Gametrailers.com - Top 10 Concept Artists by GrandConjurer

GrandConjurer

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Top 10 Concept Artists

GrandConjurer

Posted February 18, 2009 @ 12:38 am

CHARACTER DESIGNERS ONLY

It seems that there's been some confusion. Let's examine something: you see a video about concept artists and you see only character designs. What's more probable:

1. That I'm completely unaware that there are artists who do environments
2. That I decided to only focus on character design

Now I know for a fact that many people will be a bit ticked off about the placing of certain individuals on this list. However, if you're curious as to why who is where, you can message me and I'll tell you. Just don't start nerd raging as soon as you find out who Number 10 is. Watch the whole list and then send me hateful messages.

Anywho, this list was a bit easier to make than most. Essentially nothing more than a glorified slide show, the hardest part was finding high-res artwork from each of these artists. Then I had to decide on a piece of music. I ended up choosing some King Crimson, a band with whom I recently became enamored thanks to the suggestions of some users here on GT.

Enjoy the list, don't take it too seriously, rate, comment, yadda yadda yadda.

And if you enjoy the music, you'll probably also enjoy this trailer. I used another King Crimson track for that video.

Wow. Turns out that there are a HELLUVA lot of professional art critics on GT. If you're wondering why there's an excess of Japanese art here it's because I really enjoy that kind of art--NOT anime style--I only put #8 on the list because of the actual characters and how awesome they were. Personally, I don't much like his art style. As for several other choices, in many cases my choice of the artist was colored by how much I enjoyed the games he'd worked on. However, I maintain that #1 is, and always will be, #1. At least in my book. As for #6, he's on the list because his designs are unique. If you've played any of the games to feature his artwork, you'll know that the enemies are unlike ANYTHING you've ever seen, a combination of classical imagery of monsters and the visual manifestation of man's basest fears. And #4 kicks ass.

This is my 11th Top 10 list. I'm still baffled at how so many people click on the video by 'GrandConjurer' expecting to see their personal opinion represented on screen.

And anyone who says that majority of my choices are 'Manga' is an idiot. Manga style is typically very simple, the characters having small mouths and large eyes. While some of the artists here MIGHT have been doing stuff known as Manga, when you see a piece by #1 you don't think 'Manga.' If you do, you're an idiot because you'd have to think the same thing seeing some run-of-the-mill generic manga bullshit. Just because it's art from Japan doesn't mean it's manga/anime/hentai.

Like I said, #8 is there because I loved that game so damn much and one of the reasons was the characters. As for anime, I've never had anything but the utmost disdain for it--shit like Dragon Ball Z and Naruto and all that crap make me sick and bore me to tears because it doesn't LOOK interesting (and, in my eyes, it all looks the same.) However, there is only one artist on this list who approaches the definition of typical 'anime' mostly because he had a large role in defining 'anime.' The others, however, all have a unique style and I chose them because I saw their art stand out WHILE playing the game. I've never really researched any of this--I came across these artists while playing the games and if the illustrations made on paper can shine through months and years of development time, then the artists is obviously very talented.

And sorry for the omission of Didier. While a lot of his work is excellent, his occasional foray into furry territory really pisses me off. Plus, when compared to Metzen, I enjoy Metzen much more. His elongated and 'fluid' faces are really interesting. I find a lot of Didier's stuff to be a bit sterile.

Christ on a stick. Why do so many people get angry about this? You clicked on a video by GrandConjurer. You were expecting your opinion to magically manifest itself in my video? I'm doing this for free and yet so many IDIOTS demand '100% objectivity' as if it were easy (and possible) to achieve. It's not. No matter who the list maker, no matter who the reviewer, these things will ALWAYS be colored by personal taste. For 11 videos I've always written caveats that it's based on my personal preferences and gaming experience, that it's not something that should be taken seriously, and that you shouldn't freak out if by some bizarre coincidence the video doesn't end up validating your opinion. So you ask--what makes my opinion worth more than yours? Because I put in the time and effort to make this video and, believe it or not, some people actually care about what I think--I have no idea WHY, but that's it.

Just watch the goddamn video. Don't use the comment board to pontificate or lecture me because I'm pretty damn close to breaking my 'will read every comment' rule.

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« Prev 1 2 ... of 34 Next »

Switz7

[0]

Posted 2-23-2009 6:02pm

[quote]

That was cool and i dont usually appreciate art. Some of the castlevania pics were amazing. I wish he woulda shown more D2 artwork. I always remember Lister the tormentors concept art being real cool in the D2 guide that comes with the battlechest.

CosmicJC

[0]

Posted 2-23-2009 6:22pm

[quote]

Personally I prefer artwork like this, www.conceptart.org not the anime style, it's very flat

Limiter

[0]

Posted 2-23-2009 7:45pm

[quote]

there are big difference between just anime art and this. seriously, just because japanese artist made it, that doesnt make it fall on that category.

epamphleteer

[0]

Posted 2-23-2009 8:31pm

[quote]

Don't misunderstand my previous comment, I would not otherwise nitpick the usage of the strict definition of concept art, partly because I'm disappointed that GrandConjurer seems to think that noone thinks of that when they think of concept art (even though that's what the industry artists think of when they think of concept art), but also because I would have liked to have seen a list of real concept artists. For me that's exciting not just because they're good artists, but also because such artists participate in the formative process of a video game, and are directly responsible for what it becomes.

I would suggest looking up Concept Art on wikipedia to see what I mean. One might also check out the various portal sites for concept artists, however there portfolios largely display finished works that just showcase their abilities as artists and rarely represent what their work during the design process looks like. I remembered that official game sites are usually pretty good at showing off the concept art that went into making them, and was getting pretty discouraged until I found: http://www.worldofwarcraf and http://www.starcraft2.com I also remembered: http://fallout.bethsoft.c (They actually dare to call it Concept Art of all things!)

saitohajime

[-16]

Posted 2-23-2009 9:03pm

[quote]

Very nice. Beauty to my eyes.

epamphleteer

[0]

Posted 2-23-2009 9:08pm

[quote]

So, there's a function that automatically turns URLs into hyperlinks, and another one that automatically chops short lengthy URLs? They couldn't make it so that the long URL was still remembered so the link wouldn't be broken? I suppose people can still figure out where I trying to send them.

Thaman2131

[0]

Posted 2-23-2009 9:59pm

[quote]

Nice vid

battousai77

[0]

Posted 2-23-2009 11:52pm

[quote]

I didnt even realize that artwork is a big part of why video games have evolved from simple bit characters. thanx.

UglyBob

[0]

Posted 2-24-2009 5:01am

[quote]

I am glad you put Chris Metzen on the list. He definitely made the somewhat simplistic gameplay of Diablo feel more epic with his great manual illustrations! I also love his first drawing of the Orcish Horde from the WCII manual (in which they are holding a severed head by the hair, great stuff!)

Number 1 should have been obvious to me, knowing what games you like, but I was still happy to see it there. It is too bad Amano's work was not as well received in FFIX.

Bamboucha

[0]

Posted 2-24-2009 5:16am

[quote]

what's the music of this vid it's very a beautiful one??