Brian Matyas

or this workshop I’ll break down the design process that I use in my professional work for the film and gaming industries. I’ll walk you through my creative process of developing a complex story image in a way that’s organised and achievable for all skill sets. My aim is to treat this workshop as a real-world assignment and will offer professional insight into efficiently creating an evocative image for a client.

To dive in, let’s first talk about story. Every great image should be firmly rooted

fin storytelling. We’ll pretend this is an image for a film that hasn’t been green-lit for production yet. The film is set in the distant future on an extraterrestrial colony. An elite squadron of fighter pilots guard the planet from its hostile skies. We need to develop a moment in time that depicts our hero confidently bidding the viewer farewell before he flies off into the sunset of a distant solar system.

Even if you’re simply producing personal concept art to strengthen your portfolio, always consider the bigger picture that your image can belong to. If you imply that your images are part of a larger narrative, it will be more visually intriguing to the viewer.

With the story as our foundation, I’ll show you how to develop a pipeline that’s fast and efficient for getting approval and completion. I’ll walk you through setting up strong compositions and colour comps, to painting in Photoshop over a 3D model set up in SketchUp.

By painting in selections, and keeping your layers organised, you’ll save yourself time and headaches. Okay, let’s put my advice into practice!

October 2015