CONCEPT ART
-MASTER-
Universal Arts School (UAS) is a private school located in Valencia, Spain, which focuses on teaching in the fields of digital art, video game development, visual production and other creative disciplines. The school offers a wide range of courses, including 3D design, video game creation, VFX, and of course Concept Art, which is one of the school's most popular courses.
The program in Concept Art at Universal Arts School is very detailed and aims to prepare students for working life as Concept artists. The program is designed to train students in all aspects of Concept Art, from basic sketches to the final version of works that are used in films, video games, and other digital media.
I am currently in a two-year Master's program in Concept Art here in Spain and have completed the first year. Now, there is only one year left.
In the first semester, we covered the fundamentals of drawing for Concept Art, including line drawing, anatomy, composition, perspective, and basic environmental design. The second semester focused more on environment design, color theory, more composition and perspective, prop and character design, image rendering, and illustration. The third semester was dedicated to independent work where we designed our own frame (final slide) that brought together all the elements and techniques we had learned throughout the year.
Most of the assignments followed the theme of the year. This year’s theme was to design content for a video game in the style of Assassin's Creed, set in Japan during the Edo period. (Interestingly, after the project started, Assassin's Creed announced a game with the same theme.)
Each of us in the class was assigned to choose a character group to design, including both characters and all that comes with them, e.g., bandits, samurai, wizards, priests, etc. I chose to design the farmers to keep a grounded connection to the game, which would balance out the high action the game could contain.
The farmers are closely tied to their work and nature. I envisioned them mainly as side or background characters who could bring a sense of calm to certain parts of the story. However, first and foremost, they are ordinary people that players could relate to, as they seek out simple and humble qualities of life. But if the situation called for it, they could also be deceitful and uncooperative.
