Concept Art Software & Apps

Concept art is an essential part of pre-production for video games, films, and animation. In this article, learn about some popular apps for creating concept art such as Clip Studio Paint, as well as helpful features to look out for when choosing a concept art tool.

Here are some of the most popular paid and free concept art programs used by professional artists. Each of these may suit different needs, whether you are primarily painting or creating 3D mockups.

• Clip Studio Paint
• Photoshop
• Sketchup
• Blender
• Corel Painter

Apps like Clip Studio Paint include drawing and composition tools for creating sketches and paintings, while software like Sketchup and Blender are suitable for 3D mockups. It’s common for concept artists to use multiple tools at different stages of the design process.

In this guide, learn about helpful features for creating 2D concept images such as character designs, environmental paintings, and interior designs. Concept art involves not only the act of drawing and painting, but also tight deadlines and responsiveness to team feedback, including multiple drafts and iterations of a concept. Therefore, you should seek out an app that allows you to work efficiently and make non-destructive changes to your artwork.

Ease of drawing

Concept art requires artists to work efficiently and meet deadlines as part of the creative team. For this reason, it’s essential to find digital pens and brushes that are comfortable to work with and allow you to put your ideas to the canvas as you intend. As well as customizing brushes yourself, if you use an app with a strong user community like Clip Studio Paint, you can also search for brushes made by other creators.

Compatibility with 3D models

Even when working in a 2D project, the ability to manipulate 3D models can be a significant help to your design process. If the painting app supports 3D models, you don’t need to import screenshots of 3D models, and can instead directly edit the angle, lighting, and size of the 3D model on the painting canvas. For example, in Clip Studio Paint, you can import typical 3D formats from modeling software and arrange them freely to use as a guide. You can also use 3D models for small objects or characters to maintain consistency across several drafts.

Cloud or teamwork features

Concept art involves a lot of back and forth within the creative team. For this purpose, cloud sharing features can be helpful to quickly share work among remote or freelance team members. In addition, backing up your work to an external cloud server can provide peace of mind in the event of a computer crash. Some digital art apps, such as Clip Studio Paint, offer cloud services that allow you to sync selected files to the cloud automatically.

Advanced selection and adjustment tools

As concept art can include many stages of edits and review, you should have a good knowledge of advanced selection and adjustment tools to quickly make changes as needed. Advanced selection tools can allow you to select a specific range of colors or blur the edges of a selection so that transformations appear smoother. Meanwhile, adjustment tools can be used to apply gradient maps to completely change an image’s color scheme, or make minute tweaks to the saturation or hue of a selected area.

Vector tools

Vector graphics record the stroke input, allowing modifications to be made easily. You can use vector control points to reshape, resize, or simplify lines. Vector lines can also be scaled up or down without reducing the image quality. This is helpful when you want to use a small thumbnail sketch as a base for a larger drawing.

Perspective rulers

Perspective rulers are a great tool for creating environmental and interior concept art. While initial sketches don’t require perfect adherence to realistic perspective, later iterations require more realism in order to be an effective reference for the next stage of production. Study the fundamentals of perspective and try using perspective rulers in Clip Studio Paint to guide your composition. You can draw while snapping to the perspective ruler to add details such as buildings and windows in perspective.

Arrange your workspace freely

A digital art app is like a work desk for the concept artist. With professional digital art apps, you can customize the workspace or import workspace presets. Customizing the interface to your own needs and preferences will help make work more efficient. You can also customize keyboard shortcuts or use a shortcut tool to speed up your process even further.

The most important thing to creating digital concept art smoothly is familiarity with your drawing tools. Why not start by familiarizing yourself with an app that can cover all your concept art creation needs? Try Clip Studio Paint for free for up to six months to explore many useful features for concept artists and take the next step in your artist journey.