Hello! Please take a look at some of the work I've been doing and have done since my days at DigiPen. I'll be consistently updating this area with process work and final results as they are done.
Assorted Arts
Double Trouble :: Photoshop CS5
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NoodleDragon ::
Flash CS4
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Head in the Clouds ::
Photoshop CS5
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Been rather busy over the past few months, really should be updating more and getting more doodling done like these.
Animated Icon: Drizzle
A Flash animated icon, trying out some new techniques to create characters, light, and animated light sources.
Daily Sketch: Griffon
Monday's Daily Sketch theme was 'Griffons', so I decided to draw one of my best friend's characters in their "Kitraxian" form all adorable and cute.
Daily Sketch: Jackalope
Flash CS5
I discovered a Twitter account by the name of @Sketch_Dailies, apparently they will tweet a daily inspirational prompt for doing a daily sketch or piece of work. Since I discovered today's was 'Jackalope', I thought I'd see what happens. This little guy wasn't too happy to be disturbed from his rest, so I had to doodle him fast in Flash and back away slowly...
Munchy Mac
Flash Animation done in CS4, based off of Rhythm Heaven for DS, "Munchy Monk 2".
Comic JetStream
I'm still working at Microsoft, but I'm still coming along with new art and ideas every weekend. Sometimes I even get two comic strips done for Boomer Express in a few brisk hours of sketching and chatting with friends online!
Music is "Tank!"
Written by Yoko Kanno and performed by the Seatbelts
Written by Yoko Kanno and performed by the Seatbelts
Microsoft Bound
I've finally landed a QA position with Microsoft doing Kinect Tagging work, and it's been a lot of fun so far. It's eating up a lot of my time though, and it's been difficult to focus on my other projects for any given length of time. I've recently completed an animation test to see if I'd be a good fit for a semi-popular YouTube channel, but unfortunately I was not chosen to be one of their animators. I'll post the test I did once I receive permission to do so.
Work on Boomer Express has been slow as a result of working 40 hours a week, and I'm still not used to rising and shining early in the morning, let alone the uphill bike ride to Microsoft's main campus. It's still fun and it's paying down my college debt, so I'll keep at it. I've met a couple people who are interested in my ability as a Flash artist to work on future projects, as well. I'll have to press these opportunities a little more.
Work on Boomer Express has been slow as a result of working 40 hours a week, and I'm still not used to rising and shining early in the morning, let alone the uphill bike ride to Microsoft's main campus. It's still fun and it's paying down my college debt, so I'll keep at it. I've met a couple people who are interested in my ability as a Flash artist to work on future projects, as well. I'll have to press these opportunities a little more.
A Night at the Koopa Cabana
Someone mentioned something about making August 6th 'Bowser Day', so I decided to try my hand at doodling something appropriate for the occasion, and tell a little story as well.
Making Comics
Today I decided to make another comic strip for my ongoing site, Boomer Express. I discovered how to use Livestream to record the three hour event and edit it down to a short, simple video for YouTube.
"Duncan" Animated Icon
One of my old friends loves Sega a lot, so I thought I'd try to animate something sufficiently Sega for his character, a hundred foot tall green kangaroo.
As usual, a ton of sketches of Sonic in general were necessary to sort of flesh out construction and how to make a kangaroo in the proper style. After a few pages of assorted sketches, I settled on something I thought looked pretty close to the chosen style.
I tried a new method of composing the character in Photoshop. After getting an appropriate sprite sheet of Sonic, I basically reconstructed Duncan one limb/piece at a time, and made three to eight frames of animation for each bodypart according to the guide of Sonic.
I also cobbled together a short 'run' for the animation in Photoshop using similarly captured sprite sheets. Importing them into Flash and converting them to appropriate symbols was next, and then animating each individual section of the short animation.
Once I was happy with the animation, I published it as a .gif file as well as Flash. I hadn't used Photoshop for gif editing before, so it was a wonderful experience in learning how it all works together. I love the optimization settings available for gif files, and managed to create an acceptable animated icon that adheres to a <50 kb rule. Happy Belated Birthday, Duncan!
Tyrnn, the Emerald Dragon
I always tend to start out with a simple sketch that I happened to like from my sketchbook. I've been meaning to draw my character Tyrnn more often, so I decided to make something I could present at an upcoming convention. I started out with a few sketches and tweaks in my sketchbook, and I ended up liking this one the most.
After scanning and getting it situated in Photoshop, I decided to tweak the muzzle a bit. I love CS5's 'Puppet Warp' function, it makes tweaking a sketch for better curves and lines of action exceptionally easy, while still keeping it a rough sketch. With the muzzle looking a bit better, I added a layer of inks.
Setting up the colors to not have any tiny artifacts and lost pixels has been a constant challenge, but I've managed to get coloring within the lines to work much better with careful use of layers and blending modes. I've also been experimenting with textures and using multiply layers to create different shading levels, producing a cel shaded look that I'm rather happy with.
Brang "Noise" icon
Just finished tinkering with the "Kangaroo Noise" sprites from The World Ends With You to make something appropriately Big.
Zenn: Mobile Monastery
My second project in Zbrush was to design a quadruped that either helped or harmed humanity. Essentially a test of our hard and organic surface modeling, I decided to come up with the idea of a desert monastery situated on the back of an earthy dragon.
The overall design changed rather rapidly from these first drawings to the finished work.
My First Zbrush
I've completed half of the semester now, and my final model of Quay for my first ever use of Zbrush looks pretty good. I'm discovering more and more about what Zbrush is capable of every day, and definitely hope to pursue getting a copy of this program and running through several tutorials over the summer and in between commissions.
Quay, Finalized Character sheet
There was a lot of feedback that the professor gave for my character design, and after speaking with a couple and getting some tips and tricks, I modified it to the finished version here. I think it shows the details of how the hands and feet look much more clearly, and I like how the 'action' shot turned out.
And here's the quick turnaround of the low poly model. Wireframe, low poly, and Nurms subdivision.
I'll be taking this model into Zbrush for detailing over the next month.
Quay, Skyloftian Apprentice Engineer
It's time for my final semester at DigiPen, I'd better kick it up a couple notches and try to keep up with the pace that'll be set for my career. I'm taking a class in Zbrush, and to that effect have been tasked with creating a character from a video game of my choice. The idea is to create a character that was for some reason or another cut from the final product, and to take that character all the way to a finished Zbrush model. I immediately thought of Skyward Sword, and a recent interview with Shigeru Miyamoto. When asked what features had to be cut from the production, he mentioned a racing minigame that they had to remove due to technical constraints. They could not get a proper sense of speed from the loftwing flight, and did not have the time or resources to alter what they had. Thus, I decided to create Quay, the NPC that Link would have raced against in this minigame in a challenge for Fastest in the Sky.
I then took my favorite sketch from the second page, and fully developed a first draft turnaround of Quay from the front, side, and back to see what he'd look like, and to set a starting point for modeling in 3DS Max. We'll see how Prof. Burgess responds tomorrow, if school isn't delayed or cancelled due to the weather!
Digital Painting
I found this interesting little 3D modeled castle done by Ryu-Gi on DeviantArt. I saw a story unfolding from its design, and decided to paint over the castle and see what I could do to bring my idea to life. The Prince is departing the land for an indeterminate amount of time, summoned by the Ruling Council of Dragons that govern the elemental forces of the world. Trouble times are brewing deep in the heart of the world, and the Council is seeking the assistance of the mortal races in determining the cause of imbalance. Whether or not the young Prince will succeed or fail is uncertain, but he has the hearts of his people as they gather and cheer. They know that he will do his best to restore their world's future. When he returns, he finds that he has been away for an unimaginably long time, his Kingdom reduced to ruins! Somehow the Council sent him too far forwards in time to save his kingdom, and now he must fight for a way to get back to his own time, and prevent this savage world from occuring...
Yossarian Lives!
A series of color sketches depicting some of the key moments that stuck with me from Catch-22. Definitely worth a read when you get the chance. Now, can you tell which major piece of artwork I chose as a reference in each sketch?
Nightcap Productions' official logo!
Some more story sketches!
First Pass Animatic
Our team, Nightcap Productions, consists of Erik Miles, Laura Franke, Max Engman, and myself. I created this Animatic to get a first, rough sense of timing for how we want to pace our animation. We're allowed up to two minutes, and this comes in around 1:32 or so, so we have some room to shift things around and experiment before the final animatic.
Color Concepts
Trying out a few different color styles and themes to fit with Timmy Burtonson and his world. We decided to go with the purple and green theme, though we will be working out the actual color palette soon.
