In the new Gun Design video series, Justin “Coro” Kaufman shows us how it’s done in the games industry. From thumbnail conception using Photoshop to full realization in 3ds Max, we’re taken on a wild (and hilarious) ride that is El Coro’s design process.

The series is available from Massive Black in two parts for $14 each, but we’re willing to bet you’ll just opt to get both for $20. These are quality productions and well worth the money as always.

Links: Part 1 - Part 2 - Full Series

Massive Black has unleashed the first part in a series of videos featuring artist and performer Andrew Jones. Unparalleled in the art industry, Andrew often expresses his talent in front of a live audience, classroom, or dance club. In volume one, he shares his unique approach to shaping three different images in Corel Painter X.

Although this video is considered Part 1 in a new series, a previous video by Andrew, called Thumbnail Demo, is also available from the Massive Black catalog. Viewing both in conjunction will provide deeper insight into Andrew’s unprecedented techniques.

Visit dvd.massiveblack.com to purchase the download, which contains a 1 hour Quicktime video and the three .PSD files created during the demonstration.

With a deadline of January 31st, the time has come to submit your art for publication in the next edition of It’s Art Magazine. The challenge is to depict a winter scene. In addition to being published, winners will receive free subscriptions to future releases of the magazine.

Massive Black has released another set of videos, this time from artist Whit Brachna, aka Mr. Blonde. Whit explores creating a ‘Non-SciFi’ interior environment, from thumbnails to the finished product. He also makes use of a simple 3d model from Google Sketchup to lay out basic perspective and initial lighting.

Whit is a student of the Concept Art Atelier and currently works for Massive Black, based in San Francisco, with satellite studios in Shanghai and Bangkok. As usual, we are provided with the Photoshop .PSD files, Sketchup renders, and the final full-res image. Prices for these tutorials will go up to $14 after Jan 1st, still a great value and well below the industry norm.

For the full experience, be sure to purchase both Part 1 and Part 2.

Good news for Tolkien fans. It seems Peter Jackson and New Line Cinemas have finally put aside their squabbling and have agreed to produce two movies based on The Hobbit. The LOTR trilogy sent shock waves through the visual arts industries with the extensive use of illustration, concept art, and matte paintings during the production process as well as included in the final film. It will be interesting to see what we have in store for the next installment of Middle Earth. Pre-production will start immediately with release dates scheduled for 2010 and 2011.

Read the press release for details, or check out the official movie blog.

A few links to cover Monday’s news items.

• 2D Artist Magazine, published via PDF download, has released it’s December 2007 issue.
• It’s Art Magazine is running a 3-part concept series by artist Daniel Arnold-Mist, using a combination of tools including Painter, ZBrush and and Maya. Part 1 and Part 2 are online now.
• MyToons is running a contest with a $7000 cash prize award for the best animated commercial.
• ImagineFX has a new workshop on Dark Fantasy Painting with JP Targete.

Part 2 of the Massive Black / Nox video is now available!

Nox introduces the second video with more bloopers (and don’t we all love these). Again, he’s naturally hilarious throughout. In this round we see more of the details, composition, lighting, and background coming together. And yes, more stomach/torso edits. Again we are supplied with a Photoshop PSD as part of the download, this time the final full-size copy. This source file comes in handy and helps us to follow along by inspecting the layers up-close. Once again Massive Black comes through with a great set of downloads for the cost of a few cups of coffee. Several more videos are currently in the works from other Massive artists, so expect to see more in the near future. Proceeds go towards supporting the free ConceptArt.org community.

Check out the Massive Black DVD site to purchase. And if you haven’t already, make sure you watch Part 1 first.