Dynameshes etc.

Hey there,

Here are some recent endeavours. First up, some sculpts of secondary characters. I roughed out all the faces from primitives using Dynamesh to try and get a better handle on working that way rather than bringing in a base mesh from Maya. Still finding my way with it, but I can definitely see the benefits.

This guy's a cad:

Femme fatale from a concept a while ago:

Blockheaded goon:

Our princess is in another castle:

Playing with colours - wheeeee!!!

 

I'm going to be doing some lectures and demos at the Digipen school in Seattle next week so I'm currently prepping for that. I'm going to put the materials I create into a tutorials/step by step section in the book. Which is coming. Honest.

Cheers!

Recent Race Stuff

Hey guys,

Here are some recent pieces for the project. First, a location study for an amusement pier, inspired by a recent trip to Catalina:

I started this piece by making a little construction set of building pieces, which I then combined and modified using the distort and perspective tools. I then used those shapes as selection masks to paint on top of. It was an interesting way to work!

   

A Cossack-type artillery unit with a silly gun.

Silly gun on its own:

A rocky place for Avery and his big buddy to explore:

 I've been trying to knuckle down in some layout software so that I can get some actual pages designed before I get the Kickstarter going. But it's close!

Cheers,

Nick.

More Race Doodads

Hey there, Here's a bunch of bits for the project from the last week or two: Trying a new look for one of the villains. Colours and tonal tweaks in Photoshop over quick Zbrush render.

I was trying to get a kind of Sargent-esque oil paint finish with this. You can see some steps from it here:




I did this one for the weekly Art Jam over at Polycount. The subject was Studio Ghibli so I tried to get that same kind of palette going on in this landscape shot, although the shape design is a bit more graphic than you tend to see in their work:



Being chased through a frozen forest

 

Some studies for a creature design:

 

More stuff on the go. Check back soon. Cheers!

The Race is Back on!

Hi there,

I took a break from personal work over the past month or so, but I'm back to the task of trying to finish up my project in the near future and I'm really looking forward to completing all the pieces I have in mind for the book. Here's the first batch of stuff from the past week or so:

Here's some wippage on this sculpt. I need to sort out the modeling on the equipment, which is pretty rough right now, as well as add details and some homing pigeons (YES!).

 

I should have the Race for the Globe artbook project up on Kickstarter pretty soon. Watch this space for news on that!

Cheers,

Nick.

Skate Graphics

Hello there,

Here are a couple of studies/stylization experiments I did this week. I'm experimenting with painting in a more graphic style using textured brushes within simple selections. It was fun to work this way and because I make all the selection masks first it's really quick to get a composition going and find out whether it's working straight away. You can paint expressively within the masks too without damaging the silhouettes. I chose skateboarding as the subject because I used to skate a lot in my yoot and skate photography is full of interesting and dynamic compositions.

 More stuff soon!

Hawken Made Me Do It...

Hey there,

I decided to take a bit of a break from my ongoing project to work on a few different ideas for a bit. Firstly, I've been playing Hawken a bunch lately and I'm really impressed by how much fun the game already is. I really think the guys at Adhesive are doing a great job of making the combat feel weighty yet maneuverable. The game looks fantastic too. So I decided to design a mech that hopefully wouldn't look out of place in the Hawken world. I wanted to go for a support/medic class with extinguishing/welding capabilities so I tried to get some fire truck design elements in there with all the other greebles. I also borrowed copiously from a bunch of ref I got from mech maestro Fausto De Martini (cheers Fausto!). Photobashing the details in there was really fun.

Here's the 3d base I started with. You can see a bunch of areas changed after I took it into Photoshop:

 

And this is my original thumbnail:

More soon,

Cheers!

Cave Attack!

Hey there,

Here's another environment piece for the project. Last one with caves/coves for a while!

I'm going to work on some book layout stuff next. Should have something to show soon.

Cheers!

Craggy Cove

Hey guys!

Here's an environment piece I spent a few hours on this weekend. It's inspired by a rock in Phang Nga Bay in Thailand called 'James Bond Island' that I visited, ohhh, 9 years ago? Man that makes me feel old!

And some head sketches I inked when I was really tired, which is definitely why the lines are wobbly. Honest.

Also, many thanks to Concept Art World and Kotaku for running articles on my project. It's very flattering to receive attention like that!

http://conceptartworld.com/?p=15731

http://kotaku.com/5940880/the-art-of-a-man-working-on-blizzards-next-mmo?tag=fine-art

More soon,

Cheers,

Nick.

Hybrid Characters

Hi there,

Here's a bunch of character designs for industrial workers toiling away in the factories of Dustrum. I want to do some architectural designs, like I did for the slums, to accompany these characters:

I took a slightly different approach to these guys and created silhouettes in Photoshop that I then printed out and used as a basis for the linework using a Colerase pencil. I then scanned the pencils in and coloured them up in PS. Here are the original silhouettes:

Also, a couple of people asked if I could show the process behind one of my pieces that uses 3d as a basis, so here are a couple of images for the Silver Dagger I posted last time. I initially did some doodles on paper for the design, but they were too crappy to scan! So after that I did a quick silhouette design in Photoshop:

 

Then I created a 3d model in Maya using custom parts and some kitbashed stuff from models I found online. I doodled over the top of a screengrab to get some ideas for how I wanted the details to look. I do this a lot (drawing over my work) often in bold red to remind myself of things I need to fix/add. I find it's really handy to do this when you leave a piece part way through as it helps you focus when you go back to it again. It's also a good way to quickly test out ideas.

 After the modeling is done I do a quick render as a start for the paintover. This model ended up being more finished than most of my blockouts. I often just render a simple directional and ambient occlusion render with just a default lambert rather than adding specific materials, but this time I decided to try doing more in the render and less in Photoshop:

After that it's just a case of adding details, overlays etc.Hope this is useful.

More stuff soon!

Ta,

Nick.

What I did on my Staycation

Hey guys!

I've taken some much needed R&R this week and I've been having fun hanging out with my family and also doing a fair bit of work on the project too.

First is an enviro speedy that shows one of the later story locations; a frozen, ruined palace high in the mountains. I've been watching Tron Uprising pretty avidly (such a fantastic piece of work!) and one of the episodes had a sequence out in the snowy wastelands where all the backgrounds were these geometric, speedpainterly configurations that looked awesome. So I thought I'd try for something with a similar aesthetic:

 

 Next up is a vehicle design. I wanted to do a motorbike that was inspired by dueling pistols and ceremonial daggers, so it ended up pretty long. Not exactly sure how this thing turns! Maybe leaning combined with the cunning use of counterweights?

This is some kind of mutated, undead trench hound. I posted the silhouettes for it last time and spent some time working it up. I've been looking at pictures of dogs in gasmasks from WWI (who doesnt!?) and it just went from there. I see these guys breathing out plumes of yellow mustard gas as they stalk the battlefields. They're pretty big too. I should have put Scaleman (tm) in there...

 

Anyway, enough with the work stuff, here's a couple of pics of Alex and me having some fun this past week:

Scoping some chicks at Pretend City in Irvine:

On a firetruck in Disneyland:

It all got a bit much for the wee fella:

We've not worked out how to get him to look at the camera....

I've got a character line-up I want to work on next and a sculpt in the works. More updates soon!

Cheers.

Dark Clouds and a Dead Dog

Hey Guys,

I've been a little slack with my work in the past couple of weeks, but I'm determined to up my productivity and I've got a few ideas on the go for the next update. Anyway, Here's a couple of odds n' sods.

First, a little speedpaint that I didn't put enough thought into beforehand. And I also ended up putting a tank in there as well despite what I said before (whoops!):

Also, some silhouettes for an undead trench mutt:

More stuff soon.

Cheers!

Tank Graveyard

Hi there,

Here's another story illustration for the project. I wanted to work on something that used a limited palette and had soft, diffuse lighting. I promise this will be last pic with tanks in for a while!

I've got some creature stuff on the go so hopefully I'll have something to show for that pretty soon.

Cheers,

Nick.

Sunset Meadow etc.

Hey guys!

Here's the stuff I've been working on recently. Firstly, a speed paint I did over the last couple of evenings:

Some very quick (10 mins each?) Edgar Payne studies. I've been working my way through his book, Composition of Outdoor Painting, and I'm making a concerted effort to be more deliberate about how I study and use colour. The book is full of useful info so I recommend picking it up if you can find a copy.

And some little scribbles for some previous works and a couple o' head doodles:

More soon, Cheers!

Back to the Project

Hey guys! I took a bit of a break from personal work the past couple of weeks. Mostly I was watching Euro 2012, but now that that particular bladder-kicking contest is over I am back to work. I took a long weekend and managed to fit in some pieces here and there. Firstly, a little diorama of one particular slum area in the city of Dustrum. I've not really done this kind of isometric cut-away before and it was really fun! I'm going to do a couple more different parts of the city at some point:

Also, here's some better renders of two of the character maquettes I posted some time ago. Many thanks to my buddy Renaud for teaching me the ways of Keyshot!

Finally, here's the next guy from the military line-up that I'm going to turn into a sculpt. BTW, I may have some exciting news regarding these character maquettes in the not too distant future :).

Thanks for looking! More stuff soon. Cheers, Nick.