One Studio, Two Worlds: A First Look at the Creative Process
After discussing the philosophy and the toolkit behind my new venture, I want to pull back the curtain and show you how it all comes together. The most exciting part of this journey is seeing how a unified creative workflow can bring two completely different universes to life.
My process always begins with a hand-crafted artistic vision. The technology is then directed to serve that vision, whether the goal is an epic cinematic scene or a whimsical animated moment. This post offers a first glimpse into how I’m bridging the gap between traditional art and next-generation production.
I won’t be getting into all of the tools I am using (which are many and that is sometimes a good or bad thing :)) in this post. That will come later.
Part One: Forging Utherworlds
The goal for the Utherworlds cinematic is to create a sense of epic scale and dark fantasy realism, where every frame tells a story of a world both grand and ravaged. This vision begins with foundational concept art. Below is an environment I conceived and painted, capturing the raw, apocalyptic majesty of one of Utherworlds' key locales. Every brushstroke in this painting was laid down to evoke a specific mood and foreshadow the dramatic events unfolding within it. This is our starting point.
The challenge, and the thrilling opportunity, is to then bring this immense, static painting to life as a dynamic cinematic scene. My workflow leverages a blend of traditional artistic direction and advanced generative tools to translate this intricate, two-dimensional vision into a moving, breathing sequence. This involves meticulously guiding the technology to articulate the scale of the destruction, the flickering of distant fires, and the ominous atmosphere that hangs heavy over the shattered cityscape. The goal is to ensure that the final cinematic shots retain every ounce of the original painting's dramatic intent, but with the added dimension of time and movement.
What you see here is the promise of Utherworlds realized: a deep, hand-crafted artistic vision, expanded into a living, cinematic experience.
Part 2: Crafting Magic — Secret Places and Imaginaries
In stark contrast to the epic scale of Utherworlds, the goal for Secret Places is to create the feeling of a living storybook. This is a world where some children, before they become adults, can still see the hidden magic of the natural world. They are the only ones who can perceive the Secret Places and the whimsical Imaginaries that live within them, the beings responsible for keeping nature healthy and in balance.
The original painting below, one of my favorites, is meant to be a moment you can step into—a place of hidden whimsy and quiet enchantment that embodies this concept.
The workflow for this project is entirely different, yet it operates on the same core principle: technology serving artistic intent. Here, the aim is not to create cinematic realism, but to bring the painting to life with subtle, painterly motion. Achieving this required a new kind of creative investigation. I had to experiment with several new AI tools, learning that each one excels with specific types of motion, tone, and animation. The process demanded a problem-solving mindset—not just to find a tool, but to find the correct tool for the desired magic.
Using a similar suite of tools, I am guiding the animation to add a whisper of movement—a flicker of light, a gentle sway of a flower, or a soft breath from one of the characters. The goal is to preserve the hand-crafted charm of the original art, transforming it into a moment of pure, animated magic for a children's book or short film. As the creator of this world, I'd always dreamed of what it might be like to bring the Imaginaries to life. To see the scene breathe and move was a truly powerful and exhilarating moment.
This example demonstrates the true versatility of my new workflow. The same digital palette that forges a world of fire can be directed to create a world of gentle, enchanted wonder. This is just the beginning. I can't wait to share some of the more advanced character animation and cinematography I am able to achieve.
