Download Creature Design & Development by The Gnomon Workshop

Ehsan Bigloo from The Gnomon Workshop provides an audience Course, Art Direction for Film: Creature Design & Development with vast insight into how he creates entertainment industry creatures. Whether you are a creature designer, concept artist, or 3D sculptor or want to enhance your storytelling abilities, this is an appealing overview of Ehsan’s whole process, from sketching to the final presentation.

The Creature Design & Development workshop starts with a look into a sample design brief and a short but animated script featuring Ehsan’s sci-fi/supernatural horror creation, Quehsalien. Ehsan explains how he thinks about converting words into ideas to be illustrated, starting with baseline sketching and advancing to editing on Photoshop through techniques like paint-over to build on ideas for the final illustration.

Lastly, they establish ZBrush in the workflow and model the first and second shapes to guarantee that the design looks good in the third dimension. Besides that, lighting and mood are set through KeyShot in ZBrush, and simple rigs for the limb’s motion are made. The Polypainting process proceeds and Ehsan analyses the creature’s environment and movement pattern. The final design is combined in KeyShot with assistance from Adobe Photoshop to give the final polished look.

Moving forward in the workshop, Ehsan explores art direction by making keyframe artwork using real photographic plates. He goes over lighting for creature shots and particular interest segments, then the camera lenses and color balance. As Ehsan goes through Potential Design Solutions, he uses ZBrush and Adobe Photoshop and explains tips from the real world. Also, he employs Maya to design a fundamental non-production joint/skeleton rig for performing limited animation tests only, with the final rendering accomplished in Arnold.

Lastly, in the final stage, Ehsan sculpts the creature model in ZBrush and generates maps in Substance Painter. He then takes the creature into Unreal Engine 5, where he sets up the shot, sculpts the scene, lights it with Lumen, and sets the mood using Lumen, showing the creature in its entirety.

Join our CLUB to boost your Skills and Projects!