All the illustrations in this book are computer generated.
Responsible for all these were seven concept artists, one man bands, working in-house. Also several more, often working in teams, in the Visual Effects Houses. Each was tasked, according to their specialities, with creating concepts or illustrations for manufactured props, physical sets, set extensions, creatures, creature habitats.
To sell an idea, 2D sketches are often used, but with creatures it can be as quick to build a 3D model, the start of a continuing process of building, rendering, compositing in which the model evolves into a highly detailed creature. A very technical exercise but the most important decisions taken during this process are not technical but artistic ones, concerning proportion, shape, character and mood.
Fast-developing software can mean huge programmes to learn and keep up with. But whether sketch or model and no matter how technically complicated, it is a work of art. A flick of the “brush” can be hugely significant.
It’s pencil and paper, light and form but these artists can draw like Raphael and model with light like Caravaggio. It’s magic made to look simple and that’s hard.