Creature artist Damien Guimoneau reflects on helping Substance 3D Painter grow
Damien Guimoneau has built a career bringing fantastical beings to life for film and television, with credits on “The Lion King” (2019), “Moon Knight,” and “Godzilla: King of the Monsters”. Over time, as Damien’s skills have developed, so have the tools he relies on — particularly Adobe Substance 3D Painter, an application his feedback has helped improve. Recently, he created his second splash screen (which shows while the software is loading) for Substance 3D Painter—an image of a giant dragon.
On May 7, 2025, Damien will share his journey at FMX in Stuttgart, offering insights into how close collaboration between artists and developers can drive both creative and technological evolution.
Pushing the limits of Substance 3D Painter
Damien’s relationship with the Substance 3D team began during the creation of his first baby dragon artwork in 2020. After reaching out to the developers in Clermont-Ferrand, he found himself spending two hours discussing the software's capabilities — and its growing pains.
“I’ve always optimized my workflow — building scripts, tweaking tools,” he said. “As I worked in Painter, I kept a list of anything that slowed me down and shared it with the team.”
His feedback helped refine Painter’s handling of complex materials and multi-UDIM workflows, contributing to a toolset more capable of supporting cinematic-quality assets. The collaborative spirit behind these improvements echoes a wider truth in the industry: Artists’ feedback is the most vital element in shaping their tools.
From static sculpt to cinematic character
Damien’s original baby dragon, created in 2020 for the Painter splash screen, showcased his skill but remained a static piece. This time, the goal was more ambitious.
The baby dragon artwork that Damien created for the Substance 3D Painter splash screen in 2020.
“With the new dragon, I didn’t want it frozen as a still image. I wanted it to live and breathe like a real production creature,” he explained.
Working alongside rigging artist Dan Zelcs, Damien built a model with clean topology and an animatable structure, ensuring it could move convincingly on screen. Substance 3D Painter’s evolved feature set — smarter layer management, more responsive procedural tools, and improved material control — enabled a workflow more suited to the needs of film production.
Beyond muscles and scales
In VFX, many artists dream of creating dragons, monsters, and aliens — but Damien emphasizes that successful creature work demands more than flashy designs.
“Everyone in VFX wants to make alien monsters, dinosaurs, dragons. If you want to get into creature work, it’s not just about sculpting muscles and scales. You have to understand materials — how light passes through skin, how reflections behave, how subsurface scattering makes something feel alive,” he said. “Those little details are what make a creature feel real.”
Damien’s artwork for the ‘Substance Monster Discount’ in 2021.
Substance 3D Painter plays a vital role in this process. Features like dynamic material response and improved subsurface simulation allow artists to focus less on technical workarounds and more on fine-tuning the emotional and physical believability of their creatures.
A Shared Evolution
The contrast between Damien’s 2020 and 2025 dragons mirrors the parallel growth of artist and tool.
“Five years ago, Painter was already strong, but there were limitations you had to work around,” Damien said. “Now, I could use Painter in a way that felt much closer to film production.”
He also points to the strengthened sense of community: artists providing feedback directly, developers responding rapidly, and tools adapting to real production needs. For Damien, that relationship between artist and technology is crucial.
Texturing in Adobe Substance 3D Painter.
“Just as the baby dragon grew up, so did the software — and so did I as an artist,” he reflected.
Today, Substance 3D Painter isn’t just for concept models or stills. It’s a flexible, production-ready platform capable of handling the high standards of modern VFX. Damien’s latest dragon — more detailed, more alive, and more technically polished — stands as proof of what’s now possible.
As he prepares to share his workflow insights at FMX, Damien’s message is clear: When tools and artists grow together, they don’t just keep pace with the industry — they help drive it forward.