Hey there. Just got the curriculum from Josh Herman for his course. Go here to check it out (below the video).
... you've seen Gurmukh's curriculum here, right?
Let's look at their curriculum, for a sec.
On one hand you have Gurmukh's massive iterations in the beginning, module 1 through 3, and then his DEEP dive into the functionality and look of each individual section of the ship, modules 3 through 7.
On the other hand you have Josh Herman's longer exploration stage, modules 1 through 6, followed by two more serious weeks where you virtually manufacture the model in module 7 and 8.
then leave you two or three modules to talk about rendering and presentation...
... and both courses really speak to the changes in concept design today.
As Charlie Wen said by bringing Josh Herman from the 3D department into the concept design department they were able to control the final look of the film much, much more.
Many times, concept art is just a jumping off point for VFX and rightly so. VFX have to be VERY specific about how things work. They need lots of information that concept art sometimes doesn't give, right?
We've all been there. Working from some reference or some concept that doesn't show the back view or doesn't break down how a prop is built... and we have to make it up...
Well, when you have BILLIONS dollars at stake, the gross receipts of all Marvel films, then I guess you learn not to mess around! Concept NEEDS to be as close to production as possible...
Control freaks! But in a good way. :)
Gurmukh Bhasin in his job is under similar pressure to keep concept as close to production as possible. In Forrest Stephan's chat he mentions that Cloud Imperium, beside making history as the world's most funded crowdfunded project, also strives to get models into their funders hands as fast as humanly possible.
To do that, they have to cut the distance between concept and production. They can't afford to spend man hours retopologizing models.
Their concept artist, Gurmukh, must work with great topology that can be literally plopped into the game with only minimal alterations.
See, in games you have game designers who work out how characters interact, what they can do with their environments, their weapons, other players.
When your environment is literally a spaceship like Star Citizen you NEED your designers to have the final model as soon as possible. Otherwise, you have delays as the designers make adjustments to game play or compensate for a model that doesn't function right...
Basically, and I know this is one long ass post...
Basically, a few years ago you could throw a bunch of production monkeys (i've been there) at a project to fix things... Today, though, the bar is so high... so high... that fixing just doesn't fix everything...
Concept NEEDS to be close to production and that is driving so much change.
-Ryan
P.S. Whew! Thanks for reading and, remember, registration is now open for both classes and there is a bundle and there is a 6 month payment plan.
Go here to check it out (below the video).
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