Robert Revels
Instructional Designer  ·  Learning Experience Designer

I turn complex craft into learning people can actually use, and I build the tools that deliver it.

Twenty-five years designing and teaching studio-level skill, with graduates now at Pixar, Disney, Marvel, Lucasfilm, Riot Games, and Crystal Dynamics. I design the full learning experience, from objectives and storyboards through assessment, and I engineer the software and documentation that make it stick.

How I work

Objectives first. Tools when they are missing. Then revise.

A working method, not a buzzword. It maps cleanly to ADDIE and SAM, and it is how every project below was built.

01 / ANALYZE

Find the gap

Start with what the learner must be able to do, where they get stuck, and what mastery actually looks like. Objectives and assessment are written before any content.

02 / BUILD

Design the path, build the tools

Storyboards, scripted video, and scaffolded practice. When the right tool does not exist, I build it: a Photoshop plugin, a worksheet system, a browser app for practice.

03 / MEASURE

Ship, watch, tune

Release, see how learners move through it, and revise from engagement and feedback. The course is never finished, it is tuned.

Selected work

Three problems, three systems built to solve them.

Each leads with the learning problem and the system I designed for it. The craft is the proof, not the pitch.

Tool design  ·  Photoshop workflow

Luminary

A Photoshop plugin, plus a companion web tool for Procreate and Clip Studio users. Built on my Light and Value Method.
The problem

Students could name the parts of light and value but froze when a real painting needed decisions. The knowledge was not transferring to the canvas.

The system

I codified the method into a Photoshop plugin and a sixteen-section manual, turning an abstract principle into a repeatable, in-app procedure. A companion web version extends the core features to artists working in Procreate or Clip Studio, who apply them and export back into their own app. The tool guides the decision, the manual teaches the reasoning.

The proof

Designed, documented, and shipped with full end-user training, as a plugin and a web companion. It structures the artist's own decisions, it does not make them for you.

Curriculum system  ·  Tooling

IP Forge

A four-phase curriculum, plus the app that holds its structure.
The problem

Creators can write pages but stall at building a whole, coherent world. The leap from skill to finished original work is where most programs lose people.

The system

I designed a four-phase, twelve-worksheet curriculum that moves a creator from world identity to a locked canon, with assessment built into every phase. Then I built Scriptorium, a script and IP-development app that holds the same structure the curriculum teaches: an IP bible, beat sheet, and act framework in one place.

The proof

A complete progression, foundational skill feeding advanced creation, delivered through both the taught curriculum and the software that supports it.

Instructional illustration  ·  Published

The Makeup Artist Handbook

Procedural sequences for a published professional handbook. Tap through each step.
The problem

A physical technique is hard to teach in prose. The learner needs to see each move, in order, with the hand in the right place.

The system

I broke each technique into a clean sequence of step illustrations, stripping every frame down to the single decision that step is about. Line and value carry the instruction, color appears only where it clarifies.

Airbrush application, step 1 of 3
Airbrush application
Prosthetic application, step 1 of 6
Prosthetic application
Applied tattoo, step 1 of 8
Applied tattoo
Tools I built

Most designers brief a developer. I build the tool when the right one does not exist.

Each runs in your browser with no sign-in. They are the same tools used in the work above.

Luminary
Photoshop plugin + web

A Photoshop plugin for light and value decisions, with a companion web version for Procreate and Clip Studio users. The web version is shown here.

Open web tool → Manual (PDF) →
Scriptorium
Script & IP development

The engine behind IP Forge: write a script, build an IP bible, plan act structure and beats in one workspace.

Open tool → How-to guide →
Posterizer
Value study

Flattens any image into clean value steps. The value method from Luminary, made interactive for practice.

Open tool →

A note on AI: I use AI as a development aid when building these tools, the same way I use any other tool in the stack. The method, the technical decisions, and the understanding behind them are mine. The tools shown here run no AI.

Teaching in motion

Timed studies and recorded instruction.

Short, focused practice pieces. Tap to play.

Hand studies, set one
Hand studies, set two
Costumed figure study
Bird studies
About

I came to instructional design the long way.

Twenty-five years teaching studio art at the college level, alongside a parallel career as a commercial retoucher for national brands. I have lived on both sides of training: the expert who has to transfer a hard skill, and the practitioner who has to deliver under a real deadline.

That is the through line in everything here. I do not just write the lesson. I design the path, build the tool, write the manual, and revise from how people actually learn. The medium happens to be art. The discipline is designing learning that works.

Education
BFA, Illustration, Academy of Art University
Teaching
25 years college faculty, more than 1,000 learners
Alumni
Pixar, Disney, Marvel, Lucasfilm, Riot Games, Crystal Dynamics
Adobe
Expert, 25 years: Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Premiere Pro, After Effects
Production
Video scripting and editing, Camtasia (Expert), Snagit (Expert), Audiate
Method
ADDIE & SAM, storyboarding, assessment, accessibility
Certified
9 LinkedIn Learning instructional-design certificates (2025), including Models of ID and Designing the Learner's Journey
Contact

Open to instructional design and technical training roles.

Remote or hybrid, San Francisco Bay Area. The fastest way to reach me is email.

robert@robertrevels.com
Download a résumé: Instructional Designer  ·  Technical Trainer  ·  Teaching Faculty