Creating a monster or creature that truly haunts the imagination—one that can stoke fear, awe, revulsion, and wonder all at once—is no small feat for a digital artist. Not only do these imaginative beasts require technical skills to design, but they also necessitate an understanding of body composition, anatomy, lighting, texture, and a dash of innovation. 

With all of these different proficiencies to acquire, becoming a master of creature design can be a lengthy process. To get out in front of your next fiery dragon (or behind it!), the five tutorials we’ll be sharing with you today will give you the foundational knowledge and confidence you need to get off to a blazing start!

Designing Dragons Video Tutorial

In this tutorial, you’ll experience the full creation of a digital dragon from concept, to thumbnails, to sketches, and a final painting. This 140-minute in-depth tutorial will navigate you through the complexities of adding intricate texture to your fire-breathing beast while imbuing realistic details such as scales, glossy skin, and reptilian folds. 

Topics included in this visual walkthrough include repeating elements, pushing shapes, using references from real life, and more. If you want to master the art of balancing fantasy with realism using your well-honed artistic talents, look no further than this comprehensive course!

The class includes:

• 140 minutes of video tutorial with commentary

Creature Design Process for Film

If you work in the film industry creating concept characters, this useful tutorial provides you with a step-by-step guide to designing creatures from scratch tailored for the novice digital artist. This immersive course covers creating a base sculpt photo, texture blending, color correcting, and cinematic touches to help you refine your masterpiece. No need to be intimidated by the process of learning new media and software ever again—with this introductory class you’ll be gently guided through the stages of developing your idea, until you have reached industry-level standards you can be proud to showcase!

This course includes:

• A 60-minute Photoshop tutorial on designing creature concepts for film 

Creating Grayscale Creature Concepts

In this seven-part information-packed tutorial library, you’ll embark on a journey into the weird and wonderful digital world of greyscale creature design concepts. Using ZBrush, you’ll learn the expert procedures for sculpting and refining your forms, master the techniques of design rendering, and flow polypainting, and enhance your composition and rhythm skills. 

This diverse course is suitable for beginners and accomplished digital artists alike, aiming to accelerate the process of designing conceptual monochrome renders at a professional level. With nearly two hours of high-resolution footage to consume, you can expect to grasp the finer details of the craft such as lighting and compositing while adding that elusive WOW factor to your final product. 

In this course, you’ll receive:

• A nearly two-hour video tutorial on creature concept creation

Battle Beast Creation Workshop

This course develops your understanding of how to birth an original idea for a fearsome, war-torn battle beast, and takes your concept through a multistep process of sculpting, painting, posing, rendering, and lighting. In this meticulous and detailed real-time footage, you’ll be given exclusive access to the artistic process behind these strange and fantastical monsters, as well as inspiration to create some of your own. 

Both for beginners learning the ropes, and established digital artists looking for new techniques and forms of innovation, this class goes beyond the scope of sharing information by helping to build your confidence for your next creature design and push your creative boundaries. 

This tutorial contains:

• 30 hours of tutorial footage
• The production process of a ‘battle beast’ in real time

Guide to Animal and Creature Drawing

This final asset offers you a complete guide to animal and creature digital drawing. Often, replicating animals or designing complex new beings demands an acute grasp of anatomy, and even a minor deviation from the correct elements can make a creature look unrealistic and awkward. If you’re interested in boosting your proficiency in reproducing elaborate anatomy and illustrating muscular structures and skeletal systems in unique postures and positions, look no further than this art-school-level education in the form of a digital guide. 

Learn about environment design, perspective, character creation, color theory, and so much more under the careful instruction of an industry-recognised professional. 

The class will teach you:

• The principles of animal anatomy
• Animal digital drawing 
• Fantasy creature digital drawing

Unleash Your Crea-ture-tivity with Cubebrush!

Generating creatures, animals, magical monsters, and brutish beasts on your digital canvas is a complex and multifaceted endeavor that can test even the most adept artist's practical skills, creative threshold, and technical comprehension. However, with some paw-sitive guidance and well-structured tutorials like the ones introduced to you today for creature design, you can learn to create a true monsterpiece. 

Uncover a world of advantageous resources here at Cubebrush, where the beast is yet to come!