Game Concept Art Is Faster Than Ever. Why Does It Still Get Expensive?

Modern tools allow concept artists to explore and present ideas faster. But concept production can still become expensive when teams choose the wrong direction, request unnecessary detail, or discover technical limits too late.

Asher Ben has worked across games, television, film, and physical exhibitions, specializing in vehicles, environments, weapons, and props. He also teaches a vehicle design workflow using Photoshop, Blender, and Plasticity.

We asked Asher what has really changed in concept art production, where teams lose time and money, and which skills artists need today.

Main Topics

• Modern Game Concept Art Workflow
• 2D vs 3D Concept Art
• Reducing Concept Art Production Costs
• Blender, Plasticity & Unreal in Concept Art
• Concept Art for Small Game Studios
• Skills for Concept Artists Today

Interview

With Asher Ben, Lead Concept Artist and Vehicle Design Instructor

Q: If you compare the way you work today with five years ago, what has changed the most?

Which parts became faster? What new skills did you have to learn, and what do studios expect from concept artists now that they did not expect before?

ANSWER: A lot has changed in the past 5 years. From software and pipeline tools, the way companies and studios approach production, to the inclusion of AI tools in production. In my experience the past 5 years,as a concept artist here are the few things that I keep noticing as very evident. First thing is that there is a higher demand for versatile concept artists who have 3D skills and expertise. 3D is becoming more and more important in production.

Companies now want to test concepts faster in-engine so having the ability to quickly model designs and put it inside Unreal to see if design can work or not is super useful. I also felt that the speed requirement to deliver quality work is getting shorter and faster especially with the advent of AI compared to the first time I started.  Thinking about it I felt like the expectations now for a concept artist is so much higher than ever.

Q: Which newer tools or production methods have actually made concept art faster?

This could include 3D blockouts, kitbashing, CAD tools, asset libraries, real-time engines, or AI. Which ones save real production time, and which ones mainly help create a polished image faster?

ANSWER: There are a lot of concept art tools that make work so much faster and better. As a Blender user, I’m always grateful to Blender as an organization as they keep on making the tool better and faster each update. With that, comes also the abundance of Blender addons, assets, shaders, nodes, etc that you can easily add to your current library of tools and assets at affordable prices. Kitbashing is always a good tool and technique to have.

Personally modeling via CAD software like Plasticity is a game changer for me, especially when you’re working closely with another department like the modeling or Unreal team where cleaner geos are so important to have.

Q: Where does concept production usually become more expensive than it needs to be?

Does the waste usually come from a weak brief, too many directions, late technical limits, unnecessary detail, slow approvals, or asking the artist to polish ideas that are not yet approved?

ANSWER: There is no one answer to this question, It’s dependent on many factors. It could be the team that you’re working with, or even how your client approaches production.

One of the most common areas that I notice that make production costly is when a design needs to go through several layers of hierarchy and feedback that will always result in slower approvals. Budget changes are also one of the major causes of delays that can make production more costly than originally planned. 

Q: When you review concept work as a lead, how do you decide that it is ready to move into production?

What information does the next artist actually need? How do you know when more concept work would improve the result and when it would only add cost?

ANSWER: This is something that a lead and Art Director have to work and decide together. A concept design can only be ready for production if it answers all the things it needs to answer in the pipeline and that includes a lot of several factors, it could be gameplay related, animation related, narrative related, etc. If it solves the problem that the game needs to solve then it’s the only time we can call it ready. In many cases, also depending on how big and how many teams you work with you won’t have all the details right away in the brief, it’s always gonna be an evolution.

The more the concepts will be seen and be tested across the production the more it will be given feedback and refined until it reaches its best state to solve that particular problem, if it goes through these layers and passes each layer then that’s the only time you can say it will work and will improve the result. Not planning and thinking ahead of the possible issues that a concept design will face could potentially add cost.

Q: When does building a concept in 3D save money, and when is a quick 2D approach the better choice?

How do complexity, camera distance, future revisions, moving parts, and possible reuse by the 3D team affect that decision?

ANSWER: To answer the first question, Concept art teams in today’s production pipeline are working closer with the modeling team or Unreal team than ever before. I had this experience working in a project where basically the studio I am working for is requiring me to directly work in 3D to design levels and certain parts of the map so they can easily put my 3D concepts in Unreal like really really fast to test the level designs, and that saves a lot of money. Studios can save weeks or even months of work by simply doing that pipeline.

Now the second question comes in in that particular process and pipeline. Now that I have those 3D blockouts and environments, I can just easily paintover in 2D (Photoshop) to provide designs variations, material changes, etc or to bounce ideas back and forth with the client or AD fast. There will always be a space for both 3D and 2D in the concept art industry, it’s just that it’s always dependent on the kind of brief, project and pipelines you need to do or follow. I always believe that the more versatile and prolific a concept artist is, the better he/she will be able to adjust and adapt to any demands this job requires.

For Small Game Studios

What should a small studio give a concept artist before work begins if it wants a strong result without wasting its budget?

Which references, gameplay needs, technical limits, scale, camera views, and animation requirements should already be clear? What missing information usually leads to expensive revisions?

ANSWER:  The first word that came to mind is CLARITY. Clarity in terms of requirements, information, briefs and clarity in the expectations. Knowing the technical requirements of the game even if it’s totally not art related are so important to have. Like even knowing polygon budgets ahead of time is crucial as it’s directly related to the design and how things will look inside the game.

For Young Artists

If someone starts learning concept art today, what would make them ready for their first production job?

Is there a realistic learning timeline? How should they divide their time between drawing, design, 3D tools, presenting ideas, and learning how real production works?

ANSWER: This is a really great question! There are several ways to approach this. Taking mentorship or concept art focused schools whether it’s online or in person is such a great advantage to have. It’ll help simulate the kind of pressure and expectations that the actual job gives to a certain degree.

Structure is what mentorship and art schools can provide that will answer a lot of uncertainties and will give a glimpse of what the concept art industry looks and feels like. While not all are financially blessed to go to an art school or even take an online class, there are still ways that one can help himself/herself be ready such as reaching out to more experienced artists and creatives you look up to and people you want to learn from in the nicest and most polite way you can do. Believe it or now most people will always try to help. Podcasts and interviews are super important, and there’s an abundance of free Youtube videos one can take advantage of and learn from that are available out there. There is no specific timeline as each person or artist has different ways of learning and absorbing information. I believe the best way to learn is understanding yourself first and doing a concrete plan and structure based on that understanding.

When I first started learning concept art there was zero distraction and its absolute focus and I loved every minute of it as I was learning new things I didn’t know and continue to do so. With regards to time delegation, we only have 24 hours a day, it can be enough and also can’t be enough depending on each situation a person is in so you can either approach learning based on what you like doing the most and be really good at it or if you want to specialize on something, or  work on something you are not good at yet and turn that weakness into a strength.

In the concept art industry GOOD DESIGN is the most important of all, whatever it is that you want to pursue we have to make sure that our designing skills are always growing and getting better, it can be through constant practice, through reading, through watching documentaries, etc. It takes a lot of things, time and effort rolled into one.