Reply To: Any plan for a concept art “bootcamp” courses ?
@williamatics You will always need actual references for any type of project. Doesn’t need to be a complete modeling sheet, could be actual images of specific details. Say you want to design a spaceship, you’ll need reference for details such as panels, landing gears etc to make a good a believable result.
I understand your frustration as you would like to create something literally from scratch but even the 2D process require other people’s artwork for reference and inspiration. I’ve been through this as well and to solve that I took extra night courses of sketching. There’s not much secret for concept art in my opionion: practice practice practice. Look at an object (coffee cup, flower, whatever rocks your world) and try to reproduce it on your notebook. Look at the perspective, the shaddow, the proportions etc. Post a picture of the model and your sketch and ask for feedback. Stuff like this really help.
Having some basic knowledge of drawing is always a plus, no one can deny it, but you don’t need to be good at it to enjoy 3D modelling. Here’s a example from my experience, based on the Modelling weapons for a FPS from J.Lampel. Rather than using the model sheed provided by the course I browse the internet to look for sci-fi rifles and picked ideas there and there to build my own. The sketch is terrible, but the concept was clear for me, I knew what I wanted to have and where:
Based on that I ended up with this: I have no pretention into saying this is an outstanding model 😀 It’s a model I’m happy with and that’s the essential!
All the details are not on the initial sketch and were added after, still by using references and other’s model.
Again, your frustration is legit, but there’s solution.
Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying a concept art bootcamp is irrelevant. But concept art is so personal to me I find it hard to educate. The essentials like perspective etc could be valuable.
Cheers,
/Thibaut.