When working from a design brief, idea generation is one of the most difficult aspects of the job. This lecture has two main components, each covering an important part of the design process. First, you will see how designs are generated, by watching Feng sketch over forty rough thumbnails and quick silhouettes. The sketches are then critiqued in order to identify the most visually successful. The entire lecture focuses on a single client brief: melee-style gladiator fighting robots of the future.
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The Gnomon Workshop - The Techniques of Feng Zhu Volume 1: Design Process - Fighting Robots

When working from a design brief, idea generation is one of the most difficult aspects of the job. This lecture has two main components, each covering an important part of the design process. First, you will see how designs are generated, by watching Feng sketch over forty rough thumbnails and quick silhouettes. The sketches are then critiqued in order to identify the most visually successful. The entire lecture focuses on a single client brief: melee-style gladiator fighting robots of the future.

The software used in this DVD is Corel Painter.
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The Gnomon Workshop - The Techniques of Feng Zhu Volume 2: Robot Design Refinement
and Rendering

Starting with thumbnail silhouettes chosen from the previous lecture, two distinctive designs are drawn, refined and rendered for client presentation. See how two robots, that follow the same brief, can be given strong visual identities through the use of different form languages. The purpose of this process is to end up with a clear presentation of a solid design.

The software used in this DVD is Corel Painter and Adobe Photoshop.
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The Gnomon Workshop - The Techniques of Feng Zhu Volume 3: Fundamentals of Shot
Design for Environments

This DVD breaks down the individual components necessary to stage a successful environment design. First covered are the basics of perspective, followed by demos explaining the use of scale and composition. Next, the fundamentals of lighting and values are illustrated. Finally, watch Feng sketch out various environments, incorporating all the topics covered above.

The software used in this DVD is Corel Painter.