SPYRO (concept art)

Spyro - game to film adaptAtion

RESEARCH

For this project, I’m going to create concept art in the form of a variety of different illustration types. I plan to make drawings for character and prop designs and redesigns, landscapes, different environments, buildings, fake film shots, keyframe art, etc.

I felt inspired by the art created by the artists who worked on the live action lion king adaptation. They took something that was obviously very 2D and cartoony, and helped to make it more life like and true to nature.

Although, as much as I want to take inspiration from this, I will more so focus on, art made for game to live action film adaptations. That which still tends to keep the sort of fun, vibrant colour, stylisations and exaggerations of characters. Which I enjoy more than hyper realism, but also, for my concept art to be EXTREMELY realistic, I don’t think it would fit in with the world of SPYRO.

As seen here, is an example of too much realism and ripping a character of their beloved features.

Examples below of concept art based on a game to live action film; Which sticks closely to the wacky styles, and maintains the saturation - appealing to younger audiences, and of course the diehard fans who need that familiarity.

I began by looking at work for the purpose, use and art direction of films and video games, for both live action films and animated; of course involving and beginning with concept art made for games within the SPYRO franchise.

OLDER TO NEWER (art by artists involved in SPYRO projects)

PROP/ ARMOUR DESIGNS

The work shown varies from traditional/ digital quick sketches, flat colour, slightly shaded, to fully rendered pieces.

With each game, there’s a slightly newer take on Spyro’s design, as well as the other characters, but also, with the buildings and different levels.

BUILDING/ ENVIRONMENTAL ART (by artists)

Single pages are made to display stand alone art, of different structures that are made to fit in with their specific environment, or in relation to the game, their designated level. As well as to give some further art direction, to those who work on the 3D modelling, and others who would work on the game.

FULLY RENDERED LANDSCAPE ART (by artists)

Some art involves characters interacting, or to simply give an understanding of scale, while others have none at all.

VIDEOS ON SPYRO ART

Helpful videos I looked at which gave me more insight into the creation of the concept art for the new and old SPYRO games, as well as additional illustrations made by the artists.

FILM CONCEPT ART

THE LION KING

Concept art by Justin Sweet

I admire Justin’s art for the Lion King, as he has great composition, but I also appreciate and love his attention to detail in the flora. He can put detail into his backgrounds and surroundings of a scene, making them feel true to the environment, while still keeping the focus on what’s important. All elements which I’d like to apply.

Concept art by Vance Kovacs

With Vance’s art, I greatly enjoy his use of colours to create different moods, how he shows the time of day and the weather. But also, his ability to depict character interactions, relationships, as well as illustrated poses and gestures that seem to give a great deal of life to the scenes.

What I value the most in his work, is the amount of saturation he uses in some drawings, it feels closer to a Cartoony vibe, but it also gives off these powerful moods, and it feels quite playful. Again, elements I’d like to apply to my concept art.

CONCEPT ART VIDEOS

TARGET AUDIENCE

Even so, I want to keep in mind the grown up long time fans; I want the sort of storytelling that people remember to remain, something that is more developed and ‘cooler’.

I want to get the same sort of feeling across as when the original SPYRO game got its remastered ‘reignited trilogy’, but in the form of a film (concept art).

With the early games, the age rating typically fell at E for Everyone 6/7+, but its style and gameplay is clearly more targeted towards younger audiences still. However, a lot of the people who started off playing SPYRO would be much older as of now; with my concept art, I still want to make the drawings directed at children (in terms of the style and colour).

MY WORK

IMAGINE - KEYFRAME ART

Spyro on cliff.

A digital painting to start off with, to use as further inspiration for my following drawings, and to act as a kind of ‘base’ to work off of and look back to. But importantly, to imagine the character SPYRO in his own world, for this imaginary game to film adaptation.