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Concept Artist

Creates visual designs for characters, environments, and objects in films, games, and animation.

Did you know?

To design Avatar's Na'vi, James Cameron's artists used paintings and real sculptures, because he felt 3D computer renderings weren't capturing his vision.

How subjects help

Art & Design: Sketch dozens of quick ideas for a creature or city before the team chooses one.
Literature: Read about a story's world and turn written descriptions into pictures everyone can follow.
Anatomy: Design believable creatures by giving them bones and muscles that could really move.
Computer Science: Paint digitally and build rough computer models to test lighting and camera angles fast.

A famous name

Ralph McQuarrie: Concept artist who painted the first designs of Darth Vader, R2-D2 and C-3PO for Star Wars.

Try it yourself: Make a flick book in a notepad corner

Choose one very simple action, like a bouncing ball or a jumping frog.
On the last page, draw the first moment small, in the bottom right-hand corner.
Turn back one page and draw the next moment, changing it only a tiny bit. You should be able to see the drawing underneath to line it up.
Keep going until you have about twelve drawings, then flick the pages fast with your thumb and watch it move.
If it jumps or jerks, find the page where the change is too big and add an in-between drawing.

Animators draw or pose thousands of still pictures, each only slightly different, so that played quickly they look like smooth movement.

Adapted from Into Film, Lupus Films and Ffilm Cymru Wales: Ethel & Ernest learning resource: Make a Flick Book.

Also try: Photograph one object three ways.

Known for it in

USA, South Korea, UK, Canada, Japan