Creative Development Week24: Craig Shoji-Thor Movie Concept Artist

After getting replied by concept artist Mike "Daarken" Lim i thought i'd try contacting various other artists and i did but when i saw a link via @ConceptArtWorld's twitter for Marvels Thor film concept artist, Craig Shoji's work, i took a look at the artwork and tried to find a means of contacting him to give possible feedback. Going back and checking my e-mail i found that he said he would take look at the my concepts of my castle and give me feedback when he has time, so asking professional concept artists is gaining me more information about improving my art.

Here is the email i sent him:


Hi Craig Shoji


I am ifraz and currently studying digital films games and animations at Leeds college of art in the U.K.. and was wondering if you could possibly help me with taking a look at my concept for my game environment of a castle and tell me what I could do to improve this or work on or anything that can help me in becoming a concept artist.

Thank you

Ifraz Mohammed


Here is the e-mail he had sent me and i have replied back with images of my castle concept art and hoping for a reply from Craig Shoji in coming days.


hey ifraz,


i'm a bit busy at the moment but feel free to send me any work you'd

like me to look at and i'll do my best to give you some comments in a

timely manner. best of luck with your studies!


cheers-


 craig

Creative Development Week24: Creative Personnel

Through the Creative Skillset website i found this link which led me to the creative personnel website which really looks through available jobs with the games industry and narrows down them down to the ones that best fit your role. They have featured clients such as Sumo Digital and Blitz Game Studios so this is a job finder site which can be very helpful to me in looking at up to date expectations and needs from the games industry as well as applying and receiving feedback from jobs.

Link at: http://www.creativepersonnel.co.uk/jobboard/cands/jobresults.asp?c=1&ms=1&localstrKeywords=&locallstRegion=UK+and+Europe&locallstRegionvals=&locallstArea=UK+North%2FYorkshire&locallstAreavals=&locallstSector=Games+%28console%26sbquo%3B+online+%26+betting%29

Creative Development Week23: Jens Holdener - Dead Space Concept Artist

Looking through the names within the games industry i started to contact a few artists to receive feedback from them and not wanting to take away their time from producing concept art i kept my question short and simple and started off by asking Jen Holdener a concept artist who had worked on Dead Space 1 and 2, Tomb Raider, The Simpsons Game and more. So with that knowledge i knew that this concept artist had experience from which i could speak about and so i just generally asked about getting into the industry as well as expectations:


Hi Jens Holdener

I am a college student and i want to be a concept artist and i was wondering how would one get into the gaming industry as a concept artist and what are games industry looking for in a concept artist?

Thanks Ifraz



This is the response i received:

Hi Ifraz,

The best way is to develop your drawing and painting skills by practicing as much as possible. Second you should go to school for a formal education in illustration and possibly animation which teaches you the effective communication of story and film fundamentals. Finally they are looking for a creative mind with problem solving skills that enable you to create a believable world that one could imagine themself in. Work very hard because it is very competitive. Good Luck!

-Jens

So the feedback that i received is something i will be working on and really expanding my skillset as well as furthering those that i already know so that i don't rest on the basics and really grasp all that the softwares and areas offer.

View Jens Holdeners website for more artwork: http://jensholdener.com/

http://www.jensholdener.blogspot.com/

Creative Development Week22: Rorchard, Unity Produced

I came across the video below which explains some of the process and tools that were used when creating the game Rochard a 3D side scrolling platformer produced by Recoil Games and was released on the Playstation Network. The game uses Unity the same engine in which ihave been using for the past few years and the video really demonstrates what Unity is capable of and how the tools that are there really can produce games of a high calibre than just the web based games or IOS and Android games that i believed they could only do, in the video the way that as you go further into watching it, it really shows how some of the process in the game is created in Unity which i felt was interesting to watch as you see this fully white area to controlling a character to follow that character through the procedure of producing the game to the end which was a great look into.


I also found these two videos from the Recoil Games youtube page which they talk about the Unity engine as well as their production on Rochard:

Creative Development Week21:Art of Gaming

Art of Gaming is an original series produced by Machinima which delves into the process behind the modern day game production looking from the process of concept art to the actual implementation of the concept art. I found this series from simply looking for something and i was impressed by the insight that is covered of which i feel is definitely beneficial to me as i am constantly unaware of really how much work needs to go into something or whether i am doing something right and this series maybe at times isn't as insightful as i first thought through the information spoken but through the visual standards i was able to really understand much closer the process and work flow.

Here is the link:
http://www.youtube.com/show/artofthegame?s=1

Creative Development Week20:Workflow

Here is a free full length tutorial i found through my feed of VFX work and from The Gnomon Workshop, i found this video to stand out because it not only shows work done in Z Brush, a 3D software which i feel shows off a high level of detail in their model meshs but also the transitions and stability across other known softwares to me such as Photoshop. The tutorial shows the workflow through softwares such as Z Brush through Maya and Photoshop and allows the public to see that other softwares enable you to achieve things better than just the one you are using and all these softwares are aiding in just one piece of imagery thus enabling the use of detail through polygons in Z Brush to not matter much and taking into Maya allows the hypershade to take effect in lighting and atmosphere along with Photoshop adding the UV maps and finally piecing the image together.