The Land of Koz

Hey everybody (anybody?) My new portfolio website just went live! My good friend Dan Pratt built it for me and he did a kick ass job!

Land of Koz

Most people think Time is like a river...

On a roll! Another concept based off of Prince of Persia (the newest 360/PS3). I think there are definite things I can add to this. The concept is pretty vague in various spots. The main purpose of these exercises though is merely to have fun and not worry about the things that I normally have to address in a production environment.


The Concept:

New Newness!

Low Poly scene with hi-res textures (normal maps etc.)
The entire scene is 4k polys. That's less than one character on the current game I'm working on!

Return to the Land of Koz

After a 3 year hiatus I am returning to the interwebs with my very own website courtesy of the insanely talented Dan Pratt.

He just sent me a progress shot and it is too cool not to share. So I figured I'd post it up here.

Woe to the Conquered...

Well, I'm not that satisfied with the finished result of this piece, but I wanted to "finish it" and move onto something new rather than just abandon it altogether. It's based off a concept from Legacy of Kain: Defiance.

Drawn to Life

Drawn to Life: The Next Chapter is in stores now! Go buy it! It's a great game for kids and lots of fun, you really can make some cool stuff with the drawing tool if you just have a little patience.

Anyway here is some of the stuff I worked on while on the project. Some of the textures were done by me, some were done by my co-workers Sandie, and Rachelle

Hello! Follow Me!

Some more practice, a homage to my favorite game series of all time, OddWorld. I used a concept from the art book, and just had fun, took some small liberties, but basically I just wanted to do some modeling... especially since I haven't modeled anything at work since March.

Brutal Legend

Here are some of the pieces I am most proud of from my time at Double Fine as a contract artist. I did a lot more smaller props but they're not as exciting to look at. :) Enjoy, and go buy the game! It's awesome! Oh yeah all of this is property of Double Fine Productions

Getting to Carnegie Hall...

Did this for fun using a concept from the latest Prince of Persia game....

Joe Mad, I am not...

But I've wanted to do a "comic book" for A LOOOONG TIME! While this isn't it, it was a fun exercise to see what I could get out of a character and a really simple background. I enjoyed this and I think I will definitely employ this 3d/2d hybrid for a comic someday... when I'm not lazy.

Siege N' Destroy

Siege N' Destroy is a game concept I came up with for the iphone I hope to actually make it into a game someday.




Just for shits I also created playing cards for the character. I thought if anything it would be a fun "promotional piece".




On more thing, all of the music and sound effects in the video were created by my former co-worker and good buddy Justin Mullens

Not quite art related...

but related to my career in the game industry.

An article I wrote just landed on the front page of Bit Mob a website started by some of the former staff members of game magazine EGM, and game website 1up.com.

I hope you enjoy. Also if so inclined check out the comments. There are some good follow-ups to the topic.


Professionalism in the gaming press

Time Kain? Next time...

Fun little exercise...

Vae Victis!

I have some down time at work. (Currently between projects) So I decided to do a zbrush bust of my favorite game character: Kain from the Legacy of Kain series. I'm about an hour or two in, I definitely have a lot more to do.

Getting back into it....

I think I'm over "the hump" which is that moment where your work looks like crap and it's boring to work on, to when it starts looking like something that might turn out cool... we'll see.

Slow progress...

Haven't had the motivation to work on this but I've made a little progress. The good thing with these posts is it lets me take a step back and see any issues. For instance the bent pipe in the back... the silhouette is too low poly. I'll need to bump that up a little bit....

Some progress...

Just chipping away....

Humble Beginings....

So I've decided to start on a new high-poly environment. Based off a concept I found on last years Unearthly Challenge.

This model is in the SUPER EARLY stages, about an hour or two at most. But I thought it would be neat to show something that is raw and early.

Note: again, not my concept...

Pro Work

All the art in this post is property of Planet Moon ®.

So this is some work from a canceled project I was working on until recently. There is lots of stuff so I hope you enjoy!

Monkey, Mon-key

Just digging through some of my old files from the past year and I came across 2 sketches that I particularly liked.

Wrapping him up...

I think I dunno, not much more to add to the sculpt.

Making progress...

Nothing much to say, just fleshing more stuff out. The huge forearms are inspired by Stranger of OddWorld Strangers Wrath. Which is what I was playing when I first came up with this character back in 05.

Glimmer

So in August of 08 I wrote a script for a short comic. It was a story I came up with when I was still living in North Carolina. I've wanted to do a comic for a long time but I am very poor at self motivating.

I'm going to try and give it a go now, but no promises. :) Right now, I am thinking of having the main character be 3d. This will allow me to 1) practice my zbrush skills 2) get over my poor character dynamic drawing skills and 3) help with my overall lack on consistency from panel to panel.

I may even do the backgrounds in 3d as well. I'll see how long my interest in this lasts. :)

This was the concept painting... it's pretty old... about a year or 2...


My current zbrush progress...

Brutal!

So with E3 days away there has been a bunch of news coming out. Obviously the announcement of Drawn to Live was a big one for me. But I also worked on Brutal Legend last year. While this game has been shown quite a bit in the past few months, today is the first time my art showed up in a screen shot!

My, what a magnificent castle!

Drawn to Life: The Next Chapter

Has been announced. So this is what I worked on after my short stint at Double Fine on Brutal Legend.

Although for the past 2 months I have been on a different project, the game is looking really great. It's nice to see it with eyes that are fresh. I miss that team but I know they are kicking ass!

I did a bunch of early concepts on the game and a lot of work on the jungle levels I hope they will show before long. Any way here is the trailer. I still don't know why publishers feel the need to show people playing Wii games. It comes off as so cheesy, oh well...

More Drawn to Life: The Next Chapter Info

As the dust settles...

Whew! After 2 YEARS of trying to complete a Dominance War, I can now say I have! I have no dillusion of placing in the finalists, but I am proud of my entry nonetheless. I learned A LOT by doing this. I can safely say that my next zbrush attempt will be even better. For now though, I want to play some video games! Oh and a shout out to Jeremy Huxley, and Eric Maki, without them I wouldn't have even known where to start! Also to Sandi for crtitiqueing my piece and giving me excellent advice!

So without futher ado, here is what I submitted!