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Hello everyone, nice to meet you

I am Nam Hyoung Taek, and I am a senior character concept designer

in charge of character concept production

at a console gaming company at Kenneth, USA

Today we will talk about a more

realistic character concept development

based on my experiences with production of various characters

Specifically, we will discuss the process of character designing

that holding the story of the game, design principles

, and we will sketch the production process

Also, we will paint these characters together

Before starting the lecture, we will spend some time

to talk about what job group does concept design is in

, and what characters are used for various productions

As for the definition of concept design, this can sometimes be easily explained

or it could be rather ambiguous to explain because of the unique characteristics

that various concept job groups have

However, bringing all definitions together

concept designer can be explained as someone who uses characters or backgrounds

explained by a writer in words or in writing, as in a story on a world view

, a person whom designing these in images

Designing can be said as an example that resolves issues

regarding design of a product target For instance, games or

movie animations, etc that requires

the most creative production method

For games in particular, a hyper realistic character concept development

is the most important duty for a concept designer

, and it is the point which concept designers are most concerned with

in the overall concept development works

Therefore, this job is very different from general art

where there is a pursuit for some kind of visual beauty

Also, an important factor in the design done by a concept designer

is how ideas are fused and utilized

The importance of design utilization refers to

looking at, analyzing, and breaking down

a particular object, inspiration,

and fusing it with another idea

In order to create a realistic design from imagined fiction,

we will have to research a real design concept we already know

and appropriately apply to create a good, convincing design

Putting this in other words, we refer to this as functional design

This means that when we look at a design, it's a paint that makes us to feel

this would be operational

For example,

when we assume that we are designing a costume for a humanoid character,

like for instance we are creating a mage character

If we were to draw and imagine in our heads

and start explaining our character design creation

based on what we saw in our imagination

or giving a pitch, unless the viewer can

fully understand our creation

So if there is not enough logic behind,

the formulation of a realistic, plausible character

it is very difficult to have others sympathize with the character

So on this, if I were to give

a few tips based on my experience

First one is to make it easy for the viewers

to understand the realistic logic and design

, and the imaginary idea must form a balance

Here, there could be a few mediums

that help with easier understanding

, but the most effective are generally image reference or video

Another good method is

to maximize the use of realistic design to about 90 percent

when making a design

, and fuse this with around 10 percent of imaginary idea

to make creations with a more realistic sense

and make them feel more plausible

Here, when applying real designs,

a lot of research data is required

We could say that concept artists are storytellers

that can tell stories with drawings

From prehistoric times, we were very

accustomed to creating stories and telling

stories to other people

and the medium that creates the stories were very diverse

People would draw on the walls of the cave to tell stories

, and mad music with it or put it in writing

As such, this job also has the same fundamental purpose of all art

From this, we could say that the concept designers have

more commercial factors in play

There are two main factors associated with this

These are referred to as speed and efficiency

This quite literally means speed and efficiency

Concept designer is an occupation in which a lot of thought is put into

how to quickly and efficiently

express the clients or my stories into images

So the skills associated with drawing

are just used to efficiently express

and deliver stories It is not much more than that

I hope that this helps change

the thought process of

I am really bad at drawing

so I couldn’t be a concept designer

For example, however,

if someone draws stick figure forms,

while another designer is able to draw

forms other than the stick figure,

the person who is able to understand and draw a particular form

with a sense of persuasion

would have more advantages with work that is associated with this

as opposed to the one drawing stick figures

So that’s one way to think about it

Also in commercial game development,

in the company work site, concept designers

are assigned to mainly two sections

Those are pre production and production

Let me list the components of pre production and production

here to explain this

First, a plan involved for

creating all games will reveal through a meeting

then there is a presentation, or a pitch for that plan

The pitch is there to support that plan

and it can be either done through writing

or with photos or other various examples

, and the concept designers are usually the ones that create this pitching data

They basically produce the explanation in drawing

Then after the presentation is concluded and approved,

the brainstorming starts where creative designs

starts to create various characters and world views

Those are created through the brainstorming process

Then when these are selected by people such as art directors

or producers, then we are now in the design stage

, which refers where a more specific polishing is processing

Then there is this thing known as called out for

the 3D team

So with a full reference for a particular character,

when this is sent to the cult concept create team,

it acts as a blueprint for the

3D team to use

, and then coming to the team support

They go around various departments, and when the concept designer

starts to get into numerous works during the game development

Team support generally means 3D team support most of the time

So after we make the blueprint and send it to the 3D team

although it would be ideal if the 3D team can follow the blueprint properly

, it unfortunately doesn’t work that way in most of cases

So the concept team collaborates with the 3D team

by continuing to support them by giving them guide multiple times

, so that the 3D team can follow the blueprint properly

That’s the kind of team support we are talking about

Then we move on to the correction stage

This correction is not just looking at the outcomes within the game

as there are times when correction is required in the game

Then the concept designers sometimes get involved during the correction process

After the correction is completed, we also sometimes

help the marketing side towards the end

That involves various souvenirs the company is planning to make

or books, posters, splashing

splashing images for web pages

Concept designers are involved in creating these

There are various stylistic approaches in the concept design world

In particular, depending on a specific theme in the game platform

There could be a cartoon like caricature character design

or a character production involving a lot of realistic details

The concept design tutorial lecture that I will be starting from now

will have details that are focused on

the production of realistic characters

The work of drawing and adding detail isn’t very methodologically different

for any style of design production

For example, drawing a certain frame, then drawing a form on top

, then design clothes and body on the top of that form

, adding coloring on the top of it, and then finishing

This is a large route method

We don’t deviate too much from this structure

Whether realistic, caricature style, stylistic, and etc

, this structure doesn’t change too much

However, realistic materialization in the thinking, planning and approach, as in

the work involving realism, involves a lot of things in the basic composition

of all styles, and I think this is the concept design style required the most

in the current mainstream game market

In the AAA game market for example

The Last of Us, Horizon, Ghost of Tsushima, Witcher

GTA, Call of Duty, Metal Gear Solid

God of War, Halo, Fallout

all of these are open world or have

specific genres and the player is able to play

for a very long time, these would be like blockbuster works

in the movie industry

Like the very large scale film production

The AAA in the gaming industry

can be thought as a blockbuster in a way

Also, while people doing very caricature based

or symbolic designs facing a lot

of difficulties creating designs of realism

the designers that can materialize realism

are capable of even doing symbolic design for instance

based on my experience

This is because symbolic design

It is essentially a design composition that is made by

simplifying the realistic designs

Here’s a story from my experience Before I joined Naughty Dog,

I did a lot of stylish work as an MMO game designer

But this was just emphasizing the shape a little more and simplifying it

in the design process, so I think I didn’t have too much difficulties

One issue that could arise would be the writer’s preference

As people tend to look for job groups depending on whether

the writers prefer those particular styles,

I worked with a lot of different styles

, but I preferred works with a lot of realism details

and actually did a lot of work in that area

, which made me continue on this path

That wraps up the mindset

of concept designers, what work they are involved in

and what stylish concept methods

are often combined

The next lecture will talk about a part of pre production stage

which is mood board production, the first concept production stage through

character sketch design, and I will talk about the tools I use

for the sketch production

Thank you