Concept Artist Wes Burt on Transformers and More - Interview

Wesley Burt is a concept artist who has worked on prestigious film and game projects like the Transformers films, Skyrim, Fallout 3 and New Vegas, Lord Of The Rings: Online, Magic: The Gathering trading cards and Thor. In his 13 years of professional work, Wes has created some amazing art.

Burt has done some amazing work for big-name movies and triple-A gaming titles; his portfolio stretches from Dishonored to Silent Hill to League of Legends to Borderlands to the GI Joe films. A Cleveland Institute of Art alumni, he’s multi-talented, also working on graphite works and oil paintings in his spare time.

He’s presenting at the Melbourne International Design Week festival next week, at the Look Upstairs forum on April 2-4 on design, advertising, 3D and creativity alongside 40 other design professionals from 20 countries. Wes spoke to Gizmodo about his history and inspiration as a graphic artist, and about some of the amazing properties he’s worked on.

How did you get into concept art and design? What drew you to Massive Black?

I became really interested in concept art when I was an early teenager, seeing the Art of Star Wars books and other movie pre-production books. I started making my own drawings and designs of characters from my head and from books I was reading at the time.

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What’s the largest, or most exciting, or your favourite project that you’ve worked on?

Working on the Transformers films was really fun and exciting — having a really direct input on what things could end up looking like, and working with the director and production designers who’ve worked on so many different films. I ended doing a whole lot of the preliminary work for the Dinobots in the new film, so it will be really cool to see that come to life!

I also really enjoy working on games that are more in the historical or fantasy realm — so designing factions and costuming for Lord of The Rings Online, and also a lesser-known title called Gods & Heroes, was right up my alley. I like researching different cultures, their way of dress and types of armor and all that, so that’s always fun for me