From childhood sketches of dinosaurs to designing creatures for blockbuster cinema, Michael Michera’s journey charts the evolution of a curious mind into a worldbuilding specialist. Here we chat to the artist about his inspirations, but read his art techniques for designing robot creatures for more insight.
Inspired by nature, biology, and the sleek menace of Jurassic Park’s velociraptors, their work has shifted from hand-painted digital illustration to design-led creature creation grounded in function and movement. In this interview, we explore how early obsessions became a career path that now intersects with major film productions, and how advances in hardware and software have reshaped modern workflows.
CB: Where did your artistic journey start?
Michael Michera: My artistic journey started very early in life, with a fascination with dinosaurs and animals in general. Drawing became a natural way for me to process that curiosity and give it form.
CB: What do you consider to be your main source of inspiration?
MM: Nature is my main source of inspiration – animals, biology, and the way evolution shapes form and movement. Science fiction and a futuristic aesthetic provide the framework for pushing those ideas into design concepts.
CB: As a young artist, were there films that gave you a desire to create your own?
MM: I was four when I first saw Jurassic Park on VHS, and I instantly became obsessed with velociraptors – their sleek shapes, movement, and apparent intelligence. That early fascination with creatures and biology never really left me.
CB: Can you tell us about your first paid commission?
MM: The first project I was paid for was a hand-painted digital illustration for a post-apocalyptic book cover. It had a sci-fi edge, but the setting was intentionally close to the present.
It showed a young girl wearing a gas mask and holding a teddy bear. It doesn’t really represent the kind of work I do today, but it shows where I was at the time and how I was thinking visually. My focus has shifted much more toward design-driven work and building worlds rather than single illustrations.
CB: What’s the last piece you finished, and how do the two differ?
MM: Recently, I completed a predatory creature as part of my own personal project. It’s fast, aggressive in its design language, and built around the idea of movement and function rather than a single illustrative moment.
Compared to my first paid commission, this work is much more design-driven. It explores a modern, subtly biomechanical approach while remaining largely organic, and focuses on how the creature would exist and behave within a larger world rather than just how it appears in a single image. It feels closer to the kind of work I’ve always wanted to do.
CB: Is making a living as an artist all you thought it would be?
MM: My goal was always to work on major cinematic productions, and I’ve started to see that goal take shape in reality. I had the opportunity to work on Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, which confirmed that I was moving in the direction I wanted.
I was fairly clear early on about the kind of work that I wanted to do. At the same time, the path wasn’t as linear as I once imagined – there were long periods of uncertainty and quiet before things started to move.
CB: If you were starting out now, what advice would you most appreciate?
MM: To focus early on the kind of work I want to do, rather than trying to meet every industry expectation at once. Choosing a clear direction matters more than trying to be flexible about everything.
CB: Are there challenges to 3D?
MM: 3D doesn’t let you fake things the way 2D sometimes does. It’s demanding, but that’s also why it’s such a powerful design tool.
CB: How has 3D changed for the better since you’ve been working in it?
MM: Computers are far more powerful than they used to be. Back in 2014, sculpting complex designs – especially robots – on a laptop often meant creatively working around hardware limitations.
CB: What is your next step in art or life?
MM: My hard-surface background taught me a modern way of thinking about design – how mechanisms work, how structure supports function, and how complexity can be broken down into readable parts. I’m now applying that to creature design, especially through a biomechanical lens. I now want to focus more on what I want to do: creature design, art direction, and worldbuilding.
