Concept Art Essay (Peter Konig)

Concept art is essential for competent designs in any medium surrounding entertainment. It’s produced to give filmmakers and storytellers as well as designers and illustrators an idea of what their characters and the world they inhabit looks, feels and acts like before developing assets for said film, television show and, more recently video games. Not every design developed through concept art is used, and by making a flurry of designs and looking at a myriad of approaches before settling on a final that’s agreed on across the board, you see the progress made to get to that point. A brilliant example of an artist who's stomach-turning designs have shaped the modern horror and thriller genres across all mediums is Peter Konig.

As of 2014 when he was stationed at 343 Industries working on the Halo franchise, Peter Konig was a seasoned veteran of 25 years having worked on over 30 projects. He began his career working on makeup FX and sculpting practical effects, stating that “starting out in the traditional art world was key to learning everything else”. Konig would go on to make the leap to digital during his time working on Jurassic Park. Many years, movies and technological advancements later, and Konig made the daring jump to video games, claiming “I've become a game freak as well. So creating characters and creatures and seeing them come to life is a real thrill that I don't get tired of.” He currently works as a freelancer, specializing in creatures and character designs.

Fig. 1

His earlier works consisted of painstakingly sculpting creatures by hand, using tools and paints to create convincing, frightening creations (Fig. 1) that would be used to both modernize and heighten the movies they’re in. These skills have losslessly translated to digital and have worked wonders for the projects that he’s contributed to. What sets Konig apart from other CG artists of his time isn't just his understanding of physical sculpting and modeling with a subject with real volume and weight, but his attention to detail. In this piece Konig uses a myriad of techniques and practices from his years of experience as a sculptor, to ensure that every crevice and fold of each creature that he designs have as much gritty and horrific detail as possible, whereas to adhere to the conventions of the horror genre. It’s a very alienesque creature, very foreign and very surreal, but also ‘fine - arty’, with regards to the detail along the surface of the creature, in terms of its complexion and defined bone structure (Fig.2).

Fig.2

In another piece (Fig.3) featuring what initially appears to be decrepit, undead humanoids that kill and/ or eat people (the splatters of blood below them giving some direction as to what type of creatures they are as well as vaguely outlining they intentions and lifestyle). Once again through the surface of the skin and the details along with them, as well as the dark, foreboding color palette which insinuates that these are in fact hostile enemies, Konig has skillfully picked apart what makes antagonists like zombies and ghouls so scary and carefully compiled them into his own works. The result is a design that's as frightening as it is fascinating.

Fig. 3: Konig's Concept Art for 2013's "Warm Bodies"

Peter Konig’s designs aren’t just satisfying the mechanics brainstormed by the developers, but captivating the little details that both adhere to the grim demands of the horror demographic as well as giving the characters being designed backstory through vanity.
Essentially producing a rendered illustration of a variety of designs is cheaper (both financially and time-wise) than developing 3D assets that don’t nearly capture the look of the final character without strenuous amounts of work in modelling, sculpting, texturing and compositing (granted you’re after a render, you’d have to present the character with similar lighting you’d expect to find both in real life and in your game’s setting). You have a bunch of unused designs and variables that could be worked into a different character or setting, and in Left 4 Dead 2, those designs, sketches, and illustrations have been reworked into menus to provide a more appealing experience to the player.

So in summary, Peter Konig, and his work on Left 4 Dead 2 (Fig. 4, see below) is a brilliant example of how concept art such as his doesn't just result in a design of assets that make up the final product but drives the thrill and fear factor of the game itself!
His contributions helped captivate and solidify what emotions the players would feel whilst they're immersed in the articulate crafter game world.
So in summary, games like Left 4 Dead 2 are great examples of how crucial concept art is not only towards the designing of assets that make up the final product but the thrill and fear factor of the game itself! It helps captivate and solidify what emotions it wants the player to feel whilst they're immersed in the articulately crafted game world.

Fig. 4 (Left to Right): Konig's first initial design, Final concept art for the charger, Final Game Output