Concept art is the base and key for the development for any project such as cars, games and many more, the main point of concept art is to show a visual representation of a design and idea of what the end product is going to look like. It also allows the investors, and anybody interested in the project/title what aspects of the end product will look like.
Concept art start is usually on a non digital media to begin with however with the ever popular growth of the digital age it is also known for concept art to be designed with computers. Concept art is usually drawn by concept artists; concept artists are individuals that design a character, item etc that does not yet exist. This includes (not limited to) film production, animation production, video game production, car production and many more.
Concept art allows the interpreter to address the technical issues that may occur, for example the characters. The concept artist has designed a character with too much detail and the limitations of the system cannot render them, or for other reasons the design has changed.
Concept art is known to have even existed as late the 1930’s by Disney Animation studios. Disney Animation would have used concept art for their characters in the popular cartoon Mickey Mouse.
Concept Art
In Game
Here is a concept drawing of how Zergling will appear like in the upcoming Starcraft 2 by Blizzard.
The example concept art I have given is drawn in a gothic style; dark, evil, metallic colours are a good way to show the futuristic look of how the characters nature is.
Included is a shot of how a Zergling would appear in the game and how concept art can reflect into the final product, and how different they can appear. Although the concept shot is very detailed; the in game shot is not very detailed, however the models are 3D.
A good way that video game companies promote their games is to publish their concept art online and sending them off to video game magazines. This allows fans to get an idea of the game will appear before it is released.
A good way artists can promote their work is by posting it online on sites such as www.conceptart.org the advantage of this is that artists can use these online websites to quickly show off there work to potential employers.
Touching off from the purpose for concept would be to project an image into the mind of others so they get an idea of what the finished product will look like, and make the project stand out.
Drawing styles can help engage a porject that have different target audiences an example of this is the Resident Evil series. The images and videos in Resident Evil are very dark and gory and would use a different drawing style compared to that of Super Mario Bros. series.