Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Elevator Down



Thanks to my wife I was reminded that I needed to finish the first half of my story board. My timeline has me done around December before I head down to see family. Then in January of 2011 I will begin the final chapter sequences.

Honestly I can't wait to get the meat of conflict story wise and artistically. The last chapter before we get planet side establishes the main villains and then it's a roller coaster ride from there on out.

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Drafting and painting my headache.


Fleet is an adventure game at heart. I would have to admit it has a vein in the old movie with Clint Eastwood called Fire Fox. Only with Fleet we're following the adventure of a ghost within the machine who's lost his memory. You take on his quest alone in a pocket universe seeking a massive doomsday mecha dubbed the TYPHON. The main character is more ship, rather than man and his history is a sorted one. He learns this as he goes, pursued by the military, while becoming embroiled in the games between empires. All the while the player explores multiple options to the conclusion of the game's story.
Pictured above are two of the stories main ships at the very beginning where our anti-hero is working as a literal wrecking ball on a abandoned Star City. The Singapore is the first adventure option in the game's story arc. It's captain is swashbuckling business man looking for a CHAIR (mecha) pilot to rescue political refugees from a besieged world, and with that we are off on our story to save the universe yadda, yadda.

Anyways back to reality. The exercise of fleet is pushing myself in painting and conceptual design. Along with drafting and a few other art hurdles. Fleet is probably a very long project since I'm flushing out a universe with varying races and ship designs. Should force me to create differing brushes and techniques by the end of it all. I'm hoping to get into weapon design as well as environmental art. Clothing and armor to futuristic cityscapes should dot this portfolio piece. More to come as we go.

Kevin

Thursday, September 16, 2010

EVE online contest.

Looks like Deviant Art is having a Eve Online ship contest. I've been working over on Fleet so I'm in the position of drawing up strange space craft. I'm considering entering so here's my first painting. I've got six more to go of various positions of this ship before I'll enter the final drawing. This ones a solid paint job. No pencils or ink just painted it in CS3.

Friday, September 3, 2010

On the Edge of the Anomaly


Some more FLEET art. A quick piece just to get some more insight into what I'm shooting at.

Thursday, September 2, 2010

FLEET work.



Getting to play with some custom made brushes. Trying out shapes and searching out the feel for this project, while learning new art tricks and what I want to say with them. The Revada are an ancient people. Bordering on the final evolutionary gap between organic beings and pure energy. I wanted a deep sea creature feel for them that's basically housing the energy to span the stars in a blink of a eye.

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

FLEET is underway.

With the completion of Chimera V1.2 finished I'm ready to begin on another concept. I've been messing around with Gorgon a prior game project, but in reality I'm burned out on drawing monsters and dungeon explorers. The AVT story board will restart in January of 2011 and too my surprise my wife asked me when I was going to finish it ( She really hates it when I get into a project deeply). Beyond whatever freelance job I manage to pick up pretty much for the remainder of the year I'll be working on FLEET for the end of 2010's portfolio.

FLEET is a drafting exercise at it's heart for me. The Liberty above is my first drawing for this project. I'll be cross referencing a front, top, and bottom view from this one piece. I can never go small, so already I have about fifteen alien species and designs to ponder. I gotta stop that nonsense.

The thoughts behind FLEET point to a game App for the iPad. Something of empire builder and space explorer to appeal to the gamer looking for a universe that challenges their organization and combat skills. I won't lie and say I'm not a fan of EVE online. Though FLEET might be considered a cross between EVE and SPORE, I'm trying to not get pigeon holed by my love for both games when working on FLEET. The object of the piece is to come up with something different and far more engaging than what has inspired you.

I'm partly torn on the visuals of FLEET. Part of me says go for a Tron look. Totally digital bordering on neon glitter of Geometry Wars, to the full on glory of a Space Sim like EVE Online. For right now I'm just keeping it simple right down to mechanical line and flat color.
We'll see which wins out as I progress.