Back in business!

After a long week of Animex talks, workshops and networking events, I'm finally back at my computer to update this blog! It slipped by the wayside as deadline for the first semester drew near, so I'll start off with some of the finished paintings and speed paints from then, and at the bottom I'll show some of my Animex sketches.

These are a mix of character and enviros from the Excelsior brief as they appear in the final submission, along with a compilation of sketchbook work from the visual development. 

Gryphon final painting- This was a somewhat arduous painting. I can't say I'm exactly a fan of painting fur and feathers and somehow mixing the two. 

Taken from T.S. Eliot's "Preludes" - the line "The Shower's Beat" inspired this painting

Now that that semester 1's briefs are all concluded, We have three more (with a fourth yet unknown) for the second semester. So far we have received assignments from:

1. Pete Amachree : The "what if" roman history brief, of "What if the Romans discovered and developed practical uses for electricity?" 
2. Ron Ashtiani : NeoRacer brief, Car concept with weapon variations, or Eden environment race track
3. Shelly Page : Dreamworks character brief, design a character from the list for a new setting
4. Jack Couvela : Mysterious Ubisoft brief ~~

 I'll be updating at least once a week now for the next semester with work any of these assignments (or anymore that we receive.)

Edit: I forgot about the Animex sketches, I'll add them in during the week since I don't own a scanner :)

Character & Environment design Brief: Excelsior and Blue BeetleCurrent progress

"Scenario:A science fiction or fantasy world. This world may be futuristic or may have a feel of an ancient culture.
In this society the population is divided into the rich and the poor.
The city is built on a platform and is supported on some kind of series of pillars. The rich live on top of the platform and the poor live below.
Among the poor exist the gangs and there are lots of these all radically different from one another.
In the upper city there is a monastery where the religious rulers of the city live. The monastery is not built on the platform but hovers above it.
The Hero:Joeb is a young monk from the monetary. He belongs to a part of the order highly-trained in martial arts.
His mission is to go into the dangerous under city and meet with a mysterious individual who has a box for him to collect and take back to the monastery."

I started out in my sketchbook with a few ideas for how I wanted my city to play out, next I built a  (too complicated) model in sketchup

After messing around with the camera, I got a few good angles and plenty of ideas, so I blocked in the basic forms and added some stone cliff texture

(Sunset variation? I was experimenting with how dark I wanted it beneath the platform; the sky and lighting on the furthest pillar were happy accidents.)

As of today, this study is finished, I think that next time my workflow will be (hopefully) faster

But since I'd gotten across the feel from the undercity that I was hoping for, I moved on to some of the designs of the gangs. First off, the shadowy group "The Dusk";

I had a pretty strong image of them in my head, robed- with capes, hoods and concealment. Kind of like a ninja gang but without the implicit honor. 

These are the initial designs for the Religious group that live above the platform city in their floating shrine/monastery. I picked up the idea of the masks from japanese festival masks. The monks all wear them, I tried to make them seem somewhat unnerving/uncanny. Since I want the lead monks to be either spirits/demons/whatever but not human, just humanoid. For the main character, I'm thinking he'll be a young acolyte at the shrine, wearing a mask too, but only because it's traditional. 

And now a brief update on the Blue Beetle Brief from the first week- its been put on the back burner while I get into the swing of things with all this time management.

Blue Beetle assignment: Update

Next thing I did with the Blue Beetle brief was to scour google images and my own hard drive of reference images for anything that might be remotely useful in early concepts. At this point, I'm not exactly focused on one idea or time period or even reality. I then sketched out a basic male silhouette and used it as the base to spread my ideas over.

(click for a larger version)

The text might be a little hard to read, but I'll explain as I go. From left to right then, first is the Winged Scarab idea, this version is the most similar to Ted Kord's outfit- in that its figure hugging. Instead of the black beetle emblem spread over the shoulders, I've lifted the egyptian motif of a winged scarab as his iconic. The rest of the pattern comes from the resting position of a beetle's legs. The original trace gave me the silhouette for the weapons on his back.

Next one over is a more gunslinger styled Beetle, my thought for this guy was that he is the BB of the postapocalyptic future- his raggedy trenchcoat, his goggles/hood based on a hazmat suit, he'd be more the inventor/macgyver styled hero, his gun would be a rifle of some description.

Third across is (my favorite) Hercules Beetl- I mean High Fantasy Beetle. This was originally just a visual pun- a medieval/fantasy Blue Beetle with armor that was based off the Hercules beetle. A vehicle/gun would be problematic for this version, though. The Egyptian twist comes through in the shape of his breastplate, the scarab again, this time the overlapping plates of the armor show the detail. 

Second from the right now, is ancient egyptian scarab priest. This idea came from the over-shoulder armor with the two capes, taken almost directly off the back of a beetle. This version would play up the original mystic backstory for the beetle, and his opulent robes are a nice contrast to previous designs. 

And finally, we have time displaced/far future Blue Beetle. I didn't think this guy through as much as the others- except that his outfit would be more technologically advanced- or perhaps mechanically enhanced, to give him powers, rather than mystic power or physical training.

I've never actually done any vehicle design before (or drawn a bug for that matter) new frontiers all round! My idea for the Blue Beetle's "Bug" his flying blue beetle-y sky thing,  isn't too different from the original comic version- though mine has the same carapace/wing structure as biological beetles. The feet curl up and in while in motion, but straighten out to land on, or for it to be used terrestrially- the wings are shielded by the carapace so it can't be more tank-like
Also at the bottom a variant on the silhouette and a stag beetle snow mobile. 

-Sam