Celio Santos

Being one of the concept artists for the upcoming sequel Shazam 2, Jerad has just released a new captivating and somewhat terrifying creature that might just give us a sneak peak as to what to expect when the new film comes out, showing the importance of concept artists, as being the foundation and fist steps into introducing artwork to the public

In the game called League of Legends, you can play in a five Vs. five arena match, utilizing a wide range of champions, with over one hundred to choose from. But since its initial release in 2009, the game has ten entire years under its wing.

League of Legends (2019). Riot Games. [online] Available at: https://euw.leagueoflegends.com/en/ [Accessed 10 Dec. 2019]. During those 10 years we tend to see around at least several new playable characters being released each year, with new animations and refined artwork, this is great and all, but unfortunately in some cases, those champions who were released many more years ago, did not age well. For example, we can take these two videos into account, showcasing the exact same champion but the first edition coming out in 2010, and the reworked edition in 2017, so in other words, seven years difference.

Galio: Champion Spotlight. (2010). [video] League of Legends.  Available at: https://youtu.be/sOQGg1-RzWw   [Accessed 10 Dec. 2019]. 

Galio Champion Spotlight. (2017). [video] League of Legends. Available at: https://youtu.be/t3BFQMW2Lfw [Accessed 10 Dec. 2019]. It is exactly these types of things that make me feel valued as a concept artist, we have to sometimes revamp an already existing character with new things that would bring back preexisting players, or attract newcomers, focusing on how to better design something that has already worked in the past is no easy feat, you could essentially end up cutting out focal points for that character because unfortunately, not everything that is new is good. One of the key changes that happened to Galio were his wings, from what was once almost scale-like bat wings were transformed into glistening gold plates that shine rays of hope onto those who he wishes to protect, his hands in which were those spiked for damage, have taken a path of sturdiness this time around, it is with these tiny changes that we can come to understand the foundation of the character if he would rather attack or defend if his character would spread fear or hope, all these things matter to the eyes of a concept artist, duly to the fact that for me at least, everything needs to have a reason behind it.

Throughout my life, there have always been ups and downs, but that never stopped me from drawing, on the contrary, in most cases where I felt as if the world was against me, did I feel the urge to pick up the pen. Dealing with mental problems has always been a struggle for me throughout my life because sometimes I can fix the situation, but in many cases, it is simply just out of my reach, it is art that I tend to find comfort in, the simple notion that I can escape into a world where no one can touch or bother me, makes me feel more instantly secure.  Painting this simple side view of an elephant made me feel tranquil, such a graceful beast in all means, yet hunted for only its tusks, a fact that unfortunately is too well know, but even so, I painted this one without a care in the world, because that is exactly what I want it to feel at that precise moment, relaxed, calm, not a single spark of stress anywhere to be felt, because, in this world, I create what I want, and even though it is but an illusion to some, I believe that reality comes in many shapes, forms, and spaces.

I believe this can be a good skill to be used in my field, having the passion and the pure excuse to simply draw in my spare time is one thing, but to actually transform that to create something that can be shared to the entire world, makes it both exhilarating, and frightening at the same time. Such as this drawing I made titled: Evolution, It shows four separate drawings with different materials, showcasing with soft-lined pencil, the little adorable kitten on its belly, trying to make its first steps on its journey, to the hard-lined pencil drawing of the already grown and plumped-up cat that has been accustomed to the good and lazy life, then evolving to the sepia-drawn lynx that has a feral side to it, gleaming eyes that could kill with a single strike, and finally to its final stage, pride incarnate, the lion, drawn in a quick ballpoint pen style, unleashing a mighty roar that could be heard throughout the entire savannah.

The time has come in which we had to grab one of our past assignments, revitalize and rework them to the point of having a final and finished piece. Since I was partially disappointed by my first assignment, I decided to not give up on it and give it another shot, I revised what I had done wrong, and instead of getting down with that, I used it as a lesson to better myself and my work. The initial problem was that I did not manage to get enough number of characters out as I wanted to, so as I am writing this post, I still have quite some time until the due date, but it is no reason to fall into the same pit of despair as before, so I will learn from my mistakes and produce something this time worth taking the time to look at thoroughly. The first thing I tried to do was to skip the actual process of coming up with ideas, although sounding a bit deluded, sometimes this is something that artists in my field do when they reach a blank state of mind, instead of fixating on creating things from scratch, they draw the first character they can envision into the world, even if that character will have nothing to do with the end result, it is a base in which you can correct and improve almost anything about it because it is with failure and flaws that we can spot errors and learn from them.

Moving onto the knight that I drew, I felt as if he had no spirit about him, having only a helmet with some eye holes to make him somewhat distinctive, but inevitably falling short, so it is towards this head protection that I set my priority on, because let us face it, in battle you spend most of your time staring down at the eyes of your enemy, and what fear he could produce by wearing a helmet shaped like one of the many ferocious beasts that exist.

Contemplating the ideas of weapons, focusing on the savages this time, I had to really get into the idea of where and when this world is set in, not being the most evolved and civilized of people, these inhabitants of the earth must life off it, meaning that after a nice hunt and meal, you could not let anything go to waste, bring out the savagery in them to sharpen bones or to use jaws and stones tied together to create a makeshift weapon or tool.

For our sixth project, we were yet again blessed with the opportunity to work on an asset for Playground Games.

Playground Games. (2010).  [online] Available at: https://www.playground-games.com/ [Accessed 23 Nov. 2019]. The initial goal was to create a 3D model of a fruit cart with strict guidelines to follow, including what fruits would be were, in a sense it was more to test our skill to follow directions from either a client or the art department from the company, on the other hand, I managed to slip through the cracks and asked if it was possible to, instead of focusing on following strict lines of rules, focus on exploring the various wats a fruit cart could be made. To be able to add my own twist to a project is really important to me as a creator, I don’t feel as if I'm shackled to some toxic relationship, but instead, I can work on creating something that I know I helped conceive, and that alone helps me believe that I contributed a good amount towards its growth Heading to Photoshop, I decided to daw simple but defining wooden planks to create an easy to read design on the cart itself, not running away too much from what essentially makes a cart. I came across this nice-looking ship’s helm and decided to base my cartwheels on its design, changing only a few aspects of it.  

Limited, A. (2012). Ship's Helm. [online] Alamy. Available at: https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-ships-helm-93374327.html [Accessed 23 Nov. 2019]. After a few more days of trying to get everything dotted down and fixed, I managed to finally come up with the final schematic, displaying the cart itself in a corner environment, accompanied by its other views to the side. The detachable net came across to me as something that could be used to make good use of that massive space in between the handles, offering even more space to showcase the cart’s produce. The simple but heartwarming lamp nailed to the side of the cart offers the salesman an opportunity to be seen even in the darkest of nights, giving off a charming look to it whilst being able to warm up someone’s hands on a cold winter’s day.

The coloring came after I decided to keep the design and to not go back on it, sometimes the more we change things that already work, doesn't always make it better. Filling up the crates on the floor seemed simple enough but as the person that I am, it wasn't enough, so I decided to go for some more exotic, and to some, unheard of fruits, such as the starfruit with its characteristic shape and melon-like taste, displayed beside the dragonfruit itself, something looking as if pulled out straight from a dragon’s chest. It is with these tiny changes that make the final cut ever more personal and distinctive to me.

For our fifth assignment, we had the chance to explore something that would hit home hard, and that being nostalgia and memory. Here we were allowed to go a little crazy and explore anything is our past that made us have a strong experience, be it a video game, movie or even an actual deliberately distorted memory. I could not think of anyone more worthy to be placed as the center of attention in my project, other than the mighty Tigrex.  

Monster Hunter Wiki. (2019). Tigrex. [online] Available at: https://monsterhunter.fandom.com/wiki/Tigrex [Accessed 3 Nov. 2019]. This big boy was the definition of my perseverance at the ripe age of 14, he was a hard enemy to hunt down, he would push me down more times than I could count, and yet, wiping away the tears of frustration and ignoring the searing pain from holding my hands in the specific position to hold on tightly to the PlayStation Portable, I finally managed to topple him, and it was at that very moment that I could taste sweet victory, my first greatest achievement at the hands of a gaming console. Since I had such a good experience with the last time that I used Zbrush, I decided to continue on that same path to produce something of equal quality, if not better, because I always want to better myself in areas that I know I can thrive in if I dedicate time to it. First off I pulled out the mighty pencil and sketchbook and started scribbling around and defining some key features of the Tigrex, his snake-like nose and eyes, his muscular posing, the stripes that mimic those of a tiger, and the webbed wings that sprout out in between his arms. Only after a few more drawings did I realize that for only a week, I was starting to bite off a bit more than I could chew, so I settled down and thought to myself, how could I make this simpler, without having to sacrifice the initial idea, since I love puzzles and theorizing, this was somewhat enjoyable for me.

Shortly after I managed to come up with the idea, inspired by Japanese cartoons, to turn the Tigrex into a “Chibi”, literally meaning short in Japanese. They created this style of drawing by downsizing and simplifying characters to their most fundamental aspects, and so I ran straight through with the concept so that I wouldn't lose too much time, and then I managed to come up with something that I could work on by sculpting. Utilizing only a few but well-defined teeth, big expressive eyes, and a chunkier body, I managed to make this Tigrex into a mixture of serious and cute.

So that I wouldn’t repeat the same mistake as before, I decided to carry on with the next stage and not to get lost with the part that I consider myself somewhat decent at. Grabbing a simple base clay sphere in Zbrush, I simply start to push aside its form to create some basic shapes for the start of its head, and then adding on top of that another piece of clay to mold into the shape of the jaw just underneath it, I learned from my previous tutorial that creating separate objectives for different parts of the model, not only makes your work much easier, but also organizes the entire project, and I myself value efficiency over productivity.

Using the Dam brush, I managed to really dig into those eye sockets to create that vibrant and cartoony look that I sought after, making the space ready to lodge in the eyeballs afterward, then did I define the shape of the nose. After which I added the base of the torso so finally give this beast some structure, smoothing everything up so I could start to see how things were holding up nicely.

Adding the limbs did prove a bit more tedious since there were a large number of separate shapes so that I wouldn't mess too much with the deformation of the arms, I relied on overlapping objects and using various types of brushes to create the effects that I was seeking.

And finally, after a few more days over arduous work, I managed to release the beast within the Tigrex and make him stand tall and proud, adding the side and central spikes really did an impact on his character. Extending his arms with the wings really showed in a way that he has more than the eye can see at first, something lurking to attack an unwilling prey.

For our fourth assignment, I was honestly a little scared. When the idea that we would have to work on lighting techniques in realtime, including having to jump right into Unreal Engine 4 without any past knowledge, I was petrified at the thought of touching something that I knew from the start wasn't going to go smoothly. Most of my peers were going towards lightning environments, and since I've always had a more keen interest in characters themselves, I decided to follow through with that notion. I was scrounging around and managed to stumble upon a character know as Gideon, from the, unfortunately, shutdown game: Paragon.

Paragon Wiki. (2019). Gideon. [online] Available at: https://paragon.fandom.com/wiki/Gideon [Accessed 27 Oct. 2019]. Although around this time I already had the character model selected and downloaded, I still didn't have a clue as to what I was going to do, so in my field of work there is a fix for this, and the solution is to simply browse the internet with simple correlations towards what you want to create. After a few hours I managed to land upon a video with not that many views, a video showing a young female posing with a relaxed face whilst a circular light would constantly rotate and move around her, and when I grasped the fact that she was barely moving and yet her expression was being completely deformed and changed, simply by the positioning of the light itself, for me this was something that I found extremely interesting due to the fact that something so simple could have such an enormous impact.

The effect a rotating light source has on a face. 2015). [online] acdcman96fin Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7Ga1cn6hT8 [Accessed 27 Oct. 2019]. Having seen such a great example of what lighting could do I decided on what I wanted to do, I was going to grab Gideon and light him in two different ways, the same position and pose, but different lights. Good and evil, whilst this could be determined by someone’s actions, I decided to take it into account that lighting could do the same effect without having to change the character's design in any way. After a few hair-pulling hours of trying to figure out how to use the basics of unreal engine 4, I managed to compose myself enough to get something half-decent out, and so the first lighting effect was to use somewhat warm colors, those that could leave someone relaxed and at ease, almost like a sunset on a cozy afternoon, and that is what I believe this first image represents. Since I’m from Portugal, we have beautiful weather, allowing us to enjoy the sunsets cloaking our entire beaches, and reminding us of our happiest childhood memories, where nothing would seem to keep us down or bother us.

Whilst the second image is using the exact same model in the exact same position, something has truly taken a toll for the dark, this once calm-faced man is now obscured by his good, now we have no idea what he looks like, whether on not he is angry or vicious-looking, for me, it transcribes fear quite swiftly. For me, the moment that we do not know what could happen, and to be filled with uncertainty, can be even worse than actually being presented a bad situation, some would say that they would prefer “just to get it over with” since they cannot stand the anxiety of waiting for the inevitable, and this is exactly how I feel in many unwanted situations. 

For the third assignment, we were blessed with the opportunity of working with one of Microsoft's most appealing title, Sea of Thieves, and its developer, Rare, where our objective was to create a game-ready asset that would make sense to be placed in the harsh waters of this world.

Sea of Thieves. (2018). [video game] Microsoft Studios. I started off this assignment by trying to visualize what type of asset was really needed by this company, the next big thing that could change the game completely, so my first thoughts were actually trying to incorporate two really great and simple weapons that already exist inside the game itself, the sword and the pistol. Utilizing various shapes to make the guard stand out and working around different barrels for the side of the blade, I was getting ready to explore more ideas, whether that would be to make the blade curved instead of straight, keeping an open guard or to change it to a full closed one, all these things that I put into consideration have a purpose, I don't just draw things so that they look pretty, I personally need them to make sense in order for me to justify their basic concept and thought.

When I was getting to a point that I really thought this could have been a neat idea, I realized that this was something that had already been created around twenty years ago in Square Enix’s Final Fantasy VIII, and even after that, I discovered that a big sum of students was also going in the same direction, so to stand out I had to change my concept. This is the type of person that I am, I really despise going with the flow of everything around me, I feel this sudden urge to be different or succumb to being lost in a crowd of people who do everything alike, I have always challenged myself to be better than I was yesterday and that is how I manage to produce the work I'm most proud of.

Squall’s Gunblade Revolver, Final Fantasy VIII. (1999). [video game] Square Enix. I kept my head down and started drawing, discarding, rinse and repeat until I was finally getting towards a stage where I believed that I could start developing more, this is an extremely common practice in my field of concept art, most of the time they never get things right on the first ten tries, but they resist the urge to give up and work around their issues, grabbing what worked and fixing what was delaying the process, some concept artists tend to spend entire weeks before reaching a final stage where they can turn into the lead art director, making their job not only frustrating in a sense but also highly time-consuming. Finally, something inside me sparked joy when I managed to come up with this design. So since the game had recently introduced fishing into its midst, I realized that it was mainly for selling and eating, nothing else, which I thought could have been an excellent chance for me to slip in and show a bit of my creativity.

Sea of Thieves Wiki. (2019). Fish. [online] Available at: https://seaofthieves.gamepedia.com/Fish [Accessed 20 Oct. 2019]. “Why not capture more dangerous fish that could be used against enemies”, I asked myself, how fun must it be to have a weapon that could just launch piranhas and swordfish at unsuspecting pirates, so I thought of bazookas and launchers to do the trick, with transparent fish bowls to have the notion of how much more “ammunition” you have left before having to switch tactics.

After many concepts, I was finally satisfied with the conceptual result, a medium-sized wooden keg filled with water and gnarly fish that are just ready to be unleashed. The handle is bulkier than most guns due to the sheer weight that this unit would have in general, so flimsy designs wouldn’t work very well or support it, that being said I did have to include a verticle foregrip near the barrel due to this weapon being two-handed and not one-handed. The barrel itself is beaten up and chipped due to the world that the game is placed in, nothing is engineered perfectly, at least not things that pirates could get their hands on so easily, instead, its more of a mishmash of anything around them, creating a somewhat flawed but remarkable product.

Having finally obtained the core basic of the design, I wanted to work on expanding the concept itself, by delving into the fish itself, so I started wasting away lead on paper by drawing all sorts of fish that would do certain types of damage or effect onto the enemies, varying from long jaws to heavy ones, impacting their bite force, determining how many teeth they should have, adding some weird fins or even horns to mix up the design, but all in good faith to what already exists in real life, because at the end of the day, nothing truly exists without taking inspiration from reality.

With all good things, there’s always something to be told about the bad side, and that being nothing more than my issue with time management, I was so focused and buried in concept art that I forgot the main goal, which was to create an actual 3D object that could be directly placed into the game’s engine, so with the little time, I had left I strapped onto Maya and started produced basic shapes to grasp the main notion of the gun itself, dividing the shape more evenly to create both a stylized and minimally realist design.