A fun little sketch I did today for a friend who’s online nick is Monsieur Toad.  All for one, and one for all!

Speed painting of Monsieur Toad

Cheerful I made to Cheer Katelyn! I wanted to print it and mail it with a letter, but my printer isn’t working very well. I put together a fun video of it as well, so Katelyn can watch. I hope you enjoy! Miss you Katelyn!

Here are wallpaper sizes so you can cheer on your computer!

|| 16×9 :: 16×10 :: 4×3 ||

Daily UP vLog: 2011.10.27

Our new hero and old hero, unimpressed by the Borderlands Ogre.

Some good old Spartan inspired armor

NOTES

Sprite:  Starting with a basic image of a man I will push to create several armor sets from the initial pose.

• When going into production for the animation as few colors should initially be used as possible.  Animate shape to shape in passes to create detail, don’t try to put all the detail in first.
• Remember to save out ‘simple’ character guides that have the very basic versions of the character to animate from.
• Cloak can be an option, a fun piece of fabric that blows in the wind all on it’s own

Character concept: Here I will put some concept ideas for the hero concept

• The veteran warrior.
• Right now I am centering the concept of the character on a veteran Spartan-like warrior.
• I want him to really be exaggerated and stocky.  He has been encased in stone 100 years ago at the peak of his empire.
•   He was an applauded Sergeant, and leader of an elite guard.
•   He was sent out to the outline mountains to investigate possible disturbance.  The disturbance was a Medusa, and she turned him to stone!
• The empire he served has fallen to a evil entity.  He is re-discovering his homeland.

CONCLUSION
  I was able to create one new hero sprite today.  Comparing it to Uncle Fluffums you can see how we have more of an extreme epic hero.  I still do like Uncle Fluffums, and wonder if he still might appear in the game in some way.

Tomorrow I hope to get at least 2 more armor sets on the hero to see how he feels changing it up.  Maybe we wont like him in the end, though.  We will see.  I should also attempt another female hero, as well as touch up and include the older female sprite I created a couple years ago.  See how those compare.

Also, I want to make some more enemies to fill the zone. I think it will be important to give enemies VERY small amounts of frames until they are finalized.

Note that this project took me much more time than I anticipated.  I’m not totally sure why, but it was a lot longer process.

Time:
0715: Meeting notes and pre meeting thoughts
0735: Meeting begins
0930: Meeting ends
>> Break << ( total 2hrs)
+ 2 hours: working on organization levels and blog posting
1830: Start sprite work about 1 hour
>> Break << (total 1hrs)
2000: Start sprite work
0018: rough start, but having some good progress. Making notes of some breaking up etc.
0315: wrapping up.
0415: Fin (total 8hrs)

Total: 11 hours Total SiST: 21 hours

UP E2D – vLog 2011.10.25–all in a days work

referencing set pieces & reusing textures

Screen shot with no shadows included

Screen shot with baked in shadows

Screen shot with demo ‘engine’ light and shadow spots

Breaking down item pieces via Smart Objects

Time line:
0715: Start work diary collect meeting thoughts
0745: Start work on ‘screen shot’
0900: Working on a ‘Hero’ character still. Coming along interestingly
1130: Have a solid hero concept, working on a background/level
1200: Finished 30 min annotating concepts and ideas going through my mind as I work.
15:20: Commenced closing meeting with Chris
16:00: Wrapping up saves and documentation
17:15: Finished up documentation and vlog (exporting to movie). plus about an hour for vlog etc.

Hrs Today: 10 Total SiST: 10

NOTES

Smart Objects:  keying out smart objects slowly for things I think will be useful later.  Note that I using smart objects in combination with some other quick tricks should allow smart objects to be more persistent.

• Transform Mesh:  using the transformer will allow for slight perspective shifts.  Remember that using the Warp tool allows for more flexibility, and the modification can be canceled.
• Masks:  Masking smart objects means you can put a detail or object behind something else without having to reorder layers.
• Paint-over:  with tight paint overs to smooth oddities we should still be able to modify item types and sets without a ton of overhaul work.

Character Pieces:  Working on the breaking up the character.  Looks like it will be very fun to have Helm – Torso – Boots as interchangeable armor.  Left and right hand equipment as well.   Going for a NES style game with some of these armor pieces in might be really fun.  I dont know how much it should effect or be included, I do think for the scope of this first official game we add some sort of equipment swapping, even if its purely upgrades.  Working with a simplified seeded images will help us get experience for later game more vast changes.

Player Actions:  Thinking about how this hero could play.

• The hero throws axe out, little more range than a basic NES attack, and it come back out (a little like zelda 1 first boomerang with much less range, little like Rygar but much slower).
• Your first press of the attack button will throw the axe out, until the axe gets back you will punch out with your fist, doing less damage, and much less range, but you are able to push back enemies.
• I feel like most attacks would have a ‘pushback’ rating.  This way combat feels a bit more in your control, and we can have fun by sending more enemies toward the player.  The player will have to keep enemies back with melee punching while the axe is ‘out’ (axe shouldn’t be out long, maybe time enough for 2-3 punches).
• we can still implement some fun items that give you power ups.  Jump boots etc, but mostly in a linear map, not so much like a Super Metroid feel, but more like Super Mario feel, where sometimes you can go up or down you can find things. 

Quick levels:  thinking on techniques that will finely tune creating quick levels in our games.  The following is some thoughts on creating these quick levels.  Remember, when I mention ways that we can use assets in the level editor, I will be using them nearly the same way in Photoshop.  If there is at some point implementation in the level editor I feel like it would be a good way for someone to iterate or riff out levels on the fly and get a 70% feel of how that level would play out without extra assets being created.

• Texture Library:  Creating a library of repeatable textures will help to quickly flush out environments.  Perhaps at some point we can even put this library into the editor, where you can create the shape primitives and fill them with the repeating textures.
• Repeatable blocks:  Repeatable blocks would be 64×64 and can represent things like walls and platforms.  When working in the Level editor your could select 64×64 blocks and place them in the grid
• Set Pieces:  I imagine set pieces to be set block sized objects that can be freely placed anywhere.  This is where the largest amount of background assets would be found.  Much like a Stage set, these objects could be categorized and placed in a library to bring out anytime.  Extra advantages of set pieces will be the ability to maximize memory space in different ways, which may become more relevant when porting to ipad/android platforms.
• Global Backdrops:  This would be Skies, mists, weather effect assets that can be set in to effect the mood of the environment or level.  would also include reusable far off assets, like a mountain range, a town, or an ocean set.  So, the furthest layer out, and the one just after it could be set right away in a level creation sense.
• Layering in Photoshop: very similar to the level editor I will have folders representing would could be parallax layers in the game engine.  0 (zero) is always the player’s layer.  -1, -2, etc are behind the player (away fro the viewer) and +1, +2, etc are in front of the hero (toward the viewer)
• Level Considerations:
  • Remember to user your color wheel!
  • Consider creating monster sprites the specifically work within the color harmony per level.
• Basic environment asset steps:
  • Create texture or blocked in object color
  • Paint over to detail object
  • Paint Edges of object
  • Add Vegetation and Wear
  • Add 1 shadows and highlights layer
• Lighting execution:
  • I plan to have baked in lighting to the environment stage.  I want to keep this minimal to preserve the 2d/nes style.  I will try to consistently make 1 highlight and 1 shadow layer between layer 0 and layer -1.  This is to not effect sprites
  • I will make one more layer for laying out real time lighting effects, most time in front of the sprites.  This will demo the interactive lighting.  I think this is a good way to start and keep the lighting system minimal but effective.  As we come across more advance situations we can change it up.  We may want to set up defaults like this in the level editor.

Manshizzle Time Lapse Youtube background design by Joshua Keyes

A friend of mine from the WCR community has been hard at work on creating a series of hilarious videos where he takes games that allow you to make morality decisions and plays out the meanest of the options. He commentates over the gaming for added entertainment.

So far Manshizzle, the the selfish antihero and star of the series has found himself guzzling glory in Mass Effect, Dragon Age, and Fallout. Feel free to be entertained at his youtube channel: youtube/downwhere (WARNING, Manshizzle’s exploits are the polar opposite of a G rating.)

I couldn’t help spending some time today drawing up my version of Manshizzle. To make the endeavor worthwhile, and to send thanks to Downwhere for his hours of entertainment, I presented Manshizzle as a youtube background for his channel.

Wallpapers:
16:9
16:10
4:3

Beware:  ‘Manshizzle will break you!’’

A band called ‘Oh it’s the Of’ contacted me and requested that I create in image for their album cover, the project sounded interesting (literally – their music sounds interesting) and thus I agreed.

Speed Painting of ‘Oh it’s the Of’ Album Art

The band’s music is very technically challenging with many timing and key changes.  Conversely the content of the music is very loose and interpretive.  Overall the music seems very rebellious.  It’s music, but technical to the extreme, and content that is descriptive of a realm far from the mundane.

These points are important to note when discussing and coming up with concepts for a visual of an album.  Any art is communication, and thus it is my job as an artist to communicate to any who glance at the cover what the music is all about.

Also in consideration, the band requested to have snippets of song ideas and content to be illustrated.  As well, the band loves plays shows dressed in less than ‘every-day-garb.  Such as the foil lederhosen. 

All these pieces must fit into a cohesive and digestible form.  The aim for this piece is for it to be utterly fantastical, but the world itself takes itself very serious.  The actual content of what you are seeing is ridiculous and silly, but its done in almost a veristic and epic fashion.    This is designed to communicate the duality of the band’s identity.  Almost mathematical artistry of timings with tons of fun and fantastic content.

Wallpapers are available
 16:10 – 16:9 – 4:3

T-shirt design is for an Air Force BMT Flight, and dedicated to my wife .  Training Instructor and bulldog transformer characters prepare to ROLL OUT (or perhaps flight out?)!  Having very little communication with the client meant that I would have to rely on well thought out assumptions more than anything.  The original request was a transformers version of a Training Instructor with a Pit-bull on a chain leash. 

This is a photo of the final T-shirt image.  I had no part in the coloring
or design pass what you see in the black and white design above.

   
Some Nighthawk reference Images.

My initial thought on the request was “why illustrate a Pit bull when the Flight was named the Bulldogs?  So I made the immediate decision to replace character.  The chain leash concept seemed like interesting at first, perhaps pushing the image to a rougher and more aggressive edge. The reality though, was quite different.  When I illustrated the chain in all my drafts it communicated subjugation of the honored pet, rather than team work and a partnership.  So that too was modified out of the original request.

I started the design by creating individual sketches for the more organic counterparts of the characters.  I drew these independently of each other and then began to work them as a composition.  I went through several compositions to establish poses that communicated confidence and strength.

You can see my final organic draft of the characters set within my T-Shirt design space.  I worked out the title, frame, and required information separately after I had only a vague idea of what would be in the center.  I simply knew I had to have an interesting and pragmatic frame for the characters knowing that some T-Shirt processes are less flexible that others.

I have been using hand draw pencil media more recently and decided that I enjoyed the experience.  It is quite different than working within digital means.  Anyone will tell you that digital is the most flexible mode to work in, but they will also tell you that traditional practice is important for self improvement.

The difference of pencil is that you are more encouraged to pay attention to what you are doing due to it being more difficult to rework.  It is less fluid and therefor requires a mindset of forethought more than the digital realm.  Your options are limited, you can’t just splash some color in, transform this and resize that.  These limitations enable you to have a more focus mindset.

Also, an interesting property in growing your skill through pencil drawing is iteration, pure and simple.  Since you can’t use and abuse your transform tool at every turn you will find yourself redrawing things to get them right, and placed where you want them.  What great practice! You are iterating constantly and getting better while focused on a task.

This iteration also allows you to open up to new poses and different problem solving situations.  Since you would be redrawing something anyway, why not angle the subject bit more naturally while your at it?  With the transform tool you will find that you are taking the laziest way out, most of the time.  IE: ‘how can I transform/rotate this and force it to look right because I don’t want to spend the time to redraw it?’

I owe a lot of this process to the notes given by amazing and renowned artist Freddie E Williams II in his his book ‘The DC Comics Guide to Digitally Drawing Comics”.  His tips on drafts, pencil and digital workflow, as well as the digital inking process were very helpful.  The resulting contour drawing is a testament to how well and thought out the process he shares in his book truly is.

I hadn’t attempted many Transformers images in my time, so the book, “You Can Draw Transformers” (illustrated by Guido Guidi and scribed by Simon Furman) was a huge help.  I actually picked up the book years ago because it was an impressive at-a-glace of all the important skills of an illustrator.  It takes an especially solid structural approach on these fundamentals for obvious reasons.

Overall this project was rewarding as I was able to deliver a motivational project to the service members that sacrifice their time and freedoms everyday to ensure that we are safe and continue to pursue artistic ventures just as these.  I remember my time in the Marine Corps and how much imagery can motivate and help create a greater sense of esprit décor.

This is the Logo I developed for the project, so the
Bulldogs could have their own transformer-like identity.

I created these invites for my best friend’s wedding.  Working with the bride to be we designed some fun invitations to send out.  The original color for them was yellow, but its difficult to get the correct yellow to display on monitors throughout the web, so I changed up the color to blue for this blog post.

I enjoyed working with my friends on this project.  My favorite part was creating the filigree-like sketches for the floral designs on the corners of the composition.  I hope you enjoyed the invitations!

Check out the speed painting!

It is customary for websites to have error pages that are somewhat fun. Its frustrating when things break on the internet, so if we are hit with something that makes us smile, it is a bit easier to let go the frustration in running into a glitch.

For FollowGrubby.com I had the idea of using the ‘King of Blades’ Critical Striking the webpage. This idea came to mind as I was thinking of the numbers involved with the error screens. I am, of course a huge fan of Warcraft 3, so when thinking of something that related to such a huge number as 404, I quickly found myself seeing Critical Strike numbers popping out of my poor Arch Mage as he would desperately seek the solace of a Holy Light, and a StormBolt to slow the blade delivered death that was sure to be his destiny.

Further, errors usually come out of no where and surprise us. We have all felt the sinking feeling as we go to build another depot only to find that most of our workers have become scrap sinking into the quick digital grave of nothingness. Remember that time you thought you got your red health hero out of the battle, the sigh of relief as the shop comes just into view? You can almost taste the health potion restoring hope to a struggle of a game, only to be sliced into shambles as the Blade appears to strike you down as well as the any chance of victory. Without mercy the killer sprints away already hungry for more battle. So too does the ‘King of Blades’ lurk at every corner!

The ‘King of Blades’ is a nick name I thought of for Grubby, and thus developed the mascot to represent his name. It is, of course a Blade Master that has reached so high a level of training he was able to wind walk the planes of existence. He found a strand of common warrior philosophy in the great teachings of the Dark Templar, and found himself welcomed as a spiritual brother and even deliverer in times of need to the Protoss warriors. The art bending of time and space, after all is quite familiar to the psionic race.

I hope to finish this wallpaper soon for others to support the King of Blades on his new journey restore harmony and balance to the most tainted of worlds.

Thanks for reading!

Little fan art piece I am working on for the Idra vs Jinro GSL battle.  I like both players a lot, and hope they both do well.  Check out the speedpainting, wallpapers, and sketches below!  I hope you enjoy this work, and please comment, subscribe, or like my video.  The more people that see my work, the better chance I have to actually do it for a living one day. Thanks!

Speed painting of my Idra vs Jinro fan art.

Wallpapers:

16:9

16:10

4:3

Purchase a poster!

Some sketches I created while conceptualizing a ‘ hIdraGrekanlisk ’  Too much fun!