How was concept art made in the 90s?

[Anonymous No.7303589]

I've been looking through some concept art for Breath of Fire IV, and it looks way too clean and vibrant to be traditional media.
So this made me wonder was concept art being made digitally in the 90s?
I always had the idea that they had their concept artists work in traditional media then hand those off to 3D modelers and pixel artists.

[Anonymous No.7303627]

>>7303589
digital painting has been around for a long ass time bro

[Anonymous No.7303629]

>>7303589
>it looks way too clean and vibrant to be traditional media
>has never seen traditional media
based deviantart retard

[Anonymous No.7303647]

>>7303629
I mean not only that.
Ignoring that traditional media can be vibrant as hell, the BoFIV art is clearly digitally colored. But even then, that game came out in 2000 and comic books had been digitally colored since the late 80s

[Anonymous No.7303804]

>>7303647
>the BoFIV art is clearly digitally colored.
Nah. I'm pretty sure that's a B&W jpeg and a little guy comes out of your screen and paints the colors on. The idea that the original concept art was all done digitally might be plausible, if there weren't official artwork that proves that wrong.
I honestly don't understand why you people can't simply learn Japanese, fly to Japan, spend days digging through old book stores for the official concept art book and turn to page 6. It's a really nice book and at a buck or two it's a real steal and well worth the months of your life it would take to obtain. Much better than shit written by someone who's only experience with gaming is writing books for fools who pay $100 for kickstarter shit.
But seriously, I'm sort of torn as to whether this stuff should be scanned, put on line, and maybe even translated or whether EOP wannabe weebs just don't even deserve to know about it.

[Anonymous No.7303824]

>>7303804
take your meds

[Anonymous No.7303831]

>>7303589
Mega Man games official art for characters were made on cells, even up to Mega Man 7. Perhaps even later than that.

Not sure about stages concepts however.

[Anonymous No.7303863]

>>7303831
That art looks much worse than that for earlier titles.

[Anonymous No.7303884]

>>7303824

[Anonymous No.7303954]

>>7303589
That's Photoshop.

[Anonymous No.7304021]

>>7303954
Could be or maybe just a shitty scan. The original art on paper isn't washed out like that.

[Anonymous No.7304025]

>>7304021
It is literally Shop. They even indicate it as such in the little media label in their artbooks

[Anonymous No.7304026]

>>7303804
The fuck are you talking about?
I dont need to be able to read any language to look at a drawing, you weirdo.

[Anonymous No.7304043]

>>7303627
This. It's very clearly digital.

[Anonymous No.7304067]

I was using Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator in the late 90's and doing very similar shit.

We wasn't cave men back then you computer illiterate iToy zoomer tards.

Infact, all the basic tools and general functionality in Photoshop hasn't changed much compared to the latest Photoshop version in 2021. Even the layout. It's actually extremely fucking embarrassing how little progress has been made with this stuff.

As an example of how pathetically little things have changed, the procedure for basic colour enhancement in the mid to late 90's versions of Photoshop (versions 4.0 and 5.0) is identical today in Photoshop (version 21). Those steps are:

Open Photoshop open image Image Adjustment Hue/Saturation

Nothing has changed in 20+ years.

We also had digital Wacom drawing tablets back then, but i doubt OP's image is digital. Back then many hand drawings/paintings were simply scanned and then digitally enhanced.

[Anonymous No.7304075]

>>7303589
Craig Mullins was using Photoshop

[Anonymous No.7304076]

>>7304067
For fuck's sake anon; why spend so much effort into stablishing yourself as an authority on the matter to then fail to identify the OP as obviously digital. It's got all the telltales you could possibly need.

The lineart or sketch in most of mid-to-late 90s Capcom illustration and concept art work was done traditionally, but the coloring was almost always digital except when going for a consciously traditional look, like with the Dungeons & Dragons games.

[Anonymous No.7304081]

>>7304075
Sure did, but most of his work from the time he got his online popularity was post-2000s.

[Anonymous No.7304125]

>>7304026
Some books have words. Even some picture books. when your mommy reads you a story before you go to bed she's reading words from the book.

[Anonymous No.7304134]

>>7304076
They tried to make it look traditional but I'd bet money it's still digitally coloured line art. There's a very specific look it gives. I used to use textures of old paper and stuff to make digital drawings and paintings look more "real".

[Anonymous No.7304140]

>>7304076
Learn to read faggot. You've basically just repeated what i said...

>"i doubt OP's image is digital"
>"Back then many hand drawings/paintings were simply scanned and then digitally enhanced."

Do you even know what "scanned" means or too much of a retarded zoomer? ... It involves magical machines that allow you to get traditional artwork on to a computer.

And there's nothing unusual or exceptional about OP's image. Pretty common artwork back then. Don't know why it stood out to them.

[Anonymous No.7304147]

>>7304134
Nope, that's acrylic inks. Not as thick as regular tube acrylics, but still more opaque than watercolor.

[Anonymous No.7304149]

>>7304134
Old ass picture of a cockatrice I did like 20+ years ago example. I'm pretty sure it's scanned textures that give the details there. The actual colour has a very distinct digital look to it.

>>7304067
>>7304140
I actually like how little PS has changed layout wise. It really doesn't need to. Abd yeah, 99% of people who use it use an even smaller fraction of what it can do but that's fine.

[Anonymous No.7304154]

>>7304147
I'm a working artist and have used both traditional and digital media over the decades. This is traditional, I would bet money that elf drawing is scanned line art digitally coloured to look like watercolour.

[Anonymous No.7304165]

>>7304140
Calm down champ, or at least build your reply on something more than knee-jerk buzzword abuse if you're so adamant in stablishing yourself as definitely guiltless of being a "retarded zoomer faggot".

If you want to consider doing the full coloring of a pencil sketch as simply "enhancing" it, it's fine with me. I won't argue semantics.

>>7304149
>>7304154
Those are nice; very old-school-looking. Personal pieces or published?
I wasn't guessing about the media in >>7304134 by the way; Kinu Nishimura used Liquitex Acrylic Inks for the D&D pieces

[Anonymous No.7304257]

>>7304025
sauce?

[Anonymous No.7304441]

>>7304165
Impressive then, it really does look digital. And yeah those two are just personal.

[Anonymous No.7304467]

>>7304257
Some Capcom artbook; Design Works iirc.

You can tell from that book as well that when Nishimura does digital stuff, she makes it look pretty obviously digital

[Anonymous No.7304615]

>>7304125
And what has that got to do with looking at a picture?

[Anonymous No.7304629]

>>7304165

She digitally colorizes a black and white pieces.

[Anonymous No.7304736]

Plenty of concept art continues to be made traditionally.

The dude who did alot of fallout 3's designs drew his shit in marker for example.

[Anonymous No.7304879]

>>7304467
We have a whole bunch of "experts" here who can "tell" one way or another. I was hoping someone might have actual evidence. I have the official Japanese art book for BoFIV and that picture is in it. It doesn't say anything about it being digitally colored and it doesn't look digitally colored in the book. In fact it looks quite different from OPs pic but is clearly from the same source. Obviously the print is much higher quality than OPs pic and I can see much more detail. So baring any evidence other than drawfags giving their hot take on what appears to be a low res scan I'm gonna go with my gut and say it doesn't look like it's digitally colored. Personally I don't care either way and either way is an interesting story.

>>7304615
Because the words can tell you things about a picture you can't tell from the picture. You literally retarded brainlet.

[Anonymous No.7305229]

>>7304879
All BoFIV's concept art and illustration work that I've seen documented in terms of the media used, was done through hand-drawn lineart colored in Photoshop. It's pretty obvious anyway, but you don't need to take my word for it.
The source of this information has already been mentioned here >>7304467
The source you have consulted doesn't confirm OR contradict this either.

It's kind of weird that you (by your own admission) are the one considering that your "gut" outweighs factual information but somehow seem to be pretty triggered by the absence of "actual evidence". Sorry about the quoting, it's somewhat contagious.

[Anonymous No.7305242]

>>7303589
You draw it, retard. First pencil sketches, then inking and coloring.

DUH

[Anonymous No.7305256]

Continuing with the thread, this is the only widely-circulated piece I've seen done for Breath of Fire III to V that was finished with traditional media (it's closer to the old-school Capcom style of I and II, but still quite different)

The final sprites for kid Ryu, Teepo and Nina are actually based on these early designs, which (specially Ryu) are very different to the final official illustrations.

[Anonymous No.7305260]

>>7303627
Pretty much. I worked with the first beta version of Painter in 1991. Before that it was DPaint on the Amiga. I have a traditional background in art, mostly airbrush and oil.

[Anonymous No.7305268]

>>7305260
PS: as convenient as digital is, nothing beats doing quick sketches with coal or pencil. Granted that you're halfway capable of doing so.

[Anonymous No.7305293]

>>7304736
That's fun. Concept artists were big into copic markers until well into the 2000s; they are still used, but fucking around digitally is way more common now.

Here's a Peter Chan concept for Psychonauts

[Anonymous No.7305341]

>>7305260
>>7305268
Haha I didn't know Painter went back that far.
Ever did any work for games?

[Anonymous No.7305357]

>>7304736
OG Bethesda concept art was so based. RIP Adam Adamowicz.

[Anonymous No.7305385]

>>7305341
Contributed to some educational titles for Broderbund, but most work I did was related to broadcast and film.

[Anonymous No.7305425]

>>7305385
Cool

[Anonymous No.7306613]

>>7305425
What would Sonic be like without its iconic loops?

[Anonymous No.7306647]

>>7304076
>That pixie
ZOOM. ENHANCE.

[Anonymous No.7306674]

>>7305425
I'm still surprised they never made a level like this. Looks fly as hell.

[Anonymous No.7306891]

>>7305229
Vague anecdotal claims aren't a source. It's kind of weird that you (by your own admission) are considering that your "source" outweighs actual observations.

[Anonymous No.7307253]

>>7303589
>>7303954
>>7304257
...شيء خلود!?

[Anonymous No.7307304]

>>7304154
>>7304149
pleasure to look at these. recommendations on progressing myself from pencil and paper into color?

[Anonymous No.7307561]

>>7307253
>durka durka mohammed jihad

[Anonymous No.7307650]

Question for the knowledgeable anons, anybody can tell whether the Alundra 2 art is digital or traditional? I could never really tell

[Anonymous No.7307757]

>>7307650
>Alundra 2.jpg
Definitely digital. They haven't made analog jpegs since the 60's.