Brainstorm Contest WIP

Grizzled Superman

I've been working on a Superman redesign for the Brainstorm concept art Facebook group. 

In this version, Superman believes, despite his godlike powers, that he can never be strong enough to defend humanity from the wicked perils of the universe. Knowing that his abilities are dependent on starlight and that Kryptonite renders him as vulnerable as a mortal, he gathers and wears Kryptonite the way that Kung Fu masters wear wrist weights. So shackled, he trains his body and mind so that when he sheds the Kryptonite his powers are redoubled. Resultantly, his healing factor has slowed, he has aged, and his travails have left him scarred and a little bitter, but he has found even greater strength.

Week 12 - I Gotta Post Something, Right?

This has been a crazy busy week. I didn't have my usual gusto when it comes to working on portfolio projects, but here's my progress on Ko, the dinosaur samurai:

Not as far along as I wanted to be, but progress is progress. More to come this Friday!

Week 11 - Of Dinosaurs and Internships

This week I worked on two different projects. One, you saw the early phase of last week, and here is the progress:

The Way of the Dinosaur. See what I did there?

The second is something I'm trying to add to my portfolio in a hurry. I applied for an internship at Disney Interactive. The internship would be doing concept art for a Marvel IP game, so I want to show them I can draw and paint superheroes. It takes a lot longer to create an ink look than to just PAINT something. You can cheat more when you're painting.

Psylocke WIP

Week 10 - I finished the Flint King!

That's one in the ol' portfolio bank. Eager to start the next project, I've begun work on another character piece and have been working on a lighting and rendering study from a reference photo.

The Flint King - Finished

Ko, the Dinosaur Samurai

Lighting Study. Reference Photo: Marcus Ranum

Week 9: More Character Art

Last week I accomplished a lot on this guy. This week, I accomplished just as much, but it's not as apparent because this is the rendering phase. I want to make this illustration as polished as possible to demonstrate my rendering and finishing abilities to prospective employers. Here's the progress:

Getting warmer.

He's not quite done yet, but I'm still considering this a victory because I'm really coming to understand what goes into game art like this:

Copyright Riot Games

 In need of a break from the Flint King, I also started the design stages for another piece of character art. This guy is Ko. Ko is a samurai. Ko is a triceratops. Trisamutops?

Thumbnails for fun and profit.

Hopefully next week will see the completion of the Flint King and some significant progress on Ko.

Week 8: Enough cutesy stuff!

It's time to shift gears away from Seven Bear Itch in this blog. Back in my January 29 post, I made a commitment to improve and polish some work that I started in a previous class. Well, this week I did just that, and below are the "before and after."

Before.

After.

I'm happy with the progress that I've made on this piece. It's slow going because this is the furthest I've taken a full-color digital painting. I'm still defining my process. I'll be working on this more next week and hope to have it finished at the next blog post.

Some things I learned from my work this week:

• Some kind of background is important for both presentation and seeing color/value relationships. 
• I benefit from a "painterly" process. I can't treat concept art the same way as photo compositing.
• Custom brushes are amazing once you know the brush engine. I would rather use a custom brush made from a texture photo than said texture photo as a layer. With enough time, I'd rather build my own textures using brush strokes.

Cheers!

Week 7: What I learned at GDC

I spent this entire week working as a Conference Associate at GDC. It was a valuable experience, both as a networking opportunity and in terms of helping me pick a direction for my portfolio. Here are the core things that I learned:

• The Game Industry wants you to be specialized.
• I should have a separate resume for Artist positions and another for Game Design
• Even Game Desigers have specalizations. There are Combat Designers, Encounter Designers, and Systems Engineers. These are all subsets of Game Design. 
• A Systems Designer focuses on mechanics and manipulation of data for game balance and interesting user experience. This 
• There are no Game Designer/Artists outside of the Indy Game sector, and even within it, someone who is so generalized in their skillset is rare, and so their value is not implicitly understood.
• I need to choose a focus, and I'm a little further along on the Concept Art front.
• If I'm going to show Game Design work, something small and polished is way better than something grandiose and unfinished.
• The above probably goes for Concept Art as well.
• I need to learn Unity.
• I need to do more coding.
• There are more Artist positions available than Game Designer positions.

...So that's a lot of to-do list type stuff. The bottom line is that I should focus on concept art. I need to spend the rest of the semester producing 5 or 6 polished art pieces that show the best of what I can do. If I complete one every other week for the rest of the semester, I will achieve that goal. Here goes nothing!

OMGDC!

This week I spent every available moment updating and reworking my resume in preparation for GDC. I had intended on uploading some additional items to my portfolio here, but the 14 hours I spent designing my resume and uploading game design info to Wikia for project samples was enough, I think.  It's crazy how much work it is to present yourself! I'd rather be arting.

Here's the first resume I made:

 And here is the one I made after I pulled my head out of my ass:

Which one tells a better story about me and my qualifications to design games?

Actually, I can't take all the credit for performing my lower intestinal craniectomy. I heard a talk from three alums who now work in "the field," and my conversation with one, Nathan Harling, was particularly helpful in figuring out what matters when you're writing a game design resume.

Let's hope the wisdom pays off!

Week 5: The Variety Show

I am quickly learning my limits in terms of how long this artwork takes. I think I'm in denial about the length of time consumed by this process. Finding reference eats up quite a bit of it. This week, I worked for about 7 hours and produced these:

Itchy Bear design progress

Woodpecker rough

Extra Bear.

The squirrels, rough version.

A stag. His hindquarters will be hidden behind a tree.

Ideation of the stag's design. I kind of fell in love with antlers.

 Still not quite hitting my goal, but there are definitely some things I'm happy with in here. I'm learning some good things about the process of concept art generation for 3d assets through this process. Modelers are pointing out inconsistencies that I wouldn't have noticed on my own. Next week, I'll be polishing some old work and posting a link to my portfolio in preparation for GDC, which I will be attending March 1-6. Wish me luck!

Week 4: More SBI Concept Art

Well, I didn't hit my goal this week. Part of that is an excess of ambition: I don't want to admit how long this stuff takes. Another part is that I am avoiding or have difficulty following the workflow that I know will give me the most quick and efficient results. Doing a lot of rough sketches, most of which I know I won't use, is draining for me. I want to make something I'm proud of, now. This is what I made this week:

Squirrel head variants. Designing the head helps influence the body.

Squirrel bodies.

Bear body. Scope that caboose!

Last week, I said would finish roughs of:

• Five animal characters (heads and arms only) for the final group shot
• The squirrel
• Two adult Woodpeckers
• Two juvenile woodpeckers
• 5 more tree designs
• 5 more rock clusters
• Complete Sven Model Sheet

I think it's a reasonable goal to finish all that next week. After that, it's a week of portfolio polishing for GDC!

Week 3: Seven Bear Itch Concept Art

This week, I focused on defining the visual style of Seven Bear Itch through digital paintings of environment assets and a model sheet bust of the main character, Sven the Bear.

Occidental Juniper

Black Oak

Rock Formation Sketches

Sven the Bear

With the shape language and color palette for the short well-defined, next week I will be producing a large volume of asset art, not fully rendered, but developed enough so that modelers can work from it. This art will include:

• Five animal characters (heads and arms only) for the final group shot
• The squirrel
• Two adult Woodpeckers
• Two juvenile woodpeckers
• 5 more tree designs
• 5 more rock clusters
• Complete Sven Model Sheet

Week 2: The Change-Up

As we "creative types" are wont to do, I've had a change of heart. More accurately, an admission of what was in there all along.

By "heart," of course, I mean computer. I looked through my hard drive and found a body of unfinished work that is just soooooooooo...achingly...close to being good enough. I'm going to be improving and or finishing these, starting with the closest to completion, the Flint King:

...and "Victor," his noble nemesis:

...as well as some initial pre-production artwork for another, science-fiction project:

First things last, however. I will spend the first five weeks of this semester NAILING DOWN the art direction for the APCG 545 project I'm directing, called "Seven Bear Itch." Here's what I have so far:

The Master Plan

So begins the quest for the perfect portfolio. Join me if you dare. The path will be long and fraught with peril, but promises treasures untold at its end.

• Research Art Directors and Directors who are artists. Find a path to follow. Due 2/6
• Iain McCaig (Blizzard)
• Sam "Samwise" Didier (Blizzard)
• Juan Antonio Alcazar (Castlevania: Lords of Shadow)
• Jeremy Jarvis (Wizards of the Coast)

 

Goals and Deadlines

• Develop two projects
• Seven Bear Itch (animated short, Art Direction Package)
• Way of the Dinosaur (Pitch Bible/Concept Art Package)

• Work Schedule and Deadlines
• Finish "Book Cover" Grounding Piece for one project - 2/13
• Rough designs for main character: WotD and SBI - 1/30
• Complete pre-production package for both- 5/15