LEARNING PATH

Environment Design / Games

This nine-part series explores how environment concept artists study natural settings and architecture across historical, contemporary, fantasy, and science-fiction genres. Unlike film, game environments must adapt to various visual styles, from hyper-realism to stylized worlds, while supporting gameplay from multiple vantage points. Through detailed demonstrations in both 2D and 3D, leading designers from the games industry share their professional workflows and creative strategies, developed while working on such AAA titles as Uncharted, Assassin’s Creed, Watch Dogs, and The Last of Us.

Intermediate to Advanced 34h 34min 9 Workshops

By 7 Instructors

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Environment Design and Illustration

In this title, concept artist Aaron Limonick demonstrates the critical importance of a complete design process when approaching environment design and illustration...

by Aaron Limonick

Intermediate

4h 41m

12 Lessons

Environment Art Environment Design Lighting & Rendering Matte Painting Modeling Texturing & Shading UV Layout Concept Art

3D Coat

Modo

Photoshop

Environmental Storytelling

In this title, Art Director Eddie Bennun shares his workflow for designing a credible game environment that portrays a clear story. Using Google SketchUp and Adobe Photoshop, Eddie explores the importance of shape language and its crucial role in creating a narrative composition...

by Eddie Bennun

Advanced

2h 46m

10 Lessons

Digital Painting Environment Design Concept Art

SketchUp

Photoshop

Creating Cinematic Concept Art

Learn simple yet powerful techniques to help you create high-quality concept art using Blender and Photoshop. Sucker Punch Productions’ Concept Artist Isaac Yeram Kim aims to equip artists of all skill levels with efficient methods...

by Isaac Kim

Intermediate

8 Lessons

Digital Painting Character Art Modeling Environment Design Environment Art HDR Images Lighting & Rendering Look Development Concept Art

Blender

Photoshop

Creating a Custom 3D Kit for Concept Art

Learn the process for creating a 3D kit from start to finish. Discover all the insights and techniques to help you take full advantage of 3D kit creation and be inspired to produce epic images, from generating initial ideas, gathering references, and handling prep work to finalizing concept art in Photoshop...

by Jose Vega

Intermediate

5h 53m

8 Lessons

Digital Painting Digital Sculpting Environment Design Environment Art Lighting & Rendering Look Development Texturing & Shading Modeling Concept Art

Photoshop

Blender

ZBrush

Procreate

Gravity Sketch

Substance Painter

Creating Environment Concept Art for Games

Creating and developing production art for games demands not only a deep understanding of the needs and goals of other departments in a game studio but also the consciousness and knowledge of technical restrictions...

by Asim Steckel

Advanced

3h 05m

7 Lessons

Digital Sculpting Environment Design Environment Art Lighting & Rendering Look Development Concept Art

Photoshop

Blender

3D Coat

Octane Render

Design Futuristic Architecture Using Blender

Learn how to design futuristic architecture using Blender with Leo Li’s complete 2D-to-3D concept design workflow, which covers everything from modeling, texturing, landscape design, and lighting to the final paint-over in Photoshop...

by Leo Li

Intermediate

5h 57m

14 Lessons

Environment Design Environment Art Modeling Lighting & Rendering Look Development Concept Art

Photoshop

Blender

Quixel Bridge

Designing Environments for Games

Sketching has traditionally been considered a 2D medium, but with the power of Blender’s Grease Pencil tool, you can draw in 3D and jump right into your designs to truly explore the space...

by James Lewis-Vines

Intermediate

2h 36m

10 Lessons

Environment Design Environment Art Modeling Texturing & Shading Lighting & Rendering Concept Art

Photoshop

Blender

High-Fidelity Environment Design

Design an immersive world using Blender, 3D-Coat, and Photoshop with this 3-hour workshop by Senior Artist Jannis Mayr. This intermediate to advanced-level workshop reveals Jannis’s techniques for creating fantastical worlds...

by James Lewis-Vines

Intermediate

2h 40m

7 Lessons

Digital Sculpting Environment Design Environment Art Modeling Look Development Lighting & Rendering Concept Art

Photoshop

Blender

ZBrush

3D Coat

From Abstraction to Production

Focusing on the earliest stage of pre-production, inspiration becomes the artist's most important weapon in pitching an idea to a director. In this class, Aaron Limonick demonstrates bringing an abstract ink experiment to a realized conceptual sketch using Adobe® Photoshop®....

by Aaron Limonick

Intermediate

4h 36m

14 Lessons

Environment Design Concept Art

Photoshop

Frequently Asked Questions

Everything you need to know about the Learning Path.

Learning Paths have been organized to help both aspiring and professional artists, who are looking for training based on the fundamental categories of creative work in the visual effects, animation and games industries. Each Learning Path has been curated to contain a collection of workshops that guide artists through a series of topics relevant to that path, but they are not necessarily sequential. When appropriate, however, we have organized the workshops in a path to be in a logical order. All workshops are tagged with their level (beginner, intermediate, advanced) so that you can browse the path and choose a title that matches both the subject matter and level that you are looking for.

All Gnomon Workshop instructors are professional artists from the entertainment industry, who have worked with us to structure their time, experience and knowledge into practical and inspiring training. We believe that it is important to learn from masters of the craft, who have honed those skills via years of experience working in production, collaboratively with their peers. Through time and experience, artists develop not just their creative and technical ability, but also their communication skills. These become critical aspects to being an effective lead artist, supervisor or, in our case, instructor.

Whether you choose an Annual or a Monthly Subscription, your plan will give you unlimited access to all 26 Learning Paths, allowing you to learn at your own pace. Your subscription also gives you access to the entire catalog of 350+ workshops, with new comprehensive workshops added every month.

While many workshops include Project Files, these are at the instructors’ discretion. You will find details of any project files provided on each workshop page, along with the software/tools required to tackle the workshop. If you have any questions, you can contact us via our Live Chat or email the team at support@thegnomonworkshop.com.

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Over 350 Workshops. 250+ Instructors.
Concept Art, Visual Effects, Games and much more.
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Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced Levels

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Environment Design / Games

Environment Design and Illustration

Environmental Storytelling

Creating Cinematic Concept Art

Creating a Custom 3D Kit for Concept Art

Creating Environment Concept Art for Games

Design Futuristic Architecture Using Blender

Designing Environments for Games

High-Fidelity Environment Design

From Abstraction to Production

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