Design Cinema - EP 81 - Playing with Scale

[@omairjamal3027]

I love how Design Cinema continues to evolve with each episode. I really enjoy the tips and hints popping up in the video. Your hard work is really showing. I've been a fan of FZD for a few years now and you've had a huge positive impact on me. Thank you so much!

[@colinmccarthy9445]

Omair Jamal for real. this channel series has basically taught me everything about digital painting. I use to always be a pen and pencil sketcher/line-drawing guy, so it was tough to transition to more traditional blocking-in painting type stuff. This series is great.

[@omairjamal3027]

Next step is actually going to Singapore and signing up...at least we can dream!

[@nicklegend3788]

@FZD: I have never considered doing a lot of the stuff highlighted in this video, like playing the scale of things to create new environments etc. The photo laying for color palette really blew my mind, I thought that was pure genius; saves a ton of time compared to hand picking a color palette. Thank you so much for your video contributions to the art community.

[@TenTonsofBuns]

Playing with "scale." I see what you did there Feng XD

[@dao3082]

rofl

[@XionixZTV]

probably one of the most useful design cinemas so far, it really helps to understand the pacing of a concept piece

[@MonsterMo44]

The fish tree tree fish giant tree flying fish of the forest zone looks amazing. Your work always blows my mind.

[@VoidloniXaarii]

thank you for another great episode. The start music is great too

[@TiffanyNg100]

Every single episode is a sick mode

[@iamnachman148]

Please make some more of your videos in real time as you had done in the past, you dont even need to talk over it the entire time, its just that I find it extremely helpful to watch your actual process. Thank you!!!!

[@PatrickCharpenet]

Another great episode, thanks. The amazonian fish is an Arapaima, apparently.

[@tuncer1234]

And here I had been trying to paint something with a similar theme of scaling. Awesome video Feng, lots of great and useful information, this came just in time. I really like the new style of these videos as well!

[@raymondthomas5103]

I checked in every day for a month for this episode :D Thanks!

[@greatemostafa8539]

very good mr. feng zhu. thank you for your tutorials.

[@EliezerGrawe]

Hey man, great work. The new visual of the video, with the tips, music and everything are realy cool! Thanks for doing as a free content.

[@Maren617]

I love this one so much I wish you'd finished this out as a refined painting!

[@dactermd9067]

(For Q and A) QUESTION: I understand that the goal is to pitch and sell a design, not a fine painting, but as concept artist, to what degree should we worry about and incorporate our own "style?" (Even the most famous concept artists' works are recognizable, including your own) For example, if our works develop unique patterns or a "style" to it, should we try to promote that to distinguish ourselves? Or try to hide stylistic elements as much as possible? (Also when i say "stylistic elements" i mean things that wouldn't change the concept if added or removed, just the "look") Thank you so much for your time Feng! And all the staff toooo!! Safety and peace! I LOVE YOU GUYS!

[@GabesGames]

Thanks for another great vid Feng! Really cool of you to run your talk down and show us what you meant :D

[@kibatsuki]

Thank you so much for sharing these inside techniques!! You´re a lifesaver finally I can up my production output! :D

[@mrZavior]

Hey there! The name of these fishes is Pirarucu and yes, they are quite large; something about 2,3m or 2,5m... BTW, amazing class as always!

[@ryanoconnor7957]

Flying amazonian fish with giant bonzi trees. Feng you crack me up!

[@timothyadowns]

Question 1) is there a certain amount of layers you try to stick with in each of the paintings? Question 2) what elements do you prefer to separate out by layers? And what is better merge? Tip: for the artist on a budget that can't afford expensive 3d programs to build a perspective grid library like you mentioned, Blender is a great user friendly free option.

[@vafiroca]

THANK YOU so much! It'a a good topic!

[@reubenlane]

I know you've done it before, but can you please do a real time from start to finish painting :) they are very interesting to watch and study.

[@Himmelgren]

I'm kind of nitpicking here since I love all this content and can't stop watching and learning. That said, around 12:40 it's said the fish sell the scale when they're in front of something big, but isn't it the other way around? I would think something seems bigger, if it's behind something that's already seems big (the tree with the houses in this case). Here if the fish are the closest thing to the camera, they could be just that - really small and really close to the camera. Of course shading and lighting aid here. Or am I missing something?

[@cgooch_]

Himmelgren you are correct. He should have had some in front of and behind the tree to sell the scale.

[@brokencreationlordmegatrol3037]

I am going to try this idea and use this method you used here to see if I can learn from it :]

[@interstellardeej7113]

Thanks for another great video Feng :(

[@JanaHall84]

Pillars of Eternity is awesome, btw.

[@sweetsweetmeat]

Mr. Zhu, I have several questions: Say (for example) you're working as a concept artist for a next gen title (or what-ever project it may be)... Are you paid for your time and labour despite possible rejection? Or are you only paid by what concepts get selected by the director? Is there any form of insurance which compensates your labour so that you do not exit a project empty handed? Could you elaborate? How do wages work typically within a contract? Are they negotiable? I've been a long time fan of your channel and your work, and have been thinking of shifting from illustrator over to concept artist/designer. Good luck with your endeavors, not that you need it because you are ludicrously talented. :P

[@jras0522]

Those fish are called Arapaima, strongest fish of the Amazon. see it in Discovery's River Monster Series. :) I learned a LOT though, Thank you Feng Zhu. :)

[@KawikaDowney]

Feng I love the tech of adding photos for colors and textures. When you start talking about color dodge this is getting close to fundmentals.

[@wispyprkdmedia]

Awesome video, very very helpful and nice designs :)

[@jazenism]

Great as usual! Thanks so much!

[@kristinjohnson8692]

Awesome content. Thanks so much for sharing your skills!

[@antoniobifulco623]

Thank you for the outstanding and useful video as always!

[@ggs4869]

Here is a question for the Q&A : When you use colors for a painting,do you think about hues , chroma, values and stuff like that or does it all come natural to you , meaning you dont think about these things anymore.

[@TheARTnSTUFF]

cool episode again! I was thinking maybe you could do an episode where you go in depth on your techinqes, which brushes you like to use for certain tasks. Maybe you could even draw live? I know brushes aren't that important, but it's always interesting to see different approaches. Also, it would be cool if you would go in depth on the finishing process. I'm getting quite good at the rough ideation phases, but finishing a painting, applying textures, making it look really polished etc still gives me a hard time. It would be interesting to see your process :)

[@icemarv1491]

Great tutorial Feng as always. You are a good man, keep it up! :D

[@FlashDAH]

So so helpful, thanks

[@vafiroca]

I love subtitles

[@finbomartini]

I really like the music

[@amoomalGJJ]

this is very helping. thanks

[@LionDEmil]

How do you draw this awesome fishscales? Did you use a brush for that or a specific technique?

[@AlexLusth]

lol, 3D max still exist, Maya and Max are the industry standard :)

[@brentlio5578]

Alex Lusth Talking about movie industry, yea, Maya and Max may still is the standard. Game industry, it's switching up to all kinds of software.

[@cymaratechoverdragon]

Brent Lio The Game Industry standard is still Max and Maya, they are using a hell of alot of other new softwares too though yeah.

[@brentlio5578]

cymaratechoverdragon I can't deny that 3DsMax and Maya started all these... :P

[@AlexLusth]

Brent Lio yeah, I personally switched from max to Modo this year, the game industry is starting to get really messy =P but I would still say max and maya is in the majority.

[@earlofyarg]

Alex Lusth Yeah but ZBrush is amazing for pure 3D modelling.

[@delfsylol8288]

(For the Q and A)I have been procrastinating alot . Do you have any tips on overcoming this ? cause i recently stopped painting cause of my laziness and dont quite have the inspiration to do so. And last question, during when you're starting out how many paintings do you usually paint everyday?

[@renealbrechtsen9743]

Omar Mandeeli Oh man, I know this feeling... procrastinating is a horrible, horrible thing :/

[@Thaibiohazard123]

Omar Mandeeli I think we all have that no matter what work you're doing, even artist, lol But artist is even worse because we have excuse to ourselves like "I have no idea, I need to relax, play some video games, and watch some movies before I do this" and yeah... sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. I need some tips too, lol

[@8thlvlMage]

Omar Mandeeli When this happens to me I just tell myself, "Hey drawing is supposed to be fun! I'm going to draw *something* right now, and not worry how it turns out." Grab your pencil or pen, breathe in and out, then start drawing. :)

[@Thaibiohazard123]

8thlvlMage Yeah, it is most effective when you got a boring class. I usually draw something so random, just to pass the time and turns out unexpectedly better than when I intend to do it.

[@delfsylol8288]

Eventually, Feng zhu actually answered this question on the latest video . You guys should look it up . Its an awesome explanation on how to fight procrastination

[@nickwaldinger9032]

QUESTION: How do you feel about specializing in a certain area? For example, being good at painting environments or characters? Obviously a concept artist should be able to do it all, but wouldn't specializing be an easier way to build up a portfolio?

i was interested, how did you set your shortcuts to turn on/of and sswitching layers? and when you add photo, why it isnt a smart object? awesome tuts as always! thanx :)

[@Demigodish4o3]

Dear Feng Do you think that VR technology will have an impact on the way designers and artists in the industry work?

i have few questions: when u add photo on your painting, is that photo not a smart object? and why program dont asks you about resizing the smart object? O.O how did u mirorr fliping your painting? and how did u turn on and off greyscale without mergeing layers and loosing colours? thank you

[@hugod1000]

I've been watching design cinema for about a year now, love to have it on in the background whilst painting! I see some concept artists who put emphasis on telling a very clear story in their environments e.g.. someone coming to be knighted by a king. Does telling a clear story enhance your concept, is there any pitfalls to be aware of when creating story in an environment?

[@studiocolrouphobia]

Awesome episode. The end result, without the linedrawing, actually could be sellable as fineart. Not really much needed to make it work completely..

[@marcoslopezalfonso]

hey Feng, awesome video as always you never fail to teach and impress. I also like the new design cinema style, little hard to get used to but in love with it now. Question: when we are out and about with a sketchbook, do you recommend sketching things from life or your own imagination in order to do away with artist block?

[@ArkaEdri]

Hi Feng, thank you very much for all your great videos, I really love every episode. QUESTION for Q & A: i know it´s hard to say how much a concept artist earn, because some professional artists like you are so much faster then students. But if someone would hire you only for one concept art, or if you would break down time and money from a projekt to one concept art (painting a view thumbnails, making three of them nice and showable and one get chosen, like you do it mostly in your videos) - how much should a concept artist get paid for this one concept art?

[@doubledriscoll]

Incredible work and great lesson as always (as if it even needed to be said). Although I have to say that I find the popup text bubbles very distracting from the art / lesson.

[@marvinlorenz1475]

I like the new intro!

[@OneHappyRobot]

I have a question that I have really been wondering about for a long time. What are your thoughts on proper opacity strength. I seem to really struggle with this. If i have it too high my paintings look like blobs of paint that don't blend together, and if its lower they look all muddy. I would really appreciate your input on this. thanks

[@acox1579]

Could you do an episode where you finish one of the rough painting to a finished project?

[@spy6277]

This reminds me of something from the game Beyond Good and Evil.

[@brentlio5578]

Jon Bentley That's such an awesome game. Too bad the sequel was cancelled.

[@michaelangel25]

Jon Bentley I never played that game, although I hear it is great. I think it was the cartoony style models that put me off wanting to play it.

[@spy6277]

It was made a good while ago but they've been trying to create a sequel for a good while. Not sure if it's because of the funding? The original game was underrated in many peoples opinions due to lack of advertisement in the first place. It's worth a bit of a playthrough watch and imagine being 8 playing it (that'd of been me)

[@oscarjimenezgomez1372]

Fantastico, tengo problemas con la eleccion de color y creo que este metodo me va a ayudar mucho Gracias

[@botlane]

The value of colors in the color picker box don't exactly translate to the black and white values, i.e. top right corner of blue hue translates to about 30% value from black to white in black&white while yellow is about 90%. How do you choose the colors for light and shadow? e.g. a 60% value, 100% saturation yellow is actually still lighter than 100% value, 100% saturation blue. It seems counter intuitive that a color with 100% value (in the box) is darker than a 60% value color. On another note, let's say you start filling in shapes with base colors, e.g. 60% value, would you light up the lighter parts with 80% value and tone down the shadows with 30% value? There must be a systematic way to determine light and shadow or no?

[@corybrown8196]

Always excited to see new design cinema videos. I do have a question though: I bought a wacom intuos tablet when I really decided to start drawing and painting, but I simply could not draw on a tablet like I could traditionally. I eventually made the switch to a tablet computer where I draw on the screen like a cintiqe. If I came to your school, would it be okay to use a tablet computer rather than the traditional drawing tablets that your students currently use? I just cannot draw correctly with them.

[@KevinZamirGoeke]

Cory Brown I had that problem too, but you've work more with the tablet, after some time it'll get better :D

[@TheGrindigo]

Flying fish, maaan Feng what are you smoking? I want some of it.

[@Borsio]

Is there any website where I can download those image libraries ?

[@3dberserk1]

Hi Feng. Could you upload the final image at hi resolution? thanks for the video.

[@danny90099]

Yay new ep

[@GatsuRage]

QUESTION: What could I do when I feel like i'm not progressing anymore? like I can't get better no matter how many hours I draw or paint... some days I can draw better then others, but at the end of the day I can't see myself creating anything new, what's worst at times I can't even put my ideas on the screen which leads to feel kinda depressed. I been more then 3 years now since I move to digital, I learned a lot but i'm on my own, and I cannot afford paid studies and tho your videos help big time I really not sure if I can progress on my own anymore... to all that for put as an example, your students for instance get way better then i'm with 3 years of hard work.. in less then a year of hard work... What advice you could give to those who are not very good at self teaching and can't afford pay for school? Should I quit trying to get pro at it..? I'm 27 years old, I know i'm still young but keeping in mind I will not be young forever... wake up at 37+ with no work and not real income won't be very nice~ Thanks in advance, and thanks for all the videos you do! Your videos helps A LOT! ps. no worries, not gonna kill myself if you tell me to quit drawing! ;P

[@lawnhawke4843]

GatsuRage What works for me is studying other people's work by making copies of it. The closer you can study and break down what you like about the artwork that you're copying from the easier it is to apply it to your own artwork. The way to pick which image to study from is to find one that has all the qualities that you want in your own art, preferably you want to find the biggest most elaborate and detailed images you can find because those are the ones you'll learn the most from. It doesn't matter if your version isn't as good as the original as long as you learn something from it. The other important part of this is to figure out what makes the image so good, so look closely at the values, composition, anatomy etc. So go to artstation and find some modern illustration to study from. Or go to the Art Renewal Centre's website and find and old master's paintings to study from. And go here to learn everything you need to know about perspective: www.handprint.com/HP/WCL/tech10.html And here to learn colour theory: www.huevaluechroma.com/ And here to learn some basics of anatomy and drawing people: illustrationage.com/2013/04/02/free-andrew-loomis-art-instruction-downloads/ And here for links to more tutorials and resources from some of the best concept artists in the business: www.fusroda.com/ And get a copy of this book to get really stuck into traditional painting (the chapter on mixing colour is un-freaking-believable and will help your art in so many ways if you follow along with the exercises): www.richardschmid.com/Alla-Prima-II-By-Richard-Schmid-p/skuap.htm

[@Ohhtooeasy]

Hello! I am an art student, I live in the states and I want to go to your school. But I am super broke. What should i do ?

[@PatratEye]

I'm just wondering how you make the selection "invisible" after using lasso tool? I mean, without that white border?

[@amoomalGJJ]

+PatraTV ctrl+h i think ..

[@KevinZamirGoeke]

Oh dude, you're so incredible fast

[@louisda8729]

Movco CoFi Lol i was scrolling comments when i saw a familiar name :) I also find his speed incredible.

[@KevinZamirGoeke]

***** haha hey dude xD which artist doesn't watch his videos? :D

[@louisda8729]

Movco CoFi Good point xP

[@hujiko44745278184]

Do you have a good tutorial for Photoshop that you recommend?

[@soropodo7918]

What kinds of fish are these!

[@acox1579]

Question: What undergraduate programs in the U.S. do you know of/recommend for conceptual design ?

[@LilElfo]

HELP .................................................................. what is the brush he uses?

The calligraphy one from photoshop.

[@LilElfo]

Nicolás Cantor Thanks

[@manuelcastanonguerrero3216]

Feng! love your videos, If you're looking for a hard modern series you could try Monster Hunter! the new one on the ds is amazing, by fart he best yet, and there's a lot of awesome designs both in the monsters and armor/weapons

[@meeliskr]

3d max is very alive :P

[@Evanenites]

Morrowind, which is just another large island not so far from Skyrim has massive floating jellyfish so I think normal fish shouldn't be that bad to fit in :P

[@GussieBabes]

Evanenites9 cmon man.. you know that skyrim and morrow wind are part of the same continent... BOOOOM

[@adamant356]

GussieBabes Vvardenfell is an island, though ;)

[@GussieBabes]

ImsumDave what he says certainly made out like he thinks skyrim and morrowind are both islands.

[@GussieBabes]

ImsumDave morrowind is not an island... it has islands. no matter how you look at it he is wrong. i dont know why this has become so serious. but yea morrowind is not an island. it has solstheim and vvardenfell which are islands sure.. but to say that morrowind is an island is obviously incorrect. The game morrowind is set on the island of vvardenfell.. but morrowind is a province of tamriel.

[@GussieBabes]

ImsumDave it is made pretty clear in the game that you cant travel to mainland morrowind. i was joking when i corrected him even tho i was right. i dont see your point about the "just another island thing" because neither skyrim nor morrowind are islands... and by the way the elder scrolls 2 is daggerfall

[@steffenbrand1788]

Would you care to upload the initial sketches? =)

[@wanashthegash]

can't you do a lets draw on like dark souls? :) Or maybe its a bit to new.....

[@g0mium]

Upload more stuff! :C

[@AkitaryART]

I'm not even epileptic but the intro makes me feel dizzy..

[@TheMoodyNoodle]

i knew i shouldnt have come back to watch this video, i only feel worse about my art skills D: I mean I'm really motivated now, but ahhh

[@TyrellzArt]

Patience! :D

[@mozzborl6471]

Im I the only one that hates the new full screen mode?

[@ted1995art]

alligator gar.

[@NajamQureshi]

It's amazing to see very few people giving out this knowledge. Almost all of the information in this video would cost you 1000s of dollars in courses, believe me. And Feng is generously giving out for free. What an amazing time to live in. Don't underestimate the value of these tutorials. I usually email almost everyone who's work I like, for guidance and believe me, Except Scott Robertson, no one replies.

[@conceptartmasters]

Do a Witcher inspired environment.

[@marizzlleable]

First!

[@alconxi6614]

mario flores lol nice

[@Racc00nCity]

fist

[@DL-ty4cu]

huehue fuck 3dsmax...fucking hate that program. Maya4lyfe!