Featured Artist: Trent Kaniuga
Trent Kaniuga has been an artist since the ripe age of 16- he's now an industry vet.
Best part?
He's sharing his experience and expertise with us! His Cubebrush store is already stocked full of tips, tutorials and assets. Without further ado- please meet Trent.
Can you introduce yourself? Who you are, what you do, why you do it?
My name is Trent Kaniuga and I've been an artist and writer in the world of comic books and video games for over 25 years. When I was 16, I started making comics. My first successful book was called CreeD (Long before the emo grunge band), It got licensed into toys and trading cards, and even got licensed to be an animated series, although the show was never produced. I got into a lot of trouble for working on comic pages during class, but my career as an artist was pretty much solidified drawing CreeD comics in high school.
Seeing that I could do anything that I was passionate about, I set out to work in video games. So I moved to California and subsequently landed a concept artist role at at Capcom (Final Fight Streetwise), then Blizzard (Burning Crusade, Wrath of the Lich King and Diablo 3), and Riot Games (League of Legends). Eventually I left in-house development and started a YouTube channel and Art house. I also do a fair bit of traveling, and host a number of workshops at studios and art schools worldwide.
What does your studio create and where do you see it going in the next couple years?
We provide illustration and conceptual design for environments, characters, and UI for studios like Blizzard, Riot and Sony Playstation as well as many startups and smaller studios. Some of our artists are industry veterans, and some are hard working, passionate and creative artists just starting their career. I work with them to get a real world handle on the responsibilities of the role, and prepare them for opportunities in a studio.
You produce a lot of educational content outside of work; for those who don't know - what is it and who is it for?
Around 2011 I started a YouTube channel to just document a lot more of my work in video time-lapse format with commentary so that I could analyze my process and grow. I never really intended for it to be anything other than an art vlog. But I started getting hired to do workshops and tutorials, so as I went more independent, I started selling more in-depth lengthy tutorials when I had time to make them.
Recently I've been sponsored by Wacom and Sketchbook Pro to create tutorial videos and illustrations. These are great for beginners as well, so I'm always juggling between very beginner friendly content and hardcore advanced techniques for working professionals on YouTube and in my more focused workshops and box sets of tutorials.
I try to create the kind of content that I wish I always had. I try to think..." what would I want from a video from MY favorite artists?"
There isn't much more intention to it than that. I like to think that the universe is going to take me where it wants me to go, I just have to hold the pencil and hit record. So far it's worked out pretty well.
With the ability for creators/entrepreneurs such as yourself to share that kind of content directly to your audience for far much cheaper than the price of a formal education, how do you see art schools doing in the future? Do they still have a place or are they inevitably doomed?
The real difference between people who are successful Concept artists and people who don't get work, comes from something within. It takes a hardcore determination that a school can actually help you with. Can you get a 6 pack without a coach? Sure, but it's going to take a hell of a lot of self discipline. Art schools like FZD are great for teaching people how hardcore the real job can be. Being in a classroom, facing the judgement of your classmates, and having a hard-as-nails instructor can push you. But if you can push yourself on your own, you can save tens of thousands of dollars, and learn everything you need to know directly from pros on sites like Cubebrush. For today's concept artists, I recommend a combination of both. Use the tools from Cubebrush to get an edge on your classmates at art school. If you decide to just go ONLY with tutorials online, you will really need to get involved in a community. You need people to tear your work apart to grow. You need to get a mean-on - that driving desire to stay up all night working on a painting and show 'em all what you can do.
It looks like you're working on a big project called "The World of Twilight Monk", can you share some details about it and where you see it going?
The World of Twilight Monk is a digital art book, and a compendium featuring a ton of artwork, model sheets and history for a series of short novels I'm writing and drawing. It reads like a RPG guide book. If you like classic Final Fantasy, Zelda and Warcraft artwork, then you'll like The World of Twilight Monk.
I'm working with a couple of agencies to shop around the IP for expansion into a number of different forms of entertainment, and I want to create a very thorough overview of key locations, character backgrounds, and story arcs. Currently, I'm up to 80 pages. But It's a "living compendium", meaning that I continue to add to it nearly every week. I'll likely offer a physical edition when it feels more complete. But those who pick it up now get immediate access to all of the updates in the PDF. They can pick it up here at Cubebrush.
What do you consider the greatest benefit of selling on Cubebrush?
I like to distribute digital products, as it allows me to modify or add new content to keep a good communication with what my audience is buying. The ebook that I'm doing is a great example of that.
I'll get feedback from readers and I can modify the content in the next build. Delivering digital content through sites like Cubebrush also allows me to work from anywhere. Between contract work, and creating tutorials online, I was able to travel to multiple countries last year and work out of cafes and hotel rooms. I don't have to manage a warehouse, store loads of physical copies of something, or worry about items getting lost in shipping. Cubebrush even takes care of customer support, leaving me free to focus on making great content and engaging my audience, and less time on making sure that the behind the scenes technical stuff is working.