Los Angeles, Calif. Cecil Kim, the lead concept artist for the blockbuster God of War III game for the PlayStation3 computer entertainment system, takes the reins of advanced instruction in
The Gnomon Workshop's latest release,
Environment Art Direction for Games.
The video series -- a two-part series showing the conceptualization, pre-production design process and execution involved in video game development -- is now available for order and download exclusively at The Gnomon Workshop web site. Throughout the series, Cecil provides instruction on the ideation sketching and conceptual painting critical to communicating goals and aesthetic visions to production teams within the industry.
In Volume 1: Ideation Sketching, Cecil demonstrates how he quickly produces various design options using traditional drawing tools such as markers, pens and pencils. He guides viewers through more than eight environment production sketches -- massive fortresses, façade and street concepts, neo-classical cityscapes -- while describing how he creates various drawing concepts to support creative leads and production teams on a daily basis. During the video, he shows how he establishes a perspective layout, filling it with architectural details, as well as how he designs the surface of the abstract shapes with which he initially starts.
"The Gnomon Workshop provides the instruction to understand and apply crucial skills and is available to up-and-coming video game environment artists throughout the world, not solely those who study at The Gnomon School of Visual Effects," said Kim. "The video series illustrates the philosophy and goals of Gnomon's mission for inspiring and instructing successful entertainment artists across the globe."
In Volume 2: Painting Concepts, Cecil takes the initial idea sketches created from the first volume and paints them digitally using Adobe Photoshop. From 10-minute building shading to coloring a vista layout for a fantasy city, Cecil uses basic painting layer techniques to add realism, color and lighting to multiple scenes. Video viewers are able to watch his efficient workflow, which demonstrates how he preserves line drawings, separates value and color in multiple layers and focuses more on readability and defining shapes rather than surface material rendering. This technique allows him to quickly present painting concepts for a production team to review.
Cecil Kim has been a concept artist and illustrator in the entertainment industry for the past 15 years. He began his career in the games industry as a cinematic storyboard artist for Square USA (now Square-Enix subsidiary). With strong layout and detailed environment sketches, he began designing memorable locations in Final Fantasy IX. He later joined Sony Santa Monica Studio where he helped create the award-winning and best-selling God of War series as the visual development lead. Cecil also teaches various courses on art design and conceptualization at Gnomon School of Visual Effects.
To purchase and download both volumes of the new series or for further information, please visit the below links:
Volume 1: Ideation Sketching: http://www.thegnomonworkshop.com/store/product/937/
Volume 2: Painting Concepts: http://www.thegnomonworkshop.com/store/product/939/
Further instructional DVDs for designing environments can be found at The Gnomon Workshop Environment Design page.