Friday, February 29, 2008

Dolphin Safe Canned Game!

~Concrete Concept Dump~


In no chronological order...


You will see a Tourettes -like Schizophrenic change in Style throughout this post. It's a bit bonkers..



Part of the time I have some illusive feeling or dynamic in my head and it'll take an onslaught of thumbs to get where or better yet towards' where I'd like to go with a design.. I created a brush in Photoshop CS2 to mimic Painter's Triangle Chalk or Oil Pastel brush.(Cannot remember which). I got lucky with this one. It's one of the better opaque digital brushes I've come across. I really enjoy using it to knock out silhouettes in basic value and local color value...






~ Take all this rambling with a grain of salt ~

It's interesting how as a concept designer one of your
main job's tasks is to give endless options to the indecisive, those without the ability to drive an idea and/or help mold a design. So much time and money is wasted through the simple lack of creativity.(I have a recurring daydream of American Game Companies shoving fist fulls of money directly into the toilet. HUZZAH! ..splash'.) There is an absurdly disproportioned ratio of the demand of entertainment and 'creative' leads and managers. Time after time I hear of pipelines that ACCEPT the lack of competent direction as part of the process! It's part of the damn budget! The "we'll know it when we see it" dismissive BS gets real old, real fast. I am more than tired with the Ego's of the one's with less than credential backgrounds. They talk their talk' all day long, with a commanding voice and in the end their track record is clear, the game is either shit or canceled. They always have 'good' reasons to whittle something down to it's least appetizing and most generic form..and thats when there has been and actual decision made. But, don't worry they'll change their minds when they see the next Big' movie or game..

Grand Theft Gears of Fortress anyone?










These faces are a bit less a accomplished than I'd perfer :( the Saga Continues!


Many of these 'Even More' Cartoony pieces were done during the 3rd! yes 3rd reiteration of the look of the game... and of course we reverted straight back on the track we were initially on.


This big dude reminds me of that great character in Lilo and Stitch that keeps dropping his ice cream.. heh. Poor guy.. ^ ^


"Team Fortress, Team Fortress.. .....Team Fortress 2!" The echoes of far too many meetings. Does it make anyone else sick to their stomach that the majority of leads in the industry have an artistic range that reaches as far as what they can bite? "Chomp, Chomp Son!"


HEY! Like wonky proportions? Apparently so do I!


Oh Look..more.



I made a bastardized version of Limbolo's brush...
That guy's work is soo inspiring!














Developing character classes from small to large using the same animation skeleton can be rough, although a very good learning experience. It is' amusing to keep hearing "PUSH iT, just PUSH IT!" without considering the logistics. You know..just fill a volcano with jell-o and spoon feed it to Zeus.. you know..jus..just pick up the big spoon. Whats the problem. ...Note' the stubby arms.


I definitely need to get better at a quick/efficient finished look..








The actual work on this game was very fun to do. Dodging headless chickens was less..

Though the real tragedy is no more Watts! For now...

^ ^
-Joshua

39 comments:

Unknown said...

Dude....Josh ....these are fantastic mode! I really love the design of these characters so much man and really enjoy seeing the personalities of each characters and the really really fun shapes. It sucks this game won't see the light of any but am sure this game would of been fun looking for sure. ughhh. Awesome update Josh.

Tara Rueping said...

WOW! Josh these are awesome! The forms and shapes in these designs rock the house. There is a lot of personality in these characters. I wish the game got made just so I could see them animated..........Great stuff :)

Chan Ghee Leow said...

These are great! Truly inspirational.

abeoh! said...

duude awesome post!

C.Deboda said...

I'm really like the cartoony approach! So this is what you guys were working on across the street (faraday)...

Anonymous said...

awesome art work as usual. i just love the "clean" style to this.

marctaro said...

Some of these (the lean silhouettes with the skull-kerchifs espc) are wicked! sounds like you had a rough time on this one man! sorry to hear it. It's so hard to do stylization isn't it? Seems like ppl can only digest 'realism' (or gears of war which is confused for realism by a lot of suits)...style is a hard row to hoe for damn sure!....(I count myself lucky I like that manly mans gears o'stuff) - I was on a TF2/WoW inspired team for awhile too - honestly, I could never draw a single thing that pleased everyone....best of luck with this!

Nonie said...

Love the character thumbs, man. You sound bitter though :( Art direction is what it is, creative problem solving is part of the job description. Look at all the varied and cool portfolio pieces you got out of their indecision! Personally I like to have some direction. Every time they change their minds, it's just a chance to make another picture and that's what I'm in it for :)

Powell said...

Chomp chomp chomp lol

These are really nice bro! Sounds like you guys were really jumping through hoops too. Anyway Great work and nice post to read!

Unknown said...

hahaha ah the memories......what fun it was!!!!!

Joshua James said...

Thanks Everyone! You are all overly kind...


Hey Nonie! - Being able to do something you love for a living, no matter how great it can be is no excuse to accept the insanity that can surround you. I know of people more wise and experienced than I saying the same or similar things that I stated in this blog post(well.. perhaps in a more pc way ^ ^)

Powell, thanks for taking this in good humor. You can speak of some truly passionate frustrations and people dismissively see you as troubled. When all you want to do is start a dialog most are too timid to speak of..at least in public. ANYhoo... very cool new pieces on your blog!!! ^ ^

ADAM FENTON! Watchin the Sarah Connor Chronicles??? It's trying to be cooL! haha... BTW Adam here was another concept artist on this project. He was very inspirational..Both as a person and concept artist.

Young Vo said...

Wow... seeing all your work together shows how much you did for that game. Always inspiring! Who beats you at checkers? ;)

Mirella said...

Oh, wow!!! Great!!!! I love your style!! Amazing! Expecially facial studios^^

benjamin trobat -cartoonist- said...

brillant characters design!!!

Matt Berger said...

Thank you for sharing these with us.

I hope to attend CCAD in the Spring of 09. I heard you went there for your college training. You are going to Watts too!? Or were? I was going there last year, but things fell through and I could not attend.

If you have any tips for a n00b to CCAD, please feel free to share them!

Hao Wu said...

Hi Joshua:

Very nice work here man love them all I have seen your work years ago and you truly are on another high lvl now. Lots to learn from u =] cant wait to see more.

Jackson Sze said...

Hey Joshua, thanks for stopping by my blog.

Wow.. really great stuff man. The character designs are so clean and elegant. The emphasis on well thought out shape designs as opposed to just throwing a bunch of photos together for characters is both refreshing and inspiring.

Love the commentary about the industry decision process too... so true..

Jackson

RAWLS said...

Dude...I see you havn't posted in a while..but I'm gonna comment on this one anyways!
Your stuff is SICK! Great work my friend, keep it up!
...and it's always nice to find a fellow Airbender fan!!!
Keep in touch.

Daniel Andrews said...

I'm an Airbender fan too!

I'm in awe right now. I saw how cool your avatar was so I clicked to see who made it. The wonders in the internts brought me here to view a shit load an stellar work. Vibrant color and a very appealing style.
Its always great to discover a great artist.
I'm Inspired man, and you'll do the same to them once I pass the word of your blog along.

I got you linked.
Take Care

Unknown said...

so when are you going to put up more work?

Eric Spray said...

Yo Josh!

The Luau watch-dog sketch and the stealthy rebel are my favorites! Great silhouetted shaping. Creating such a stylized game must be very difficult. Too many good character artists like yourself out there. I'd better stick to environments, lol!

Take care

Eric

Carlos Ruano said...

What a wonderful work, and a lot!! I´m impressed, thankyou for showing your art , you are a master.

Sang Han said...

Fantastic work! There's so much personality to the characters. Love the fun shapes and elegant lines. In the words of Kenji, "tight mode"!

BIG HUGE ART BLOG said...

Tight mode indeed! (^_^)

BIG HUGE ART BLOG said...

this is kenji,oops

Dave McNeal said...

wow you are a hell of a designer! Thanks for posting this I now have better ideas about what I need to show as well as ways i can present my portfolio.

Dustin Foust said...

Wow you have a lot of great stuff. Sorry to hear that the game wont make it to the shelves. Looks like it would have been great.

Dan said...

Sweet jesus, the calibre of work here is outstanding. Super inspiring stuff man.

seamas said...

.....holy crap.....


these designs are freakin' awesome--

400lb Ninja said...

Josh man these are awesome man, Great stuff

I wanna see more

D

Anonymous said...

Hi Joshua, i'm Daniel from Costa Rica, your works are really good!
I like a lot the character designs!
i support you good work here, okay i will link this blog to my blog! and my friends we will visit you!
have a nice day!

Justin said...

Awesome work.

About being a concept artist;

It seems like at some companies, the concept artists' jobs are to create the cool ideas around the designer's gameplay ideas, where at other companies, It seems your job is just to draw exactly what everyone else wants. Same title with 2 completely different responsibilities. meh.

Andrew Glazebrook said...

Fabulous work on all of these pics and a superb blog !!!!

Red Fox said...

I LOVE THESE!!!!
rocking-awesome @_@
I'm impresed.

Dify said...

KABOOOUUUM, your work is as amazing as this post is HUGE and impressive !

really awsome designs and ideas you put there.

Tooninator said...

Sick conncepts, dude. I hear ya about art direction. I'd love what I do if it weren't for clients, or directors.

Saad Butt said...

Hey joshua!

Excellent work all around.Love all youre designs :)

Just thought i'd let you know that i made a low poly model off the brutelord model sheet.
http://butt-sahib911.deviantart.com/art/Brutelord-Low-spec-128498126
Hope you dont mind :)

3D ArchVis said...

Hello Joshua,

Brilliant work there. I have become a big fan of your style specially these Revolution game art. Does the style have a name.

I recently started sketching and drawing after ages, and I hope to draw some characters (at least faces as soon as good), would be great if you could suggest me ideas how to go about drawing faces like you do.

Brilliant work once again !!

jazzlamb said...

Excellent explorations! The way you approach form and weight is very very inspiring for little blobs like us. Simply marvellous!