KISHAN THAKRAR
A LEVEL ART PHOTOGRAPHY PORTFOLIO
Assassin's Creed is a videogame franchise that is based on historical events and is set in cities from Renaissance Europe up to the French Revolution and Victorian England. A lot of the artwork associated with this series, both concept art and fan-made art, features a great deal of volumetric lighting and atmospheric perspective. The game itself also features a lot of this within its graphics, ultimately making it more immersive for the player. Not only does it look good, but it enhances the religious context of the game, with scenes containing colourful light rays shining through misty ecclesiastical settings. The game also features scenes of battle and conflict, where scenes contain a great deal of dust and mist, and also clouds of smoke (from bombs and gunfire) and then a desaturated, dull tone present in various images I had seen. There isn’t a scene where atmosphere is not present, showing how important it is. The games in the franchise are all open-world, and so entire cities are recreated, giving the user wonderful vistas from high up locations, filled with fog, pollution and polished with vibrant lens flares that warm the sight, resulting in highly detailed perspectives.
I have selected various pieces of concept art that I liked the most, from different artists rather than focussing on one particular artist. I have then practised some of the techniques and taken inspiration from the pieces to create my own response.
GILLES BELOEIL
Gilles Beloeil painted some concept art for Assassin's Creed: Unity. I like the way detail is sustained yet the edges of buildings are not perfectly straight and the buildings distort and become more ambiguous further into the distance. He would have used painting and then a computer to adjust lighting and add more smoke and dust. The atmosphere of the image is supported by the strong emphasis of blue tones, with the other colours being much less saturated. Volumetric light rays are captured stunningly, with a wonderful portrayal of the games atmospheric environment in just one still. The artist has been a Senior Concept Artist at Ubisoft Montreal since 2007 (Ubisoft make the games) and knows a lot about the franchise, as well as being a very good artist. He played an important role in establishing the look and atmosphere of the worlds in most of the games in the series, so his concept art pieces have had a big influence on the games themselves.
DONGLU YU
Donglu Yu is another concept artists who has done work for Assassin's Creed. This time, it is for Black Flag, which is set in 18th Century Carribbean, during the Golden Age of piracy. The setting allowed for a new addition to the series which was underwater exploration. This added a whole new element to the game series, and the concept art for this would again be important. Dongly Yu explores underwater lighting and ambience, in these pieces, and creates a fascinating vista full of volumetric lighting and atmosphere. She uses digital painting techniques, which allows her to edit and adjust lighting, colours and layers, and gives her full control of her brushes and many other aspects of painting. She then treats the finished piece like a photo and edits it as required.
JAN URSCHEL
Jan Urschel is a freelance art director, concept designer and illustrator working in the entertainment industry, designing for feature films and video games. He has also done some work for Black Flag. I like this piece particularly because it is almost photorealistic. The atmosphere seems as if it had been captured by a camera, rather than dramatically exaggerated for emotive effect. The light rays are subtle, but present. The figure does not stand too prominently and therefore is not too obtrusive in the piece. There are parts of the image which are highly detailed however this contrasts with few lines of paint representing pieces of grass, or the less detailed brown paint strokes in the bottom left of the piece. I think it is an interesting approach because concept art is not always 'finished' or perfect; it is meant to serve its purpose of portraying a hypothetical scene that has not yet occurred/does not exist.
Assassin's Creed: Concept Art
