Well this is it. The tutorial that will cover a significant amount of the processes involved in getting an idea into various end results such as Unreal Tournament 2004. I also intend on working with Half life 2 when it comes out if I can spare the time to keep it up.

I'd just like to say a quick thankyou to all the people who have helped me get where I am today, from family and friends to all the people who hang out in forums helping those in need and others who have written tutorials. I'd like to generally credit any who has indeed helped me learn the things I do in these tutorials, and as hard as it would be to write everyones names down I'm still thankful that people can be so helpful in the design community. It's a great thing to see and I only wish it gets better from here.

That said, all I need to say is that this is not the only way to do things...in truth it's a little different to the general way in places, but it's still how I do it. Choose your own path and preference, even tell me if you know of definite ways to get better and quicker results perhaps...but on the whole I'm pretty happy with how things go...for me. I just hope you get something out of these tutorials (I mean, come on! It's HUGE! There's gotta be something useful in all this!) and I wish you all the best in your endeavours.

Oh, and I guess a small plug wouldn't go astray either...so check out my other stuff I have created at my website. www.neomagination.com, ranging from concepts, 3D, industrial previsualisation, website design and most forms of digital design known to man in some way! Also a mod (that we desperately need coders for) in UT2004 based on Warhammer 40K can be found at www.ut40k.com and finally, feel free to contact me in regards to my work, this tutorial, or just to say Hi. Even better, a hello with a job opportunity in the Games industry ;) at the following address here.

So, without any more peamble...at least on this page, welcome to my Concept to Creation tutorial! *curtains draw to the side*

The concept of a character is very important in the end result. A well thought out character will be easier to produce, with a much better end result than any character that has one main premise that you hash things onto. So make sure you get you ideas down in your head from the onset, it generally saves you a lot of time in the long run with a much better end result.

For the purposes of explaining how I concept a character I will be making a character from a picture that I have drawn previously...but with a twist. As I intend on creating a self portrait eventually for a game character and a high poly animation I will be incorporating my head into a 2D sketch that I created. This has several benefits. I get to show you multiple levels of reference material (photographic and sketched) and I get a little closer to my self portrait project getting completed. Can't go too wrong there, other than the fact you have to put up with my ugly mug for some of the tutorial.

The things you do for the greater good, I don't know! :) Note this is how I do it, so it'll mostly be in 1st person. However I'll be jumping between perspectives all the time. My personality is like that generally...so don't be too alarmed ;)

OK, first things first, the easy part. Some reference photos of my head. Simply put, all you really need is a front and side shot of your material for modeling (unless you have complex hair, then get a back one as well). Try to get the same angle and lining up for the two shots to make the reference easier between front and side view. It might also be wise to take shots of the back, top and other side if you want to use it for texture purposes also. The image to your right shows what I used as my reference. I added some lines here to show you the lining up.

Note that the bigger pic you have, the better detail you will have as reference, but also as a texture later on in the process.

That done we have the head element and reference ready and we can not worry about that until the modelling stage.

OK, to the rest of my character. The character I have previously drawn is a character I have developed for a world I am creating. He is a mix of matrix / steampunk / battlechasers and whatever else came to mind at the time. Reference material is a great resource for developing characters, from both an initial and detailed perspective.
Find out what works for you, and what feel you want for your character. I personally find movies, comics, cartoons and computer games my main resource (all very mainstream I know), but you can find good material to work with from basically anything. All you have to do is look hard enough, or not hard enough, as seeing things and tricks of the eye get you some crazy ideas too!

For the purposes of this exercise I am going to do a front and side of my character so as to get the concept sketch idea to use for my 3D modelling. I have already created a character concept previously, so there's no point doing him again. The methods to make a drawing, be it posed or orthographic is the same however, so for this section it makes no difference.

Here is my original effort at my character, as you can see it's still pretty rough, but I could go from that to 3D modelling after I made the front and side images of him. You could try and go straight to 3D, but it is recomended to use 2D reference in order to keep true to the original concept.

The next tutorial is taking this original concept sketch shown here through to finished art for presentation purposes of which would make good folio material in regards to a prospective employer. They tend to love knowing you can create things from concept to finish, and everything inbetween.

So, pencil and paper in hand you're now ready to bring your ideas to life. I recommend an A3 page, half that to make your final image, the other half to concept details, poses and what have you. I also recomend a HB to 2B pencil...but that comes down to personal choice. I'm just used to the traditional things you use in school (oh so long ago)...I believe there are better things out (like those blue pencils people use) for concepting but I have never really tried them.

But before you put pencil to paper start thinking about your character, start getting a feel for what, who and how he/she/it is. This is integral to making your character a believable character in the world it exists in.

In my case I'm part way there, it's me, so I have my alter ego to feed into it, but also the fact that the mechanical arm is powered by mana that has a cool flouro glow to it. If you knew me, you'd know the characters persona is pretty dark, yet honourable. He does his best for the good of man, yet doesn't necessarily go by the rules to do so.

Um, is this me or the character I'm talking about?...Erm...anyway, as I was saying.

He has a magnificent amount of raw magical power, the mana arm adds to that significantly making him quite the powerful adversary. Only problem is he needs to feed that mana otherwise he loses power and energy to himself (his own health deteriorates rapidly if he runs out of mana). Good thing he keeps it all topped up, and that mana is a relatively small consumer of energy (unless used directly).

As you can see, this guy has a fair bit of background, he has a lot more but you get the idea. The more background your character has, the more believable he is. The more believable he/she/it is as a character the better he/she/it will look, and easier he/she/it is to add those little touches that make a character shine. People like to believe, it will always look odd when your character makes no sense, unless it's MEANT to make no sense. Which is also fine :)

Not that I'm the confusing type or anything.

OK, so we have a background. Visualise in your head some ideas as to the basics of what your character is to look like. Clothes, main elements (say a huge mechanical arm, in my case), and more importantly build. Is he tall, short, stocky, athletic...the list is endless. Realistically proportioned, cartoon, exagerated...you name it. The combinations are limitless. Here is where reference comes in handy if you need a hand. Look into it, it's not wrong to look at and emulate other peoples work (when learning anyway ;) , you might as well learn from other artists experiences and then build on them, otherwise we'd always be starting from scratch and we'd never evolve as a species.

So do it for humanity!! Always make sure you credit the original artist though if it is copy or inspired by of course.

I also find fan art is a great way to start learning, try to duplicate by visually drawing from other sources (reality or otherwise) then start developing your own characters based on the style and reality your previous examples have been in that you like or are good at. And most of all PRACTICE! Eventually you will have your own style that is a mix of all your favourite artists, with a mix of your own personal touches that make you the true artist in your own right. Then you'll have all these other n00b's emulating YOUR work...and the cycle continues until the end of time...or something.