World-Building Art Lab

Develop strong visuals of a digital world based on the narrative concept!

26. 8. - 6. 9. 2024
English
10 days
at least intermediate drawing skills
Český Krumlov, Czech Republic

800 EUR

per artist


3 300 EUR

per project

Registration Open

Designed for traditional artists to work hands-on together with industry professionals as mentors to take a story of a film or game project and learn to execute the ideas using digital workflows and tools such as Photoshop, Blender, and Unreal Engine to create the digital concept art for it – design and create the style and atmosphere of the environment, design props, and backgrounds, the style of render and FX of your movie or game, explore new 3D digital tools to do the designs most efficiently and smartly.

You will focus on developing strong visuals and digital tools based on the narrative concept you bring to the lab. Emphasis will be on how to establish world-building design elements that reinforce storytelling in digital film production and the highly competitive new AI market.

On completion of the lab, you will

  • develop 4-5 images based on the concept prompts brought to the lab
  • create at least one pitch-ready portfolio image
  • discuss how designs will affect budgets and schedules, and how your designs will be used by other departments down the line in production.
  • Enhance your visual art skills for storytelling using new approaches and digital tools such as Blender
  • introduction to digital workflows and production collaboration with Unreal Engine artists.
  • Enhance your team-development processes and digital workflows

How it works

You will take a chunk of an existing story, or maybe just one sequence, and on a smaller scale, touch upon all the same things they would do to create the design packages necessary for production: storyboards, prop designs, character/costume designs, environment designs, FX design, shot plans (if it’s for a film), and a final story-beat illustration (or two…depending on complexity and skill level of the participant). Explore digital tools to upgrade your workflows and production know-how. Brace yourself up with the top professionals entering the world of AI – what will it bring, how do top artists think about the future of digital art?

At the end of the lab, you will have several portfolio pieces showing your understanding of how to break down a portion of a film or game and design all the elements necessary to be able to move into production. You will understand what digital tools can bring to your professional career as a digital concept artist. The preference is to structure the experience as an overview, where you get to experience designing all aspects of production (props, sets, environments, characters, FX, etc.) and learn to understand that digital concept art goes beyond pen and paper. You will collaborate with colleagues from the Unreal Engine lab, representing the production artists working with concept art assignments. You will be able to attend lectures from both labs.

The labs include

  • Concept art and digital demo lectures by an accomplished professional
  • Professional mentoring and consulting of your project – film or game
  • Team collaboration with the mentor

 

Lesson plan

Lesson plan

WEEK 1

  • Day 1: Introduction, approach to designing narrative and workflow in digital production (Adobe Photoshop, Blender, Unreal Engine). Discuss the concepts brought to class individually. Decide on key beat moments to develop and plan the usage of the tools.
  • Day 2: Character/costume Design lecture/demo in Adobe Photoshop. Research, digital workflows, tools, tips and tricks.First assignment: Develop a character key beat moment.
  • Day 3: Composition. Characters in action in a set. Research. Develop an action moment. How to quickly produce results digitally.
  • Day 4: Designing an environment, Lighting, and color in Photoshop. Research. Collaboration with Unreal Engine Look dev Lab. How art direction is applied in Unreal Engine. Develop an environment reveal moment.
  • Day 5: Characters in an environment. Continuation working on the assignments in Photoshop. Evolution of the tools: Blocking the space in 3D tools such as Blender. Design characters interacting with an environment close-up set.

WEEK 2

  • Day 1: Designing composition and layout using Blender
  • Day 2: Establishing lighting. Shadow shapes and values in Blender and Photoshop
  • Day 3: Understanding color and light sources. Assignments in Photoshop.
  • Day 4: Creating graphics elements and texture. Continuation of the assignment.
  • Day 5: Final critique and refinement. QnA, digital workflows tips and tricks.

 

Who is it for

We invite both individual artists as well as producers with a project to the lab. Choose your role:

Artists

Ideal for aspiring visual artists – illustrators and designers to fine tune their skills and portfolio, experience focused project base team work. Whether you’re a beginner or seeking to enhance your skills, this lab offers valuable insights into the art and craft of designing worlds.

You should have drawing skills already at an intermediate level and bring your own projects to the lab to boost both skills, workflows and project.You will be part a team of artists, led by the mentor,  working on a project.


Producer with a Project

Bring your creative vision to life during the lab! The aim of the lab is to flesh out either first ideas of a worldbuilding, or help to fine tune existing designs and art direction.

Producers with a project can participate, bringing either their own creative team  or we help to form a team from participating artists. The capacity is up to 5 projects.

Producer has a art-director to actively take part in the lab and lead team of artists. Art-directors can represent the producer during the lab, ensuring focused and productive collaboration. Ideally, he is present on-site, nevertheless it can take form of on/line as well.

Priority for participation will be given to projects that actively engage in other labs, particularly the Character Design and Directing Characters & Storybording Lab. This exclusive opportunity allows participants to integrate their storyboarding endeavours with comprehensive character development and world-building experiences, fostering a cohesive and enriched creative process.

Prerequisite

In order to be eligible for the lab, along with your registration you need to submit:

Artists

  • Portfolio to demonstrate expertise and experience in the field of visual art
  • Motivational letter
    Emphasis on career motivation and vision for a project


Producers with projects

  • Project synopsis
  • Motivation letter emphasising career motivation and vision for a project

Fees and funding

Fee

Artist
800 EUR per artist

Price include: training fee

Producers
3 300 EUR per project

Price includes training fee for max 2 artists in the team (your own, or we help to form a team from individual participating artists), mentor fee overseeing the project, and participation of (art)-director and producer for free.

 

General conditions

  • Possibility to pay in installments.
  • We advise participants to apply for scholarships for participation fees and/or travel costs in their countries, as many public film funding bodies usually support such training costs.
  • The fee covers the fee of the course. The fee does NOT include accommodation, board, and tuition during workshops and travel.
  • Approximate living costs during your stay in the Czech Republic:
    • Accommodation at the venue: 30 EUR / night
    • Breakfast at the hotel – 5 EUR
    • Restaurant meals between 7 – 10 EUR
    • Grocery in general – 50 EUR per person a week

Funding for Czech employees and freelancers

Czech Labour Office (Úřad práce) offers to cover up to 85% of the course fee within the so-called POVEZ II project (Support of Vocational Training for Employees II). See the details and conditions here.

Cancellation Policy

The fee of 30% off the course price applies when canceling 45 days before the start of the course into which one gets accepted.

Direct interaction
with seasoned
industry
professionals

Mentors
Lucas Film

Our incubator
boosted dozens
of projects

Show all projects

800 EUR

per artist


3 300 EUR

per project

Registration Open
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