Life as a Diablo 3 concept artist at Blizzard.

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Life as a blizzard concept artist. Between 2007-2012 I served as a Senior concept artist on Diablo 3. In this video you can see the original concept art behind Cadeum city and desert, Bastions Keep, Heaven, Areate crater, and several other locations including prop designs, creature designs and many of the armor sets that I created concept art for on the game. I did not work on Reaper of Souls, as I departed to Riot Games for the Summoners Rift map redesign.
Things I've worked on:
Overwatch (PC, PS4)
League of Legends (PC)
Diablo 3 (PC,PS4)
Hearthstone (Mobile, PC)
Burning Crusade (PC)
Wrath of the Lich King (PC)
Indivisible
Unsung Story
Final Fight Streetwise (PS2)
He Man (GBA)
Terminator 3 (GBA)
CannonBallers (Mobile)
CreeD
Twilight Monk
Ikeda
Nova Colony
Galaxy's Edge
SodaPopSoldier
Millenium Actress
Goblins and Gnomes

[@zinkzonk777]

this entire video is an inspiration to aspiring game artists everywhere. i absolutely love this entire video. i am an indie game designer and this is just the #1 video to show a concept artist on the team

[@rainoofblood]

man...... I been waiting for this video for like 6 years :P thank you Trent :)

[@Daemonpool65]

I come back here often. What a bountiful well of knowledge this is

[@judahgott1821]

Same, I’ve probably watched this video a dozen times

[@pervysagemkd]

So you are the guy i have to blame for the Desert Wasps.....

[@maynardshellholeofrandom5069]

I have never played dia- BLAME FOR THE WHAT!?

[@deivcalviz]

Thanks a lot for sharing this! I'm glad they let you show these stuff.

[@fredboussada8025]

Thank you for sharing this experience with everyone, it really was a treat to see all of these amazing concept pieces done for this game, as well as your experience at the time. I can imagine all the challenges and stress your guys have been through to create everything from zero. Great source of information and inspiration!

[@Daveoghscope]

Every time you squish a wasp, hear Trent go "Oh yeah"! xD

[@SaltyMaud]

Watched a random video from you earlier and i immediately knew i've seen your work somewhere. So apparently i saw you in my TBC and wrath artbooks, the artbooks are basically why i've always lined up for the midnight launch to secure the collectors editions.

[@torka4life]

awee!! great share Trent. Very inspiring to hear your story thru ups and downs of the working field. More power to ya

[@mcbaltz]

Amazing!!! Thank you a hundred times, Trent.

[@axelieve]

Such an amazing video! Thank you for sharing your one of a kind experiences with us Trent!

[@p4tchMe]

Thank you for sharing your wins AND struggel. After relaxin with your tour I ll get right back to drawing!

[@fuzzypiglet]

Thank you so much for putting this video together. Its a great insight for anyone interested in game production or game art! It’s cool to hear your anecdotes from that time too and also your thoughts and memories on all those pieces you worked on.

[@th9]

My favorite game ever! Amazing tour, thank you! And congrats for your work on the game!

[@chamelioness]

8:27 The ultimate cutaway 😬

[@KenotheWolf]

Thank you so much for sharing your art and story with us. ^^

[@LuciaFinstra]

Thank you so much for sharing! I absolutely adore the armor designs you made for D3! Your work has been a great inspiration!

[@bradthornhillarts]

awesome stuff man! Thanks a ton! Just recently replayed D3 on PS4... still great!

[@raulgomezdiez]

All this info is pure GOLD man...thank you so much for sharing your knowledge Trent!

[@dougieladd]

I'm not a gamer Trent but I am a designer, and I really love the conceptual phases and design iterations in the process. What an insightful and interesting video... thanks for this.

[@TrentKaniuga]

thanks for the comment!

[@jairoacosta8940]

0:55 man, that concept art just makes me want to be in that cave. props

[@jakob5346]

And thats a great argument for why this art is just so terrible for a Diablo game, no place in a diablo game should bring forth feelings of ''hey that seems like a nice place to hang out''.

[@tuffkay7864]

Jakob Semantics. OP clearly meant it was a place they wanted to explore. A lot of Bloodborne’s zones were revolting but I still wanted to explore them.

[@mikeg5039]

Notmany people truly realize how much work and imagination goes into making the scenery you dont usually take much time to appreciate. Its amazing

[@lunatic_3521]

Wow, I just watched your video on how to be or more employable artist and you showed a few of your diablo works and it got me like really thinking about what it must be like to do concept art for dibalo 3. Perfect timing and exactly what I was already trying to understand all by myself :D

[@hakl4398]

Thanks for sharing your work. Diablo 3 is my favorite game and Witch Doctor is my favorite class and awesome you did few of it's art.

[@depp657]

thank you very much for this vid. love the background info and insight regarding workflow within the team. alot of what i see, that didnt make it into the game, has that slightly more serious / exigent(?) [not childish] touch that im missing in d3. something that was most prominent in d1. love and peace :)

[@TheZhenya19]

The sand golems are dope! And your architecture concepts are amazing. I'm drooling all over 22:24............... Diablo III was such a pleasure to play and such an eye candy for artist's eyes. .....................MY FAVOURITE CLASS IS MONK! Environment and architecture design looks like a very scary and very complicated thing, but I hope to learn some part of it someday for personal purposes.

[@frogturtle]

Really cool video. As someone who's been painting for a long time I was already aware of a lot of these design techniques, but hearing about the different tasks and interactions with your team was very valuable. Seems like it was a cool gig, thanks for sharing! I liked the cave callouts and goat explorations in particular.

[@RobertoGattoArt]

Amazing stuff man, thanks for sharing it with us! Gotta love that Monster Hunter influence on the armors, really cool designs!

[@pukey82]

Wow. So much creativity in only 35 minutes. Epic!

[@AndrewMaksymBrainNectar]

I love the sand golem's design! This is cool, thanks for sharing it with us!

[@Jordan-ih5bo]

Such a good video man. Thanks for sharing with us!!

[@TornadoGod1]

This was incredibly useful, I have been a fan of yours for many years. Back in high school you gave the desire to do art and practice and practice, which pushed me to take a gap year dedicated to self-taught. I'm now in college for Computer Animation at Ringling college and hearing you talk about your experience at Blizzard just reinforced my love for what you do and the industry. Actually, an environment artist and lead (i dont remember what) from WoW did a presentation at my school about 2-3 weeks back about the Blizzard culture and all these little secrets behind the scenes which was really fun to learn. I'm glad I could now hear your perspective.

[@poszy6]

These are so awesome! You did a great job with Diablo, it is so beautiful :3

[@John-ut9ew]

Great video thanks for posting. Very insightful to the industry and job.

[@VitorGuerreiroVideos]

yay! perfect now! Again love your videos! and thank you for sharing the insights! :D

[@saintevil6858]

I know this is 4 years late, but I really appreciated the insights into the business. It's always been a dream, but it makes me realize I have in no way put in enough work to get to that level. I really appreciate your channel and the topics you tackle. I'm an artist that isn't terribly social so I'm very much in the dark as to how things work for other people and it's easy to get lost and overwhelmed without some semblance of a path and this has given me an idea of where to go. Thank you very much for all your content!

[@grfx1336]

This is amazing. Thank you so much for sharing this!

[@CouchFerretmakesGames]

Very interesting insights! Thank you!

[@nmckeeart7821]

Thank you so much! I’m excited to keep learning from you.

[@luccamedeiros]

Great video! A lot of insight on the whole process, thanks for sharing!

[@zenithquasar9623]

This video was so informative, thank you for sharing!

[@floko3883]

It's truly one of the best games ever. I put so many hours into this. Your designs are so impressive OMG! Thanks for sharing this

[@TomGeogecko]

That was intense. What an amazing work !

[@dannysimon7075]

Thanks a lot for this video Dude, it's awesome! I love Diablo 3 and I always wanted to see more of the work you created for it. I also think you should play Diablo 3 if you got some spare time so you can see how much of your work actually made it into the game! There were some moments you said that you think that this or that didn't make it into the game but it actually did (the ice caves for example ). Cheers, Danny

[@rafab7396]

I see and collect your work since your first Creed. Your concept is really amazing but I remember your beautiful art in comics. Greetings

[@TrentKaniuga]

Rafa B thanks man! That feels like a long time ago!

[@kisatom]

Wow, great video! I could watch it for hours! :D

[@xIBlaubaer]

I love listening to you while you talk about working in the industry. It has a motivating effect on me, makes me wanna study and improve so badly. Love you, your art and your storytelling

[@sylux2481]

watching this sparked a strong urge to play Diablo 3 again. Thanks for sharing your work and knowledge on this!

[@clueso_]

That is great artwork! I would be interested in seeing more of this. If you don't want to make too long videos about your D3 art, you could simply make a video without commentary were you just showcase more of your work as a slideshow and put some music under it. I definitely would like to see that!

[@palewine]

Man, this is so informative. Good stuff.

[@ArseniySokolov]

Amazing tour into Diablo 3 concept phase and beyond! Thank you very much for that delicious treat for Diablo fan. Unexplored before facets of project gives sense of discovery, new perspective for game which for now has been very well known. Need more art people to talk how you created this world!

[@TrentKaniuga]

Thanks! It's generally discouraged for Blizzard artists to do videos like this. But I haven't worked there for a long time. Thanks for commenting!

[@jakob5346]

Well as a diablo fan, no this post made be realize how out of touch Blizzard and their artists are.

[@MichieMouse1]

very interesting insight from an art perspective, I particularly like to see the environment/level design take shape.. although from a fan's perspective I have always associated the diablo art style as heavily gothic and I would love to see the franchise reflect that identity in the games again, one day ^^ thx for sharing

[@ByBy001]

It's always the same, big studios strip good concept arts and keep the most simple, common, mainstream designs. Thank you very much for this video. It helped me a lot.

[@randomolli]

oh wow! :) this was a great video thank you so much!

[@jimtan3]

Thank you so much for this video Trent! If i may, you mentioned at about 19:00 that you had to adjust stylistically from warcraft to diablo. I was wondering if you could please further elaborate on how did you change your style (be it through shape language or design) to fit in with the other concepts on the diablo project. Once again thank you so much for these videos. They are a blessing!

[@TrentKaniuga]

I literally copied some from paintings and really studied how he did textures and materials and anatomy. It helped me to break out of my own routines and adopt new methods of rendering.

[@ariochiv]

Very impressive work. Thanks for sharing. The environment artwork in this game blew me away from the very first previews I saw. I had to laugh when some of the trolls complained that it wasn't dark and bleak enough.

[@RichardMatthews.youtube]

Great video! I love the image of the female wizard in the desert, looked up who did it and found this video. Then I looked at the art of Brom! Thanks! :D

[@artdesktopedutainment7864]

Your work is amazing, my dream is to work in blizzard as concept artist as well, I was shock and Amazed on your works...WOW!!!!

[@7evenbeatz1]

I love that one! Keep going brother! 👊

[@moreira9948]

man i freaking love your videos

[@DiMoNico1981Swe]

I have played Diablo3 sence beta, and woundering how the "Art works for D3!! Thank you for sharing your masterpieces.

[@zerglin]

Thank you a lot for this, it was really inspirational!

[@lizardiculous4144]

To work as a concept artist one day is my goal. Viewing other artists work only compels me to realize this vision and your work reminds me of how disappointed in myself I would be if I do not fulfill my intent. You're addition to the Diablo universe is 5 years well spent and now I am off to confront and fight against my own art demons ;P The future is bright ^^ and you are a star.

[@juampyvarela]

Thank you for this video. I started studying game development this semester and I would really like to work as a concept artist. This video did make me want it even more hahaha.

[@kasperrubin5754]

Thank you for an amazing look into the underworld.

[@REDACT3D]

nice work bud thanks for sharing!

[@elisamilan]

The commentary is by far the best part of your quality-rich videos! x'D

[@fl260]

Wow so grateful for this video..! And it's not even Christmas yet! Hit the subscribe button as soon as I could and looking forward to watch more of your videos!

[@jamppamaattori]

Midna mask! Awesome video.

[@menisc2797]

Thanks for sharing, you are amazing

[@paweu19]

As an aspiring concpet artist, thank you for sharing! Very inspiring! Greetings from Poland :)

[@Sichel22]

I think many designs made by you are really impactful in the game ! And i think the game is the best arpg (yeah there are also really good one like poe,wolcen...) .Thank you and the thanks to the whole team for your hard work on that one :D !

[@sunrat123]

Thanks for this Talk! and thanks for making this game! me and my twin are always on the look for great coop titles! Diablo 3 gave us many sleeples nights with quality twin time. time we don't have a lot lately. thanks for everything!

[@paulstaker8861]

Man D3 is one visual delight. All the acts had incredible artistry. It's almost like you're playing a painting. Just wished the combat was as deep as the customization. Or harder initially.

[@JustusVidyo]

best grafic design in any arpg ive seen, good job. hard to surpass, but with a team like this is possible 15 years later with a possible D4

[@SIOBHANxVONNIE]

man i love your videos u are so awesome, talented and qUiRkY. thank you so much for these videos. finally decided to pursue conceot art (and lighting just in case) absolutely love both and your vids really help me set a goal for myself. thanks man

[@nolongerinuse1083]

When youtube actually recommends you something great! TY

[@ggs4869]

holy shit 5:26 is crazy good . perfect proportions and mood

[@BruceCarbonLakeriver]

Woah that's intresting as f... if that is the truth of concept art (I assume it is xD) then I'll go that way! I'm a carrier changer from engineering to art and love it. Actually i can pull advantages based on my technical knowledge just for the sake of doing good functional concepts... thanks for sharing !! @Trent Kaniuga !

[@19_pisces_85]

this helped alot....thank you Trent

[@Productive_Chad]

Never realiced that the concept artists are basiclly the stars of all the games, They make everything we think look cool and makes us wanna buy the game. Im impressed

[@VVoude]

Thank you for everything you've created... Diablo 3 is still by far my favourite game

[@zaneheer2903]

"Water more valuable than gold" I would have a very hard time staying away from Dune ideas too working on desert environments. This among all the other insights is great. Thanks again.

[@zaneheer2903]

Or rather, Dune was so comprehensive of desert fantasy that it's hard to avoid similarities. There we go. Better phrasing.

[@proteus8133]

it scares me when you said "there are far better illustrators than me" thats insane i see as your work as being top 1%

[@getusoon]

The tower phasing out of dimensions was Ureh for sure. So we had planned to go to hell also in D3. Interesting. I think they had planned the reveal of Azmodan in a grander way earlier rather than the stupid cinematic we got

[@TrentKaniuga]

Definitely Ureh. The tower would phase between dimensions.

[@getusoon]

Trent Kaniuga Bit cheeky question but are we going there in Diablo 4? :)

[@EarnshawCatherine]

I adore Diablo 3 designs. Thank you for the amazing job you've done there

[@fragtore6457]

Really cool to see! In the end imo the decision makers at blizzard went for really safe/boring choices for the worlds in d3 (overall that is. Here and there there is some super inspired stuff! I always hate when it feels like formula. Stuff I feel like I've already seen somewhere)

[@lowertoaster9718]

Very very cool man!

[@Ninjakimm]

good job mr trent love your art ,very inspiring one question :have you ever got discusted by your old works even thou those are nostlagic? because i do

[@TrentKaniuga]

Yeah, I don't like most of my old artwork. Even stuff that I did last week:)

[@Ninjakimm]

Why you think that happens

[@TrentKaniuga]

It means that you're always growing. you're always seeing how you can do better with your next painting. It's a good thing, because it means you will always strive to improve if your desire is there. @@Ninjakimm

[@FinnSpencerArt]

Great video

[@EnolaElorie]

Thank you so much for sharing all of this awesome art and background information!! I have one question though: What was the name of the artist whose design for the gates of heaven were taken in the end? Sogin Emeral? I cannot find her and I had hoped to see some of her work on her artstation or somewhere else. Edit: I dug around and found a concept artist named Sojin Hwang, but sadly there is next to nothing in terms of art pieces done by her I can find.

[@winkil1]

That's one of the cutest outros u've done! xD

[@ashwatson96]

hey man i love your videos what is the difference between visual dev and concept art ?

[@noniko96]

Wow, that's amazing. I really love ur work. Is there any palace to see this images for study them or get them as reference for my own work? (Just as reference to learn more, not for copy or other kind of uses) maybe a book or a website? Thanks! :3

[@TrentKaniuga]

The art of Diablo 3 art book maybe? I'm not sure how much of these images Blizzard has released.

[@federicoperini3446]

Great video as always. i've got a question, are u more an Illidan guy or an Arthas one?

[@TrentKaniuga]

Illidan.

[@peeeetah87]

It's my dream to work on Diablo 4.

[@ianpitts2548]

The Ice caves are in the game in Act 3 near the ballistas.

[@LeeDynastyEunuch]

hey trent, which one of your tutorial boxset would cater more towards creating environment and top down pieces like on 5:19, 10:16 ? Am hoping to grab one by black friday is over!

[@Yadeehoo]

Amazing art dude. What are you working on now ?

[@hubertwawszczak9891]

Thank you so much for showing diablo concepts :> im wondering how it looks from the time perspective, You said that you had about a day to do a kaldeum shot?

[@TrentKaniuga]

Hubert Wawszczak sometimes a couple of days. But never more than 3 days, ever. Unless if they ask you to keep redesigning things.

[@hubertwawszczak9891]

@@TrentKaniugaThank you so much. If it's not a problem I would love to know how much time does it take to paint armor designs and such things no need for a long anwser i just want to know what to aim for.