Need Some Advice

jefflee4 · June 2022

Hello all, I am in search of advice/recommendations for a course or two to watch next. I have watched and completed the work for the Eye Mechanism course by David Covarrubias as well as the 3 Hand and Rod Puppet courses by BJ Guyer. I will most likely watch the Rod and Cable puppet course as well.

I am itching to work/build/fabricate something and I'd like to start working on some original designs. So what courses would you suggest for coming up with a character design from scratch?

Thanks a lot in advance.

Chris Ellerby · June 2022

One thing that can be a big help in figuring out what to watch next is our Learning Pathways: https://www.stanwinstonschool.com/pathways

Each takes you through a series of courses which are all curated for a specific skill level, and as we add new courses they also get added to relevant pathways.

For coming up with character ideas from scratch we have a few lessons that can help you design your own.

Don Lanning's courses on character design are a great match: https://www.stanwinstonschool.com/tutorials/character-design-maquette-sculpture-techniques

If you want to make digital concept art first, this course from Dan LuVisi is great: https://www.stanwinstonschool.com/tutorials/creature-design-photoshop-character-rendering

And this course from Casey Love covers digital character design as well: https://www.stanwinstonschool.com/tutorials/creature-design-practical-to-digital-casey-love

And he has a follow-up on digital to practical creature design: https://www.stanwinstonschool.com/tutorials/creature-design-digital-to-practical

Sometimes a maquette is a great starting point for designing a character. This course from Casey Love is a good starting point https://www.stanwinstonschool.com/tutorials/how-to-sculpt-a-creature-maquette-sculpting-techniques-part-1

This maquette lesson from Jordu Schell is also great: https://www.stanwinstonschool.com/tutorials/creature-design-sculpture-techniques

Or if you want to draw your character designs, these two lessons are great:

https://www.stanwinstonschool.com/tutorials/monster-drawing-techniques-how-to-draw-a-werewolf
https://www.stanwinstonschool.com/tutorials/monster-drawing-techniques-stan-winston-creatures

Hope that helps!

/Chris

Becky Beighley · June 2022

I agree, the pathways help a lot for direction.

Darrell Green · June 2022

Ya, the very essence of the Design pathway is this topic, character creation, from the very first class. Starting with the Basic Design path and then the Design path after. I still rant about the awesome Christopher Swift class Hybrid Character design -Practical to digital.

Need Some Advice

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