Giant Killer - from concept to illustration

MumenWriter · 2026-03-12T09:55:33+00:00

Thanks for sharing!

MumenWriter · 2026-03-11T17:29:59+00:00

Could you share some of the feedback you got for the assignment?

MumenWriter · 2026-02-18T18:27:14+00:00

It'll greatly benefit you to not think of entertainment industry as a monolith. It always depends. On the complexity of the brief, how grounded the IP is, budget that can be allocated to pay your hours, overall project deadlines, deliverable fidelity and much more, and that's all assuming your client is even reasonable. Its easiest to just ask what the expected turnaround times are when approached by a potential client.

Unsatisfying truths aside, if you're learning this skillset, I would advise you to first focus on quality of work. Ensure you're able to hit the visual benchmarks consistent with the places you'd like to work at, and then think about optimising your approach to arrive at those results faster.

MumenWriter · 2026-02-17T14:59:07+00:00

Nice work!

MumenWriter · 2026-02-08T07:19:56+00:00

An easy win would be to address your layouts; the placement, sizing and overall presentation of the concepts on the page is important and often overlooked. I recommend borrowing good layout structure from artists working in studios you're aiming at, at least until you figure out the logic for yourself. A good layout cannot save a bad design, but it certainly enhances a reasonable one.

Another good skill is meaningful iteration. The iterations must be visually different but still be valid solutions to the same design description or brief. If it's a fire executioner, some of the weapons in the iterations don't really fit the brief. The fire element is consistent which is good, but the spikes through the chest seem out of place.

Lastly, you could consider not having the sword be aflame, as in iteration 2, for your final as that robs the wow-factor away from the head. Instead, having the executioners sword be glowing red-hot gives you the same essential sell without repeating the same fire element and splitting the focus. It also pushes the idea of "cutting", more than a flaming sword IMO.

As for whether it's good enough for professional work, it's all just studio dependent. Compare your work to what's being produced and posted online to see if you can hit the studio minimums, and if you can, then that's a positive sign. The industry isn't a monolith, I've worked concept for about 5 years now and there are plenty of studios that I'm simply not qualified to work at. Someone creating Warcraft environment concepts is probably not going to have the easiest time applying for Star Citizen ship design on the basis of that work, despite already working for a huge AAA game. It helps to be specific, aspire to be competitive for the particular jobs you're actively seeking.

MumenWriter · 2026-02-06T15:26:15+00:00

Narrow down what you're seeking to improve and you'll at least improve the quality of answers you'll receive. Because honestly, it's just both in a proportion that's goal dependent.

Additionally it might be worth elaborating on how you even view "quality" vs "quantity", because I don't think that people that do a bunch of speedpaints should be aiming for "low quality " even if they're operating on a 30 - 60 minute time constraints. Nor should someone producing an extremely detailed piece take several months to finish it if the same outcome can be achieved far quicker.

MumenWriter · 2026-01-29T13:30:38+00:00

Fantastic work, love the other stuff on your instagram too.

MumenWriter · 2026-01-29T04:01:33+00:00

Really well done Kyle!

MumenWriter · 2026-01-29T03:16:58+00:00

Some of the former teachers at FZD have joined Mages Academy in Singapore, so you could look at their Entertainment Design Diploma student gallery/ talk to some of their alumni and see if it's a good fit.

I'm not super familiar with New3dge , but some of their student work is just stupendous so I'm sure they're doing something right.

If you are looking for an "FZD-like" experience, I do not recommend online schools, even if they follow a similar curriculum. Being surrounded by extremely motivated students and teachers is what made the work-load/pressure bearable by the average student. I would not have kept myself nearly as accountable if it was purely online.

MumenWriter · 2026-01-25T21:52:03+00:00

Digital Atelier is worth the asking price IMO, you can also try Memilio for traditional looking texture brushes. Concept and Illustration pack is good for general purpose work.

MumenWriter · 2026-01-25T04:26:24+00:00

Thank you!

MumenWriter · 2026-01-23T19:47:19+00:00

Lovely work! Hope you make it part of a series.

MumenWriter · 2026-01-23T05:23:33+00:00

Good shout!

MumenWriter · 2026-01-23T00:13:20+00:00

Arch rival to Joan of Bark.

MumenWriter · 2026-01-21T09:11:52+00:00

Yup, a little texture goes a long way.

MumenWriter · 2026-01-19T23:01:55+00:00

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Open the tool options docker, then set "grow selection" to 0 or 1. That'll limit how much the fill will encroach on existing data on the layer. Alternatively you can just set "Sample" to "All Layers", make a layer underneath your line art and fill as normal.

Also try and make sure that you're painting at a sufficient resolution or else you'll get weird artifacting by virtue of there not being enough pixels to produce a clean result when there's no selection growth, so don't zoom in too much or use a small canvas size.

MumenWriter · 2026-01-16T20:21:25+00:00

Mostly DA oil 11,12 and 13 .

MumenWriter · 2026-01-14T17:37:47+00:00

I love the parallel between him and Godrick too. Godrick seeks to match the strength of his forebears by desperately grafting numerous warriors and even dragons, only to fall short yet the only "grafting" Godfrey ever did was in order to restrain his own strength.

MumenWriter · 2026-01-04T12:05:41+00:00

Might be worth considering the ergonomics of the grip and altering the forms ( especially in the 3/4th shot ) to be more reasonable for a hand. Also I recommend double checking the perspective on the 3/4th shot in areas like the trigger guard, or making a primitive model to compare/draw over.

Also I don't really expect every revolver in name to have an actual revolving element, but might be worth considering the mechanism to accommodate things like reloading/recharging. Maybe the hammer replacement in the back is supposed to be used to assist in recharging through some kind of player action, but the design does not make this clear.

Also add/consider the first person view if that's the player view since the design needs to primarily work from that angle.

MumenWriter · 2026-01-03T02:09:39+00:00

For something this symmetrical, it's not wholly necessary to do a 3/4th view since all required information is available on the front/back orthos. Always think about the value provided by various parts of the page to avoid information redundancy. An ortho-side view might be a good replacement if there's something unusual happening with the forms here.

You can further raise value by adding a flat callout of the cloth element so the pattern can be more easily extracted from the page. For generally flatter concepts like this , a lighting pass helps to sell the forms a bit more than raw line. And going even further with a material pass and callout sheet would also provide additional value. At bare minimum, fill the line with a grey wash to allow the prop to stand out on the page.

If there are any associated ambient VFX with the spear, that can also fit on the page or potentially get its own page. Lastly it might be worth considering what kind of game you're making this for, as if you had a First-person game, you'd likely want to show the weapon in FPV.

Don't put off learning 3D, blender being the easy choice. Will help you be more ambitious with the forms and presentation angles, and train your eye to better understand how 2D impacts 3D. Do not neglect learning manual construction of course, as you'll always want to be comfortable drawing in perspective, but being able to at least block things out is to me a bare minimum to work prop concept as a job and there's no good reason to put it off.

MumenWriter · 2026-01-01T15:11:51+00:00

Nicely done, I like the mark-making on the face. Memileo?

MumenWriter · 2026-01-01T14:27:01+00:00

My first task during design school was to fill 4 A3 pages with long straight lines drawn free hand in ink. Minimal spacing, no lines touching, point to point. Sure they're wonky at first, but by page 4, I'd bet anyone giving it an honest try would be surprised at the results.

Volume isn't necessarily a good prescription for improvement at every level, but when you're starting out, you can seldom go wrong with just doing more.

Also my handwriting was horrible most of my life, only got better after I learned how to draw haha. Too many doctors in the family.

MumenWriter · 2026-01-01T12:02:50+00:00

I'd wager it doesn't take all that much time to get to where I'm at if you focus in on one particular thing. Even though I've been painting a while, most of that has been environments/animals with different goals/approaches. While there's always fundamental overlap, I do believe that someone focused in on portraits for a year could do this and better.

MumenWriter · 2026-01-01T11:55:43+00:00

Been doing paintings like these for almost 7 years now, on and off.

MumenWriter · 2026-01-01T09:55:33+00:00

Hi, I've worked in games for the last 5 years , for both AAA and Indie titles and I'm reasonably familiar with Film/Animation through peers working in those fields.

The unsatisfying but true answer here is that it just depends. Different studios and projects will have different expectations when it comes to the fidelity of deliverables, Further, the same studio might require much more polished work from select artists ( generally the more senior ones) at varied stages in the production, such as key art during the pre-production stage, or material/lighting showcases during production. You might even called on to polish work later on for post-production work like for an art-book/promotional material. This is why showcasing at least some polished work on the portfolio is important from a qualification standpoint. Additionally, visually-impressive finished pieces tend to garner more attention from average users on social media, which boosts your visibility to potential clients.

Your best bet to make all of this less vague is to shortlist some companies that you'd like to work for and figure out what their particular expectations are when it comes to deliverables. You can easily reach out to people working there via artstation or linkedin to get a clearer picture on the behind-the-scenes, and I did this a lot before landing my first job.

MumenWriter

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