Digital Painting and Rendering for Theatrical Design explores the tools and techniques for creating dazzling, atmospheric, and evocative digitally painted renderings for scenic, costume, and projection/integrated media design. By focusing on technique rather than the structure of a particular software, this book trains theatrical designers to think and paint digitally, regardless of the software or hardware they choose. The text begins with the construction of the artist’s physical and digital workspace, then delves into an explanation of tool functionality, technique-building exercises, and examples from professional theatrical designers to help contextualize the concepts presented. Each chapter gradually progresses in complexity through skill-building exercises and advanced tool functionality, covering concepts like brush construction, various forms of masking, and layer interaction. The book explores various methods of constructing a digital rendering, including producing digital paintings that look like traditional media and photo bashing – the practice of using extant photographs to create a collaged image. Concepts are contextualized throughout the text using illustrations, quotes, and interviews with working professional designers. This beautifully illustrated guide is written for professional theatrical artists, students of theatrical design, and other visual artists looking to broaden their digital painting skillset.

Drawing and Rendering for Theatre, A Practical Course for Scenic, Costume, and Lighting Designers is designed for those of you who are theatrical designers and want to improve your drawing and rendering skills. This gorgeous full-color book includes many examples of student drawings, analyzed and critiqued for areas that need improvement. It also includes numerous examples of design renderings by professional theatrical designers. In addition to the general sections on drawing and painting, it includes separate chapters on costume, scenic, and lighting rendering that include information specific to these design areas.

The Art of Theatrical Design: Elements of Visual Composition, Methods, and Practice, Second Edition, contains an in-depth discussion of design elements and principles for costume, set, lighting, sound, projection, properties, and makeup designs. This textbook details the skills necessary to create effective, evocative, and engaging theatrical designs that support a play contextually, thematically, and visually. It covers key concepts such as content, context, genre, style, play structure, and format and the demands and limitations of various theatrical spaces. The book also discusses essential principles, including collaboration, inspiration, conceptualization, script analysis, conducting effective research, building a visual library, developing an individual design process, and the role of the critique in collaboration. This second edition includes A new chapter on properties management and design. A new chapter on makeup design. A new chapter on digital rendering, with evaluations of multiple programs, overviews of file types and uses, and basic tutorials in Adobe® Photoshop® and Procreate. An expanded and revised chapter on traditional rendering, with the inclusion of new media, including watercolor, gouache, and mixed media, and updated exercises and tutorials. Revised and expanded chapters on individual design areas, including additional practices for conceptualization and collaboration, with new exercises for skill development. Additional exercises in all elements and principles of design chapters for investigation of each design principle and skill development. Revised and updated content throughout the text, reflecting current pedagogy and practices. This book gives students in theatrical design, introduction to design, and stagecraft courses the grounding in core design principles they need to approach design challenges and make design decisions in both assigned class projects and realized productions. The Art of Theatrical Design provides access to additional online resources, including step-by-step video tutorials of the exercises featured in the book.

The Art of Theatrical Design: Elements of Visual Composition, Methods, and Practice addresses the core principles that develop the student designer into a true artist, providing a foundation that ensures success with each production design. This text concentrates on the skills necessary to create effective, evocative, and engaging theatrical designs that support the play contextually, thematically, and visually. It gives students the grounding in core design principles they need to approach design challenges and make design decisions in both assigned class projects and realized productions. This book features: In-depth discussions of design elements and principles for costume, set, lighting, sound, and projection designs Coverage of key concepts such as content, context, genre, style, play structure and format, and the demands and limitations of various theatrical spaces Essential principles, including collaboration, inspiration, conceptualization, script analysis, conducting effective research, building a visual library, developing an individual design process, and the role of the critique in collaboration Information on recent digital drawing tool technology, such as the Wacom® Inkling pen, Wacom® Intuos digitizing tablets and digital sketching, and rendering programs such as Autodesk® Sketchbook Pro and Adobe® Photoshop® Chapter exercises and key terms designed to provide an engaging experience with the material and to facilitate student understanding

Scene Design: Rendering and Media is intended to help students or practitioners improve their skills at making finished renderings of scene designs for theater. The book demonstrates the process of creating the renderings through real world methods and techniques. Chapters are dedicated to a detailed discussion of various tools including drawing, light and shadow, color mixing, painting, figures, and other media, and the book is rife with colorful and inspirational examples.

William H. Pinnell first issues an "invitation to investigate the magic of perspective and explore its wondrous surround," then escorts the beginning as well as the advanced student through the complex process of artistically conveying scene designs via the scenographic drawing. Step by step, he illustrates the principles of perspective that apply to stage design. Starting with a brief history of perspective, he furnishes all of the information designers will need to transform a blank surface into a unique expression of theatrical space. As Pinnell makes clear, a stage setting must be fully planned far in advance of its actual construction. Each designer must have a picture of how the setting will appear when it is ready for opening night. The scenic designer must then be able to render that picture, to communicate his or her ideas through a series of initial sketches that, combined with directorial consultation, eventually evolve into an approved plan for the actual setting. Many of these plans take the form of working drawings--floor plans, elevations, and the related schematics necessary for the shop staff to construct the design. Pinnell insists that as closely as possible, the model--the graphic and tangible rendering of the designer's vision--must reflect what the actual stage set will look like when the audience sees it in the performance. His concern is to show how one faithfully and accurately represents the actual, finished stage design through theatrical rendering. Pinnell achieves this goal through an introduction and six chapters. He provides the historical background in a chapter titled "The Perspective Phenomenon," which covers preclassical Greece, Greek and Roman notions of perspective, and the concepts of the Italian Renaissance. "The Perspective Grid: Learning the Basics" deals with drafting tools, drawing the perspective grid, and the basics of measuring on the perspective grid. "The Perspective Grid: Expanding the Basics" discusses transferring a simple interior setting, plotting curves, and creating levels. "The Perspective Grid: Variations" analyzes the thrust stage, the raked stage, and the two-point perspective grid. "Coloration and Form" explains varied backgrounds, color media, and rendering with gouache. Finally, "Presentation" explains protection, framing, duplication, and the portfolio. Except for the intricacies of the human anatomy, there is nothing a designer must draw scenically that is not covered in this book.

Digital Media, Projection Design, and Technology for Theatre covers the foundational skills, best practices, and real-world considerations of integrating digital media and projections into theatre. The authors, professional designers and university professors of digital media in live performance, provide readers with a narrative overview of the professional field, including current industry standards and expectations for digital media/projection design, its related technologies and techniques. The book offers a practical taxonomy of what digital media is and how we create meaning through its use on the theatrical stage. The book outlines the digital media/projection designer’s workflow into nine unique phases. From the very first steps of landing the job, to reading and analyzing the script and creating content, all the way through to opening night and archiving a design. Detailed analysis, tips, case studies, and best practices for crafting a practical schedule and budget, to rehearsing with digital media, working with actors and directors, to creating a unified design for the stage with lighting, set, sound, costumes, and props is discussed. The fundamentals of content creation, detailing the basic building blocks of creating and executing digital content within a design is offered in context of the most commonly used content creation methods, including: photography and still images, video, animation, real-time effects, generative art, data, and interactive digital media. Standard professional industry equipment, including media servers, projectors, projection surfaces, emissive displays, cameras, sensors, etc. is detailed. The book also offers a breakdown of all key related technical tasks, such as converging, warping, and blending projectors, to calculating surface brightness/luminance, screen size and throw distance, to using masks, warping content and projection mapping, making this a complete guide to digital media and projection design today. An eResource page offers sample assets and interviews that link to current and relevant work of leading projection designers.