development process and concept variants

Here are a few concepts that show some development process. It's interesting developing a character from different stages. Sometimes you get a design brief that is extremely open ended, and you spin your wheels developing forever and never seem to hit that elusive target. Other times, the brief may be open ended, but you luckily nail it in the first couple hours, and all the other drawings you did the rest of the week seem completely unnecessary. Then there are times when you get a very specific design brief of an arch-typical character, and you end up honing in on nuance details; ie hair styles, eye configurations, material/texture contrasts, unkempt fur vs slick skin, soft translucent tissue vs crustacean type carapace. Still, these details could heavily change the feel of a character, especially when you are working in a non-fantasy setting. In the end, people don't always see specific differences, but I hope they'll feel the difference.

za character portraits

these are the character portraits you choose from in the zombie apocalypse player menu. bren and i worked out these characters after a few takes, and i did a final pass on them. if you haven't checked it out, you should. i think it's been a top download on xbla, so it's doing well.

Zombie Apocalypse

quick announcement-
Developer Nihilistic/Publisher Konami announced that Zombie Apocalypse is set for release in the United States on September 23rd on Xbox Live Arcade for 800 Microsoft Points and September 24th on PlayStation Network for $9.99.

My old pals at Nihilistic are back at it again. Zombie Apocalypse is one of the games I worked on a couple of years ago creating characters/environments concepts. It's an awesome game, and everyone needs to buy it. Get on that co-op, today!!!

Cheers NSI, well done.

deebo

The a.d. was kind enough to allow me to show this since the card set has been published. I think it debuted at Gen Con a couple of weeks ago, Warhammer: Invasion the Card Game. These are fun projects to do after work, especially when they are over the top like this one. I just wish I added one more horn...

Warhammer: Invasion The Card Game © Games Workshop Limited 2009 and FFG 2009

Throwback.

Throwback ---OLD artwork from 2005-2006--- The 4th from the bottom to the 2nd from the bottom were all cut up in layers for a motion graphic cutscene I worked on with Bren. So rings were spinning, half naked girls were flying past the camera, and people were being impaled with spikes. All the good stuff that Hyboria got going on. Top, a boss character heavily influenced from a 'dealer', and then an unused grayscale creature design, but fun to draw. Then an iteration for the Cave Ape Design. My buddy Dave Gardner, who at the time, was the combat lead and an animator at Nihilistic. He had an opportunity to suit up for this Cave Ape enemy character, while we were shooting other scenes for In Game Cinematics and other combat anims at the 'House of Moves'. Funny thing is, Gardner constanly hates on mocap, yet when presented with the opportunity to suit up to utilize it, he jumped at it AND he loved the way it turned out in game. Yes, it's ironic that Dave is a closet Mocap enthusiast, and 2 his squirrley (100lbs) body movements are thrown onto a 800+ pound gorilla model. I'm busting him out, only because he tried to catch me on camera while I was trying to prep the actors for a scene, and I was acting out lines to the audio playback. Luckily I was slightly off screen. Good times hanging with the NSI animators Leo, Dave, and Nestor at House of Moves. Ah, and I can't forget Scott Gagain and Richard Dorton... memorable characters. The last illustration was a spread for a Conan Preview article for Game Informer.

Personal projects: dragon design, creature design and a period painting

Here are some projects I did for kicks. Trying to ground the dragon in a reality with some dinosaur elements. Zbrush creature model test and paintover to try out a different process. It was an interesting experiment and fun to model. Threw in a period piece, and left my pencil drawing visible in the painting, which I don't often do. I love the feeling of drawing with a pencil, you can draw very linearly or broadly put down marks like a paintbrush. I just can't achieve that versatility of markmaking on a computer (without changing digital "tools"). But then again, it's a pain to archive pencilled drawings and keep them smudge free...and I have nowhere to store the stacks of paper...

Nihilistic/Konami's Zombie Apocalypse came out and demoed well enough at E3 that it got a couple of best of E3 nominations. 1 2 Good times developing that.

Anyway, I started working on EA's "Dante's Inferno" a couple of months ago, and it's a hella fun. :P Seriously, I can't believe how many talented artists there are surrounding me...inspiration is always nearby.

DS sketch part duex

the alcatraz was created at sketchcrawl a while back. it was hard painting under some harsh sunlight, so i could barely see the screen. i tried to cover the lcd with my shadow, but it was a failed attempt. not a great kickoff to my new toy. (sun > lcdbrightness). the top 2 were done at different times but at the same place, barnes and nobles in corte madera. there are a couple of elderly regulars that seem to be there whenever i go. they make for great subjects cuz they don't move too much. luckily their body types contrast nicely for studies.
the older african american man was painted while sitting in line for indy 4, at the century theater in SF. this was a hard lighting situation to deal with because of the backlit popcorn signs behind hom. but i like his gesture with his black case balanced on top his overlapping hands. i also like the shape created by an underbite...i wish i had framed the table in the picture where he sat across an empty seat, where he waited a long time for no one. but i don't think the resolution could have captured all the details of his facial features and the location. this is another drawback of the DS, the limit of its resolution. but i gotta say, it's a sick tool for quick studies. sketching with color has never been easier.
indy 4 was my least favorite of them all. i didn't think the antagonists were as strong as the other films, or maybe it was there were too many capable protagonists on the same journey. but i thought it was still entertaining. and yes---harrison ford is still the man. bnoch knows the deal http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9GwtRsOYSI