Imagine your favorite cartoon or video game, one with a unique character and personality. Have you ever wondered who creates the designs and ideas?

When you read a book, you may see the scenes in your mind, creating a universe and characters based on the author’s descriptions and imagery. Words shape how you imagine things.

This is a method comparable to character concept art, in which artists create full character art concepts based on descriptions or their thoughts.

 Let’s explore more about this concept art character!

What is Concept Art Character?

Before delving into character design concept art, it’s important to first define concept art.

Concept art is a type of visual art that is used in films, video games, animation, comic books, and other types of media to communicate a concept.

Concept art aids in conveying the look, feel, and emotion of a design idea. It is used to capture and explain a project’s general design goal before anything goes into production, as opposed to trying to express everything in particular terms at the start of design development.

Character design concept art is, as the name implies, the art of developing characters. Concept artists create drawings and sketches that express a character’s personality based on a description provided by a writer or director. 

What might a character look like based on their characteristics, quirks, and behaviours? That is the domain of concept artists.

Also read: Unveiling the Role and Skill of a Concept Artist!

Why Concept Art is Important

Animated films and video games, for example, can bring together hundreds to thousands of diverse artists who must work together to create the final product.

Producing concept art ensures that all artists are on the same page before beginning their work on the project.

If you don’t, you risk introducing inconsistencies to the project. Consider this: a script may define a character’s physical appearance, but two artists will most likely interpret that description extremely differently. 

If you let them go their separate ways, you’d end up with two completely distinct personalities, and you’d have to start again to make the character consistent throughout the project—a costly mistake to correct.

A single artistic vision ensures that everyone is working toward the same cohesive idea.

Also read: Reasons Why You Should Hire Cartoon Illustrators

How to Draw Character Concept Art

Character design for video games or animation, like any other art form, begins with an idea. 

This concept could come from the artist, a producer, a director, or another creator. If the idea was created by someone other than the artist, it is generally accompanied by a description of attributes or characteristics. Based on this description, the concept artist proceeds to develop a character.

Regardless of the story, designing concept art characters follows a similar workflow: it begins with idea generating, research, and character drafting.

An artist usually starts with a mood board to help with the design process and then prepares several sketches for the client to choose from.

Once the character has a design, the artist starts working on the colours and making all the rest of the concepts required, such as different angles, and movement sheets to help the animator capture the theme and personality of the character. 

The character is then modelled, rigged, and animated.

Also read: Character Animation: Why It Works for Brand Communications

Tips on Creating Character Concept Art

Creating character conceptions for animation sometimes appears to be a difficult task. However, if you break down the creative process, you’ll discover some crucial characteristics that help to draw concept art for a character:

  • History

  • Silhouette

  • Harmony of colour and composition 

  • Accents 

  • Emotional impact

All the following should be understood and used by the character concept artist.

Keep in mind that concept artists aren’t merely drawing ideas. Everything they make tells a story, whether it’s through environmental concept design or character design – they’re communicating an overall theme and story that allows the remainder of the production pipeline to understand the video’s mood and direction.

Take a look at this concept art for Mandai Ranger Buddies by Superpixel.

Gathering inspiration is always good for concept artists, but one thing it can do in particular is to provide design ideas. Using different line styles, colours, and levels of human-like resemblance can drastically alter the overall mood and energy. 

Character cartoons, for example, virtually always feature bright, attractive colours and unique shapes.

Not only did we create a concept art character, but we also designed the environment concept art. Typically, this art is required to help expand and define the aesthetic of a story or plot

Have an idea for a character but need a designer to bring it to life? Superpixel can help you!

We have a team of concept artists, animators, illustrators, and designers who can help you generate detailed concept art characters based on your ideas.

You can also check out our concept art portfolio for creating animated characters and videos.

Come to Superpixel Singapore at any time and share your thoughts!