Tuesday, December 22, 2009

More Bug ship


Painted some more today.

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Game Content




Game stuff that I worked on in recent years. Clockwise, from left, top to bottom, first picture: Our House andWonderworld for the DS. Ultimate Duck Hunting for the Wii, 300 March to Glory for the PSP. Bottom pic is all stuff from Neopets, Petpet Adventures: The Wand of Wishing for the PSP. This is the most recent work from the past 5 years. I have also worked on (and shipped) Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow( PC\Web)Command and Conquer:Generals (PC), Medal of Honor:Frontline (PS2), and Supercar Street Challenge (Ps2). I'd be happy to post that stuff if anybody is interested in seeing it, and if I can dig that far back to find it :)

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Snow Crash

Another old file I came across. This is about 7 years old, a particle test. This was my first time trying out a full scene where I composited lighting passes, matte painted background, particle systems, deflectors and rigid body dynamics. It took forever to render all the parts with the 256mb I had at the time. With all the stuff I now know, I should revisit this.



Old School

I was looking through some old files and I found this. I think it was my 3D\compositing final for my VFX class at Otis. This is about 12 years old, I think. Fun stuff.

Monday, July 20, 2009

iRaq


I don't know what I was thinking with this. I'm not trying to make any kind of for or against statement, it just popped into my head. View it as whatever you're thinking.

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Apache


I love messing around with chalk, nupastel sticks and conte crayons. Something about that hands on feel you get, it's so free. Sure, you can make things faster and more precise with digital, but it's just not the same.
This wasn't meant to be anyone specific, just a rough caricature sketch, but it kind of looks like Geronimo. It also looks a bit like my cousin, who ironically says that Geronimo was our cousin. I wouldn't know about that. I suppose every Scot says he is related to William Wallace and every Zulu related to Shaka?

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Mobile Infantry: Skyhorse


The retrieval boat, as described in Starship Troopers, is the key vehicle when it comes to troop exfiltration. I did a quick design of this years ago, and am now revisiting and fine tuning the "A" model. My original idea was to combine the A-10 Warthog, the C-130 Herc and the US Space Shuttle.

Monday, July 6, 2009

Robert Heinlein's Mobile Infantry


Like King Kong and LOTR was for Peter Jackson, and the Titanic was for James Cameron, the Starship Troopers novel is my passion. I first read the book when I was 11, and I've been designing it's spaceships, worlds, aliens, and powered armor suits ever since. While enjoyable in its own right, the movie of the same name has almost nothing to do with the book, and I hope to someday correct this error. A game document and levels I created were my de facto senior thesis, and I've written no less than separate 5 game documents on the subject: a main game and four sequels. To distance myself from the continuously awful movie franchise, I've wrapped my stories around the label of "Robert Heinlein's Mobile Infantry". Someday, if I keep at it, I'll be able to create these games or at least bring the actual story from the novel to the big screen...

Friday, July 3, 2009

ASP Revisited


Something about this design was gnawing at me, so I got up early to make some quick changes. The wing area, engines and tail section just didn't quite match up on the front view, so I did some quick photoshop retouches and voila! It matches up better, and now fits my overall idea. Maybe time for a 3D model?

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Colonial ASP


Another quick hit aircraft concept, this time from a story I wrote called The Children of Caprica. Yes, you guessed it, it's set in the current Battlestar Galactica tv series. I wasn't that interested in the show when it first came out, but an insistent friend gave me the season one DVDs. I quickly scooped up season 2 and 2.5, just in time for the next season. I wrote my story just as season 3 started, but my interest in the show started to wane as the season went on. The plotlines they had weren't nearly as interesting. In the end, I really liked how BSG finished, and it proved a nice fit for my story. Hm, that reminds me, I'm not sure if I registered this one with the WGA yet.......

In any case, this ship is a stealthy transport, designed for Colonial Special Operations units. The trick for me is to come up with something practical, something that makes sense aerodynamically, militarily, and still looks like it could fit in a hangar bay alongside the other Colonial ships, Vipers, Raptors, etc. I have a tendency to overthink stuff sometimes, but I guess I'm more in the James Cameron school of thought, which is to say, make it cool, but make it look like it could really exist (now I'm not saying I'm in the same league as Cameron, just saying I'm more into his way of thinking ).

Friday, June 26, 2009

LAkOTA


I loved looking at aircraft books as a kid, and spent a lot of time drawing and designing my own. This is a quick line art concept for a helicopter design from my Reapers game concept. A stealthy transport for the futuristic soldiers I concepted in an earlier painting. I had thought of it as a sister ship to the Comanche helicopter. I'm hoping to put together some concept paintings and 3D models soon.

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Six Degrees of Yamagata


While working on my matte painting and looking for photos online, I found a place called Yamagata Castle. As I looked for more info, I inevitably came to more works from the artist of the same name, the guy I used to work for so long ago. In the process, I found this painting, called Paris Tour. If you have a serigraph of this, I printed it many years ago.

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Invitiation from the Past...


Ages and ages ago, I stepped into my first art studio job. I worked in a fine art serigraphy studio, and one of our chief clients was Hiro Yamagata. His work was immensely popular at the time. He was very close to Arnold Schwarzenneger, and the two threw a party commemorating Yamagata-san's newest artwork. This was the invitation we made for the event, a collectable hand printed serigraph, signed by both men. I wonder how many of these prints still exist?

Monday, June 1, 2009

The Reaper


I painted a version of this a few years ago, but I never got around to finishing it. It's a concept from a story\ game design document I wrote in 2003, based on the ideas I was reading about the Army's Future Warrior 2025 project. A short time later, one of my best friends became a field tester for this system, so I began modifying my design based on the few unclassified things he could tell me about it.

Saturday, May 30, 2009

Matte Painting Challenge-The Predator Temple


I created this piece for this month's matte painting challenge on CGtantra.com. It's a great site and I've learned a lot by being a member, as well as by working on this matte painting. The challenge guidelines for this month were to create an ancient temple, with hyper realistic colors. I decided to improve upon some of the ideas presented in the first Alien vs Predator movie, and this piece was the result.

The Same Point in Time


After 10 years making games, I realize that I haven't had the time or passion to make my own art. I vowed to change that, and the past few months have been about rediscovery. Art is fun again. This piece is how I like to draw, really just pulling the lights out of the dark, highlights out of the shadows, probably the opposite of how people usually think of creating a sketch. An observation drawing, this is just a white prismacolor pencil on black paper.

Shifting gears


I've spent the better part of 20 years working in the professional art industry, first in fine art, then graphics. The last 10 have been digital, mainly in video games. I'm now very focused on matte paintings and concepts. This is my first official matte painting. It's based on a level design I created years ago, a mission to an alien world to destroy a doomsday type weapon. Normally a lens flare is a kiss of death, but I was referred to the machine in the movie Contact, and found that it was a good look for what I was going for.

Welcome to my humble life of disarray..

Ok, I've finally done it! After spending the past week or so updating my website, I realized it's a lot more economical, time and money wise, just to set up this blog. So here it is, a place where I can show you my goods, err, art wise, that is. Enjoy!