Video Game Concept Art Scene

The project I created as part of Nacho Yagüe's 'Concept Art for Video Games' course.

The brief:
Zeron and Areth were exhausted after wandering what seemed like an endless journey in which they forgot the concept of the passage of time. The only thing that kept them on foot was the hope of finally finding the mythical city of Tolonte. Although they often doubted they would, they walked through the arid plain, as the warm breeze presaged a deserved reward after so many hardships. After climbing up a steep slope, the old and towering ruins of Tolonte came out of nowhere, almost magically.

- Key visual: stumbling upon the ruins
- The architecture has to be the main focus
- Dilapidated or semi-dilapidated condition
- Recognisable silhouette
- Arid landscape, but with variations (e.g. different kinds of rocks and small plants)

The artwork was sketched, photobashed, and painted over in Photoshop.

I started with a few relatively quick thumbnails to consider different compositions and find one that would work best for the brief presented in the course exercise. I used custom shapes to quickly build the base of each composition and then painted over them to adjust lighting or add extra details.

After deciding which composition I wanted to develop further, I started making adjustments and 'cleaning up' the sketch (first, in black and white; after it was legible enough for me, I started adding colours and photo textures).

I struggled a lot with the shape and size of the main building structure - I knew I wanted it to be a temple of sorts, but for a very long time, it did not look convincing to me (it seemed too small and confined). At one point (images 5 and 6), I considered turning it into a huge archway built around a much longer bridge, but eventually figured that did not make much sense either.

Finally, as I placed another photo texture, it inadvertantly gave the impression that the right-side wall of the building was much more extended. I realised that is what I should have done to give the building more depth, and make it seem a lot more spacious and explorable (much like a temple, at last). Thus, I removed the statue and gave the building additional walls.

At the very end, I also realised the bridge's parapets seemed too short when compared to the charater standing near them, so I decided to tilt the bridge a bit more and sink it in the sand to imply is is covered in such a thick layer of it that it elevated its deck.