EDF!

     So, Earth Defense Force: Insect Armageddon is finally out! Yes, the epic game of defending the Earth from an invasion of aliens, who take our bugs and grow them into gigantic weapons of mass destruction has hit the shelves! I was working on EDF:IA for the better part of last year and had a great time. Concepting weapons, bugs, vehicles, and so much more was a solid learning experience. I even started down the path of UI design, tho, I'm starting to regret that one! Haha. All in all, its a fun arcade game that isn't about some dramatic story of life and death. No, just pick up a gun and blow up New Detroit to save it from giant bugs.... hm, wait...

Earth Defense Force: Insect Armageddon 

     I'm updating my website with a few of the pieces from the project. So, look for it soon. Aside from that, I've been working on a small book cover for a friend's book. They're self-publishing digitally, so you won't see it on Barnes&Noble yet. But it was a fun and nice way to start looking into that area of illustration. I'll have to post that and a few figure sketches soon!

Some old photos

Man! It skipped straight to summer and its so hot here! But the nice thing is that I upgraded my PC finally and as I was transferring files I found some photos of my trip to Seattle this past winter. Its was a great time with Niles and Jenny. Its a great city and the mountains were so close by.... of course we went snowboarding! Great snow and a great time out there. Sadly, Niles had some sweet shots of us on the triple triple black diamonds, but his camera was stolen. So, take my word for it, it was pretty awesome.

... yes. I went all the way to Seattle for a cup of Starbucks. 

Some environments

Wow, its been sometime... So, things are good and I've been busy with and work and all. I'm actually the only concept artist left at Vicious. Kinda scary, yet secure?  Been busy on my own work and totally forgot about this blog. Sorry guys... then again, is anyone out there?

Well, here couple of the environments I kicked out a little while back. I'll do my best to update more, but I'm headed to a northwest snow trip soon and I might forget.. Real trails! Real snow! Runs that don't end after 30secs! Yeaaah....

After a break, the local chapter of Dr. Sketchy's started back up and a very solid showing of local artists popped in. It was really great to meet more people outside of work. This past session was a risqué Alice in Wonderland, the two models were good and it was nice having a stage. Add the drinks, it made for a very good afternoon... hic

End boss challenge

Everyone at work are always working to improve their skills and some like to join in challenges from various websites. Hoover, a 3D character artist, and I talked about an end boss challenge online. Since characters are my current focus, how could I say no? So, after kicking ideas back and forth, from minotaurs to Street Fighter bosses, we came to one of our favorite games in Left4Dead. After a few iterations, we came up with the Grabber.

Despicable Me the game

Universal Studios released Despicable Me a little bit ago, and the videogame associated with the film was the latest project over at VCS. It was a fun project to work on, seeing the story and designs from the film was great. I worked on a lot of the environments and some props for the game. I gotta admit, the designers made the levels exceedingly hard. Reminded me of old NES games that I just raged on as a kid. I'm kinda hoping that kids these days have exceptional finger dexterity.  Anyway, here are some of the concepts I did...

Lunchtime

I thought I'd share with you the personal work from lunch time. Since work has been needing us to work overtime, I've had no motivation for personal art afterwards. I haven't even loaded ModernWarfare2 or any other FPS at all! So, my lunchtimes have become a good time to work on it. Different subjects and a good way to quicken my workflow since I've only got an hour, its been good.

First was a hoverbike, inspired by podracing. I've been thinking about buying a motorcyle and thought it would be cool to use one of the engines from a podracer into a hoverbike. Second was a industrial design of the week challenge, "near future tactical bomber". Due to overtime, I didn't finish in time to post for the challenge, but here it is anyway. It was fun to work on without getting scf-fi crazy.

SNOW!

Yes, I guess having 6 months since my last post isn't a good thing. Yet, I did remember having one, so here is some news! Since January, a few of us were talking about going snowboarding. We pushed the date back and back due to work or school. And its a good thing we did, the weekend we decided to go, a big snow storm that hit the southeast! Whoo hoo! When we planned the trip out, I was told to pull back my expectations from Heavenly, Steamboat, etc because snow out here is horrible. You'd walk on grass to iced runs, there was no need for gondolas... how do you get up the mountain, I thought? Kidding!

Anyway, we had to nag and convince people that leaving Friday night would be best. The 4.5hr drive was messy but manageable. In the morning, all the roads were a mess from NC to VA. I don't think we could have made it leaving Sat morning. We drove to the resort on un-plowed roads and our cars couldn't make it up the inclined roads. Luckily, fire chief Curtis was driving by and pulled one of our cars out a small ditch and took us all up to the resort. On the back of his cold cold truck, we passed many a stuck van or SUV trying to make it up!

Wintergreen was a nice resort. Great snow and nice runs, but they were all a little short. Luckily the black runs had much shorter lift lines and everyone had a great time, no matter the skill level. If it wasn't for the great snow, I dunno if it would have been as fun. It been sometime since I've hit any runs and I enjoyed every minute of it... man, I need to head back west of only for Tahoe.

Artwise, just been busy with work. Recently, the 360 game I was working on was released. Which I'll post again about it soon. Hey, I'm on overtime! Also, joined the local Dr.Sketchy's and been enjoying that a lot. I missed figure drawing and its been great to get back into it.

Niles and Ivan

Scott, Drew, Niles and me on top the hill. Yes, a hill.

Summer...

...is hot! Its been over a year out here and I'm still not liking this heat+humidity thing. How did people survive without AC... Yes, I whine. Cheese, please.

After ignoring my updates for too long, I'm back. The main reason why I haven't even kept up with a monthly update is that I re-worked my website. After finishing up Dominance War, I took a look at my website and realized it needed a new look. Since it was sometime, I had a few concepts from the past few work projects I could show. Also, I had some decent sketches from my figure drawing workshop in Raleigh. Its kinda weird how you look at your old stuff and just cringe... selective deletion! Wheee! >click!<>click!<>click!<>click!<>click!<>click!<

Been exploring more of the area despite the heat. Found the art museum, which is nice for its size. Sure, its not the MET, Chicago Art Institute, or the Philly Art Museum. However, for what space and likely small budget, its a very nice place to have brunch and draw. Once they've done remodeling, I'm sure I'll be a weekly visitor. Along with that, the Carborro farmer's market finally has more produce, which is nice. But now there is a new mad H1T1 tomatoes disease now? Oy.

And trying to keep up with personal artwork, I saw the IDW weekly challenge (Epic Bombarder pre-1900) and it had the option to do a bit of steampunk. I'm sucker for steampunk. I saw it the day it was due, so I didn't post it, but figure you guys might like it. It took only a couple of hours and I think I might be getting the hang of this stuff. Oh, wait. Thats off... and that... and... sigh...

DW4 is done! Wow, its been fun and crazy, but I liked it a lot. I'm glad I found out about this and entered. Its a good thing there was a deadline, I have to admit. I would love to keep working and rework everything. A couple of times I scrapped hours of work to start over. Sometimes I think we'd work on something forever or find something to fix every time we look again at our projects. I certainly did everytime I opened the file... I still see that.. oh, I that thing too.. ergh.

Its still good this is done, I been skipping the figure drawing workshop and going to the gym to work on DW.  Now, I can tackle that website redesign... maybe ;)

Dom War 4

So, here is my current progress for Dominance War 4 that I mentioned in my last post. Been working on this pretty much when I get time to, I've trashed a few intial ideas and settled to this current work in progress.

Luckily, the deadline was pushed back a few days! I was planning on a packed weekend to get it all done, but with the new deadline, I was able to enjoy my weekend and work on my piece for DW.  I've a lot more to do, but in the glory of the new Star Trek movie, maybe I'll add a couple of lens flares???

Speaking of which, go see the new Star Trek movie! Damn good! Yes, from a geek like me, its a dubious recommendation, but I'm promise you won't regret this one. Its fun summer movie! So far, the best summer movies yet is:

1. Star Trek

2. Wolverine

3. Fast and Furious

4. Watchmen

Quick update

Finally finding some time and pushing past my lazy brain after work, I've been going to a figure drawing workshop in the city. Its a nice setup in a warehouse with smaller studios to rent. The workshop was pretty relaxed with people of all sorts attending. Its been nice and somewhat nostalgic considering I haven't really done figure drawing since finishing up AAU a couple of years ago... Did I say years? Hm, it has been sometime. I'll post more as I shake the rust off... and there is a lot of rust. 

Recently, GameArtisans.com started Dominance WarIV. Picking a race and class allowed, you get to create characters in 3D or 2D. Its been fun so far! I started on some sketches and I'll post my progress for you guys to see soon.

Eat Lead

Hey guys! Just wanted to let you all know that the game I was working on since I started at Vicious Cycle is finally out! Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard for the 360 and PS3. I tried for "Ivan Hazard", but they weren't too keen on the suggestion... 

The gist of EL is that videogames are made much like movies, with real people. And our game hero was a 80s-90s mega star of videogames. He was the first to jump, platform, become 3D, etc etc. But our hero's star faded eventually. Suddenly, a billionare Wesley, has brought the rights to the games and is making a new "game" with Matt Hazard. Little does our hero know that Wesley hates Matt and the new game is a trap to kill him! Now, to survive, Matt Hazard to has to play through the game and survive!!! Dun dun duuuunnn!!!

Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard

I'll post some of the concepts I did for this game soon. In fact, this might be a good time to update that old website... nahhh

Stayin' focused!

Hey guys and gals. Came across the theme Atlantis and it got a couple of ideas in my head. At the same time, one of the guys at work had linked us to a neat lil random sketch program, Alchemy. I figured it was a good reason to experiment with Alchemy and see what it can do for my process. All in all, it was a pretty neat way to start out. It kinda was reminence of cloud images you see. No one else sees it but you. 

Oh, I now have a car! Just a couple of weeks ago, I brought a used Toyota 01 Echo. Compact, good gas, and all mine! Yeah, its a good time to buy a brand new car with great deals, but not having a monthly payment was a bit more appealing. It was nice not to have a car in SF, but out here, its a bit of necessity. So far, I found a figure drawing workshop I'm looking forward to checking out. And... I found a burger chain that I daresay equals, if not passes, In N Out? It called Five Guys Burgers. Hmm? A bold statement you say? Why, indeed it is. I think I shall need to consume mass quanities to ensure the validity of my bold statement! Starting right after I hit enter... NOM! NOM! NOM! NOM!

Finally?

Happy New Year everyone! I know its been sometime and I've been bad about updating here. But! With the new year, comes the resolutions. Guess what one of mine is? To draw and paint more!

Anyway, keeping with my resolution, I joined in conceptart.org's weekly event again. I didn't want to just work on props and vehicles, I want to go into an uncomfortable area, characters. So, here is my recent entry into character of the week, a Knight of the Round Table. I picked Sir Gawain and after some after work doodling, my concept of Sir Gawain.

I've been finished concepting for Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard for some time now. The game is due out this Spring, as soon its out, I'll update again. Right now, I moved on to the company's next projects, which I am excited about. But, of course, I just can't say a thing... stoopid NDAs

Visit back...

As I am in-between little projects, I found the pictures I took while I was back visiting my folks back home. Of course, since my visit wasn't with any major holiday, everyone was at work. So, I took a quick train ride into Chicago to the Art Museum on Michigan Ave. And as luck would have it, most of the American Illustration collection was in storage because of remodeling. I think I maybe cursed in this. But luckily a few pieces were still on display and I got to check them out.

Sadly, I half expected to see Elvis, Marilyn, and Humphrey in this classic...


I had another picture of this one , by Sargent, with me in it; but it didn't turn out too good. Well, I didn't turn out too good...


Strolled down the parks and Michigan Ave...


And found myself here! How about that? What a coincidence! It was one yummy pizza I ate every last crumb. Oooh so full. But, unlike my cheese steak pic, I did not take a pic of my delicious deep dish pizza... why? What would people there think? "Oh, look at the tourist eating his first deep dish!" It was a matter of deep dish pizza principle.


It was a good time back home for a few days before I came out here to Raleigh. I only had a chance to see a few friends, tho I wish I could have seen them all and played a few games of Risk with them. Or, better yet, introduce them to Settlers of Catan! Who would have thought a non-violent game could get as aggressive as Risk? Anyway, it was a good time to see my folks and brother. Its strange how many things didn't change back there; just a bit more empty strip malls, new lights at intersections, and just more overall suburbia... Why I remember youngin' when it was all wheat fields as fer as de eye kin see! No, really. Ah well, I guess you just can't go back unless obligated by the holidays or guilt.

Howdy!

... oh wait. That's Texan. Nevermind! I just wanted to share with everyone the last two images for conceptart.org's weekly challenge, the DEEP. Along with the previous 3, these last two round out my entry. There is a lot of good work and many more people working hard to be better artists. If you have a bit, check it out here. My final presentation is somewhere in the lower half. I thought I was late, but being on the east coast, I guess I was kinda early! Sweet.

So, the last two are good ol' weapons and a remote drone. Somehow I didn't see an underwater society using much bullets. But my tiny knowledge sound and the water, made the idea sound plausible. The drone came from the idea that there are probably still some limit on how deep this fictional society could go. A drone, like the Mars rover, could.

the monthly blog...?

I guess nowadays I've become the monthly blog rather than a often updated one. Sorry folks. Moving on! I'm here in Raleigh and basically as settled in as I can be. I'm in a nice place thats a 5min walk to work and I love that part. While most people are commuting home, I'm in the clubhouse gym or swimming laps in the pool. Work is good and I like the people there. Yeah, its nice out here, but... ITS HOT. Oh SF, I miss your cool weather. I haven't had a chance to really explore too much, but without a car, it is a challenge. I've got my trusty road bike, so its good for now.

Of course, while I am at work I don't get to draw or painting anything thats mine. So, I try to draw in-between unpacking and playing Team Fortress 2 and Crysis. Yes, Call of Duty4 is next. Hey, I just got this computer. I... I digress. Sorry. Um, so I've been participating in conceptart.org's weekly event for sometime. Now, that I have settled in enough that I've been working on this new challenge. Its an across the topic involving "the DEEP", ocean, not space. I really like working on these, some come out alright, some pretty good. I like the practice and the chance to be creative and finish what I like. I've got a few more to round out, but here's what I recently did. A floating lantern, breathing helmet, and a underwater suit. The last one, crab/lobster suit, I took some new tricks and hopefully they turned out ok. More to come... 2? 3? We'll see!

Having fun...

So, as I ready to move and have things setup, I didn't want to get rusty before I start and have some fun. At conceptart.org, I rarely post or participate in their weekly events. These past few weeks I did and had some fun, some I didn't finsh in time, but here are the ones I did.

The first up is idw#68, a timber harvester. Its was put out around Earth Day, so I had to join in! Yar! Have at thee ye overrated trees!


Which was followed up this previous week with a idw#69, a happiness dispenser. My second thought was a 'happy dispenser' using the number 69, but I figure I should keep it G-rated. Going with my first thought was a steampunk aether dispenser. You really don't have to figure out how the physics work in steampunk tech too much, which is always nice. I liked my first sketch and ran with it. Put myself on a short timer and pooped out his lil' piece...

west coast to east coast...

The time for change is upon me everyone! During GDC, I met some good people from Vicious Cycle, and later contacted them about concept artist positions. Last week, I flew out to Raleigh-Durham and interviewed. And just this week, I accepted a position there! Yay! Its going to be a big change, but I'm really looking forward to it! I've never been to Raleigh, but everything I saw there, it looked like a great place to be. I'm going to miss San Francisco, but I'll be back to visit and soak up everything I'm taking for granted here. Speaking of which, I'm gonna have to eat at all my favorite places before I go!