Concept art refers to a preparatory visual description within the entertainment industry. Before characters, game worlds or details are elaborated, images, usually based on the specifications of the screenwriters (in film production), show how these things might look; in the games industry, the game designer's concept is usually interpreted by the game artist and elaborated into executable work orders for 3D modelling, texturing and animation. Concept art thus not only describes the visual implementation and elaboration of ideas, but also defines - usually in conjunction with the director or game designer in iterative design processes - what is actually to be produced.
An important element in the development of ideas for the illustrators and animation artists is the production of still photos of built models. This is how, for example, the Elvish swords for the film version of The Lord of the Rings were developed from leaf shapes.
Since the mid-1990s, most illustrators have been working predominantly digitally. Here, 3D modelling is possible as a new form of representation.