Tutorial: Art Direction for Film: Creature Design & Development
The Gnomon Workshop has released Art Direction for Film: Creature Design & Development, a guide to professional creature design workflows recorded by concept artist Ehsan Bigloo.
The workshop provides over four hours of video training in Photoshop, ZBrush, Maya, Substance 3D Painter, KeyShot, Arnold and Unreal Engine.
Discover professional creature design workflows for the entertainment industry
In the workshop, Bigloo demonstrates how he designs creatures for the entertainment industry.
He begins with a detailed look at a design brief and short script based on his own sci-fi horror character, ‘Quehsalien’, explaining his thought process for developing a visual narrative.
Bigloo then begins sketching initial ideas in traditional media, before using Photoshop to lay down a paintover to use as a basis for the final illustration.
Moving to ZBrush, he sculpts the primary and secondary forms for the design, testing its visual appeal in three dimensions, Polypaints the creature, and explores lighting and mood.
The final design is rendered with KeyShot and composited in Photoshop.
Explore more advanced topics in art directing creature designs
The workshop then goes deeper into the art direction process, demonstrating how to create keyframe illustrations using photographic plates, and how to set up the lighting.
Topics discused range from camera lenses to color harmony.
Bigloo also uses Maya to set up a quick, non-production skeleton rig and perform simple locomotion tests before rendering the animations with Arnold.
In the final stage of the workshop, Bigloo prepares the model in ZBrush and bakes texture maps in Substance 3D Painter before sending the creature to Unreal Engine 5, where he explores other shot designs, set dressing, mood, and lighting with Lumen to bring the creature to life.
About the artist
Ehsan Bigloo is a Senior Concept Designer specializing in creatures, characters, armor, costumes and cinematic shot designs for the entertainment industry.
His credits include The Lord of The Rings: The Rings of Power and Men in Black: International, and he has worked on games concepts for BioWare, Wizards of the Cost and Riot Games.
Pricing and availability
Art Direction for Film: Creature Design & Development is available via a subscription to The Gnomon Workshop, which provides access to over 300 tutorials.
Subscriptions cost $54/month or $499/year. Free trials are available.
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