Creating Key Concept Art for VFX 2025
This live/online course will push your artistic skills through a series of practical lessons and supervised exercises as we create Key Concept Art.
Learn how to create Key Concept Art
In this live/online course, we’ll work from the concept created by Paul Mellender for Creating Creature Concepts for VFX 2025, and the script for Second Date (SCD) and work on creating 2 pieces of key art to help give the shoot and post-production team a sense of the style and mood of the project.
We’ll primarily focus on creating art that has a sense of story and drama, and using a combination of 2D and 3D skills, we’ll look to ensure our artwork feels believable yet cinematic.
Course Breakdown
The course will be split into 2 main stages: Learning and Application. This will allow you to learn the workflows, the tools and experiment, before moving on to the main assigment to demonstrate your understanding and application of the learning.
Learning (Weeks 01 – 04): Throughout this stage of the course, Saby will run a series of live demonstrations to give you clarity on the workflows, tools and his approach to concept modelling and creating clean topology. You will also find a series of pre-recorded videos per lesson to support your learning.
Application (Weeks 05 – 08): At this stage, the focus will be on you to create a production-ready asset. Saby will be supervising you along the way through live catch-ups and feedback sessions.
Lessons in this course
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Week 01. Beat Board Analysis, Research and Initial Sketches
We'll kick things off by analysing the beat board provided by the client and then delve into the extremely important stage of gathering our reference. Following on from this, we'll create a series of initial sketches to which we'll then review with the director.
Course Information
- Course Type: Live, Online Zoom meetings
- Schedule: 05th June 2025 – 25th July 2025
- Workshop Session: 2hrs. Date TBC
- Feedback Session: 2hrs. Date TBC
Course Fee: £239.99
Live and Online
Frequently asked questions
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How will this course be delivered?
This course will be delivered live and online via Zoom. Each week, we'll run 1 workshop session and 1 feedback/review session. On occasions, you may be presented with some pre-recorded content (for example, if we are on an external shoot) but for the most part, the primary content will be delivered live. -
What day and time is the live workshop?
Date TBC. -
What day and time is the live feedback/review session?
Date TBC. -
If I cannot make the live sessions, will they be recorded and made available for viewing later on?
Yes. All live sessions will be recorded and made available on the course lesson page. This usually takes us around 24hrs to edit and upload the video recordings. -
Can we pay in instalments?
Yes, depending on the length of the course, you can pay an initial deposit and then spread the remainder of the cost over a series of months. If you are enrolling on multiple courses, we'd be more than happy to create a custom payment plan for you. -
Is there a discount if we purchase multiple line/online courses?
Yes, we are happy to offer a 10% discount per course for enrolling on 2 courses, and a 20% discount per course when enrolling on 3 or more courses. Please get in touch for more info. -
Will we have lifetime access to the recorded course content?
Yes, you will have lifetime access to the course content via our CAVE platform. -
Will we be required to complete exercises?
Each week, we'll be setting an exercise. You will be treated as adults, so it will be on you to complete the exercises. We understand that time is precious and you may have other commitments, which result in you missing an exercise or possibly falling behind. If so, do get in touch and we'll be more than happy to support you in catching up and developing your skills. We will be using SyncSketch for the review sessions, of which you will be able to access as a CAVE Academy student. -
Will there be a final assignment?
Each course will have a slightly different outcome but overall, yes, you will be tasked with creating an 'output' for each course. For Modelling, this may be a final model plus model turntable renders. For a Concept Art based course, this might be a series of production quality images. For every course, you will have an output for your portfolio (should your work be signed off by the tutor). -
Will any support be provided outside of the live sessions?
Yes - we use Discord for out of class discussions and if you have any other issues, you are more than welcome to send us an email directly. And if required, we'd be more than happy to catch up via a one-to-one Zoom session. -
Will there be any support after the course has finished?
We'll be more than happy to continue supporting students after the duration of the course as they work on their final assignment. -
Will data be provided for the courses?
Yes - we'll be providing data where required and dependent on the course. The majority of our course content is project-based and created using CAVE IP (scripts, concepts, models, textures, HDRIs, video footage, etc.) of which you will have access to. Please note that the data should not be shared externally for any purpose. -
Will software be provided for the course?
Where possible, we will provide software at student rates. For example, for any students enrolled on our live/online courses, we can provide access to the Adobe and Substance Suite, and students are able to access the Foundry products at student rates (95% discount). We will also be providing access to Flow Production Tracking (ShotGrid) and SyncSketch. We are in discussion with Maxon and Autodesk for student licences but currently cannot provide these apps.
