Intro to Environment Design

Felicien Nourry is a concept artist and illustrator with more than 12 years of experience in the video game industry. During his career, he has worked on multiple AAA titles such as Watch Dogs, Assassin’s Creed Unity, Rainbow Six Siege, Highlander, Far Cry 3 and Far Cry Primal. Felicien possess a deep understanding and know how of all the facets of game art development – from conception to production. He also enjoys doing urban landscape studies both digitally and Traditionally. Felicien currently works as a Senior Concept artist at Ubisoft Montreal.

Each class typically begins with some paint-over correction of student work, followed by an explanation and live painting demo by the instructor showing students exactly how to proceed for the next exercise, assignment or milestone. Then while students work on their environments, the instructor acts as their art director giving one-on-one feedback and design critique to each artist. At the end of the class, students are given a homework assignment which is to be submitted for a potential paint-over in the next class.

This 10-week course* is roughly divided into 3 parts and the exact timing of each part will be determined by the speed of the students.

*Please note that the language of instruction in this course is French.

Part 1: The basic environment design and painting process

In part 1 of the course, the instructor will explain and demonstrate his basic speed painting and environment design process*. You will learn how to apply this process through a series of exercises so you can gain proficiency in this quick and powerful method that will put you well on your way to becoming a competent environment designer.

*please note that the instructor’s process involves photobashing, matte-painting and paint-over techniques.

Part 2: The common environment design challenges

In part 2 of the course, you will use and expand upon the basic method learned in part 1 to tackle a series of common environment design scenarios so you can gain versatility, completeness and skillfulness as an environment designer.

Through these scenarios, you will learn to design for different types and styles of architecture, terrain, vegetation, weather conditions, level of technology and theme/genre (ex: medieval fantasy vs. post-apocalyptic sci-fi).

Part 3: Polish and the finishing touches

Finally, in part 3 of the course*, you learn advanced rendering techniques to bring you artwork to the finished level. You will take one or more of the scenarios you worked on in part 2 and polish it to create high quality finished artwork that you can be proud to display in your portfolio.

*This course outline is currently being updated and a new, more detailed outline will be sent to students before the start of the course.

Tuesday from 6 PM to 9 PM

Date of first class: January 15th

Duration: 10 weeks

Language: French

You can register at the bottom-left of this page.

Do you want to be able to create stunning and immersive environment concept art for the entertainment industry? Advanced art and design skills are essential for creating strong environments that draw in the viewer, support the story and enhance the visual experience. In this 10 week course taught by a veteran environment designer, you will be become proficient in the skills required to design amazing environment concepts for all the most common movie, videogame and television scenarios that a concept artist typically faces.

During the course, you will learn a powerful process that concept artists use to create the desired mood, atmosphere, story experience and visual impact in their environments. The instructor will thoroughly explain and illustrate the process via a series of lectures and live painting demos throughout the course. You will become proficient applying this process by completing in-class and homework assignments while receiving paint-overs and one-on-one feedback from your instructor. The in-class work and homework assignments simulate the industry environment with your instructor acting as your art director and guiding your design decisions.

Specifically you will learn to design environments for a variety of common cultural/architectural and geographical/meteorological combinations. You will learn a quick, versatile and effective speed painting process involving photobashing, matte-painting and paint-over techniques so you can efficiently create realistic, detailed and jaw-dropping environment concept art. Finally, you will learn how to best control the lighting and level of detail so as to direct the viewer’s attention to the specific areas that drive the story.

By the end of this course* you will have the basic tools required to create breathtaking environment designs that amplify the viewer’s visual experience. You will have stunning new portfolio pieces that you can proud of. And what’s more, you will have developed solid speed painting and environment design skills putting you well on your way to becoming a high level professional concept artist.

*Please note that the language of instruction in this course is French.

This class is for people with some experience in realistic style drawing and painting and basic skill in Photoshop. To take this class you need to have equivalent experience or completed our Digital Painting course.

You also need to have a laptop with Photoshop installed and a tablet sensitive to pen pressure (such as a Wacom tablet). Or you need a tablet-computer with Photoshop installed that is sensitive to pen pressure (such as the Cintiq Companion). 

Language requirements: You need at least intermediate level French to take this class (the teacher will use many visual examples and there will usually be students in the class who speak English and can help you if you don't understand something).