3A Project Creative Insights and Sprout Program at Share Creators
Dunhuang Chen has told us 3A project creative experience at Share Creators, shared some personal insights about working at Share Creators, and spoke about the Share Creators Sprout Program.
Hi, I’m Dunhuang Chen! I have been working for Share Creators for almost a year now since the end of 2021. Now I've been in 2D team, mainly doing character design, environmental design, 2D rendering and so on and I am a Leading artist now.
How did I become a designer?
The American sci-fi blockbusters and Japanese anime I watched when I was young had a profound influence on my future growth. Especially in the 1980s, many Japanese Cyberpunk cartoons, such as Akira, Bubble gum Crisis, Ghost in the Shell, etc. The avant-garde design and fascinating world view in them were my spiritual food when I was young. The later Star Wars is undoubtedly the leader of my temple of faith. The scenes, props, vehicles and character designs in it are unprecedented. The Matrix and Blade Runner are all works that I am deeply addicted to. These childhood interests led me all the way to become a concept designer, so that I could design sci-fi movie games myself in the future. After graduating from high school, I went to the Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA), the top art institution in China. Because of being obsessed with these avant-garde conceptual designs, I finally chose animation as a less traditional major, which can give full play to my rich imagination and creative desire.
I also had a legendary experience when I came to Art Center College of Design（ACCD）, because my brother and I were both in Central Academy of Fine Arts（CAFA）, he was an industrial design major, and his teachers often used Scott Robertson's works as examples, so I first knew that he was a legendary teacher of ACCD and the founder of the entertainment design program. Later, in the graduation exhibition of CAFA, the dean of the Department of Automobile came and liked our graduation design very much. He told us that he graduated from ACCD, so he recommended us. If you are keen on conceptual design, I think ACCD is the best choice.
Therefore, my brother and I decided to study in Art Center College of Design. We chose the direction of entertainment in illustration. Here I finally have the opportunity to systematically contact and learn the top design in the industry, and communicate face to face with the legendary designers in the industry.
The 3A project experience at Share Creators
After graduation, I participated in the design work of several major projects, such as Treyarch's Call of Duty Black Ops 4 character ART, which was quite challenging. As a fresh graduate, it took me some time to adapt to the style needs of customers. After that, I did character design for Destiny 2 and scene architecture and vehicle design for Lucas Film. And vehicle designs for domestic sci-fi movies. These famous IP designs have accumulated a lot of industry experience for my future work and growth.
In 2021, I joined Share Creators and embarked on a new journey. Here at Share Creators, there's a great atmosphere to work with. There are so many exciting 3A projects, basically every artist can choose what they're good at, and there's demand across the pipeline, whether you're a 2D, 3D, Modeler or VFX group, you can always find a place. At the same time, Share Creators is very friendly to new recruits. At the beginning, AD will give me some test tasks, and there will be a process of gradual adaptation and improvement. Especially after a period of cooperation, there will be a performance evaluation, where AD will point out your existing problems, and you can come up with any needs at any time. We are all very active at work and often share interesting information on the platform. When we need any help, AD will allocate human resources at any time to help any artist who needs help. New recruits never work alone here!
In addition, many artists from all over the world work in different time zones, and some of them can work from home. In short, everyone can find their best working hours and maintain high efficiency, which was a big surprise to me. Personally, I really liked the hybrid office model here at Share Creators.
What's more important to me is that newcomers get a quick access to a number of prestigious 3A programs here!
I went straight to Diablo immortal character and weapon design when I first joined the 2D team, as a world-famous IP，I really understand how Rigorous Diablo's design standards are. It requires highly artistic skills and Aesthetics. At first, I even questioned my design abilities for that. The feedback of first draft was not so bad. It points out that my design was too narrow, safe. It needed to be more ambitious and exaggerated. For example, my designs were more like for movie rather than game. Character’s form language and details are lack of exaggeration. However, the customer provided accurate reference and later I carefully studied Blizzard Diablo's design philosophy. My design progress became more and more smoother after I fully studying the style of their work. I gained Deep understanding of Blizzard's "over-design" philosophy form this project. Blizzard Diablo's design was a combination of exaggeration and Rationality. It was beautiful and reasonable. I really enjoyed the process of designing Diablo armor and weapons.
A few months later, I began work on the Lord of Ring illustrate project. I personally love the Lord of the Rings IP, both the movies and the novels, so I am very excited and proud to be involved with this famous IP. This project is also a new challenge for me, because illustration is different from single design, which requires a series of complex artistic skills such as skillful use of colors and shadows in all aspects. In addition, I have worked on a number of 3A projects such as Garena Free Fire and PUBG: Mobile X The Boys co-promotion. All in all, there are a large number of 3A projects that Share Creators have been deeply involved in producing, and there are plenty of opportunities to participate in major IP projects here at Share Creators
How do new artists get rapid growth?
At Share Creators, there are a wide range of artistic projects in different styles, from realistic to cartoon, where each artist can find his or her most suitable position and give full play to his or her talents. In addition, the artists here get together like a big family and cooperate with each other to solve problems. They are not independent, and each artist can always seek help and support from other colleagues. For example, AD checks my progress and achievements, and gives me guidance and suggestions at any time. In this way, I can not only ensure the smooth completion of daily work, but also learn experience and new skills from the guidance of senior.
At the same time, the company has a lot of internal training courses, coverage from 3d to 2d, 3d technology, such as different modeling, lighting, rigging, composition, color, etc.. For artists who are very specialized in a certain technology, they can learn a variety of skills to make up for their shortcomings and ensure that they can still improve their abilities during work. As for me, I volunteered to go to internal training classroom every Friday, where I learned very useful art skills.
It is worth mentioning that here I also get the hands-on instruction of artists like Sasha Beliaev. Sasha Beliaev is a legendary artist that I admired very much when I was a student. It is my great honor to work with this legendary artist, which makes me unforgettable in my life. I still remember a task he assigned to me at that time. Every time I made a change, he would personally guide me and share his work process experience with me. For several times, he did a demo directly by video and voice.
In addition, there are omnipotent ADs like Saeed and Magda, who are on hand to provide artistic guidance. I am very lucky to work with these legendary artists on major IP projects, and I can greatly improve my strength in doing the projects. I can learn new experience and industry skills every day here.
At Share Creators, if you want to try or learn different content, artists can contact and learn the content of the whole business line through job rotation system. I believe this flexible job rotation system can enrich employees' familiarity and cognition of the whole business line, so as to improve their comprehensive ability in an all-round way. Personally, I have been working as a front-line designer at present, but I am gradually involved in certain project management, so I am free to change positions, and AD will provide help and training, so I don't feel too much pressure. Here, everyone has a great opportunity to manage art projects and improve their management ability, which is really precious for artists. These are all the immediate benefits that Share Creators Sprout Program has brought to me.
Insights on design and creation
In terms of design, I personally believe that inspiration can come from any design that moves you in life, whether it is the conceptual design of others, the design of nature, or the design of reality. My creative idea is to define myself first -- what do I want to create? A character? Mecha? Creature? Secondly, you can ask yourself 5 W, that is, why, what, when, who, where. When you've answered these five questions, you've built your framework. The rest is the excitement, the occasional feeling of pain or confusion, but ultimately the joy of the creative process! Each in-depth design is to improve their original idea, but also in the continuous exploration to find some design logic flaws or impassability. Sometimes they even make radical changes, realizing that the original design was not rigorous enough to find new and more interesting ideas. Like a hobbit's unexpected journey, it may end up in a design that is not what you intended. Isn't that interesting?
In terms of creation style, I like to combine some conflicting elements, such as new and old materials, different modeling languages and different pattern patterns. For example, when I design Sci-Fi characters, I like to combine some classical clothing styles, but the tailoring materials may be very sci-fi. The strong contrast of modeling language gives people a sense of conflict of The Times, which is refreshing. Sometimes the consideration is not only simple visual impact, a lot of it is how to make your design fresh in a variety of cultural backgrounds, but also conform to the aesthetic logic. Therefore, I often do this kind of challenging work, sometimes it takes a long time to explore the style, sometimes it takes days to work on a detail, and I love the feeling of exploration.
As for creation skills, I believe that as a professional concept designer, basic artistic skills are the most basic, followed by design ability. It is undoubtedly very important to skillfully use reference and research. For example, during breakdown reference, I will extract the features that best summarize the characteristics of the reference, and then abstract and simplify them into visual elements to be integrated into my design. In this way, I can make my design achieve an unexpected wonderful feeling through the clever combination!
Advice for new recruits
There are plenty of opportunities to work with big artists and work on famous IPs. It is very important to exercise your skills, improve your professional quality, and keep a love of learning and the pursuit of progress. You're about to embark on an extraordinary journey with Share Creators!
