The Gnomon Workshop – Original Creature Concepts

In this workshop, Concept and Character Artist Pablo Munoz Gomez shares his workflow for generating an original and appealing creature concept from an arrangement of abstract 3D shapes. The process covers everything from the initial idea, explaining the methodology and core concepts of the technique, all the way to the final render and composite. The steps to achieve figurative forms may seem counterintuitive, but producing quick variations early on is crucial for the development of a solid and convincing design.

Throughout this workshop, Pablo emphasizes the importance of the iterative process and the exploration of ideas, sharing practical advice and tools to refine the abstract forms into a concept with a more cohesive visual language. Although the subject of this workshop is the concept of a creature, the workflows and application of the 2D and 3D tools are not specific to creature design. The techniques that Pablo shares are segmented in clear steps that can be applied to any type of project. The first steps introduce the technique of creating thumbnails using Photoshop, Krita and zbrush, before then moving into 3D space to build custom assets. The 3D assets will then be used to create an abstract ‘cluster’ as a base to further explore the design. The second stage of the process consists of developing variations of the cluster and to identify suggestions of a more figurative creature. In the third and final stage, the creature is defined, detailed, textured with polypaint, posed, rendered with keyshot and finalized in Photoshop. For those looking to explore new forms and shape language with their designs, this title offers insight into an effective and practical workflow.