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Concept art
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Concept art is a form of illustration where the main goal is to convey a visual representation of a design, idea, and/or mood for use in movies, video games, or comic books before it is put into the final product. This is a relatively new designation popularized by artists working in the automobile and video games industries. This term has been in use since the 1930's by the traditional animation industry who was describing drawn or painted images which illustrate the look, feel, design, colors, etc...of the animated movie to be made. Concept art is also referred to as "visual development" in traditional animation. The term was later adopted by the games industry. These illustrations became necessary for developed visual properties.
Concept art is the preliminary visual statement made in entertainment production. Before characters, worlds, or items are created, images are made to show what these things should look like, often based on a writers description. Concept Art is the illustrated visualization of ideas.
Usually, many artists or animators gain better ideas by studying still models through the means of photography. This is how particular objects, such as the elven blades in the The Lord of the Rings (which look like leaves), are created.