I had the honor of working with a couple of other game artists on a rough demo-level.  Our group was comprised of Kyle Hickey (scripting/modelling/Game Design), Dylan Rinker (Character Concept/ Character Modeler), Myself (Concept Artist / Modeler / Game Design) and Ian Spencer (Modeler).  We had a few ideas pitched, but what really hit off with the group was my suggestion that we watch Jan Švankmajer's 1966  Rakvickarna (Punch and Judy).   The working title, "Coffin Factory" is a direct reference to that short.

 The premise was that the player take the role of an current day Urban Explorer that gets into a derelict theater, then discovers that they cannot get out.  The possessed Punch doll from the theater's prop room intends to kill them, or turn them into a doll under it's control.  The game elements would be wave events with differing mechanics based on lighting effects and the theater sets from each 'Act' of the play- the character could heal if they stood in the spot light, could roam around the theater to try to outsmart the AI murder puppets, and they had to keep track of their ammunition/resource management.

It was important to the feel of our idea that items look distressed, distorted in proportions and a bit collage. 

We'd planned on three phases- The ocean, the desert, and then a boss fight.  For the first two, elaborate flats would move on stage as though there was a stage crew manipulating them for a 1700s play.  Some inspiration for these came from the 1988 The Adventures of Baron Munchhausen.  The disembodied nature of them felt appropriately disjointed and disturbing, and play-testing response was very good for the 'creepy' factor. 

Kyle did a great job keeping the master UDK file and getting assets placed in as they were finished.  With the walls and sconces, we wanted the theater to feel like it had been established in the late 1800s, then renovated in the 1930s/Deco period before closing during World War II.  The sconces and seating referenced the Art Deco, while the wall texture I made pulled from the elaborate patterning and golds/reds of classical theaters from the target building date.

The very first concept art for the level demo.  There were geometry/math issues with getting the floor slope and back lobby rotunda, and there wasn't enough time to implement the facing panels changing as well as the stage scenery.   Maybe someday in the future I'll take a crack at it independently as a modelling exercise.  I liked the creepy sun faces as mirroring Comedy and Tragedy.

August 23rd-26th!

   I'm teaming up with Brian, a coworker here at Reality Foil, LLC for this fun game-jam event.  I have no idea what we're actually going to make, but we talked about maybe needing 2D character animation.  I haven't bone-animated anything in flash for over a year, so I threw some flats together on layers, opened the bone tool, set some poses and exported it to various file-types to see what we thought about it all.  It looks ROUGH, let me tell you, but now all that great stuff from Actionscript 3/Flash/Prototyping class with Patricia Huettel is finally filtering back into my brain after months and months of not touching it.  

So stay tuned for progress updates, screenshots, tears of pain and of joy!


Man, I miss my Saxon Crown game... I should revisit that little point and click adventure.  

Peter the Great

An idea taken from poetry about Peter the Great.  I fell in love with an animated Bayeux Tapestry that was produced created by students at Goldsmiths College.  Old media and old stylizations of people or characters coming to life to tell their story.  Presented with an excerpt from a poem, then, I went with this as a planned cut scene of a tapestry Peter coming to life as his story was told. Altogether the piece would run a minute.

A collection of various props from this or that.  Mostly all in the sci-fi dystopian, action/adventure, or RPG themes.

These were each hand drawn, scanned, then the basic flats added to show the modelers a better idea zones.  The green being the visor, blue being where liquid air should be in canister or  bullet-glass bottle.

These were each hand drawn, scanned, then the basic flats added to show the modelers a better idea zones.  The red being the mechanical lights/eye interfaces, blue being where liquid air should be in canister or  tubing that showed intake/outake.

And the more fantasy elements- gem pick-ups.  Each of the gems was supposed to have different effects, so having a variety of shaping and color was important.  I played with painting in facets or leaving them cabochon or raw.

Some basic thumbnails for environments in the previsual development.  The plan for the game progression is NIMH labs > NIMH Labs duct work > Forest > Derelict Truck > Forest > Fitzgibbon Farm > Establish the Rose Bush Colony. 

These were a mix of Alchemy, Photoshop and traditional copic marker on graphics paper.

The lower left thumbnail actually shows the theoretical grating that the rats woudl exit out into the forest from.  This is the door that would have been impassible were it not for the help and survival of Mr. Ages and Johnathan.

The Derelict Toy Truck with the dead toymaker inside.  This is what provides the rats with their rat-sized tools and would be a beginning equipment pool and skills/learning level up station for the rats as they discovered some books here to read.

I need to study more farm houses and farm equipment.  Neither of these really takes into account barn structures.  But they do start considering the location of the rose bush on the front lawn of the property as well as showing off the tiller that later is important to Mrs. Frisby.

So I'll need to start converting these to color studies and tightening up the forms and lighting and propulation. 

It never hurts to visit other styles and workflows.  I usually work in a fairly painterly, 5 values scale of rendering out whether working digitally or with physical media.  I really admire super clean, cell-shaded styles as well, however.  The jury seems out as to whether using vector pen tools or hand inking with the brush set to 1px is cleaner/better.  Different stroke widths for different folks.

So here's a combination hand-lining and pen-tool wielding progression of a character I kicked out in about 2 hours for some practice. 

As well as a portraits.  The tan girl is Pandora, whom is a character owned by Jen Analias.

Was trying for some more organic, less sci-fi environment concepts.  The far left is a super-large monument/memorial type setting, something like a forgotten giant race's burial that becomes a solemn place for lesser after-comers.  The middle one is a clan-based, religious mountain peoples village.  The far right a mountain pass in a cliff region. 

16:9 aspect thumbs, Col-erase blue and copics

Near Future City Neighborhood

Animal sketch studies and the chosen sketch that was then taken on to a final pencil study.  American possum, slow loris, antelope jackrabbit and a pallas cat.

The design finish on that lantern/staff/....weapon?  It's meant to be hefty enough to withstand being used to defend one's self, while remaining a functional walking staff and light source. 

Some rough prop ideations- a mix of medieval pieces and gom jabbars from Frank Herbert's Dune. There's a weirding module there as well.