Land of KoZ

The Last Guardian

2012-01-15T01:51:00.000-08:00

Wow! So what started as a simple tribute piece when the HD remake came out, turned into quite the artistic endeavor!

I've been asked "why Guardian Heroes" and that made me think about what this game means to me.

It's kind of funny now that I think about it but once again I remember going with my friend Carmine (see my "Game that got away" post) to buy this game. We went to FuncoLand which for those of you who may not know; started the whole used game selling and buying thing. At least to my knowledge. Now this was back in 95-96 I believe and I couldn't drive yet so we got a ride from my mom and we busted into the store. he picked up Doom for the Playstation, and I knew what I wanted: Guardian Heroes!

I remember seeing and article in Game Fan prior to the games release. It just captured my imagination. I was a huge fantasy buff (being the nerd I was). But outside of roleplaying games in those days finding ANYTHING fantasy in games was actually kind of difficult.

But this simply wasn't a high fantasy Tolkien retread, this had a style all its own. Anime was still new to me. I don't think I had even watched an Anime film at this point. So seeing this style was a breath of fresh air.

I popped it in once I got home, my older brother Chris (who I shared a bedroom with) was still sleeping as I had gone in the morning while my mom ran errands to pick it up. The opening cartoon struck me immediately, the music the characters, just the overall sense of adventure.

Starting the game I of course picked the warrior Han and started to play. I wrote about this a few posts back when I started this project (Undead Hero), but when the Undead Warrior finally makes his appearance at the end of the first stage I knew this game was something special. At this point Chris had woke up and when the UW screamed out even Chris was like: dude this game looks bad ass! Or something like that, cut me some slack it's been like 17 years!

Over the next weeks and months I played the game almost everyday. Trying play EVERY SINGLE path in the game (at the end of each level the game gives you a choice of where to go next). I even tried to chart the branching paths in my sketch book.

People always talk about getting lost in books or movies as a form of escapism, and that's what I think this game (among countless others) was for me. It was a bright vibrant world that although dangerous was one that I could succeed and triumph in. For a fat kid who got picked on in school, that was priceless.

Anyway. I still pull out Guardian Heroes from time to time (on my Sega Saturn) and play through it. I was REALLY excited when I found out that it was getting a re-release, but REALLY bummed when I found out that it was coming out only on the XBOX 360 (for now). But even more exciting is that I read that Treasure the company behind GH wants to do a proper sequel. I say proper because we're not going to count that shitty Gameboy Advance version.

So that's a long winded reason as to why I felt the need to pay tribute to this game. It's not as creative or inspiring to me as say OddWolrd, or Shadow of the Colossus. But it was a part of my life when I needed it most. I look back on the times I spent playing it by myself, and with my brothers very fondly. THAT alone makes it something special.

I hope you enjoy this piece as much as I enjoyed making it! I learned a lot while working on it and I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. The graphic design elements were inspired by one of my favorite contemporary artists Marko Djurdjevic who uses graphic design to great effect on a lot of his covers for Marvel.

"The Last Guardian (Hero)"

Race to the finish line!

2012-01-09T21:34:00.000-08:00

I am soooo close to finishing! I'm excited, and I wish it was the weekend so I could just devote an entire day to to this but oh well.

Everything is modeled, textured and rigged! I just need to compose my scene, bring it into UDK, create the shaders, and render it out!

The game that got away...

2012-01-03T01:09:00.000-08:00

It's 2am on a Tuesday morning. I have to be up for work at 8... but I can't sleep. I'm no stranger to insomnia, as I lay in bed my mind swirls to a million different directions; work, life, family, my pets, and on nights like tonight... the past.

I've been playing Strangers Wrath HD on the Playstation 3 which is an amazing game I recommend anyone with the system to play. However that's not what I'm up writing about.... but before I get to far ahead of myself let me back up.

In the summer of 1997 my friend Carmine and I went to the local mall with money to burn. He had an agenda, to buy Castlevania Symphony of the Night. I wasn't the biggest Castlevania fan at that point and knew little about the game (remember the internet wasn't what it is today). So I just went along to do some browsing. While he was paying for Castlevania I noticed Oddworld Abe's Oddysee. I was immediately drawn to it's box art.

The cool purple title, the awesome glyphs, and of course the weird character. I remember reading something about this game in a magazine but I knew next to nothing about it. I took a chance...

When I got home to play it I was immediately blown away by the cg opening. This was an era where even cg intros looked god-awful not to mention how bad the in game art normally looked in games. This was rivaling the stuff I had seen in Pixar films!

The game, I was pleasantly surprised looked just as amazing (in it's own way), but it also played great too! Like a mix of two of my favorite games, Out of this World, and Flashback. I was hooked and played through the game even going so far as to save all 99 Mudokens! No small feat as anyone who has played can tell you!

Time marched on, I played and loved Abe's Exxodus, I was there launch day to pick up Munch's Oddysee, and was blown away as to how far their cinematics had come! This time I was in college, going to school to learn how to make games for a living. It was around this time I became friends with Phill Gonzales. He saw me doodling an Abe head in my sketch book and remarked that OddWorld Inhabitants (makers of the game) were located not far from his home town in San Luis Obispo California.

Fast forward 2 years and we are on summer break about to start our senior year, looking to make connections and get our foot into the industry. Phill did something crazy and emailed OddWorld and inquired about a tour! I was shocked to find out they agreed to let us come up to SLO and check out the space! We also snagged a tour with Blizzard in LA through one of our professors, I was excited about Blizzard to be sure, but OddWorld? I was beside myself with anticipation.

We first went to Blizzard, after a hellish all-nighter driving from SLO to LA and failing to find an affordable motel, we TRIED to sleep in Phills car. No dice. So come morning we show up at Blizzards doorstep and get the dime tour. Now at the time this was pre World of Warcraft. The main team there had just finished WarCraft 3 and were on vacation. There was a skeleton crew around working on WOW and we got to check it out. Pretty cool, but the tour was over in about an hour and we were on our way. We were a little deflated, especially after our trek down there.

Well we pick ourselves up and did the unthinkable (and dangerous) we turned right around and drove back up to SLO on no sleep, after all the very next day we had a tour of OddWorld.

Once back at Phills house I immediately crashed into bed! I woke up the next morning fully rested and ready to check out what in my mind had become a place of legend.

We came up to off all places a ROSS (a discount clothing store). I was wondering if we had the right address, but then Phill pointed us in the right direction. Nestled in between Ross and another storefront was this ornate art-deco door that read: OddWorld Inhabitants. It turns out OddWorld Inhabitants is located ABOVE the ROSS. Talk about inconspicuous.

Me, Pete, and Phill in front of Oddworlds Entrance AFTER the tour (note the bag of swag)

This blog is getting long, so I'll move on, but suffice to say we were greeted with open arms. Shown around the studio, got to talk to a bunch of people on the team, and although we didn't get to see their new game (unannounced at the time) Stranger's Wrath. I felt like I had come home. THIS is what I imagined game development to be like. Amazing people, and inspiring work place with artwork all over the place. I was in heaven. I collected business cards and were on our way. Phill and I were so inspired that we collaborated on a thank you piece to send them. We worked on it for a week or two after we got back to school, I'm told it was proudly hung on the wall of their community managers office.

I think Phill flattered me with huge muscles but it made for a comical picture

Phills amazing illustration far outshines my crude 3d and coloring abilities but we were proud nonetheless!

If I was obsessed before, now I was driven, determined to work there. If there is one thing I learned early on in school it was networking. I emailed politely from time to time as I worked toward graduating. Just to keep myself in their memory. Then one day 3 months prior to graduating I noticed a job opening on their site for a environment artist. The very same role I was aiming for in school. I knew I was still a semester away from graduating. So I emailed the head of HR and asked what they were looking for in candidates. It was framed purely as an academic inquiry as I had no intention of applying. Imagine my surprise when he asked if I'd be willing to take an art test.

Willing? I was waiting for this since the day I waked up to that art-deco door!

They sent me some guidelines and a piece of concept art:

While touring I had learned that they used the 3d program Maya, I was knowledgeable in a different 3d program called 3d studio max. I stupidly decided to tackle the test in Maya, and not my strong suite Max (I came across this same situation when testing for my position at Naughty Dog... I did the test in max this time!). They gave me 5 days to complete the test. I barely slept in those 5 days, coffee and caffeine pills were my friends. Ultimately I came up with this:

I was not happy with it, but with 5 days in a program I had never used before it was all I could do... so with fingers crossed I sent it in.

I got the email back... that they weren't going to hire me... BUT their reasoning was that they had re-evaluated their art pipeline and decided they didn't need to hire any more artists. I'd like to believe this was the truth, but part of me feels like they were just being nice.

I was down but not out, I would try again someday. In the meantime I graduated and got my first game job in North Carolina. While there Strangers Wrath came out (the game I would have worked on). It was AMAZING. Once again stellar CG but the in game art, was even better than before, plus the game was fun AND original! I knew that they would be starting a new game soon and HAVE to be staffing up! I would have my shot again!

Only that never came. Not long after Strangers Wrath shipped it was announced that OddWorld Inhabitants was shutting down and ending game development. I was crushed, but time heals all wounds.... sort of

That fateful day I toured OddWorld was almost 10 years ago now. I've worked at a variety of studios, and even now I am happily employed at Retro Studios, owned by Nintendo, and responsible for the Metroid games!

Which brings me back to today; Playing Strangers Wrath again. Almost 7 years since it released. OddWorld is back... sort of. Instead of being made in California all OddWorld games are now being handled by a company called Just Add Water in the UK... I'm happy that OddWorld games are coming out again, it's sort of like seeing an old friend after many years in a weird way. New games are all well and good, but Stranger's Wrath? It is and always will be....

The game that got away.

Postscript:
In 2009 I decided to model some more OddWorld stuff just for fun:
Scrabania

The irony? I modeled it in Maya as practice for my then new job at Naughty Dog. :P

Postscript 2:
Phill now works for Blizzard on the StarCraft 2 team.

I've got Sol....

2011-12-29T00:28:00.000-08:00

...But I'm not a Soldier.

I'm totally procrastinating on texturing the undead warrior. Texturing has always been super difficult for me, and modeling just comes more naturally. Anyway since I've decided to create a scene rather than just model a single character, I went with the generic soldier from GH. These guys are just fodder in the game but they had tons of personalty. Especially in their animations.

The thing is these guys don't translate that well into 3d... It was even more difficult that the Undead Warrior to make him work in three dimensions.

I think I nailed it though! I was able to recycle a few elements from UW. Naimly the gauntlets, knee, and elbow pads.

Now I have to unwrap him and sculpt him out in zbrush.

PROGRESS!

2011-12-27T00:24:00.000-08:00

Well it's been a little while since my last update! but I have been working off and on on my Guardian Heroes project which has expanded a bit to include a soldier as well. Mainly though I've been busy playing all of the amazing games that have come out over the last few months. And after quite a bounty of gifts yesterday I have even MORE to play now!

Anyway I spent a lot of time today sculpting the high res model of the Undead Hero. I'm mostly happy with how he turned out. I just need to do the diffuse texture and then rig and pose him to put him to bed
(edit I totally forgot I still have to sculpt his sword!)

Anyway here his his progress.

I want your SKUUUUULLLLSSS

2011-11-15T20:59:00.001-08:00

Too bad Glenn Danzig is a DOUCHE!!! Anyway, I finished the skull! Man modeling skulls is HARD! I think I got it though, I tried my best to balance using real skull orthos and the image of the skull from the previous post. Now the tedium of unwraping this thing. Who knows how long that will take. But I'm looking forward to bringing this into zbrush. Also I never knew about the push modifier in Max but man! So cool! My buddy Phill Gonzalesturned me onto it. He said they use it a lot at Blizzard to achieve more heroic propotrions and I can see how it can help.

Warm up

2011-11-14T11:08:00.000-08:00

Did this quickly today to warm up. I saw one of my friends (and uber talented artist) Mike Fudge do this once in a time lapse video. I though it looked like fun. I didn't use reference (probably should have) but I just wanted to get the creative juices flowing. I started with just cylinder in zbrush and went from there.

When we were young we thought we had superpowers!

2011-11-06T20:33:00.000-08:00

More progress!!!! My buddy Sean gave me a great crit on Friday about how my previous iteration was looking very stiff. I new something was off with the model but I was having trouble pin-pointing it. I feel like it's now feeling more natural. He looks like he's ready to fuck shit up!

So all that's left on the modeling front is the skull. which is one the most fun things to create in any art form!

Then I have to unwrap this beast, the least fun part of 3d, then it's off to Z-brush for the high res sculpt. No quite at the finish line, but it's in sight!

All of this was done under the watchful eye of my art director Myu.

The Hero

2011-11-04T07:54:00.000-07:00

So on the side I've been working on a game concept (there have been a few posts about it) When I get bored of one project I switch to the other. I'm taking a small break from the Undead Hero this week to do some concept on the hero character for m game idea. I posted a concept two posts back but I wasn't sold on it. So this is what I have currently. I need to work on the mask and colors. but I think I'm gonna stick with this model.

Undead Hero

2011-10-30T21:23:00.000-07:00

So Guardian Heroes is one of my all-time favorite games. When it came out on the Sega Saturn in 1996 it totally just captured my imagination. From the huge sprites to the medieval setting sprinkled with just tinge of technology. It was colorful, and most of all it was fun! I have such fond memories of playing this game, I even tried to chart every route you could take (it had a choose your own adventure type of feature at the end of every level. I would do my homework while listening to the soundtrack (you could load up the Saturn cd player and load just the music).

Needless to say I love this game! Imagine my excitement and then disappointment when I found out it was being re-released.... only on XBLA (for now). I still have my Saturn and my copy of the game. But hooking up an out dated console is tedious at best. Anyway, In preparation for the game Sega released a bunch of concept art from the game. I immediately new I had to re-create one of the characters in 3d! My two favorite characters were Han (the typical warrior type) and the Undead Warrior. Which was an awesome NPC character that would fight with you through each level. He was a bad ass and could go berserk and just wipe out all the other enemies on the screen. I'll never forget when he first appears in the game.

He bursts out of his unmarked grave and lays waste to a robot that you can't defeat. Very cool stuff (especially for a 16 year old).

So now the hard/fun part. Translating a 2d sprite character into a 3d one. Lots of games have attempted this feat and some have really succeeded. Others just never look right. Armed with some very loose orthos I set out!

This is super helpful but it's not the tightest line work and proporstions fluxuate from image to image, and his armor is really simple (a nessicity for a 2d sprite).

So I had to figure out how much to update and how much to keep true to the original.

I still need to model out his arms (they're just cylinders right now) his toes, and fingers, and of course his skull. Oh yeah, also his Sword!!! The focus of the game! From there I'll take him into zbrush and add all sorts of awesome detail; armor rot and rust, decay, armor ornamentation, the works! This is I think a little over a weeks worth of work. The chest armor took the longest. It was really tough for some reason, and although you can't see it in this image too well, A spine is fucking hard to model!

Well that's it for now! Stay tuned for more. If you have an Xbox 360 I cannot recommend this game enough! It's only 10 bucks.

Waiting for the End of Time

2011-10-08T20:35:00.000-07:00

I realized I would never get around to texturing my Pelican Machine head model, so I did a quick rig and pose. Then I took it into zbrush and did some quick sculpting on the hands and suit. Finally, I rendered it out and played with some texture layering and color adjustments.

I'm pretty happy with how it turned out for a spontaneous afternoon project.

The Tower

2011-08-20T15:46:00.000-07:00

So I've been working on a game concept for a while now. It's slowly starting to coalesce and become something cool. But I want to make sure I do things right and actually finish it. Alas I am going to shelve it for a little while as I am going to work on another project that I am super excited about. I can't talk about it too much but if all goes well it might just be one of my crowning achievements as an artist....

In the meantime this is a concept I was working on for the main character of my game concept (called The Tower at the moment).

Droped Ship

2011-07-03T13:59:00.000-07:00

So it's been a while, I'm currently in the madness of moving to Austin Texas to start a new job at Retro Studios (which is owned by Nintendo). Why am I a starting a new job, well back in March Square-Enix decided to cancel the project I was working on; Codenamed Project Dropship. I won't go into the details of the decision behind it, but I was sad to see it happen. I had been on the project only a short time but I am extremely proud of the work I did, and the work of the team. We were pretty far along and I PERSONALLY think had it seen the light of day, it would have been something special.

While the entire dev team was let go (Square-Enix LA still functions as HR, Localization, Marketing, and QA) I am happy to say that majority of us have landed a great new studios.

Anyway over the past few days gaming website Silconera has posted a bunch of leaked information on the project. In these links you'll find screen shots, and videos.

A little about the studio closure

A plethora of Dropship screenshots

Two videos of Dropship in action

While incredibly sad the project will never be playable to the public, I can console myself in that at least some if it can be seen....

Meshing around

2011-05-22T22:51:00.000-07:00

I've had a few false starts with projects since my last. I have some good ideas but can't seem to get them off the ground. I was still wanting to be creative so I fired up zbrush and just messed around on one of my base head meshes.

Tides of darkness

2011-05-11T13:02:00.000-07:00

The interior and exterior of this scene are 5000 polys each, all the textures are hand painted.
This took a little over a week to complete, and I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. Given a larger polygon budget there are definite things I'd like to add, especially to the interior.

Uncharted 3!

2011-04-18T13:12:00.000-07:00

New Trailer for Uncharted 3! While I think the music was a terrible choice the game is really coming along nicely! You can see some of my work at 1:36

And here is what is being shown in the trailer

100th Post!

2011-04-11T01:36:00.000-07:00

Wow 100 posts! Not bad, and this one is a dosey!
It's no secret that I love Shadow of the Colossus, that game along with Ico have had such a huge influence on me artistically. I've wanted to create something in that style since I saw the first trailer way back in 2003

I STILL get chills watching it. No game since has instilled such a sense of wonder in me.
Anyway, enough waxing poetic.

Rather than just recreate one of the many amazing Colossi from the game I decided to create my own. I named him "The Slave King"
When I fist envisioned him I wanted to incorporate more of an environment into him. So I came up with a cloister that would be strapped to his back.

This is a project that I've been meaning to do for a few years now, and this is the initial concept from about 2008-2009 I think.
So I changed a few things, Obviously I don't have the tech that team ico had to render the fur. So I couldn't cover his whole body. I decided to just use alpha planes and it worked well enough.

The biggest step for me was the textures. Texture painting has always been a bit of a struggle for me. I enjoy it but I never felt I could really do my models justice with my textures. But on this project with a huge shout out to my buddy Jeremy Huxley. He helped me with some zbrush know how on the texture front (see the post "Texture Tedium"). Anyway I feel that this was a huge step in my skill set and I feel WAY more confident creating textures now.

Anyway, here is the finished piece. Like any artwork there are tons of things I am not happy about, but all in all I'm very proud of this one. I hope it does the source material justice.

Moar Textures!!!

2011-04-10T00:23:00.000-07:00

Some straight up old school painted textures. Done in the World of Warcraft style.

New Stuff!

2011-04-07T17:51:00.000-07:00

Some personal work, I wanted to do a futuristic scene. Something quite different from my personal work. Of course I wanted to complete it! Which meant textures. Something I shied away from on previous personal project. I started this on a Wednesday and finished it the following Tuesday. So less than a week to complete!

Texture Tedium...

2011-03-20T02:20:00.000-07:00

So I'm in the process of applying textures to my colossus model. I am pretty much creating all of my textures in zbrush with some photoshop adjustments. This is a relatively new technique to me (as of 3 months ago). So I'm getting better with each one.

I still have loads more to do. But I'm getting closer to finishing each day! I've been looking at Shadow of the Colossus A LOT, and I'm trying to replicate the symbols and patterns used in the game.

Making progress

2011-03-10T00:26:00.000-08:00

I'm juggling two projects at the moment. But I decided to really sink my teeth into my Shadow of the Colossus model. I've finished most of the modeling, I just have to make some vegetation cards and do some destruction detail. Then it's on to textures.

Today I worked on the the zbrush sculpt for the main body. Nothing too crazy just some muscle definition and texture.
Oh and just for full disclosure I did use the base male from zbrush to sculpt over.

The other project I am working on needs some re-work I didn't like how the main character was turning out... I fell back on my comfort zone of muscular heroic proportions (it's ok for the colossus, he's carrying a castle on his back).

So I'm going to start over from scratch. The head scarf I like, but I got the idea from a concept I found on the web and I modeled from that..... I want to make something original, so I'm scraping it.

Influence Map

2011-02-22T10:27:00.000-08:00

So quite a few artists I know did this so I thought I'd give it a shot. It was actually really fun!

Uncharted 3

2011-02-21T22:50:00.000-08:00

The last thing I worked on at Naughty Dog was the reveal trailer for the new game. A LOT of different people worked on this... concept, animation, effects, lighting, texture, props etc.

My small part was modeling the sand dunes...

Better late than never!

2010-12-19T22:49:00.001-08:00

What with the new job and all I didn't have time to finish my Dominance War mini challenge before the deadline (even with an extension). I was so close to finishing though I just had to see it through. The base is a little too derivative of a Xenosaga concept I found, but I just didn't have the mental energy to come up with something totally original. The technical mandate for this is that the character had to be no more than 3000 polygons, and use one 1024x1024 texture for each map (diffuse, spec, glow) I split my textures into 4 512x512 maps.

Uncharted 3

2010-12-12T12:25:00.000-08:00

The last assignment I had at Naughty Dog before I left was modeling the sand dunes for the trailer. This was one of my most difficult challenges. To create something so randomly generated in nature yet with a distinct look everyone recognizes. There was a lot of iterations on this and ultimately it was handed off to be finished by another artist. I am proud of the final result and everyone involved did a kick ass job. The lighting, textures, effects, animation, all spot on.

Almost there!

2010-12-06T11:57:00.000-08:00

So the deadline for the Dominance War 5 mini challenge has been extended 2 days, which means I have a chance to finish! All I have left is the base textures and presentation shots.

Tangled

2010-12-01T00:38:00.000-08:00

Holy crap! I just got back from Tangled, and I can say without any hyperbole that it is one of my favorite CG movies, up there with Incredibles, and Wall-E. Not only was it gorgeous, but it was hysterical and moving. Disney finally hit it's stride with CG.

Anyway right before I left Planet Moon I worked on the video game for the Nintendo Wii. I got to model, texture, and light the Tower and valley. Now after seeing the movie my rendition hardly does it justice, but I still feel it turned out well.

When I was working on the game the movie was still called "Rapunzel"

Dominance War 5!

2010-11-27T23:56:00.000-08:00

So I'm doing Dominance War again, and for the pre-main event the challenge is to model a mmo resolution character. So 3000 polygons is the limit.

This is what I came up with.

The wall and floor are not part of the character and thus exempt from the poly limit.

I'm bringing the pain-ya!

2010-11-21T23:15:00.000-08:00

Like CASTLEVANIA!

So I played the newest Castlevania, Lords of Shadow. While it is not a perfect game by any means. I really enjoyed it. So much so that when I finished it I wanted to make my own Belmont character.
Now I'm also very much obsessed with iphone gaming. I love the ps-one retro look.

So take one and add the other, and I decided to make a iphone Castlevania character.

I originally was only going to make just the character, which quickly spiraled into the character plus a base, which became the character, plus a base, plus Medusa heads (woefully absent from the new game).

I had a lot of fun on this and it really allowed me to learn a lot. I practiced my painting skills which have woefully atrophied in the past year. I keep the main character; Conrad Belmont at about 1000 polygons, and no texture is larger than 256x256.

Pelican Machine Head

2010-10-11T02:43:00.000-07:00

I went to Kinokuniya book store in LA's little Tokyo yesterday and i found this cool book called Hyper Weapon 2008. It's all over the place with rad pictures of miniatures and concept art for games. Anyway I cam across this rad image....

It got me really inspired to model it. Something about the old world vibe with the surrealistic nature of it. It also reminded me of "The end of time" from Chrono Trigger.

So I spent more than a few hour modeling it today. Next I'll take it into zbrush, and detail it out.

COLOSSUS!

2010-10-04T02:24:00.000-07:00

Shadow of the Colossus is one of my favorite games of all time. With the announcement of the the HD re-release I'm all jazzed up on it again.

I've wanted to model my own take on the unique look of the colossi in the game. So I came up with the "Slave King"

I have loads more to do, but I feel like I am over the hump of it looking so shitty that I don't want to work on it.

The fur at this point is very temp, and I need to do a lot o detailing and think about what needs to be modeled and what can be z-brushed.

Tangled

2010-09-20T15:04:00.001-07:00

This was the last title that I worked on at Planet Moon Studios. You can see one of the environments I worked on in the very first shot. I did the modeling, textures, and lighting!

New Oldie

2010-05-01T14:15:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I posted anything "new"

We Were...

2010-04-17T23:45:00.000-07:00

Another oldie... my demo reel from when I graduated college in 2003. It even won best portfolio! I can't believe it's been 7 years. Looking back at it I can see so many things wrong with it! Anyway the reason I am posting this is because it is yet another example of how Type O Negative and Peter Steele influenced me and my art.

Rest in Peace Peter Steele...

2010-04-15T10:48:00.000-07:00

As I listen to Type O, I think of all of the influences it has had on me. Peter Steele was even the inspiration for a character I created for the game battle of the bands

Going to Hollywood!

2010-02-05T16:17:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone. So after almost 4 years in San Francisco and at Planet Moon Studios. I am going to move on to Santa Monica. To work at Naughty Dog. You might have heard of them, or the kick ass games they make.

Uncharted 2

The Land of Koz

2009-12-20T14:35:00.000-08:00

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...

2009-12-14T02:03:00.000-08:00

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!

2009-11-30T16:01:00.001-08:00

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

2009-11-28T20:35:00.001-08:00

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...

2009-11-04T13:01:00.000-08:00

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

2009-10-28T21:51:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-10-21T00:38:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-15T11:54:00.000-07:00

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...

2009-10-04T01:06:00.001-07:00

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

Joe Mad, I am not...

2009-09-09T02:02:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-05T16:07:00.000-07:00

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...

2009-08-13T20:46:00.000-07:00

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...

2009-08-08T17:30:00.000-07:00

Fun little exercise...

Vae Victis!

2009-08-07T14:23:00.000-07:00

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....

2009-08-05T23:50:00.000-07:00

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...

2009-08-04T17:02:00.000-07:00

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...

2009-07-22T16:58:00.000-07:00

Just chipping away....

Humble Beginings....

2009-07-20T17:16:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-14T10:44:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-14T00:59:00.000-07:00

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...

2009-06-06T22:07:00.000-07:00

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

Making progress...

2009-06-04T22:35:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-01T00:46:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-05-29T14:22:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-28T00:17:00.001-07:00

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...

2009-05-18T01:17:00.000-07:00

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!

Getting close...

2009-05-13T10:38:00.001-07:00

All I have to do is rig up Myu and finish the base the end is in sight!

The Wars End Draws Near...

2009-05-12T02:07:00.000-07:00

Finished my diffuse map. Now I Need to work on the spec, finish the base, rig and pose this bad boy all with just under a week! I can do this!

Moving along

2009-05-09T21:42:00.000-07:00

Man I'm going to be glad when this is all done...

Final ZBrush Models

2009-05-06T15:29:00.001-07:00

Just for fun...

All your base,,,,

2009-05-06T00:49:00.000-07:00

Ok finished the base, and I'm currently in the process of texturing the character.

Some Slight Tweaks

2009-04-23T23:55:00.000-07:00

Got some good crits and put em to use! Thanks guys!

SLINKY!

2009-04-23T00:42:00.000-07:00

I think I'm calling him done! All is left is to finish the main characters sword!

Myu!

2009-04-22T01:12:00.000-07:00

Started working on the myu sculpt, still super early but sometimes starting is the hardest part!

Almost done!

2009-04-20T02:22:00.000-07:00

Well with the main character at least. I still need to zbrush Myu. I am also totally loving my new Cintiq!

My workstation and rad new cintiq!!!!

Small update

2009-04-17T00:59:00.000-07:00

Did a little more work, I worked on some smaller details on the belts and I started on the boots and hands.

Less Progress...

2009-04-14T01:03:00.000-07:00

What with the Easter Holiday, I didn't get much time to work this weekend. Also the gauntlet has been kicking my ass. I think I have it under control for the moment. So I have a little bit left on the shawl, I have the bag and belts to finish, and lastly the hands and feet.... getting close!

More progress...

2009-04-10T02:11:00.001-07:00

My head hurts...

Basically detailed out the turban, shawl and I started on the gauntlet. I also refined the face and forearms a little bit...

There and Back again...

2009-04-08T01:40:00.000-07:00

I HATE when technical bull shit gets in the way of art. It's probably my biggest pet peeve with the video game industry. That being said, overcoming said tech bs feels REALLY good.

So as I was going along with my zbrush sculpting I realized that my base mesh was not prepared correctly. So I had to basically scratch all of my work. But I feel I learned a lot and my model looks better for it!

Into the thick of it.

2009-04-05T01:35:00.001-07:00

Took some doing to get things set up right but I'm finally off and running in zbrush!

Almost half way!

2009-04-02T01:30:00.000-07:00

Almost ready for Zbrush! I still have to stylize Myu and overall I am about 1000 polys over budget. But I will optimize later.

Revisiting...

2009-03-31T00:58:00.000-07:00

Decided to take another stab on the costume of my character. I really wanted to push the tribal desert nomad theme.

One of my favorite games from an artistic standpoint is Panzer Dragoon, so I based my armor and weapon design off of the enemies in those games.

Making Progress...

2009-03-29T21:43:00.000-07:00

So I've been working on my entry to the Dominance war. I think that I may revisit the color palette of my concept. It's very... brown and I definitely want to infuse color into it.

Otherwise moving along onto details. Then I'll model his familiar "Myu" :)

Drums of War!!!! Main Event

2009-03-21T22:39:00.000-07:00

So the main event of the Dominance War IV has started.

Dominance War

There are 3 "Races" I have chosen A "Norm" "Stalker".... So basically a assassin. Anyway was heavily influenced by the newest Prince of Persia game so my design mimics that.

I just fleshed this out pretty quickly in color. I want to move onto the 3d aspect pretty quickly. So stay tuned to this blog for updates.

Also, in the past I have posted art for my trainer Gary Seto and his Ronin Fit group. We finally have tee shirts so buy one! Help support a fledgling company and a kick ass and nice guy.

Ronin Gear

Zbrush... complete...

2009-02-28T21:50:00.000-08:00

At least if I hope to finish this by Monday. I would love to spend more time on this and really finesse the details... but I really want to finish this.

More progress!

2009-02-26T23:26:00.000-08:00

Man this is fun. I don't know if I'll be able to finish it time, but I'm going to try my best.

Getting close to finishing the basic design. From there it will be detailing dents, scratches and dings.

Progress...

2009-02-25T01:33:00.001-08:00

Man creating hard surfaces in zbrush is.... hard.

It begins....

2009-02-24T00:01:00.001-08:00

Ok here is my concept for the mini challenge...

The Drums of War!

2009-02-23T00:23:00.000-08:00

Ok so the DOMINANCE WAR has started!!!!

Dominance War Site

So I am going to be "trying" to complete it. Finally I have attempted this since the contests inception three years ago.

So I am going to put my tutorial work on hold, and dive head first into the zbrush waters!

So here is my latest tutorial..... actually really good practice for the mini challenge.

I didn't model the teeth. They were included in a supplement file.

Well wish me luck and I'll be posting progress here hopefully!.

Finally..

2009-02-15T16:58:00.000-08:00

Ok finally finished with the face exercise! Loads of issues with it and I could spend lots of time adjusting anatomy. Especially on the neck and ear. But it's time for me to move on!
The full progression...

Skin Tag!

2009-02-05T22:59:00.001-08:00

More progress, didn't have the energy to go all the way tonight, I still have to add the neck and ears...

MAH-SHLES!!!

2009-02-05T01:55:00.000-08:00

So the next step in the tutorial was to add the basic facial muscle system to the skull I had made previously. I have to say I AM LOVING Zbrush right now. Very intuitive and fun.

Next step, adding the skin!

Added teeth

2009-02-01T20:25:00.000-08:00

Went in and added the teeth

This zbrush thing is pretty fun!

I want your skuuulllss, I need your skuuuullls!

2009-02-01T00:07:00.000-08:00

More Zbrush work. This time a skull. Obviously missing teeth, but like I said I'm working from a tutorial book and the next step is to add the facial muscles. So therefore there is no need to add the teeth. I started with just a sphere, and built up the shapes.

Starting 2009 right!

2009-01-26T01:28:00.000-08:00

So I've been avoiding Zbrush for a while now... my only excuse is fear. You see things like Gears of War, Metal Gear Solid, even just random art online and it's so easy to become intimidated. But thinking back to when I started learning 3d almost 9 years ago, had I the same fear I would never have landed a job in the game industry. So I hope you'll join me as I attempt to learn this new, more complicated pencil called zbrush....

I'm using a tutorial book called Zbrush character creation. The first exercise was to create a lionhead door knocker starting with a plane... here is my horrible first attempt...

So aweful I almost don't want to post it... It's very easy to add too much detail too quickly and end up with a globby mess... My second attempt wasn't much better....

I almost wanted to give up on this tutorial and move onto something else in the book but I held my ground and decided on last attempt. Now while this is still no where close to the image in the book it actualy resembles a lion!

There are lots of issues with it and Icould spend loads more time refining it. But I think I got the gist of the tutorial in that it helped me feel more comfortable with the tools and interface.

Stay tuned for more!

BOOTY BLOCKS!

2008-12-18T02:22:00.000-08:00

Planet Moon Studios first iphone & ipod Touch game!

This game really is a steal at $1.99! There is a lot of crap on the app store and this game has really high production values. I saw all of the work that went into this game and I can honestly say it shows. Very FUN!

Check out the website too!
http://www.planetmoon.com/bootyblocks/

Traditional

2008-10-16T00:19:00.000-07:00

So my brother Mike got married last Saturday! As a small present to accompany the real gift I painted him a card. Nothing crazy, just a sort of family crest as he starts his new family...

Wowzers

2008-09-28T14:56:00.001-07:00

So this has been up for a little while, but I still think it's cool enough to share.

Yesir! That is the Planet Moon Studios website with one of my models front and center! Pretty cool, and I think it says a lot about the caliber of my art! :)

Anyway nothing really new to show so I thought I'd share that.

Cheers.

Colors!!!

2008-09-18T00:16:00.000-07:00

So I finally got on the Nintendo DS "Colors" bandwagon. I can see what all the fuss is about. It's a nifty little program that is basically the program "Painter" The only things that suck is that there is no undo or layers, but that's kind of cool. It removes that as a crutch. Anyway these are my first two "pretty" lame attempts with the software....

We have to smoke him, from the bottle...

2008-09-12T00:45:00.000-07:00

Another piece for Ronin Fitness. I had a lot of fun with this one and it was really inspired by the look and feeling of the Metal Gear Solid games.

The theme for Ronin Fitness is pretty much the work outs conducted by the military, so I felt that the look would be a perfect fit.

BOOT CAMP!

2008-08-30T23:09:00.000-07:00

So I am still awaiting approval on this piece from my client/personal trainer Gary. However I like and feel confident he will too so I decided I'd post it up here.

Obviously with the boot camp theme I went military. But I wanted it to feel a bit modern as well. This is San Francisco after all.

Fliers and venue posters are an interesting problem. One you have to make them interesting so people stop and look at them instead of immediately throwing them away. But you also have to make sure all of the necessary information is present so you can sell whatever it is on the flyer.

So how do present and interesting image, with all of the information. It's a balancing act that I still have yet to master...

Anyways I am still training with Ronin Fitness and it is still awesome and intense as ever. I really recomend it if you're in the SF bay area.

Ronin Fitness

Kind of old...

2008-08-22T11:01:00.000-07:00

I made this as part of a gift to my girlfriend last Christmas. It was heavily inspired by the work of artist Andrew Jones. Anyway I thought I'd post it up since I have nothing new to show.

Random Sketches...

2008-08-01T11:10:00.000-07:00

Just some random doodles.

I did this one while waiting for "The Dark Knight" to begin (amazing movie btw).

I did this last night, while sketching my cat Myu jumped up on my leg. He was so engrossed with the pencil movement that he actually stood still long enough to sketch.

Something new...

2008-07-21T00:01:00.000-07:00

I've been super busy with work and I'm pumping out some really excellent (in my opinion at least) concepts. I did have some time however to work on a logo for my friend and personal trainer Gary.

His fitness group is called Ronin Fitness and it's pretty kick ass!

If you live in the bay area and are looking for a kick ass work out routine I highly recommend them.

Ronin Fitness

Ok well hopefully I will have some new personal stuff to show soon.