What format is concept art usually in?

[namemissing]

I am doing year twelve Visual communication and design and was wondering what format concept artists usually present their work in. Like, if you get hired by a game developer or whatever to do some concepts on, i dunno, tanks or guns or characters or something, what would you actually give the developer? What would the finished product be?

Any information would be appreciated

[Ian Barker]

Usually you will be working alongside the developer and sending them images as you work so that they can give you feedback, until you arrive at final images the developer is happy with that you can then hand off to modelers or use for marketing purposes or what have you.

[namemissing]

thanks

[DieHard]

I think that first you have to show your skill, because we can´t see anything about you and we can´t refer to others without a show.

[Burhtun]

Format? Like how the tank is laid out on the page? Probably just on a blank or simple background. Maybe some info on the sheet with product name, company name, artist's name. I don't work in the biz (yet!) but I don't think you need to worry about format much on the job. In your portfolio sure, make it look pretty. Probably don't have time for that on the job though.

You give the art director lots of iterations. Do you want the bug monster to have horns like this or like this? Big crushing mandibles or tiny manipulative ones? Spiked forward limbs or pincers? Lay out the iterations in a clean easy to read fashion and have them numbered or lettered. A good guy to look at for early stage bread and butter concept art is Paul Richards.
Look at those panels!: http://www.autodestruct.com/images/quake4_console5.jpg
crates! http://www.autodestruct.com/images/quake4_crates2.jpg
chairs! http://www.autodestruct.com/images/quake4_chair.jpg
scary faces: http://www.autodestruct.com/images/quake4_grunt.jpg
M.C. Barrett is another dude thats awesome at this.

When you finalize a design with an art director you might be tasked to then draw some turnarounds. (front, back, and side view and maybe even a 3/4 view. Your initial sketches were probably already 3/4 view though). Blasted turnarounds. They're tedious, but thats what gets handed to the modelers. Clean simple background. Make sure parts line up across all views.

I've also seen a lot of concept art where the materials of an object will be specified with little magnification zoom bubbles. Like an arrow pointing to a character's pants with a little box that has a picture of denim in it, giving an idea of the color and texture. Maybe even some words to go along with it like "matte, very little specular". Though, ideally you should communicate all that visually in the design itself. Sometimes they just don't have the time I guess.

I need to do more production art and less beauty shots.

[dpaint]

Concepts are specified in the work order. So you will get a contract telling you you are to deliver so many things at this size and resolution. For things like characters equipment and vehicles they should be in plan views which is top, side, front and three quarter all on one sheet. You most likely will just be sending them files is the format they prefer so maybe PNG or TIFF or Photoshop files with layers all depends on the use and scope of what you are doing. I rarely hand in physical art anymore everything is digital partly because I am freelance and don't always meet face to face with clients and mostly because its faster and cheaper than mailing something.