Research - Feng Zhu

Feng Zhu runs a design school in Singapore but before this was a freelance and contracted concept artist in the entertainment industry. The reason I wanted to include him as research, because ultimately he is just another concept artist, but he has put out a lot of free content online for people who want to learn how to design and I, myself have learnt a lot from him. He has worked on some quite big titles both in the film and video game industry ranging from, Gears of War to X-Men Evolution and Star Wars Episode III. He has been in the industry over 12 years and in 2009 opened his own school in Singapore to teach design to both students and professionals who want to break into the design industry. Perhaps for me, the most useful online resource he has provided me with is a series on Youtube titled, design cinema. Through this series he has talking about various aspects of the industry and often presents timelapsed videos of himself and other professionals creating work with commentary detailing what it is they are doing and more importantly, why. There is a huge amount of content available now, probably close to one hundred with an average length of around an hour or two.

Aside from this I actual really like his work, it does resemble a lot of the concept art I have seen produced by other artists but at the same time retains a unique style that is recognisable within his work. He uses a range of different techniques to produce some of the more complex or detailed designs, a busy city for example. Things such as matte painting or photo bashing techniques are often employed by him in order to add a level of realism and also to cut down the amount of time spent on designs, in a sense being more efficient. Matte painting is a phrase used to describe when pre existing images are used as a canvas to work on top of giving a sense of colour, lighting and composition before the design has begun. Photo bashing is more of a self explanatory phrase, and is a technique that involves compiling photographs to create texture and forms within a larger image.