AO1 Artists & Designers Daniel Cheng

Daniel Cheng



Daniel Cheng is a concept artist who has worked for some big names such as Treyarch, Pandemic Studios and EA LA.

Subjects, themes, issues

The subjects covered by Daniel Cheng are mainly designs for games and will mainly be subject to what the game is about and what he has been told to draw such as sketches of characters in different positions or buildings and different landscapes. A lot of his work involves epic scenes such as one of the pictures below. He also does a lot of sketches of people which aren't anything to do with games so it is possible that he enjoys sketching people and wants to show off his artistic ability not just as a concept artist.

As I said he draws a lot of epic scenes which give a real feel of involvement just by looking at the concept art. For example the explosion in picture two is dramatic and looks as if it is exploding out at you as well as the solider running away it all gives the feel that it is realistic.

A lot of his work is also centered around buildings such as picture three, he mentions in his resume that he is interested in architecture. In his draws he goes into great detail on buildings using real life references to get as perfect as possible.

Movement, styles

Most of his work differs depending on the game he is drawing for but the over all effect seems to be slightly cartoon like but made to look as real as possible, and he does it brilliantly. He does his drawings digitally but most of them look painted which is a really cool style.

Picture six is a good example of his skill at drawing cartoon like concepts. It maintains a realistic kind of look especially with the building underwater and the mines going around the side. With added coral and bubbles it really gives it life like underwater look.

He also does a lot of life drawing as shown in the example picture four and attends workshops. This will probably be to help him develop his drawing skills and will help him immensely when drawing characters for games as he can look at the positioning and detail of people and their expressions. His life drawing is very sketchy and seems to either be focused on the posture or expression.

Context of work

The context of his work will be dependent on the game he is creating at the time.

Materials and processes

He will most likely sketch out his drawings first then scan them in and colour them on the computer using photoshop or something similar.

Events, trends

As the gaming industry develops there is more and more need for detail. For example a lot of games are going for real world looks and sandbox games where the player can roam around freely. This will increase the need for concept artists like Cheng to create more realistic and detailed landscapes, character or whatever it maybe.




Picture One: Mercenaries2 police concept art.


Picture Two: Medal of Honour Airborne concept art.


Picture Three: House concept for Mercenaries2.


Picture Four: Life drawing sketch.


Picture Five: Medal of Honour Airborne concept art.


Picture Six: Concept art for Boom Blox Bash Party Cinematic.

How I can use this artists work

I like Daniel Cheng's work and I like the attention to detail he goes into even on images that are cartoon like. The landscape scenes he does have a lot of potential for backgrounds to animations and the precision of his arcutecture drawings could be useful in a smooth, clean animation. Lighting effects may be another consideration in my animations as Cheng has proven, light can have a real impact on a picture.