a waste of valuable time since it usually just muddies up the details in a way that makes it more difficult for the modeler to make the design a reality. Why should I spend X amount of time rendering my clean and clear design when I can use that same X amount of time making 3 or 4 clean and clear designs. It's essentially the reason why I ended up dropping art for the past 4-5 years. I'm only just starting to get back into it now that I'm not worrying about whether or not it'll help me get a concept art job.

[@TrentKaniuga]

It's always a bit more fun when it's not about getting work:)

[@funnydog8886]

Hey cool I’m playing Diablo 3 for the first time at the moment. Enjoying your work :)

[@AzkaNugroho]

Thank you so much for this insightful talk Trent! Really appreciate it and super enlighten me

[@jbskaggs7200]

This video applies to many industries, besides art. Construction, art, toys, games, food etc. There is the presentation to the consumer, the investor, and the manufacturer and each of those steps maybe far and wide apart with entirely different skill sets. It is as important to know the industry and what role you are best suited for and who you will communicating with.

[@functio1]

I've been working in the games industry since the mid-90s, and back then game artists had to be able to do more than one thing. You usually had to be able to 3D model and create other types of artwork (textures, concept sketches, etc). My first portfolio for getting my first proper job in games was mostly drawings in pen and paintings with ink and gouache, to distract people from my 3D ;-) But it worked. Concept art was usually a catch-all term taken from the film industry, and how we created it depended on the situation at hand. So, if we were trying to get a publisher on-board with an idea, we'd make more polished artwork - usually this meant using colour images. This would get the attention and focus the attention of non-artists (marketing people etc) from the publisher who were wondering what we had in mind for any given project. They weren't necessarily what is called 'illustrations' in Trent's video, although sometimes we'd try and recreate scenes from proposed game, or would make more detailed colour images of characters etc. This was to get people's interest and to assure them that we had good ideas. But they were never intense full-colour scenes that woud take several weeks to make because we simply had no time to do that. Everything in games production is geared to time and how such time a task consumes. We couldn't spend that time on 'illustrations' because these were simply proposal images - they were completely disposable (after all, the publisher you were wooing might not eventually chose to use the services of your dev' studio). They had to look cool and sell an idea or concept, but they had to be made quickly. Sometimes we'd create imagery just to be used as spot illustrations in outline game design documents or design proposals (a kind of brochure for a game design idea). Once a game was actually in production or pre-production (i.e. when you're trying to show the client more detailed and varied ideas for what will be going into the game) concept art was usually a lot of pencil drawings. I've lost count of how many pencil drawings I've done in my career. I must've done at least 100 just for one game because the client liked to have each object in the game drawn in several different versions and then pick the one they liked. That was unusual, but it happened. Also, likely as not any artwork you drew would be something you then had to make in 3D and texture - or at least someone else in your art team would have to do that. So, for instance, you might design some cool looking tank with twin gun barrels, chunky treads etc but then later have to make that in less than 150 polys ;-) Fast-forward to the early 2000s when I was a freelancer, I started working with game artists who couldn't draw (i.e. they were better at 3D and were pretty much technical artists), and the various job roles became more compartmentalised. Even then, it ended up with me (despite being hired as a 3D artist for the project) creating concept art and designs that the non-drawing artists could then make in 3D. But concept art is still there primarily to give people ideas and show them how something might look and function in a game. If you're working with 3D artists that can't draw, they need this sort of info to help them understand how an asset should look in-game. Small studio, 'indie' etc dev houses at the moment still use the generalist approach - an artist can't just be one thing (i.e a 3D modeller) without also being good at digital 2D and (hopefully) pen and pencil 2D - concept art. Nowadays, what are called illustrations are pretty much promotional art. They're for external use - i.e. they're used by a studio/publisher to market a game. Sometimes this can be done quite cynically - i.e. it's called production concept art, like it was actually used during a game's production process, when in fact it was actually made to go on-line, in magazines, etc to help sell a game when it's nearing completion and is about to go into final release. I've done this a few times for a few games - but that stuff is not concept art. It was usually done when we had more spare time to play in the final weeks of a project, so we'd take stuff that had already been created and the imagery from that would be touted in promo stuff as being 'concept art', which it definitely was not. So 'illustrations' are for potential customers for any given game. Nice cool eye candy. But they're not very useful for other artists when a game is being designed or created, because they actually don't contain enough information aside from perhaps look and feel. I guess possibly one exception is environment concept art - in that case you need something quite detailed to show a whole potential scene/vista from a game. But it will probably still be quite rough, but enough for several different artists and coders can draw information from it. Even then, the various things in that image have to be broken down into smaller elements and then get their own concepts worked up. Also - don't confuse concept art as a label: concept art for games is not the same as concept art for films. The former has a different role than the latter. It could even be said that the games concept artist does the work that several people do in the film industry, i.e. character design, costume design, storyboarding, lighting design, environment design, etc. One last thing - one of the great concept artists of all time, Ralph McQuarrie, did actually create concept art that would now be called 'illustrations'. This was because George Lucas liked to have 'big picture' ideas about certain scenes in a movie. They were used to inspire other artists and production people working on a film, but they were also used to sell Lucas' ideas to studio execs etc. But bear in mind that McQuarrie could create one of these images (quite large gouache paintings) in a few days. So taking 3 weeks to create one digital image (which is a much more fluid medium to work in) seems like overkill in comparison ;-)

[@TrentKaniuga]

functio1 thanks for the very thorough explanation of how the process has evolved over the years! It’s always funny to me when I see media or you tubers refer to the “concept art” with no idea that it wasn’t used to make the game. It’s just marketing material. But people will believe what they want.

[@functio1]

@@TrentKaniuga - glad I could help! I think it's because the term 'concept art' is used to mean different things. Like I said, the term has moved from movies to games, but not enough people are drawing a line between the two (pun pun). Even ArtStation, etc still don't make the distinction. So if people genuinely go loking for art but aren't made aware of the differences, confusion reigns ;-) Hell, even the word 'illustration' sounds odd to me in this context. As well as working in games, I'm also an illustrator (book covers etc), so these 'illustrations' from games seem like the wrong term. Just call it 'promo art' and be honest about it - I mean, it is game-related, but it's not from the game in terms of being an art asset used in production. And I am still genuinely shocked and suprised that one piece you show in the video took 3 weeks to create. That's insane - and not in a good way. As for the process in general, it's evolved - mutated IMHO - into compartmentalisation, so there are actually not enough artists around who actually have artistic skills outside of a 3D or 2D software package, etc. The problem is that the industry is changing fast and the ascendency of mobile gaming means that there aren't enough generalist artists who can 3D model, texture, work in digital 2D and also draw with a pencil. So anyone looking to move into the industry would be wise to make sure they have good generalist skills and not turn their noses up at mobile gaming and mobile development. Want a games job? Don't be a games snob :-D

[@LolixBelle]

functio1 especially now that PC games like fortnite are making their way to mobile, there are a lot of people who love that and that games are evolving now, with people loving their portable games which have to be redesign and re package too, the ui and ux have to be totally different from pc, atleast that’s what league of legends is doing with wild rift, building up the mobile version from scratch to fit it and have a better gane experience rather than transferring the whole rift, any kind of games shouldn’t be look down, technology is rapidly increasing, VR is coming out way too, soon we will be at esport with AR or something, maybe holograms in the future 😅

[@kajetanchrzaszcz]

holy fck dude this wukong was always like the best skin in the game for me and to now see that you did that! i guess i shouldn't be surprised but man that's well fucking done

[@bentalls85]

Yes this was a very informative video indeed. Thank you for it!

Totally gona watch this twice or more! Awesome as ever, congrts Trent! Have you considered making a course about preparing ourselves to deal with these companies? Like, not exactly teaching about concept art fundamentals, but teaching about preparing concept art in a way that companies want professionals to be. I would 100% buy this course!

[@Dbo3fly]

Holy Crap the advice at the very end...gold. I will pay more attention to the world of concept art, sir. I will pick this up.

[@blasgarcia1454]

This video is awesome since it explains with detail the difference, its 2020 and people still don't know the difference.

[@clarissaparker-ngowakl6778]

Thank you! Subscribed. I appreciate people who work and live or have worked in my absolute dream job! I need to visit Bethesda studios... I live literally two blocks away...

[@Seitoushi]

I gotta say thanks. I am not gonna lie, when I saw the tag line of the video I was curious. I'm going to an art College (specifically for Illustration), and not long after I started there the school opened up a Concept art department and most of the class requirement for Concept Art were the same as Illustration until you got to the end and I wasn't sure why. So for three years now I've been wondering what the difference was, thanks for clarifying that for me.

[@menisc2797]

Trent got hardcore there at the end