Stephen Cooper Lecture

Stephen Cooper is a Concept Artist who has worked in both the film/tv and videogame industries. He studied BA Illustration and Computer Animation, favouring gel-ink pens and indian ink as his creative mediums during this time. His undergraduate works drew ideas from the subconscious, being inspired by the likes of Max Ernst and Ian Miller. In his experience as an illustrator, Stephen has worked in established teams and companies, where he learned to share thoughts about his own work to others.

Games

His first jobs as an illustrator were with the game development companies Free Radical Design and Codemasters. Through working on videogames, he taught himself how to use 3D computer software, and how to make the transition from 2D to 3D in his digital designs. Whilst at Free Radical Design, Cooper was assigned to be an environmental artist for a game called Timesplitters, where he felt creative when working with the developers, contributed to a collaborative team effort, and learnt how to balance his personal ideas for the game with the ideas of other team members.
          Later on, he worked on Silent Hill: Origins, where he utilised moodboards to collect references and colour schemes for environments that would be in the game. With future work in the same series, Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, Stephen created concepts for ice effects for consideration by the Art Director (of whom it is important to become friends with), but did not see his designs reach it to the final game. This particular experience helped him to learn not to be too assertive with getting his own ideas into a project, as it is better to be magnanimous than have conflict with team-mates. When working on game production, he found that there are less limited time constraints for the concept phase, compared to concepts for film/tv - although there is still a rigid schedule for artists to follow.

Film/TV

In the film and television industry, Stephen spent most of his time as a Concept Artist for Doctor Who - where he would work closely with other artists and production designers. Because of practical considerations of the show, limited sets were built, so the designs for concept pieces needed to be size accurate, fully referenced, and architecturally sturdy. To help with this, production designers set concept artists briefs for certain elements that should be included with the concept ideas.
          During an average work day on the production of Doctor Who, Stephen would speak to Senior Artists about any outstanding tasks, as well as share artwork with the Art Director. He would also check the measurements of his illustrations against the building specifications set by the production designers to avoid aformentioned practical issues with sets. While most illustrators in this field would be paid daily, Stephen was careful about ensuring payment for long payments. This is because the starting salary for artists at the BBC has a fixed rate.


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