David, Hello!
Here in NZ we are creating a cinematic trailer for our new game due to release next year!
And so here is a few questions for the forum;
What are some general or over all steps you would take in developing a cinematic trailer with Blizzard?
Would the lore have a big impact on the direction? For instance, WoW seems to show very story driven, but it also show cases the classes? Should a cinematic suggest vaguely the game play?
Many thanks!
Nick
Hio Mohaimn. Sorry for the delay in answers here. The type of creative needed depends on the company. At Blizzard, we’re more focused on a speciality with maybe 1 or 2 different secondary jobs. At Blur, it’s pretty generalist for their employees, especially in the back end where the finishers will do a lot of things to get a shot done. I think you may be a more fit in there. Also, generalists are usually hired nowadays for 3D environment matte paintings so you may fit in right there as well. Knowing how to model, texture, light, composite your shot will be a huge asset to studios in the digital environment setting.
2- So i thought that making a short cinematic to demonstrate my talent, using my knowledge of every thing with Unreal Engine 4 will get me the job or even attention, is that true? or i’m just wasting time and i should start specializing in one thing.
because making such a cinematic will require me to sculpt, rig, animate, lighting, environment modeling, texturing, directing and editing.
I would specialize in one thing. Doing your own cinematic conveys a generalists idea yes, but also it’s more focused in the game world of machinima rather than pre rendered cinematics (which Blizzard/Blur/Digic does). If that’s where you want to head, that’s great too. Just know the difference. It’s also more of a directing talent to do your own cinematic, and it also will be much more time consuming rather than focusing on one or two skills and being great at that. In matte painting, you don’t need to rig or animate really or direct or editing. So focus on the asset creation portions if you want to go more into matte painting.
3- if i succeeded to finish such a project, will it help me get a job?! even if i’m not specialized? and know something about every thing?! I’m sorry again, But i really need you advice.
Being great at anything will help you get a job. It’s kind of an open ended question where luck and skill and who you know plays a huge part in it. I’m not saying that if you do this project, you’ll instantly get a job. But rather doing well in that, or doing well in your other skill showcases such as modeling, or lighting, etc will all help play a role in helping you land a job. It’s not for sure though, like everything in life. Keep at it, and you will find the job you want and like to do!
All Nick! Thanks for asking these questions. However, these seem to be more in the story creation and overall higher level direction side rather than for a lowly cinematic artist as myself 
I work with the director/art director who have already established their world and art and will try my best to showcase their vision with my abilities. So this question might be better for a director/art director to answer.
Would the lore have a big impact on the direction? For instance, WoW seems to show very story driven, but it also show cases the classes? Should a cinematic suggest vaguely the game play?
Many thanks!
Nick
The lore definitely has a huge impact on the direction! That’s the first thing that the director and art director get their heads wrapped around before starting any brainstorming. It’s all about the world, and the characters that set the piece. Then the cinematics team can set the tone and our own style to imbue into the cinematics and over arching video game story. Sometimes, game play does dictate what needs to be shown. Perfect example would be the first World of Warcraft cinematic where the characters show their abilities like the druid shape shifting into cat form, or the hunter dwarf with his bear pet. Or in The Burning Crusade cinematic where you see the Blood Elves taking the mana from the wyrm or the priest reviving/healing the fallen orc. Also in the Starcraft cinematics, you get the same thing with Kerrigan or the siege tanks. So they do impact on what we should/could show in our cinematics (but in a more robust and realistic way). Hope that helps!
I don’t have much experience on matte painting but passionately interested to learn the matte painting in depth.
I’m a huge fan of your work. It has always been an inspiration 
As Im not very good at drawing I usually focus more on 3D and photorealstic based matte painting. However, I always feel like something is missing, I don’t feel the complete satisfaction with my work.
Your work is truly inspiring!!!
I’m going to school at Full Sail at the moment for Computer Animation and I was wondering on what advise mainly the (Do nots/cons) of setting up your portfolio online.
Thanks so much Warrak. Hope you had a great new years! Do check out our Digital Matte Painting forum here where I help lead with Milan Schere which contains a thread called DMP Tome of Knowledge. In there, are lots of resources pertaining to general 2D art and digital matte painting specifically. Also on CGSociety, there are some great workshops about dmp, which I teach myself a couple of times a year here: http://training.cgsociety.org/ Scott Brisbane has an upcoming workshop using Vue, Heather Abels is teaching Part 2 (a continuation of my workshop), as well as a great number of other environment related classes. Continue the passion yeah!!
Thanks so much Jtemp! (sorry don’t know your real name ) How long do you have left at Full Sail and how is it going so far?
For setting up your portfolio online, I would get your own domain name that is your first and last name if unique, or a nickname, or some clever name that’s short and simple. For me, it’s www.davidluong.net (.com was taken doh!) I’ve had it for well over 10 years now, and it has been a great presence for me despite all of the other art portfolio websites that have sprung up.
There, create a nice and simple layout using an easy template if you’re not into building websites from scratch such as Wordpress, Squarespace, or Wix and customize it to your liking. Speed, and content is key! Don’t be too flashy or use any heavy animations that will slow the navigation experience down. In there, have links to categories that you specialize in. Such as: Digital Matte Painting, Lighting, Compositing, etc, each in their own. Or you can separate into Personal, or Professional art work.
Branch out into Traditional Artwork as it’s own link if you like. Have a bio page, and a demo reel/resume page or they can be rolled into one. Make the resume a downloadable PDF file as it’s a consistent state, not .jpg or Word document or the like. Keep the resume to 1-2 pages max. Have some nice images that are thumbnails in the sub pages and pop out to larger images when you click on them in a nice light box. Squarespace/Wix has something like that you can setup easily, and Wordpress if you’re more in the tinkering mode.
Now that you have your personal website, I would also suggest you setup an online presence in the other social networking sites. Namely:
Those are the big ones these days, but I need to stress you be really active in Facebook as that’s a huge forum right now for artists all over the world to connect not just personally, but for art sake and sharing. So many people are connected, and if one piece of quality art is posted, the potential for audience and sharing with their audience is huge. Connect with your favorite artists and keep in contact with them on both a personal and professional level if possible (with the latter being most important of course). The world is so small these days, with the Internet, and especially for our industry. One day you might have an opportunity to work with another and being connected will give you a speedier opportunity when it does arise.
Hope that helps, good luck!
I forgot to add, Behance.net from Adobe is also a really great portfolio tool, check it out!
david, i just love blizzard cinematic movie, and i want to making 3d animation in blizzard. but i am in the army in korea. and discharged this year december. i am little good at drawing, and interested in modeling. lighting and compositing looks excited, but i am not sure that i good at it, talent to do it.
what can i do for my 3d artists’s skill about 10months? i have only pencil and paper…haha… everyday drawing is boring…
please help me… i have to do something! when i watched blizzard’s movie and also sf movie, it’s so excited! give me some advice to do!
when i discharged army, i will learn 3d animation detailed in academy in korea.
Thanks Magvfx and JonANM!
Sorry for the month delay in response. So happy you are inspired by the Blizzard cinematics! In the 10 months that you have, please do continue drawing for sure! What you can also do, is study nature, and draw cities that you see, and landscapes with your pencil and paper. That’s all you really have, so just use it to it’s maximum potential. Draw every day! Also you can have friends sit down for you and you can practice drawing portraits of them too. They would love one, and you could get great practice for anatomy out of it.
As for CG training, if you don’t have a computer, it’ll be really hard to learn the programs. But, if you have internet access from time to time, you can watch tutorial videos and watch videos (such as the Blizzard cinematics) or other inspiring videos to get your mood going. Try to see how they do things, how they model, light, bring everything together in compositing, and how it enhances the story in general. Also just watching great VFX movies in general (look for the Oscar award nominated and winnings films in VFX) and study how they also do things.
After the 10 months and getting discharged, I think you’ll be ready to go into the academy and really pursue your passion in the CG industry as the teachers there will further guide you into what you require for the industry. I’d like to hear back from you in a year or two though, please keep me posted here or in email!
Hi David ,
So far you are the best idol for me at CG industry . I am trying to be CG artist right now .
And I feel that I am more interest in Matte painting and compositing . But still feel good to do modeling , texturing and some dynamic and particles ( not as much as composting ) . So for an CG artist do we need to learn every single fields (all those modelinig , texturing etc …) ? and until which level we need to learn . I believe for the matte painting and composting I really need to go deep down for colour theory , lighting etc … and I am go for it too .
But for the other field ? :sad: :sad:
Best Regards
Hlaing Min
i’ve been following blizzard art in games and cinematics indeed , and it is just amazing , and kind of obvious when artist so talented like you are involved , i want so badly to reach blizzard some day , actually i’m on my way to become a better artist , but i realize how much i have to study for it , so my question would be this david 
… what should i study next? and would be the best institute, school or whatever to do it online? actually i have a good foundations about modelling , and i’m able to buil complete characters in zbrush with accersories , weapons etc , but i know that i can be a better char artist , so i dont really know what should i study to improve it all , i mean is texture painting and shading the next step ? or maybe lighting for a char turntable? or render? or rigging ? i dont really know what should i study next or even where in so many online schools , can you give your opinion please? thinking about i really want to reach blizzard level to join in haha
Heyo Hlaing,
Aww thanks so much! The areas you are interested in, make you more of a generalist. Understanding all aspects is great I think especially early on. But you’ll want to specialize more into one or two parts of the pipeline if you want to work at the bigger studios. At smaller studios, or where they allow more generalist work such as Environment Artist, knowing all parts is good though. Early on, you’ll want to definitely learn color theory, photography, digital painting for environments, and modeling/compositing after. Hope that helps!
Allo Andres,
I’m happy to be able to help where I can here. What is the status of your art education now? And are you willing to move around or do you want to just do online classes? So I can’t really recommend what you want to do next until knowing that I suppose.
At Blizzard, we are more specialized for the cinematics team. If you want to be a modeler, you just need awesome models. If you want to be a texture/shader artist, then you should have a model and can demonstrate amazing procedural and painting as well as technical skill to surface an object. For lighting, you’ll want to be involved in fully CG rendered environments/characters, which is hard to do by yourself, more if you were from a bigger studio doing this already. Compositors, are also the lighters at Blizzard, so knowing both is required. Again, hard to do that by yourself, so working at other studios that provide this for your reel and slowly gaining the knowledge and shots for your demo reels is what I recommend for lighting/compositing.
It all boils down to what you really want to do in the cinematics team. Have a look at the job forums at blizzard.com/jobs and you can see it’s really broken down by discipline. Focus on which part of the pipeline you are most passionate about, and be the strongest at that. I would recommend the amazing CGworkshops here at CGsociety, Gnomon DVD and Gumroad tutorials for self learning, and Digitaltutors.com for a sort of affordable online course. If you have time to learn all of this on your own at home, then that’ll save you lots of money. If you want to do study full time as a student, you will be gaining not just the knowledge, but friends and a network of potential coworkers in the future. It will come at a greater cost money wise though. So which ever one you prefer and can afford of course. Let me know what you are leaning towards.
David!
Thank you so much for the valuable information
Now i Understand more clearly ,regarding to my education i have an Associate degree in digital arts , since there i studied by my own, practice again and again ,and read so many zbrush book ,so much anatomy and 3d in a generalist way to say so , but now i started to work at an studio doing character for tv and short films ; so here i found how much i like to create character , so i
want to be a 3d char artist , that’s why my questions , to know what should i study next to complement the modeling/sculpting abilities i already have , but the obvious answer for me would be lighting , shading n texturing altogether plus a lot of experience to create and build for my reel the highest quality production ready char that Blizzard needs , am i right?
Hi david i love all of your work especially the blizzard stuff.
just one question here. im 29years old and have started learning 3dmax. im a pretty fast learner once i have time but am married and have two kids while working a fulltime job. do u think theres anyway to get good enough learning on your own at home with so little time? probably only 2hours a day if even that with a few extra hours on the weekend?
thanks
chris
Hello
I like your work
I’m interested in what it’s like working in high end film studios