gausswerks: design+concept

MGS soldier concept studies

2009-12-26T08:33:00.000-08:00

I admire the work of Masao Tsubasa on Metal Gear Acid; it's not an easy thing to play second fiddle to Yoji Shinkawa, doing art for an MGS game.

Studying some of the concepts here I was a reminded what a deceptively light touch many Japanese artists bring to their concept work--obviously they produce a lot of finished images, a lot of press images, but as a game developer I'm more drawn to the simple, workmanlike but extremely accurate/elegant colored line drawings. You see this style often in Japanese game design, even for design related to films or television shows.

Below is my own MGS-alike design with a few different attempts at color schemes. It's a rough first outing, the quality of the linework just isn't there yet. But I'd like to continue in this style for certain illustrations; once I master it, it'll be a lot faster way to produce concepts that meet certain needs.

Wise Man

2009-12-09T18:05:00.001-08:00

Filthy Thirteen

2009-12-02T16:43:00.001-08:00

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filthy_Thirteen

Concept Tagging 13: Day-Glo, 2007

2009-12-02T02:17:00.000-08:00

Werewolves, 2005

2009-12-02T02:13:00.000-08:00

Even earlier work with Painter IX. I forget who commissioned these, but they asked for werewolf designs. I wanted them creepier and more on the human side of things rather than the wolf side, so I did the male and female. The third picture was done, as I recall, when whoever I was doing them for wanted them a more animalistic take.

"The Call" variations, 2006

2009-12-02T02:04:00.000-08:00

Portfolio piece from that I had surprising trouble with. This unassuming older guy is a sleeper cell killer cyborg working days at a meat counter, until one day he answers the phone and before you know it, it's killing time.

I had trouble locking down how I wanted to sell the arms unraveling to reveal the skeletal razor hands beneath. None of them are meant to be "realistic," as the skin is synthetic, but it was interesting to explore different approaches. Several of these versions are unreleased.

Color study - Ashley Wood

2009-12-02T02:02:00.000-08:00

X-Com sketches

2009-12-02T02:01:00.000-08:00

Just some conservative takes on the X-Com soldiers and Skyranger-1. Never got around to doing the heavy armor; some day.

Quake Tributes 2006

2009-12-02T01:36:00.001-08:00

These were done in 2006 as I was learning Painter IX. (I realize now I've already posted them on this site, but that was years ago). I found trying to do a new concept and come to grips with a new program's workflow and personality was counterproductive, so I ended up just painting some favorite old Quake characters with minor changes to their designs along the way.

The Mynx picture is previously unreleased; I was always intending on finishing it but it looks just fine to me now. Bonus sketch included.

(Full disclosure: Sorlag is not a favorite character.)

Tribute to Cryostasis

2009-08-07T00:03:00.001-07:00

Tribute to Old Man Murray (missing 10th anniversary)

2009-08-06T23:59:00.000-07:00

Concept tagging 13 and others: May 2007

2009-06-03T00:50:00.000-07:00

Old portfolio ident; sketchbook scans

2009-06-03T00:31:00.000-07:00

Sketches done over winter/spring of '06/07 in Japan, Singapore, Thailand.

Concept tagging 12: April 2007

2009-06-02T23:33:00.000-07:00

Sydney apartment sketches

2009-06-02T23:16:00.001-07:00

Sketches from an apartment in Sydney, 11/04/2006. Had access to Photoshop, but no tablet, so simple, graphic color treatment that I still quite like.

Concept tagging 11

2006-09-21T01:16:00.000-07:00

I really am gone, honestly!

Caesura

2006-09-02T11:55:00.000-07:00

I am traveling now; updates may be sporadic at best. I can be reached at driftingjack at gmail dot com.

Concept tagging 10

2006-09-02T11:49:00.000-07:00

I've got a progress .gif of the first pic, detailing one of the ways that I do concept tags/work from abstraction: time elapse

Heartbreaker's Lane album cover

2006-08-31T08:16:00.000-07:00

Tom Schreck is a talented musician and a good friend of mine from Notre Dame. I thought it was only fair that his new album should have some album art to match the effort he puts into his recordings. I didn't have much source art to work from, just a couple of grainy low-light pictures of Tom in a group--but I'm proud of the result.

Concept tagging 9

2006-08-23T00:53:00.000-07:00

Is she a black market dealer from a 80's scifi movie? Yes.

Concept tagging 8

2006-08-23T00:51:00.000-07:00

Concept tagging 7: Special Guest

2006-08-11T04:23:00.000-07:00

Only the oldest of the old school fans will be able to tell the character I'm referencing with this latest concept tag.

City by the sea

2006-08-10T21:51:00.000-07:00

About 45 minutes.

Wolfmother

2006-07-20T01:17:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted much this month, but it's not for lack of working. Once I'm able, I'll post the work I've gotten done in the last couple of weeks. In the meantime, here's an interesting sort of experiment, using Artrage together with Photoshop CS2. I've finally tried making custom brushes in PS, and it's really quite handy. I've edited this post to include a second, related drawing I did but didn't update before.

Concept tagging 6

2006-07-20T01:13:00.000-07:00

Leaving You Behind

2006-06-28T05:30:00.000-07:00

fat marine

2006-06-27T04:45:00.000-07:00

I was busy today. Credit to Andrew Ley since I'm biting his colors and (hopefully) some of sketch techniques here, even if it is in a very different style.

Concept tagging 5

2006-06-27T01:44:00.000-07:00

The Black Hole's Maximilian

2006-06-26T23:17:00.000-07:00

More or less Disney's regrettable cash-in on Star Wars mania, The Black Hole did have a few strong points. Namely,
1.) Some interesting robots,
2.) a hellish, freak-out psychedelic ending completely inappropriate for a PG movie, and
3.) Ernest Borgnine.

Here's my take on the somewhat classic Maximilian design. I made it close enough to the original that it might be mistaken by some people, but a side by side comparison will reveal how different it is.

femech 01

2006-06-25T06:14:00.000-07:00

Well I've been rather inspired by Andrew Ley's sketches, and so I've attacked Painter's fabulous tinting brush with renewed vigor and hopefully better results. This sketch took an hour or so, the tinting brush allows for very rapid modeling of form.

reboot brush test

2006-06-22T13:38:00.000-07:00

Curiously, both Painter and Photoshop have picked these last few days to behave erratically or, in Painter's case, refuse to start properly at all. Photoshop mysteriously developed a deal breaker of an issue with the color picker hotkey. But both programs have been reinstalled and their preference files reset, so all is well again. Getting back into Photoshop after the reinstall, and especially after having spent so much time in Painter, felt a little strange. And so accordingly, here is the strange image I made while testing to make sure all the brushes were back in order.

Concept tagging 4

2006-06-01T21:02:00.000-07:00

Just a few more concept tags in the past however many days.

Concept tagging 3

2006-05-15T20:53:00.000-07:00

A tag passed from Snem and Jackablade, and then back to myself.

Concept tagging 2

2006-05-14T21:57:00.000-07:00

More concept tagging. Here's the original by Mansir,and to the left is what I came up with. About 2 hours.

Surf Princess

2006-05-14T02:17:00.000-07:00

Who knows? This started out as a random seed-type drawing like the one below it, but it quickly veered into some other kind of territory. Beats me what's going on in the picture. About...2-3 hours maybe?

Concept Tag

2006-05-13T20:22:00.000-07:00

Concept tagging has started up again on the polycount forums. "Concept tag" is the term I coined to denote concepts freely malleable by different artists, some images having been worked over by several different artists in succession. It's interesting to see how different people might approach an idea. Here's the concept tag thread on polycount, if you're so inclined. To the left here is the image I just finished... not so much a proper tag as it is a "random seed" drawing, done by compositing a bunch of different images from the thread, and seeing what shapes are suggested out of them. In this case, a mech/landmate. The bright colors are a direct result of the overlays.

Playing with brushes

2006-05-02T17:36:00.000-07:00

Playing with brushes in Painter IX, so while the details are there, the overall composition isn't. Still, it was instructive, hopefully I'll take that newfound familiarity and push it somewhere further.

This was with the "simple water" brush that is the single biggest reason that people hang onto Painter IV--it's actually in Painter IX, but by default it's set to mix additive, instead of the way it did in IV. Really a fun and easy to use brush, it's clear why so many people love to use it.

Generimech, reporting for duty

2006-04-16T22:30:00.000-07:00

Where will it be deployed next?! Feel free to consider the wealth of completely interchangeable sci-fi universes Generimech might fit into. For bonus points, try and pick out the roughly half dozen existing mech designs I likely subconsciously cribbed from while drawing this. Fun for the whole mech-loving family!

Robot 006: Gort (Day the Earth Stood Still)

2006-03-14T15:49:00.000-08:00

If there was ever an uglier robot in the whole history of mechanical men, I have yet to see it. This is the second, better known robot named Gort, featured in the science fiction classic The Day the Earth Stood Still. The film itself is something of a classic; Gort's design is not. Well, textbook example of what not to do, I guess. The first time I saw Day when I was younger, I wrote off Gort's hideous appearance as the movie being old and the designers not knowing any better. But Day came a full 24 years after Metropolis, which featured one of the best robot designs of all time, so it's not for lack of good examples. Gort has a number of unsightly features, from the motorcylce helmet head to the stubby, finger-less hands, but my personal favorite would be the lines of robo-briefs. That's right, an 8 foot tall, featureless robot with a belt and underpants. Awesome.

Robot 005b: Gort (Mysterious Dr. Satan)

2006-03-14T13:57:00.000-08:00

This bot sure looks familiar. Here we have the first of two Gorts (a popular name for robots in the 20th century), as he appears in the 15 part serial Mysterious Doctor Satan. Gort is of course not-so-heavily retooled version of the robot seen in Undersea Kingdom, rendered in the previous post. In the spirit of this reusal, I reused most of my Undersea Kingdom robot illustration and flipped it to draw Gort. As with many of these robots, more information can be found on David Szondy's page.

Just between you and me, I'd like to say that this is my favorite Gort. The second, and more well-known Gort will be coming up shortly.

Robot 005a: Undersea Kingdom

2006-03-14T11:44:00.000-08:00

Created in response to the popularity of Flash Gordon, Undersea Kingdom features some very funny designs, including this robot minion. This very same robot, with some minor alterations, would again appear in the serial The Mysterious Doctor Satan. I haven't made up my mind as to whether I'll depict that version too, but in the meantime be sure to check out David Szondy's page for more info on Undersea Kingdoms.

Dominance War: Epilogue

2006-03-14T11:28:00.000-08:00

Now that the Dominance War submission period is officially over, I thought it might be interesting to cobble together all of the concepts I did during that rather fecund period of February 1st to February 26th. My friend and fellow moderator MoP gave me a good critique after seeing this image, remarking that my characters lack dynamic postures, which is something I'd like to spend time improving on in coming days. We'll see.

This gave me a chuckle, though. Combing through all the concepts I was doing, I found this little thumbnail from one of the earliest rounds of concepting. Since Polycount's side includes all the evil characters, I was really trying to come up with some threatening, massive characters... and this came out instead. It made me laugh, but the Whalephant hardly inspires terror.

Steampot

2006-03-14T09:34:00.000-08:00

A bit of self-depracation and computer graphics humor for this thread. This is pretty stale to anyone who's spent some time working with CG, but for those unfamiliar with the significance of the teapot in 3d graphics, here's the wikipedia entry for the "Utah" teapot. It's self-depracating because since early college, I've been associated with "steampunk" style work. Things with smokestacks.

Robot 004: Elektro

2006-03-02T00:52:00.000-08:00

Meet Elektro, the cigarette-smoking Westinghouse Motoman. Noted on this page as now being the Oldest Robot in the United States, Elektro was built as a showpiece by Westinghouse, an appliance manufacturer. One of the more popular and visible robots of the '30s, at a time when it seemed like a sure bet robots would at the very least be cooking or doing menial jobs around the house of the future. David Szondy's page has more info on this one as well.

With this illustration you may notice I took a bit of artistic liberty: Elektro very likely could not tilt his torso back at such a jaunty angle, but it seemed so fitting to his disposition that I couldn't resist. With that cigarette in his mouth and his hands splayed, I can just hear him make some salacious comment at your girlfriend.

DomWar 12: Closing Articles

2006-02-26T16:10:00.000-08:00

Odds and ends as my participation in this cross-community competition comes to a close. The first is a mostly abandoned concept for Nkoste for a saboteur general. Abandoned since he looked mischevious and kind of nice rather than evil, and because it's a regurgitated version of half a dozen different characters of the slinky rodent type, from Gollum on up.

This second one is also for Nkoste, designed as a sibling to Downsizer's Psionic. The brother is also some sort of mentalist general encased in a robot body... that's about as far as I got. Maybe he's still a saboteur, I really don't know.

And the final image is one that I was just doodling up but also wasn't exactly set on fire by the design, so I haven't posted it until now. It's not bad, and there are some interesting texture bits in there, but the forms are pretty lazy.

DomWar 11: a horned god for Mr. Stirling

2006-02-20T04:32:00.000-08:00

I said to myself I wouldn't do any over the weekend, but I got a PM and couldn't resist taking a crack. Now it's 6:30 am and I've got a well developed headache, but I think it turned out nicely. Rick Stirling is a Scotsman and so has incorporated certain Celtic/Scottish influences. Can't say I've quite retained those elements all that faithfully; mostly I've just tweaked up what he had going (see the original in this thread and changed the deer antlers to caribou antlers, for a more vertical look.

DomWar 10: Jackablade's Vulture King

2006-02-16T22:10:00.000-08:00

Because others are waiting in line for a concept ahead of others, my methodology might seem capricious, and it may very well be. On the other hand, when I go with my instinct, like I did with Jackablade's character who asked for help a scant few hours ago, things seem to turn out well. I would wager this is my most polished 3-hour piece I've ever done, I'm quite happy with how it turned out.

DomWar 9: Sectaurs Revisited

2006-02-15T19:10:00.000-08:00

I've just finished a colored version of the first concept I did for this competition, Sectaurs' "Fleshtank" character. I had fun working with such bright, varied colors. In order to confer this character's seniority/leadership position (Sectaurs has been using a very small crown on his head), I've put inset gems into his forehead crest, as well as given that area very bright coloring as the dominant males of many animal species are known to have.

Update for the night is the quickly, but I must admit cleverly put together orthographic, to help Sectaurs realize his alien creature into three dimensional form:

DomWar 8: Hitler & Ghostie

2006-02-14T21:45:00.000-08:00

Hitlerstravaganza! As you might recall from the Dominance War Update 2, for one of the entrants I designed a Hitler head-in-a-mech. Well the last two days I've been fleshing it out. First off was doing a mock-up 3d model, which was for my own purposes as well as making things either for my collaborator.

Thankfully I've got friends with far greater experience with 3DS Max than I. Fritz was kind enough to play around with a few renders of the model on a basic stage setup, and this one looked like it would be an excellent candidate for a paintover:

I thought the cylindrical banding in the background was interesting, but I didn't want it to interfere with the read of the mech's silhouette. So with some sweat in Painter and Photoshop here's the mid-level step after yesterday:

And finally after most of today, here's the finished (for now?) paintover, that partially incorporates the head model that Katzeimsack has built. Pretty happy with it, particularly the worn down pedestal. In Italy and other European countries, stone steps like those are everywhere and when I see them they never cease to impress upon me their immense age.

But that wasn't all that today brought! Earlier was sort of a warm-up character design, a ghostly woman infested with maggots. I'm rather proud how good those maggots look... it almost makes seeing the hideous reference pictures worth it. I like how the limbs resolve in a primitive fashion, reminiscent of something from Silent Hill or similar game:

DomWar 7: Bortly Bot

2006-02-12T22:42:00.000-08:00

Here's another paintover run amok; for an old time #mder named Bort. His only qualification was to retain the original female character's generously proportioned rear, which I did... the rest of the design was rather liberally re-interpreted:

Back from a revitalizing weekend with what I hope is a fresh battery charge--isn't it a pity that we must speak of the state of our bodies in almost entirely mechanistic terms?

DomWar 6: Demon Engine / Gorilla-Man

2006-02-08T14:33:00.000-08:00

Today wasn't as productive, though I did have a strong start on a more painterly piece that I'll attend to later. In the meantime, how about the cursed war engine? (posted this to the top so that the Gorilla image isn't overwritten by the sidebar)

Slow start today but I finally revised the albino Gorilla-man commander character. He's now equipped with a traditional African war axe (gorilla-men like to keep things up close and personal, alongside a fondness for grenades), as well as some of his cadre of elite simian fighters visible:

DomWar 5: General Birdstein / Mech Pilot

2006-02-07T13:59:00.000-08:00

As with yesterday I'll add more pieces as I work on them, so be sure to refresh your browser when you visit this page, as it seems to get cached.

First up is General Priscilla "Knifetail" Birdstein. Giant avian species, while enormously intelligent and peerless fighters, aren't particularly clever with nicknames.

Small update: didn't quite have the juice to overhaul the mech today (sorry EQ!) but I did do a little work on fleshing out what the pilot will look like:

Only the head and chest will be visible, but it was still fun to draw. The helmet was updated based on EQ's in progress model which is looking really nice so far, it's really a privilege to work with a guy that's been advancing as steadily in his craft as EQ has.

DomWar 4: Scavenger, Dropship, Centaur

2006-02-06T12:22:00.000-08:00

More good times from the frontlines. Here is a "concept tag" where I've done a briefy redesign of DTrip's robot guy. He described him as a scavenger, so I've focused on that aspect. I think of him as the Scavenger King, leader of the second wave of forces tasked with cleaning up smaller pockets of troops and subduing the weakened. Picking over the battlefield with a lumbering gait, I thought of him much as the thieves and rogues of medieval societies, the lowest order that would steal from the dead and dying on the battlefield.

I doubt this is going to be used for the contest, as it's quite a stretch to consider this a General. He, or it, is a sentient dropship, with great big bat wings that double as protective shields when disgorging troops. The streaming blue from the double-mouths is a mysterious energy-seeking ghost vapor (whatever that means).

And with respect to Mr. Andrew Jones, this was my paintover of Asthane's cyborg centaur lady. Two and half hours, I had a lot of fun putting this together. I typically try and resist the fairly trite dark-with-glowie-bits design style, but I think this turned out well.

DomWar 3: Gorilla-Man

2006-02-04T21:12:00.000-08:00

Quick update, here's another concept I did for the Dominance Wars and for fun, really. It's an albino grenade throwin' gorilla man, though it's been pointed out that neither does he look like command material, nor does he look like he'd be able to throw the grenades. I'll likely take another pass where I give him more traditionally simian hand-feet, more dextrous hands without claws but plus maybe a cudgel or something. Also, a throat mic and some other tactical gear, plus a trophy or two.

DomWar 2: Mechs and Psionic

2006-02-04T09:22:00.000-08:00

Alright, I've been busy with concepting for this competition, but it's been worth all the great boost of energy that's been radiating through the community. Briefly, here is a girlmech, a hitler mech, and a floaty psionic girl, concepted for Earthquake, katzeimsack, and Downsizer respectively.

earlier version here

early version here

DomWar 1: CALL TO ARMS

2006-02-02T17:29:00.000-08:00

Derived from my good friend hawken's elegant design.

Dominance War begins: Sectaurs' concept

2006-02-02T12:20:00.000-08:00

Exciting times--the Dominance War, a contest between polycount and CGchat has just started, and both communities have hit the ground running. For my part, as I haven't completely a model since 2001, I've elected to furnish concept designs for anyone at polycount who asks for it.

There's always an inevitable bleed-off between when these contests start and when they end in terms of participation, but the sheer number of people joining in now means there should still be a healthy selection of final entries. It's only the first full day and people are chomping at the bit. Here's my thread on polycount offering my help, the first of which is for a friend who goes by Sectaurs. He requested something organic, a "flesh-tank" with a gun mounted on the back. Wanting to eschew typical cybernetic implant-type characters for this one, I went with a fairly novel take on the mounted gun:

And not to worry, my robot studies are still underway. I'm almost done with #4, in fact, it will be posted later today.

Robot 003: Radio Man

2006-02-01T16:50:00.000-08:00

Here's a curious one: in my search for early robots from the 20's/30's, I came across this odd looking character, Radio Man. A Swiss engineer named August Huber built him in early 30's. I don't think there's any explaining the origin of his bizarre aesthetics, but he's the first "real" robot in these studies.
Maybe not the best known early robot, but easily one of the strangest looking ones--hats off to Herr Huber. For more information (and sneak peeks at several later subjects for these studies), check out the excellent site of David Zsondy. A wealth of early robot information and other emphemera from the first half of the 20th century, a great site.

Robot 002: R.U.R.

2006-02-01T11:26:00.000-08:00

Were I to do these studies in strict chronology or importance to the history of robots, I'd have done this one first: R.U.R., Rossum's Universal Robots. Karel Capek's 1921 play first introduced the term "robot" (from the Czech robota, drudgery) into the popular lexicon. Ironically, Capek's Robots were more like clones than what we typically think of when we hear the word robot, but the significance of the play is still undeniable.

I place it second to Metropolis because 1.) these studies have no strict order to them and 2.) Capek's Robots, while historically notable, are not strongly remembered for their visual appearance. I had to do some digging to find images of the stage production to base this study on; this Robot design is from the 1923 production at St. Martin's, London. Click here for further material about the play.

Robot 001: Hel

2006-01-31T02:24:00.000-08:00

I've played with the idea of doing studies of classic robots from all traditions and periods. Interspersed with the studies would possibly be my own designs synthesized from the hallmarks of that period/style. We'll see how long it lasts. Regardless, I had no doubt as to what the first study should be: the robot Hel, from Fritz Lang's 1927 (!) masterpiece Metropolis.
One of the most influential and iconic robot designs, Hel stands the test of time.

Quake III Studies: Sorlag

2006-01-29T12:32:00.000-08:00

Working this for a while and it just hit the "good enough" point for now. This is Q3's Sorlag somewhat recast as a more lizard-y (rather than dinosaur) character. A big inspiration would be the Skeksis from the Dark Crystal--the armor that's designed to make the body appear larger than it really is, some decadent finery, you know. I might take another pass at this later, as I might with any piece, as nothing's ever really finished, is it? There are only stopping points, some better than others.

Quake III Studies

2006-01-29T08:13:00.000-08:00

Working with Painter I began to realize that trying to concept a character while also familiarizing myself with a new program meant neither was done very well. As there's been a popular resurgence on polycount with the old Q3 characters, I found it an excellent opportunity to work with established characters, perhaps modifying them slightly, but concentrating on doing better with Painter. This was the next piece after the one in the previous post, and felt quite a bit more confident (to say nothing of less stylistically derivative). If it's been a while, here's a link to the original Q3 character sheets.

Keel:

A Q1 Shambler snuck in there, too:

Visor:

Painter Paints

2006-01-29T07:42:00.000-08:00

Painter IX is a tricky beast but I've been working at getting better acquainted, mostly through a series of studies. This was the first that felt pretty good, despite being so obvious a bite on Ashley Wood. Couldn't be helped. He's an influence and I know he's got a good handle on Painter, so there you are.

Early on: but somehow this has more charm? The charm of suggestion maybe:

"Finished," as much as it's likely to be: