It almost brought tears to my eyes It feels at home having another new episode I want you to know how precious every second of these videos are For those who crave to join you from all over the distant quarters of the world We love you so much you generous lovable amazing! I wish one day i could meet you in person and thank you from the very bottom of my heart
Watching a new FZD video is like sitting down to watch a movie you know will be epic. Btw, environmental thumbnails is the exact topic I was looking for tutorials on a couple months back. Unfortunately, hard to believe considering how important this topic is, but there weren't many good tutorials on TH-cam. I think I had found one. So happy for this.... Wish I had it earlier. Thank you FZ!
Btw if anyone wants to know how to create a perfect grid quickly.... Make a black vertical bar and snap it to the left of the canvas. Duplicate it (ctrl/cmd + J) and snap that one to the right. Make 2 more duplicates (4 bars total). Select all 4 layers. Go to Layer > Distribute > Left Edges. This will distribute the bars evenly. You can then create 5 horizontal bars and use this tool to distribute them vertically.
Ersan Seer If you want a great program to create grids and perspective lines that works hand in hand with photoshop you can download the program called "Carapace" for free from Epic Games. It only work with Windows so far it think. I highly recommend it.
"Every line you put on paper is taking you to get better" Thanks Feng - I'll really have that in mind when practicing, soon I'll be taking the one year diploma, I'm doing my homework :) Thanks and greets from Mexico.
I think one of the main reasons why I started loving environments so much, is because of you, Feng, and the Design Cinema series. I watched every video this summer, and every single one of them is like a treasure-box full of invaluable advice and tips to guide and keep you on the path you've set out on. Thank you for making these videos, I seriously hope online tuition could be made available in the near future. Although, as you've said so many times, discipline is everything, and if you have that, it's up to you how fast and well you learn and put the knowledge you gain to practice. As for the future content question, I love the "Let's draw" series, but having topics cycle every 5 or 10 episodes, I think that would cover a wider spectrum and be more open to various aspects that interest all of us, instead of only one of something. So far you've been covering so many different things, and I honestly love that. It all makes sense and there is some sort of progression from the very first to the very latest video you make. Looking forward to the new developments throughout 2015! Happy New Year to you and your colleagues at FZD School! You all are fantastic and awesome, so keep rocking our design-socks!! :o)
Feng, you are too humble. You can do as much promotion as you want. You more than deserve it for all that free content you gave us man. Love from Canada!
your word,attitude,creativity,everything put on this series allways cheer me up and make my head straght up especially when I'm not strong. I don know how to thank this much, like my parents. you are literally "What you giving is what you getting" type of person. thank you again, I'll stand and move foward.
That feeling, when you get up in the morning, go grab a large mug of coffee, sit down at the computer and check your usual haunts, and see there's a new Design Cinema up :) You may not show fundamentals in these, but you can't imagine the amount of inspiration and motivation, at least I get from these. I've looked up the stuff elsewhere, and practice on my own, and whenever things start to feel too hard, or like nothing is working, I watch a couple of these, and get my mojo back, and jump right back in to it. Thank you so much for doing these!
This was one of the best design cinemas yet. I really liked how there were 12 completely different ideas. It's impossible to not get inspired by this video. I really liked the format!
Gotta say about the future of Design Cinema... I just want to see more of the same. Let's plays, all your random stuff, design studies... All the stuff you do now, I just would love to see more of them. You're a true inspiration and motivator, Feng! Thanks so much for these videos and your words of encouragement!
Every Feng Zhu video is like a present! Always make me happy and motivated! Honestly, any video topic is interesting, but the Lets Draw was pretty fun, wish for more of those!
I would just like to mention how grateful I am to you and anyone like you who provides these kinds of free online tutorials. They really are a great source of inspiration for young people like me who love learning. I am mostly a science and tech kinda guy, but these videos have really gotten me into art lately, and I am really thankful to you for introducing me to this new hobby.
Im just doing my homework ( a 3D model in Modo), I am attending Dave School right now, and I love set my second monitor to FZD channel and just watching while working. creativity is contagious
Current student at the Academy of Art University majoring in visual development. I love all of your videos and tutorials, and the information you have about the industry is absolutely invaluable. Love it all.. Thank you.
In the first five minutes I was like "Waaaht is he doing" now i'm like "I can do landscapes now" I've always struggled with them trying to come up with a way to give me a good starting point. I absolutely love this way of doing landscapes!! Thank you!
OH, the inspiration! Every video watched just adds to the excitement I have of starting my digital art studies come March when I quit my job and focus solely on illustration. Thank you!
Imagine a Feng Zhu and Scott Robertson mash-up. Too bad the distance is a bit of a problem, and both of them are too busy. All the knowledge and insight, and all those inside jokes! Absolutely love the thumbnails. This is the kind of stuff I really need to get into doing. Too rarely, too few... More!
i never get depressed or demoraled over seeing other ppl doing better than me, it always fires me up to do better so i can stand next to those ppl i look up to and be equally skilled. but maybe i am an exception from the mass. but realy feng zu you always make me tremble from excitement when you bring out a new video because i always know that i will learn some new technique or new way of thinking or something else that might be important. thank you for giving us this wonderful advice all the time
I really appreciate these videos, I have been following you since around ep 20. Honestly I think that the pieces that I get the most out of are the ones that cover the first 20 or so minutes. I love that you bring new techniques like this in. Thumbnails or paintings aside I mainly watch for the new techniques you bring in each video.
Design cinema has helped me immensely since I discovered it. I've even found a few freelance jobs because of how much it improved my work. I'd love to give something back but realistically I don't know what I could offer. Other than my thanks of course. Looking forward to where it goes in the new year and very glad to hear you're keeping it all free. Happy holidays Feng.
40:00 What you say here is so powerfully touching. I'm so glade I'm part of this generation, where so many talented people are literally giving away their experience and knowledge to help people who may not be so well off or able to access this information, to grow and develop their passions. May all the universes gods bless you, may the wind be on your back and your crops yield multiple harvests. Please keep doing what you are doing, you and your friends are a gift to humanity. :] Just trying to say Thank you.
This episode was very useful (well, they ALL are really). It would be awesome to see Feng's process for taking one of these thumbnails up to a finished piece.
A video going over character thumbnails would be really cool, characters have always been my favorite things to draw and seeing Feng's approach would definitely be useful :) Late Merry Christmas Feng and staff!
Feng Zhu you are truly amazing, I am from the old school of sketching with color Ink Airbrush and markers. I been inspired by viewing your work to try digital sketching and having fun with. Thanks for sharing and always very refreshing to view and listen your passion in the world of illustration. best regards Tony Foong
I'm loving the thumbnail with the village in the forest and those tapestry(?) roofs 8-) also the fortified outpost on the falls in the central column (although I find it more stimulating flipped to the right)
Feng you are absolutely amazing, countless thanks to you, i feel very inspired from your tutorials and teachings, i am aspiring digital artist from Ireland and I can tell you now that you are one of a kind. Thanks a million
Thank you so much, again a very good episode. And especially what you've said about morale in the end of the video was very encouraging. I am at a point right now were I often feel stuck and hopeless, and further progress is hard to spot - so words like these really bring you back on track. Thank you!
I definitely enjoy your video game redesigns quite a bit and I think I learn quite a bit from them. As a younger artist, I can say that they are both highly informative and do a great job of maintaining interest, so I'd love to see more of them. Thanks!
Feng, you are totally correct that these videos do affect peoples lives, your words are very inspiring and for me personally, they shattered many illusions I had about this sort of thing, I've always sorta believed that in order to be good, you have to have every painting come out perfect from the very first attempt, your videos have taught me that is not only a lie, but not even how its supposed to work. These are very inspiring to me as a designer, and as someone who really has sank in many hours practicing my drawing after graduating college to a point where I finally feel my work is reaching what is acceptable for the industry, what you say during these videos give me confidence that I'm going in the right direction, I wish you and the school very happy holidays,congratulations on all the success, and I cant wait for the next video Feng, you rock.
Thanks so much for doing these, appreciate it. So needed that moral pep talk, in my fifties now and getting deflated a bit and putting too much pressure on myself, that every piece I make has to be good.
I think for me, environment thumbnails are the coolest thing and definitely something I'd like to see more of. I just came back to watch this episode again because of that. I feel like these big picture ideas are more interesting than a detailed painting. I'd rather paint these and never detail again than have to detail every painting I do. Awesome stuff, would love to see more of it. Also really looking forward to the new design cinema stuff you were saying about.
today 24/09/2023, im still watching this and i must also say, currently there are 196k views and i could have this nearly 2% of that total views which is 392 times and don't ask me how many hours!...JUST gold
Thanks again for uploading a great video! I got a Surface Pro 3 for Christmas and am looking to pick this up again as a hobby! I'm pretty much brand new to Digital Painting and have what I would think are lower then average drawing skills so hearing you break everything down and explain everything is amazing!
Watching this video and learning this technique just pushed me and took me out of that artist block, thank so much for these videos. Keep up the great work!
I really love to listen to these episodes while working on my traditional projects, can't actually wait to get my digital equipment and start trying stuff out from these videos. :P Keep it rollin'.
about Design Cinema going "pro": its the "unpro" vibe that feels better to watch than a formal Gnomon tutorial, for example, that often feel very stiff to get through. The best part about DC is that it feels like someone is sitting next to you after hours and just giving you helpful tips and insight. If DC does go "pro", I hope it retains that feeling, and by going pro, hopefully they will be more frequently posted since more ppl will be working on 'em, thats meh 2 cents :D
Man....you just solved my problem ! I always feel like painting but I do not know what , I do not know how to generate something new and fresh. This is amazing! Thanks!
Q&A. How much time do you allocate yourself per week/month to spend with family, friends, exercise, healthy eating/cooking, cinema etc basically everything which is not art related. Is it important for you to spend time out of the office? Too much of a good thing is bad!!!
Thanks for these videos. I've always been interested in concept design and industrial design I was exposed to this type of art in the mortal kombat games but I never knew the official titles until I stumbled upon these videos... these videos are exciting to watch. I listen to everything you talk about because these videos really give great insight on what this industry is about and the skills you'll need to get into it. I think the most important thing you've said that stuck to me is artists in this field see everything as shapes drawing a vehicle is no different then drawing a person and it 'd be silly to tell your boss. "Hey I only draw this subject "........there is no difference. On top of that I was sad to see that this school is so far away I hope that the online school comes to life. Anyways I look forward to future videos and keep up the awesome work.
I' have 32 years, I love art since I was a kid; before high school I went to an art school to polish some of my abilities, but the hardness of life force me to give-up my dreams to support my family. Thanks Feng for all the motivations and advisement you give away, they have been very well received! Do you think is to late for me venturing into digital art? I don't have any experience in the industry, but I love drawing and painting even though haven't done it professionally. I apologize for my grammatical skills, Thanks.
Definitely love the series. I know all about morale, I love drawing and when I started to take some design classes I noticed everyone's work was better than mine and I thought that I should quit because there was no way I belonged even trying to get in this business. I quit drawing for about 6 months, it was hard for me because I wanted to get into the business of designing games for the fun it bring to me. I love video games, I love the art of video games and that was why I was in it. I had to get back to thinking about it in that perspective. Get back to what I love and what I enjoy. Not look at it as a "who's drawings are better" but more of "I'm doing this because I love it". Once my morale went down it took me a long time to recover and build it back up. So I second that x100. I would definitely like to some Sci-Fi...fantasy is always my thing because you can let your imagination run wild...but Sci-Fi would be awesome. Happy Holidays.
Hey Feng. I'd love to see a video of you drawing some tall ships like you have your students do in class. It'd be a great insight to drawing curves in perspective. Thanks for all the great videos!
Always great to hear your voice Feng :D makes me pick up my pen and draw instantaneity especially when seeing your helpful video's and free knowledge your handing out to us. Merry Christmas from England Bro :)
O processo criativo é tudo numa produção, seja ela um filme, uma animação, um documentário e cada artista tem o seu próprio! Parabéns, Feng Zhu por compartilhar seu processo criativo conosco!
I'm really happy the school is growing! On the topic of making Design Cinema more professional, please don't make it stuffy like Level Up or similar channels. I'm willing to go out on a limb and say most of us enjoy your free form (I wouldn't say rambling) discussion of topics, and we enjoy how you inject your own humor into the videos as well. :-)
Thanks so much for making these videos, and I'm really excited about hearing of FZD's plans for giving more attention to Design Cinema. I would love to have more videos focused on the relationship between the concept artist and the 3D modeler as it pertains to the production pipeline. I want to be a 3D artist, but I practice concept art as well so that I can have a wider skill set and understanding of how to interpret concept art in production. Thanks again!
This random thumbnailing can be done with watercolors too, if you want to try a different medium. I'm doing it right now, inspired by this video, and it's pretty fun. Watercolors are prone to happy accidents, which is great for idea searching like this. You can also take a crumpled tissue and dab it on the still wet colors for more randomness. Then when you have a happy color-texture-cloud on your paper, take ink or a pen or something and doodle your ideas over it!
Very informational language and ideas, thumbnail sketches by Feng Zhu is very interesting. I try to paint chaotic landscapes but worry about color relationships. I forget to use the color picker and I'm unsure what to detail and what to leave unfinished. Working in Photoshop it's hard to suggest because when you zoom in, so daunting is the detail. But to watch thumbnails done from completely far away is like a great way to study. Why people thumbs down on something so informational I will never understand. Thanks for sharing FZD, Design Cinema is cool because it's rough. Artistic License and fundamentals is something that I personally have a problem with in digital painting. I tend to always want to make things connect perfectly without leaving anything to the imagination. WHy
Thanks again for a superb episode, loved what you said about not getting depressed over failures etc, really helps ! Love how a professional with such a great talent can be so humble and willing to boost up others by teaching and being a guide. You were asking to post something in the comment section about future video ideas. My proposal would be to accept begginers work and paint over or talk about what can be changed, as a person doing this very casual I find myself stuck sometimes in a painting not knowing how to handle it further. Again, Feng. Thanks a lot and keep it up ! ;)
Thanks for the Christmas present! I started to find environment design much more interesting thanks for the design cinema. For future thumbnails you could maybe do one for land automobiles? As it's something I believe was little shown in the series until now.
I don't mind if a few videos in a row speak to a specific topic, but what I like most about Design Cinema is the comprehensive variety of topics, so if the show splits into sub-shows, or goes on tangents or whatever that's fine, but I hope it doesn't become so focused that the variety is lost.
Hello Sir, Big Thanks for EPISODE 75, 76 & 77 for thumbnails. Next Episode, Q&A please. My question is - as a total beginner to design process, after completing fundamentals and stuff, how should we choose the subject matter on the very start. Like in basics process, you go from drawing boxes in perspective, to complex vehicles and organic bodies. How to maintain same approach and not losing mind in thumbnail generation because of just being too ambitious, and simply losing patience, wasting time on noodling here and there etc. What is the most simplistic approach, TO DESIGN, even and IDIOT LIKE ME CAN UNDERSTAND( WASTED 2 DAYS on VEHICLE DESIGN, mindless noodling without references, testing my visual library which is STUDENT B type in your Visual Library Episode 52 - thought I am SUPERMAN of Concept art). I think episode 77 - fish fighters was a really helpful, but still I wish it could be boiled down to the base completely, like few more examples done, while you are feeding our GEEK minds with design knowledge. Thanks :)
Really enjoyed this video Feng! Wish you would put up class lectures on here everyday so it would be like I was attending FZD. Hopefully I will be able to go there for a year some time in the future.
I think making a series using viewer-created images where Feng shows us how to correct common mistakes we wouldn't know about would be cool... just a random thought, may help us to get past certain plateaus we are hitting in our progress
thank you, thank you, thank you, for realizing how amazing and helpful these videos are for beginners. your positive mind set and perspective on painting and the industry have changed my life and is a seemingly endless source of inspiration and moral for me as an artist. I love you Feng! I think if you had an affordable online site for just detailed courses on fundamentals it would completely and utterly change the world. the people at your school get the advantage of being able to ask you questions and get the pressure of assignments to push them forward. I think you should take a survey of whether or not they would care if you did a site that covered the fundamentals and whether they think they are getting screwed if you did something like that. because if they do think they are getting screwed I don't want you to lose students because of the site. but if they don't, like I said you could change the world for all of us that can't afford to go to school or make it to school! I myself have intense anxiety and I don't even know if I could make it to school, even if I had the money to go.
Another great video, thanks for taking the time to do this for us. I'm looking forward to the character ones that you indicated that you might do. It would be interesting to see how this approach to be applied to characters because I'm having a hard time seeing it.
I really enjoyed this episode! I will have to give this method a try tomorrow. :) I would definitely like to see a demonstration of a similar method for 'real life' designs (real life architecture, landscapes, characters, etc.
awesomeness! This video is awesome! I think it would be cool (just a random idea) if there was a forum/discussion place on the internet for people who watch FZD school to gather and share their work and learn from each other as well.
It almost brought tears to my eyes
It feels at home having another new episode
I want you to know how precious every second of these videos are
For those who crave to join you from all over the distant quarters of the world
We love you so much you generous lovable amazing!
I wish one day i could meet you in person and thank you from the very bottom of my heart
very well said. I agree 100%
agree
Watching a new FZD video is like sitting down to watch a movie you know will be epic. Btw, environmental thumbnails is the exact topic I was looking for tutorials on a couple months back. Unfortunately, hard to believe considering how important this topic is, but there weren't many good tutorials on TH-cam. I think I had found one. So happy for this.... Wish I had it earlier. Thank you FZ!
Btw if anyone wants to know how to create a perfect grid quickly.... Make a black vertical bar and snap it to the left of the canvas. Duplicate it (ctrl/cmd + J) and snap that one to the right. Make 2 more duplicates (4 bars total). Select all 4 layers. Go to Layer > Distribute > Left Edges. This will distribute the bars evenly. You can then create 5 horizontal bars and use this tool to distribute them vertically.
Ersan Seer
If you want a great program to create grids and perspective lines that works hand in hand with photoshop you can download the program called "Carapace" for free from Epic Games. It only work with Windows so far it think. I highly recommend it.
Ersan Seer I use a free photoshop plugin called 'GuideGuide', well worth a look ;)
Freffo Great tool, thanks for the heads up.
Be sure to find his other environmental videos! The Final Fantasy VII videos are awesome.
"Every line you put on paper is taking you to get better" Thanks Feng - I'll really have that in mind when practicing, soon I'll be taking the one year diploma, I'm doing my homework :)
Thanks and greets from Mexico.
It's intressting how these videos always gets me motivated to keep on learning
Me too 😁
I think one of the main reasons why I started loving environments so much, is because of you, Feng, and the Design Cinema series. I watched every video this summer, and every single one of them is like a treasure-box full of invaluable advice and tips to guide and keep you on the path you've set out on.
Thank you for making these videos, I seriously hope online tuition could be made available in the near future. Although, as you've said so many times, discipline is everything, and if you have that, it's up to you how fast and well you learn and put the knowledge you gain to practice.
As for the future content question, I love the "Let's draw" series, but having topics cycle every 5 or 10 episodes, I think that would cover a wider spectrum and be more open to various aspects that interest all of us, instead of only one of something. So far you've been covering so many different things, and I honestly love that. It all makes sense and there is some sort of progression from the very first to the very latest video you make. Looking forward to the new developments throughout 2015!
Happy New Year to you and your colleagues at FZD School! You all are fantastic and awesome, so keep rocking our design-socks!! :o)
Feng, you are too humble. You can do as much promotion as you want. You more than deserve it for all that free content you gave us man. Love from Canada!
your word,attitude,creativity,everything put on this series allways cheer me up and make my head straght up especially when I'm not strong.
I don know how to thank this much, like my parents.
you are literally "What you giving is what you getting" type of person.
thank you again, I'll stand and move foward.
That feeling, when you get up in the morning, go grab a large mug of coffee, sit down at the computer and check your usual haunts, and see there's a new Design Cinema up :)
You may not show fundamentals in these, but you can't imagine the amount of inspiration and motivation, at least I get from these. I've looked up the stuff elsewhere, and practice on my own, and whenever things start to feel too hard, or like nothing is working, I watch a couple of these, and get my mojo back, and jump right back in to it. Thank you so much for doing these!
This was one of the best design cinemas yet. I really liked how there were 12 completely different ideas. It's impossible to not get inspired by this video. I really liked the format!
Gotta say about the future of Design Cinema... I just want to see more of the same. Let's plays, all your random stuff, design studies... All the stuff you do now, I just would love to see more of them. You're a true inspiration and motivator, Feng! Thanks so much for these videos and your words of encouragement!
Every Feng Zhu video is like a present! Always make me happy and motivated!
Honestly, any video topic is interesting, but the Lets Draw was pretty fun, wish for more of those!
I would just like to mention how grateful I am to you and anyone like you who provides these kinds of free online tutorials. They really are a great source of inspiration for young people like me who love learning. I am mostly a science and tech kinda guy, but these videos have really gotten me into art lately, and I am really thankful to you for introducing me to this new hobby.
Im just doing my homework ( a 3D model in Modo), I am attending Dave School right now, and I love set my second monitor to FZD channel and just watching while working. creativity is contagious
Current student at the Academy of Art University majoring in visual development. I love all of your videos and tutorials, and the information you have about the industry is absolutely invaluable. Love it all.. Thank you.
In the first five minutes I was like "Waaaht is he doing" now i'm like "I can do landscapes now" I've always struggled with them trying to come up with a way to give me a good starting point. I absolutely love this way of doing landscapes!! Thank you!
OH, the inspiration! Every video watched just adds to the excitement I have of starting my digital art studies come March when I quit my job and focus solely on illustration. Thank you!
Imagine a Feng Zhu and Scott Robertson mash-up. Too bad the distance is a bit of a problem, and both of them are too busy. All the knowledge and insight, and all those inside jokes!
Absolutely love the thumbnails. This is the kind of stuff I really need to get into doing. Too rarely, too few... More!
i never get depressed or demoraled over seeing other ppl doing better than me,
it always fires me up to do better so i can stand next to those ppl i look up to and be equally skilled.
but maybe i am an exception from the mass.
but realy feng zu you always make me tremble from excitement when you bring out a new video because i always know that i will learn some new technique or new way of thinking or something else that might be important.
thank you for giving us this wonderful advice all the time
I really appreciate these videos, I have been following you since around ep 20. Honestly I think that the pieces that I get the most out of are the ones that cover the first 20 or so minutes. I love that you bring new techniques like this in. Thumbnails or paintings aside I mainly watch for the new techniques you bring in each video.
Design cinema has helped me immensely since I discovered it. I've even found a few freelance jobs because of how much it improved my work. I'd love to give something back but realistically I don't know what I could offer. Other than my thanks of course. Looking forward to where it goes in the new year and very glad to hear you're keeping it all free. Happy holidays Feng.
40:00 What you say here is so powerfully touching. I'm so glade I'm part of this generation, where so many talented people are literally giving away their experience and knowledge to help people who may not be so well off or able to access this information, to grow and develop their passions. May all the universes gods bless you, may the wind be on your back and your crops yield multiple harvests. Please keep doing what you are doing, you and your friends are a gift to humanity. :] Just trying to say Thank you.
This episode was very useful (well, they ALL are really). It would be awesome to see Feng's process for taking one of these thumbnails up to a finished piece.
A video going over character thumbnails would be really cool, characters have always been my favorite things to draw and seeing Feng's approach would definitely be useful :)
Late Merry Christmas Feng and staff!
Hello FZD and Feng :) u got me into concept art a long time ago and i still really love it.
This was a fantastically informative. Love this strategy of knocking out 12 at the same time. Thank you so much for sharing, Feng! :D
Feng Zhu you are truly amazing, I am from the old school of sketching with color Ink Airbrush and markers. I been inspired by viewing your work to try digital sketching and having fun with. Thanks for sharing and always very refreshing to view and listen your passion in the world of illustration. best regards Tony Foong
I'm loving the thumbnail with the village in the forest and those tapestry(?) roofs 8-) also the fortified outpost on the falls in the central column (although I find it more stimulating flipped to the right)
Holy smokes.
These look insanely awesome for what they are. I really want to do environments every time I see these videos.
Feng you are absolutely amazing, countless thanks to you, i feel very inspired from your tutorials and teachings, i am aspiring digital artist from Ireland and I can tell you now that you are one of a kind. Thanks a million
Thank you so much, again a very good episode. And especially what you've said about morale in the end of the video was very encouraging.
I am at a point right now were I often feel stuck and hopeless, and further progress is hard to spot - so words like these really bring you back on track.
Thank you!
I definitely enjoy your video game redesigns quite a bit and I think I learn quite a bit from them. As a younger artist, I can say that they are both highly informative and do a great job of maintaining interest, so I'd love to see more of them. Thanks!
you changed my entire perspective on design.
Feng, you are totally correct that these videos do affect peoples lives, your words are very inspiring and for me personally, they shattered many illusions I had about this sort of thing, I've always sorta believed that in order to be good, you have to have every painting come out perfect from the very first attempt, your videos have taught me that is not only a lie, but not even how its supposed to work. These are very inspiring to me as a designer, and as someone who really has sank in many hours practicing my drawing after graduating college to a point where I finally feel my work is reaching what is acceptable for the industry, what you say during these videos give me confidence that I'm going in the right direction, I wish you and the school very happy holidays,congratulations on all the success, and I cant wait for the next video Feng, you rock.
Thanks so much for doing these, appreciate it. So needed that moral pep talk, in my fifties now and getting deflated a bit and putting too much pressure on myself, that every piece I make has to be good.
I think for me, environment thumbnails are the coolest thing and definitely something I'd like to see more of. I just came back to watch this episode again because of that.
I feel like these big picture ideas are more interesting than a detailed painting. I'd rather paint these and never detail again than have to detail every painting I do.
Awesome stuff, would love to see more of it. Also really looking forward to the new design cinema stuff you were saying about.
today 24/09/2023, im still watching this and i must also say, currently there are 196k views and i could have this nearly 2% of that total views which is 392 times and don't ask me how many hours!...JUST gold
Thanks again for uploading a great video! I got a Surface Pro 3 for Christmas and am looking to pick this up again as a hobby! I'm pretty much brand new to Digital Painting and have what I would think are lower then average drawing skills so hearing you break everything down and explain everything is amazing!
Watching this video and learning this technique just pushed me and took me out of that artist block, thank so much for these videos. Keep up the great work!
I really love to listen to these episodes while working on my traditional projects, can't actually wait to get my digital equipment and start trying stuff out from these videos. :P
Keep it rollin'.
I'd love another version of this video for sci fi environment thumbnails.
Literally woke up at 4 am, saw that he had a new video, and watched it. I have no regrets lol amazing as always
Another awesome vid, I could listen to Feng talk shop all day.
Good heavens, I'm 36 and when I watch FZ I still think "when I grow up I want to be able to that."
about Design Cinema going "pro": its the "unpro" vibe that feels better to watch than a formal Gnomon tutorial, for example, that often feel very stiff to get through. The best part about DC is that it feels like someone is sitting next to you after hours and just giving you helpful tips and insight. If DC does go "pro", I hope it retains that feeling, and by going pro, hopefully they will be more frequently posted since more ppl will be working on 'em, thats meh 2 cents :D
Feng, thank you so much for this series
Man....you just solved my problem ! I always feel like painting but I do not know what , I do not know how to generate something new and fresh. This is amazing! Thanks!
Very inspiring, thank you Feng and have nice holidays!
i felt uninspired for a few days now... then this came along :) thnx a lot once again mr Zhu
Q&A. How much time do you allocate yourself per week/month to spend with family, friends, exercise, healthy eating/cooking, cinema etc basically everything which is not art related. Is it important for you to spend time out of the office? Too much of a good thing is bad!!!
Thanks for these videos. I've always been interested in concept design and industrial design I was exposed to this type of art in the mortal kombat games but I never knew the official titles until I stumbled upon these videos... these videos are exciting to watch. I listen to everything you talk about because these videos really give great insight on what this industry is about and the skills you'll need to get into it. I think the most important thing you've said that stuck to me is artists in this field see everything as shapes drawing a vehicle is no different then drawing a person and it 'd be silly to tell your boss. "Hey I only draw this subject "........there is no difference. On top of that I was sad to see that this school is so far away I hope that the online school comes to life. Anyways I look forward to future videos and keep up the awesome work.
I' have 32 years, I love art since I was a kid; before high school I went to an art school to polish some of my abilities, but the hardness of life force me to give-up my dreams to support my family. Thanks Feng for all the motivations and advisement you give away, they have been very well received! Do you think is to late for me venturing into digital art? I don't have any experience in the industry, but I love drawing and painting even though haven't done it professionally. I apologize for my grammatical skills, Thanks.
I would definitely buy an art book of all of Feng's thrown out and rejected design ideas!! I'd love to see them. :)
Great vid! I finally catch up on these vids, looking forward to EP 79!
Definitely love the series. I know all about morale, I love drawing and when I started to take some design classes I noticed everyone's work was better than mine and I thought that I should quit because there was no way I belonged even trying to get in this business. I quit drawing for about 6 months, it was hard for me because I wanted to get into the business of designing games for the fun it bring to me. I love video games, I love the art of video games and that was why I was in it. I had to get back to thinking about it in that perspective. Get back to what I love and what I enjoy. Not look at it as a "who's drawings are better" but more of "I'm doing this because I love it". Once my morale went down it took me a long time to recover and build it back up. So I second that x100.
I would definitely like to some Sci-Fi...fantasy is always my thing because you can let your imagination run wild...but Sci-Fi would be awesome.
Happy Holidays.
Awesome as always! Very interesting and inspiring video!
Thank you so much Feng for sharing it and have a nice holidays!
Amazing series and videos, got way too excited when i saw this video come up! Thanks Feng!
Hey Feng. I'd love to see a video of you drawing some tall ships like you have your students do in class. It'd be a great insight to drawing curves in perspective. Thanks for all the great videos!
One of my biggest problems is getting past the blank canvas. This method helps so much for coming up with new and interesting ideas, thanks. =)
Merry Christmas, Feng. These videos are always so insightful and inspirational. I've learned so much from them.
Always great to hear your voice Feng :D makes me pick up my pen and draw instantaneity especially when seeing your helpful video's and free knowledge your handing out to us. Merry Christmas from England Bro :)
My body wasn't ready for this.
You Just made my Christmas Feng, much appreciated.
O processo criativo é tudo numa produção, seja ela um filme, uma animação, um documentário e cada artista tem o seu próprio! Parabéns, Feng Zhu por compartilhar seu processo criativo conosco!
I'm really happy the school is growing! On the topic of making Design Cinema more professional, please don't make it stuffy like Level Up or similar channels. I'm willing to go out on a limb and say most of us enjoy your free form (I wouldn't say rambling) discussion of topics, and we enjoy how you inject your own humor into the videos as well. :-)
Really fantastic video!!!
Thank you, it was informative and got my creative juices flowing.
You are absolutely Wonderful sir. Thank you for all of these videos.
I think its important to say having big strong visual library helps with this exercise.
your eps. are very inspirational, best online professor i ever found
Thanks so much for making these videos, and I'm really excited about hearing of FZD's plans for giving more attention to Design Cinema. I would love to have more videos focused on the relationship between the concept artist and the 3D modeler as it pertains to the production pipeline. I want to be a 3D artist, but I practice concept art as well so that I can have a wider skill set and understanding of how to interpret concept art in production. Thanks again!
This is great. I always have a hard time starting environments, the blank canvas is just too intimidating thanks for the new way to approach it :)
I badly want to draw Lands for Magic the Gathering, among other things, so like everyone I'm really grateful this channel exist; Thanks!
This random thumbnailing can be done with watercolors too, if you want to try a different medium. I'm doing it right now, inspired by this video, and it's pretty fun. Watercolors are prone to happy accidents, which is great for idea searching like this. You can also take a crumpled tissue and dab it on the still wet colors for more randomness. Then when you have a happy color-texture-cloud on your paper, take ink or a pen or something and doodle your ideas over it!
You just gave me hope. :) You just took the number one spot on my subscribed channels.
Epic
Learnt so much from this.
Very informational language and ideas, thumbnail sketches by Feng Zhu is very interesting. I try to paint chaotic landscapes but worry about color relationships. I forget to use the color picker and I'm unsure what to detail and what to leave unfinished. Working in Photoshop it's hard to suggest because when you zoom in, so daunting is the detail. But to watch thumbnails done from completely far away is like a great way to study. Why people thumbs down on something so informational I will never understand. Thanks for sharing FZD, Design Cinema is cool because it's rough. Artistic License and fundamentals is something that I personally have a problem with in digital painting. I tend to always want to make things connect perfectly without leaving anything to the imagination. WHy
Thanks so much for sharing and for being so generous with your time! Super inspiring. Happy New Year Feng.
Beautiful and inspiring work as usual!
Thanks a lot Feng!
I know that profile pic! Its from the Indian Thriller lol!!
Omair Jamal hahahaha Golimaaaaaarrr!
xpeterdudex Lol it's a classic!!!
Thanks again for a superb episode, loved what you said about not getting depressed over failures etc, really helps ! Love how a professional with such a great talent can be so humble and willing to boost up others by teaching and being a guide. You were asking to post something in the comment section about future video ideas. My proposal would be to accept begginers work and paint over or talk about what can be changed, as a person doing this very casual I find myself stuck sometimes in a painting not knowing how to handle it further. Again, Feng. Thanks a lot and keep it up ! ;)
Amazing work. Such great skills. Thank you for sharing.
Your videos are awesome. Can't wait to get my tablet and follow along.
Merry Christmas, Feng!
Thanks for the Christmas present! I started to find environment design much more interesting thanks for the design cinema. For future thumbnails you could maybe do one for land automobiles? As it's something I believe was little shown in the series until now.
I don't mind if a few videos in a row speak to a specific topic, but what I like most about Design Cinema is the comprehensive variety of topics, so if the show splits into sub-shows, or goes on tangents or whatever that's fine, but I hope it doesn't become so focused that the variety is lost.
Hello Sir, Big Thanks for EPISODE 75, 76 & 77 for thumbnails. Next Episode, Q&A please. My question is - as a total beginner to design process, after completing fundamentals and stuff, how should we choose the subject matter on the very start. Like in basics process, you go from drawing boxes in perspective, to complex vehicles and organic bodies. How to maintain same approach and not losing mind in thumbnail generation because of just being too ambitious, and simply losing patience, wasting time on noodling here and there etc. What is the most simplistic approach, TO DESIGN, even and IDIOT LIKE ME CAN UNDERSTAND( WASTED 2 DAYS on VEHICLE DESIGN, mindless noodling without references, testing my visual library which is STUDENT B type in your Visual Library Episode 52 - thought I am SUPERMAN of Concept art). I think episode 77 - fish fighters was a really helpful, but still I wish it could be boiled down to the base completely, like few more examples done, while you are feeding our GEEK minds with design knowledge. Thanks :)
awesome vid as aways man,i pick up the hobby of drawing concept arts because of watching ur videos few year ago!
i am 12 years old and i love this series it is very inspirational and it is great background noise for when i do my drawings
Quite the gem of inspiration.
Very inspirational, keep up the good work!!
Merry christmas man. Very inspiring stuff! Thank for making it
Really enjoyed this video Feng!
Wish you would put up class lectures on here everyday so it would be like I was attending FZD.
Hopefully I will be able to go there for a year some time in the future.
Great videos! They've been an inspiration and so educational. Especially for painting environmental scenes. I look forward to the next vid! :)
You are awesome! This is really inspiring and hope you keep it up! Thank you so much for sharing!
I think making a series using viewer-created images where Feng shows us how to correct common mistakes we wouldn't know about would be cool... just a random thought, may help us to get past certain plateaus we are hitting in our progress
Oh man. I love your videos soo freakin much and it's just crazy how helpfull they are! Keep it up!
thank you, thank you, thank you, for realizing how amazing and helpful these videos are for beginners. your positive mind set and perspective on painting and the industry have changed my life and is a seemingly endless source of inspiration and moral for me as an artist. I love you Feng! I think if you had an affordable online site for just detailed courses on fundamentals it would completely and utterly change the world. the people at your school get the advantage of being able to ask you questions and get the pressure of assignments to push them forward. I think you should take a survey of whether or not they would care if you did a site that covered the fundamentals and whether they think they are getting screwed if you did something like that. because if they do think they are getting screwed I don't want you to lose students because of the site. but if they don't, like I said you could change the world for all of us that can't afford to go to school or make it to school! I myself have intense anxiety and I don't even know if I could make it to school, even if I had the money to go.
Another great video, thanks for taking the time to do this for us. I'm looking forward to the character ones that you indicated that you might do. It would be interesting to see how this approach to be applied to characters because I'm having a hard time seeing it.
Best Christmas present ever :)
I really enjoyed this episode! I will have to give this method a try tomorrow. :) I would definitely like to see a demonstration of a similar method for 'real life' designs (real life architecture, landscapes, characters, etc.
awesomeness! This video is awesome!
I think it would be cool (just a random idea) if there was a forum/discussion place on the internet for people who watch FZD school to gather and share their work and learn from each other as well.
Thank you Feng!!!