LEARNING PATH

Mech & Prop Design

Designing Props and Mechs for film and games covers various manufactured objects, weapons, robots, and machines that are critical to establishing a world’s technology and shape language. From the major’s robotic body in Ghost in the Shell (Vitaly Bulgarov), cyborgs in CDPR’s Cyberpunk (Furio Tedeschi), the Sea Dragon in Avatar (Paul Ozzimo), to futuristic weaponry in Call of Duty (Aaron Beck), the instructors in the Mech & Prop Design Path have contributed designs to many landmark projects. Learn how to combine 2D and 3D workflows to present iconic designs that inspire audiences and ground the project with well-researched and functional plausibility.

Intermediate to Advanced 48h 21min 13 Workshops

By 12 Instructors

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Introduction to Fusion

Learn everything you need to know to get started with Autodesk Fusion with this 3-hour introduction workshop by film concept artist, Kris Turvey...

by Kris Turvey

Beginner

3h 00m

9 Lessons

Prop Design Modeling Lighting & Rendering Texturing & Shading

Fusion

Designing Sci-Fi Weapons for Film

Learn the techniques that professional concept artists use in fast-paced production environments to design props for movies. Paul Ozzimo, a Concept Designer and Art Director with over 35 years of experience and credits including Avatar, The Avengers, and The Mandalorian...

by Paul Ozzimo

Intermediate

5h 49m

10 Lessons

Prop Design Concept Art

Photoshop

Concepting & Illustrating a Sword for Games

Master the art of prop design and create a Sorrow End Sword with Lead Concept Artist, Olivier Dubard. This 1.5-hour workshop unlocks the secrets of Olivier’s workflow and provides a deep dive into his creative process behind designing visually stunning and story-driven fantasy props for the entertainment industry...

by Oliver Dubard

Intermediate

1h 39m

6 Lessons

Prop Design Modeling Digital Sculpting Compositing Lighting & Rendering Look Development Concept Art

ZBrush

Blender

Octane Render

Photoshop

Designing Sci-Fi Props for Film

In this 3-hour workshop, concept artist Kris Turvey demonstrates his complete workflow for designing and modeling a sci-fi prop for production...

by Kris Turvey

Intermediate

3h 23m

13 Lessons

Prop Design Modeling Lighting & Rendering Look Development Texturing & Shading UV Layout Concept Art

Fusion

Maya

Substance Painter

Photoshop

Robotic 3D Design for Entertainment

In this class Vitaly demonstrates and explains his approach and techniques for creating a solid “1st Pass” 3D Design of a robotic character for a Film or a Videogame project...

by Vitaly Bulgarov

Advanced

3h 30m

15 Lessons

Character Design Digital Sculpting Lighting & Rendering Mech Design Texturing & Shading Concept Art

Octane Render

ZBrush

Lightroom

Photoshop

Designing Sci-Fi Military Robotics

In this demonstration, designer Aaron Beck shares his workflow for visualizing a sci-fi military robot. Beginning with rough sketches, Aaron then begins work on a final illustration in Photoshop...

by Aaron Beck

Intermediate

3h 17m

8 Lessons

Character Design Digital Painting Mech Design Concept Art

Photoshop

Mechanical Character Design

Concept designer Joe Peterson breaks down the process of creating a mechanical character using only a story outline, from initial sketch to refinement, detailing and final rendering...

by Joe Peterson

Intermediate

3h 20m

16 Lessons

Digital Painting Mech Design Concept Art

Photoshop

Mech Design for the Entertainment Industry

Concept Artist Furio Tedeschi covers his workflow and techniques for creating mech concepts for film and games, from ZBrush blockout to KeyShot rendering and Photoshop final presentation...

by Furio Tedeschi

Intermediate

2h 44m

10 Lessons

Character Design Digital Sculpting Lighting & Rendering Modeling texturing & shading Mech Design Concept Art

KeyShot

ZBrush

Lightroom

Photoshop

Hunting the Idea

Concept Artist Miguel Martinez demonstrates his creative process using Adobe Photoshop and ZBrush, from gathering reference and generating ideas to molding those ideas into a final painting...

by Miguel Martinez

Intermediate

2h 13m

13 Lessons

Creature Art Creature Design Environment Design Look Development Digital Painting Concept Art

Photoshop

ZBrush

Designing a Custom Kitbash Library

Gavin Manners walks through the process of how to design and build your very own hard-surface kitbash library using Blender, and use it to create a final piece of concept art in Photoshop...

by Gavin Manners

Intermediate

2h 08m

9 Lessons

Lighting & Rendering Modeling Prop Design Mech Design Texturing & Shading Concept Art

Blender

Photoshop

Designing Mechs in VR Using Medium

Learn how to use Medium to quickly and efficiently craft hard-surface mecha designs for the videogame industry, and render the final design using KeyShot...

by Andre-Lang Huynh

Intermediate

3h 53m

11 Lessons

Character Design Digital Sculpting Lighting & Rendering Mech Design Concept Art

KeyShot

Adobe Medium

Hard-Surface 3D/VR Mech Design

This workshop guides artists through the process of designing and sculpting a conceptual mech in VR using Adobe Substance 3D Modeler. ZBrush is used to fine-tune the model's details, and the final presentation is taken care of in Blender...

by Corey Gooch

Intermediate

7h 30m

15 Lessons

3D Printing Digital Sculpting Lighting & Rendering Mech Design Concept Art

Substance 3D Modeler

Blender

ZBrush

3D Weapon Design VR Workflow

Design 3D weapon game assets using Substance 3D Modeler and Blender. This 5.5-hour workshop begins with an introduction to using Substance 3D Modeler as part of a VR design workflow and continues with intermediate and advanced-level Blender techniques...

by Bryant Momo Koshu

Advanced

5h 55m

12 Lessons

Digital Sculpting Effects Animation Lighting & Rendering Look Development Modeling Prop Design Texturing & Shading Concept Art

Substance 3D Modeler

Blender

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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Learning Paths

Mech & Prop Design

Introduction to Fusion

Designing Sci-Fi Weapons for Film

Concepting & Illustrating a Sword for Games

Designing Sci-Fi Props for Film

Robotic 3D Design for Entertainment

Designing Sci-Fi Military Robotics

Mechanical Character Design

Mech Design for the Entertainment Industry

Hunting the Idea

Designing a Custom Kitbash Library

Designing Mechs in VR Using Medium

Hard-Surface 3D/VR Mech Design

3D Weapon Design VR Workflow

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