Hard Surface Design Mentorship

This ten-week hard surface design mentorship is led by Gavin Manners, a senior concept artist with experience across major game studios including Tencent, NetEase, Avalanche, and Rocksteady. The course focuses on the processes behind creating believable hard surface designs for games and film, beginning with foundational mechanical design principles drawn from real-world observation and progressing through ideation methods and finalization techniques.

Throughout the course, you’ll develop skills in design thinking while learning how to use Blender, Photoshop, and ZBrush to support your design workflow. The instruction covers presentation techniques that leverage 3D to showcase your work effectively in a portfolio. You’ll learn how to overcome artistic blocks, understand the fundamentals of digital painting and art principles, and gain practical proficiency with industry-standard tools.

The mentorship runs for ten weeks with live classes held on Sundays at 3 PM UK time via Zoom, each session lasting four to five hours and combining live demonstrations with direct feedback and paintovers. Classes are recorded for later review, and students gain access to a private Discord server for ongoing feedback and community interaction. Prior ZBrush experience is recommended but not required; a working knowledge of Blender and Photoshop is expected.